Hey listeners, it's not too late to submit nominations for the fifth annual Science of Reading Star Awards.

Are you or someone you know building background knowledge, implementing interventions, or focusing on comprehension?

We want to celebrate you and the impact you're making every day.

Learn more and nominate a literacy leader from your life today

at amplify.com slash SOR Star Awards. The research is just so clear that language is not optional for

literacy. When we treat it as foundational, that's when we will give more students access to success.

This is Susan Lambert and welcome to Science of Reading the podcast from Amplify.

If you're like me, this season 10 deep dive into comprehension has been eye-opening as far as all the complexities contributing to comprehension.

We've looked at word recognition, orthographic mapping, fluency, syntax, and today we're focusing on another piece that's absolutely critical, oral language.

Today we'll unpack the data showing the connections between oral language abilities and

student outcomes. We'll talk about screening for oral language deficiencies and share

strategies for educators to intervene effectively. My guests are Mary Kate DeSantis,

educator and reading specialist and founder of Left Side Strong LLC, and Dr. Charles Hume,

emeritus professor of psychology and education at the University of Oxford. Let's get right to it. Well, I'm very excited

for today's episode. We have two amazing guests to come talk to us a little bit about language

development. I have with me, Dr. Charles Hume and Mary Kate DeSantis. Couldn't be more excited to have both of you. Before we jump in, I would love if you could share a little bit about who you are and maybe how you came to be interested in literacy development. Charles, maybe we'll start with you.

Sure, thanks, Susan. Very nice to be here. My name's Charles Hume. I'm a Merriss Professor of Psychology and Education at the University of Oxford. And I'm also the founder of a University of Oxford spin-out company called Ox Ed and Assessment. I guess I've been studying children's reading development and reading difficulties for

about 50 years now, and I first became interested in this probably really when I was an

undergraduate.

In Oxford, we have this system called tutorials where you write an essay and read

a lot of material to go with the essay. And I read about children learning to read and came across

this idea that some kids with dyslexia stroll to learn to read read, and maybe slightly arrogantly, as a young man

...