Banter Speech & Language

Sydney speech pathologists helping adults and children speak for themselves.

boys and reading

Why are boys more at risk for reading problems like dyslexia than girls?

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Peer-reviewed evidence tells us that:

  • boys are 3-5 times more likely than girls to be referred to professionals for help with reading difficulties, including dyslexia;
  • on average, boys don’t do as well as girls on standardised reading tests;
  • boys’ performance on reading tests tends to be more variable than girls; and
  • boys are over-represented in the population of children with significant reading difficulties like dyslexia.

 

Why? 

We’re not sure. There are several possible candidates, including:

1. Referral/selection bias.  Children selected to participate in reading studies may not always reflect the population as a whole. For example, more boys may be referred to reading professionals (and thus recruited into their research studies) because boys may display higher rates of acting out, e.g. in some boys with ADHD (Willcutt & Pennington, 2000).  In population studies, however, the sex ratio of boys:girls with reading difficulties still ranges from 1.5:1 to 3.3:1 (Rutter et al., 2004; Wadsworth et al., 1992).

2. Test bias. Perhaps some reading tests are biased in favour of girls, although the weight of existing data does not support this theory (e.g. McGrew & Woodcock, 2001).

3. Cultural differences between boys and girls. There is some older evidence to suggest interactions between culture and sex on cognitive performance (DeFries et al., 1981). But girls appear to be advantaged in reading as early as the age of 5 years (Camarata & Woodcock, 2006) and 7 years (e.g. Flannery et al., 2000). And girls tend to do better than boys across cultures with widely differing education practices and languages (e.g. Stoet & Geary, 2015).

4. Brain differences between boys and girls that develop before school starts. Studies have demonstrated significant average differences between boys and girls in:

  • Processing speed: Processing speed is a cognitive predictor of reading skill. Girls show an advantage over boys by age 5 that is maintained until adulthood (e.g. Camarata & Woodcock, 2006; Irwing, 2012).
  • Inhibition skills: on average, girls tend to restrain their impulses more than boys (Arnett et al., 2012, 2017).
  • Verbal reasoning skills. One study, suggested that boys, on average, outperform girls, on average, on verbal reasoning skills (Arnett et al., 2017), despite an overall female advantage in writing, verbal production, and fluency (Camarata & Woodcock, 2006; Halpern & LaMay, 2000).

 

Clinical bottom line

A 2017 study published by Anne Arnett and colleagues confirmed that:

  • boys are over-represented in the population of children with significant reading difficulties; and
  • brain differences between boys and girls – differences in processing speeds and inhibition (in favour of girls), and verbal reasoning (in favour of boys) – explained the difference (see citation below).

A word of caution: we’re still a very long way from understanding how physical sex-based differences in brains and brain development – e.g. in size, volume, and white matter tracts – advantage girls in the development of reading skills.

Related articles:

Key source: Arnett, A.B., Pennington B.F., Peterson, R.L., Willcutt, E.G., DeFries, J.C., Olson, R. K. (2017). Explaining the sex difference in dyslexia. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 58:6, 719-727.

Image: https://tinyurl.com/ycquua8f

Banter Speech & Language Banter Speech & Language
Banter Speech & Language is an independent firm of speech pathologists for adults and children. We help clients in our local area, including Concord, Concord West, North Strathfield, Rhodes, Strathfield and all other suburbs of Sydney’s Inner West.

Banter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the PreLit early literacy preparation program by MultiLit, the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.

David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP).

Is your child struggling to read? Here’s what works

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On reflection, I’m incredibly lucky.

Both my parents were teachers. Growing up, my house was full of chatter, stories and books. My early state school education in regional Victoria was long on “old school” phonics and short on fads.

I learned to read without much trouble. I discovered many of the things I’m still passionate about in life – dinosaurs, planets, social justice, travel, speech and language, consumer rights, history, current affairs, philosophy, and bad science fiction – because I could read. Reading lets me learn new skills, explore the world, entertain myself and my kids, connect with friends and colleagues, and of course, earn my living as a speech pathologist and lawyer.

Children and adults who struggle to read miss out on many of the opportunities good readers take for granted. Helping people to learn to read is important work – far too important to waste time, energy and money on false ideas and programs that don’t work.

In this article, we summarise some of the key evidence-based principles to help children (and adults) to read. We also include links to peer-reviewed evidence, leading researchers’ websites, and some evidence-based literacy programs and resources.

12 principles I apply

A. Learning to read is a right, not a privilege 

1. Reading is a human right, and affects your health, work opportunities and life-participation.

  • The General Assembly of the United Nations is convinced that: “[L]iteracy is crucial to the acquisition of every child, youth and adult, of essential life skills that enable them to address the challenges they may face in life, and represents an essential step in basic education, which is an indispensable means for effective participation in the societies and economies of the 21st century.” (GA Resolution 56/116.)
  • Low literacy may impair health, affecting the patient-doctor communication dynamics, and leading to substandard medical care. It is associated with poor understanding of written or spoken medical advice, adverse health outcomes, and negative effects on the health of the population (e.g. AHRQ Report, see below).
  • Early reading difficulties are related to children’s ability to develop positive social skills (e.g. Bennett et al., 2003).
  • Academic problems, like poor reading, often foster behavioural problems, which frequently result in disciplinary practices that remove the student from school (Christle et al., 2005).
  • Low levels of literacy affect educational attainment and labour force participation (ABS, 2009).

2. Learning to read opens doors; poor reading ability closes them. Literacy creates opportunities for lifelong learning and training, a good job, housing stability and improved health across your life (Gakidou et al., 2010). (Not being able to read has big negative effects on school achievement, job opportunities, mental health and participation in society.) Arguably, reading is more important than ever, with most jobs in the West now requiring literacy (e.g. Murnane, 2004), and with access to the Internet, social media platforms and even texting friends requiring a degree of literacy to participate socially (e.g. Durkin et al., 2011).

B. Reading instruction should be based on independent, peer-reviewed evidence (not ideology), and should take the client’s socio-economic background and oral language skills into account

3. Reading is “biologically unnatural“. Humans have only been reading since about 3000BC (Fischer, 2001). Unlike speaking, you have to learn to do it (e.g. Gough & Hillinger, 1980). That’s why literacy is still not universal (e.g. Gough, 1996). While it’s true some kids find reading easy to learn, others need a lot of help.

4. Reading instruction should be based on the “Five Big Ideas” (aka the “Big Five”). Independent, peer-reviewed scientific research evidence reviews (cited below) say that, to learn to read, you need to be taught these “Big Five”:

  • Phonemic awareness (also known as phonological awareness): knowledge about the sound structure of the language and the ability to manipulate the sound making up that structure (Rayner, Foorman, Perfetti, Pesetsky, and Seidenberg, 2001).
  • Phonics: see below.
  • Vocabulary: it’s been estimated that, to cope with the curriculum, a Year 2 child needs to understand 300-400 words; a Year 3-4 child needs to understand 3,000-4,000 words; and a Year 5 student needs 10,000! (Hempenstall, 2005).
  • Comprehension skills.
  • Reading fluency.

5. As one of the Big Five, direct synthetic phonics instruction is essential. In the USA, Australia and the UK, independent evidence reviews affirmed the need for systematic, direct and explicit phonics instruction so that children master the essential alphabetic code-breaking skills required for foundational reading proficiency. (The importance of teaching teachers to do this was recognised by the New South Wales Board of Studies in 2015 – New South Wales Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards. (2015).)

The best phonics to teach children is “synthetic phonics“. Synthetic doesn’t mean “fake”, here; it means “synthesising” (or blending) the sounds (phonemes) together to read words. You can read an excellent explanation of “synthetic phonics” by some of my favourite literacy researchers here.

6. It’s a myth that you can’t use phonics to read English words. In fact, according to Hanna et al., (1996):

  • 50% of English words are directly decodable with synthetic phonics;
  • 36% have only one “breach” of the sound-letter link (usually a vowel);
  • 10% can be spelt properly if morphology and word histories/roots are taken into account; and
  • only 4% are truly irregular.

7. Oral language skills (talking and understanding) and reading skills are linked; oral language and reading skills are mutually beneficial. Improvements in spoken language skills improve reading skills, and vice versa. Oral language and reading skills piggy back on each other during the school years (Snow, 2016). If one is impaired or delayed, the other suffers. For example, children with speech-language language disorders (diagnosed or not) are at a high risk of having reading problems.

Similarly, children with reading problems may have problems learning new words and higher level language skills, which then affect their oral language development. (This, by the way, is why I screen oral language and phonological awareness in addition to decoding and reading comprehension when assessing a school-aged child with reading problems.)

8. Kids learn to read on an uneven playing field. Socio-economically disadvantaged children are at greater risk of language and reading difficulties than children from higher socio-economic backgrounds. Even though oral language development is biologically natural, it’s vulnerable to environmental factors. For example, the foundations of early language development (and the emergence of emotional security) both depend on a high dose of quality carer engagement. By the age of 4 years, on average, children of high income, professional parents may have heard 30 million more words than some children from a socio-economically disadvantaged background (e.g. Hart & Risely, 1995).

Different children have very different levels of exposure to language and books when the turn up for their first day at school. Unsurprisingly, this has knock-on effects for readiness to learn to read (see the discussion about the Matthew Effect below).

C. Evidence-based reading instruction for young struggling school-aged children is urgent: the critical 3-year window to teach children to read well

9. The 3-year learning-to-read “window”. In the first three years at school, the focus is on helping children learn to read. This is when good evidence-based reading instruction is most important. Your child’s access to good reading instruction in this period is important for all children, and vital for children from low-socioeconomic backgrounds and children struggling to read.

10. The “fourth grade slump”. Starting in the fourth year of school, the focus of the curriculum switches away from learning to read. Instead, children are expected to “read to learn”. For good readers, this is no problem. For poor readers, this is where the real trouble begins:

  • By the fourth year of school (year 3), a child’s performance relative to his/her peers becomes fairly fixed (Spira et al., 2005);
  • your child’s reading level by the start of the third grade is a good predictor of:
    • later academic achievement; and
    • later mental and social health; and
  • the “Matthew Effect” kicks into high gear.

11. The Matthew Effect. With reading (as with money), the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. Good readers read more, learn more word meanings and then improve their reading skills. Children who are poor readers read less, and don’t learn new words as quickly, which further slows their growth in reading ability (Stanovich, 1986). As school progresses, the gap between good and poor readers grows and grows and grows.

That’s not to say that older kids and adults can’t learn to read. It’s just that it’s harder. As with language difficulties generally, the earlier you get help, the better. But it’s never too late!

D. Too many children and adults can’t read properly

12. Literacy levels are a big problem in Australia:

  • In 2011, a quarter of Australian Year 4 children are below the expected standard in reading; and 7% performed “extremely poorly” (ACER, 2012).
  • In 2009, 43.7% of adults were at or below Level 2 in their reading skills on a 5 point scale (ABS, 2009).
  • In 2011, the Industry Skills Council of Australia  found that millions of Australians have insufficient language, literacy and numeracy (“LLN”) skills to benefit from training or to participate effectively at work (ISCA, 2011).

The human, social and economic costs of low literacy are enormous.

E. So what gets in the way?

A controversial question!  Here are some candidates:

  • Professional divides: An unhelpful divide exists between the knowledge bases and expertise of teachers, speech pathologists and education psychologists. Teachers are educators, whereas psychologists and speech pathologists are health professionals. Reading failure is of course both an education and health problem. But the lack of coordination between different professionals doesn’t help clients with reading problems or their families. When I work with a school-aged child, my first port of call is the parents. My second port of call (with parents’ consent) is to teachers and any health professionals who’ve worked or are working with the child. The more we can coordinate our care and approach, prioritising the client’s interests and goals, the better things tend to go.
  • Ideological squabbling. If you’ve got a day or two to waste surfing the Internet and getting confused at all the navel gazing and self-interest, Google “Reading Wars”. In short, the “war” was fought between supporters of:
    • a phonics- and phonemic awareness-based approach to reading instruction, focused on letter-sound links and blending sounds to read words; and
    • so-called Whole-Language theories, based on post-modern theories of child development, teaching children to read words from “cues”, like context and pictures in predictable texts.

Although it was hoped that the independent reviews in the USA, UK and Australia (cited below) resolved the “reading wars” in favour of phonics and the rest of the Big Five, there are still programs influenced by Whole Language philosophies used today, including the much-maligned “Reading Recovery” program (which you can read about here). In any case, the key casualties of the war were and continue to be children failing to learn to read.

  • Inadequate training in the Big Five (and the “Peter Effect”). You can only give what you have; and you can only teach what you know. If you haven’t been taught properly how to teach reading using evidence-based teaching methods, you will have great difficulty teaching school children to read – especially struggling students. Unfortunately, some teachers, speech pathologists and psychologists haven’t been trained in how to teach reading using the evidence, especially if their University lecturers subscribed to the Whole Language ideology. Any education or health professional engaged in helping people to read should have training in how to teach the Big Five.
  • Commercial programs unsupported by independent evidence, glossy products and fads. Unfortunately, there is a big market for children and adults with poor literacy in Australia and elsewhere. Lots of reading programs seek to “exploit” this market, and some of them have no evidence to support their effectiveness. Of course, it’s hard for parents (and even some teachers) to know which ones are evidence-based. Fortunately, there are independent research groups that publish evidence summaries to assist. In our clinic, for example, we only use evidence-based programs based on the Big Five.

Whatever the reasons, we should all strive to read and apply the best quality, independent evidence to better support school-aged children, young adults, and adults with reading problems.

Related articles:

Principal source: Snow, P.C. (2016). Elizabeth Usher Memorial Lecture: Language is literacy is language – Positioning speech-language pathology in education policy, practice, paradigms and polemics. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 18:3, 216-228. (This article should be mandatory reading for any teacher, speech pathologist or education psychologist working in literacy.)

Further reading

Reading as a human right that affects your health:

US AHRQ’s Evidence Report No. 87, Literacy and Health Outcomes (summary) 

Evidence for what works, including evidence supporting the Big Five:

Rose, J. (2006). The [UK] Independent Review of the Teaching of Early Reading (aka “The Rose Report”)

Evidence that too many children and adults in Australia are poor readers:

Thomson, Sue; Hillman, Kylie; Wernert, Nicole; Schmid, Marina; Buckley, Sarah; Munene, Ann (2012). Monitoring Australian year 4 student achievement internationally: TIMSS and PIRLS 2011. Melbourne: Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER).
Australian Bureau of Statistics (2009). Adult Literacy.

Industry Skills Council of Australia (2011). No More Excuses.

The role of speech pathologists in the development of literacy:

Speech Pathology Australia. (2011). Position Statement: Literacy.

On the shoulders of experts: evidence-based literacy researchers, organisations and blogs I follow: 

If you are interested in the science of reading and evidence-based reading programs and resources, here are some of the key experts, organisations and literacy/language blogs I follow closely (in no particular order):

Toe By Toe

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Banter Speech & Language Banter Speech & Language
Banter Speech & Language is an independent firm of speech pathologists for adults and children. We help clients in our local area, including Concord, Rhodes, Strathfield and all other suburbs of Sydney’s Inner West.

Banter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.

David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP).

There’s a bookshop in my man cave: introducing Banter Vintage Books

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Once upon a time – before Amazon, AbeBooks, the Book Depository, iPads and Kindles – we dreamed of one day owning our own bookshop.

Not just a soulless franchise. We wanted an independent community hub, where locals of all ages – toddlers, pre-schoolers, school-aged kids, young and not-so-young adults – could meet up for a chat about their favourite books and issues. In particular, we wanted to provide a safe and relaxed place for new and reluctant readers to explore their interests, and to catch the reading bug. (We also wanted a place for worried parents to access evidence-based information, strategies and resources to help their kids to read.)

I don’t need my (proudly unused) accounting degree to tell you that bookshop-vending is not viable in a rent-rageous area like ours. And we’ve got a terrific local library that does a great job of bringing ratepayers and books together.

But we can still dream.

Every month or two, we head off on an adventure to find interesting books. For example, this past weekend, we defrazzled our way up to Galston for the annual Galston Rotary Club Giant Book Fair. It’s the kind of place where you trawl through boxes and boxes of uncatalogued paperbacks to find the odd treasure, paying a flat rate calculated by the total width of the book spines.

Over the years, we’ve amassed far too many fantastic books for any one sane person to read in a lifetime. Every week, we feature a selection of our best finds in our waiting room, usually grouped around a theme (e.g. dinosaurs, space, or myths & legends). You may have seen photos of some of our displays splashed across our Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest feeds over the years. Our clients know all the books in our clinic – especially the fancy-looking ones – are free to be borrowed. And we don’t chase late returns.

We love sharing some of our books with clients. But it seemed a shame for us to sit atop a much bigger pile of wonderful books like greedy dragons hoarding gold. Books must be read! So, although we’re unlikely to open a bricks and mortar store in the near future, we’ve decided to do the next best thing:

We’re proud to announce the launch of Banter Vintage Books, powered by Etsy.

Each fortnight (probably on Sunday nights when the kids are abed) we will sort through our collection and select nine – and only nine – of our best vintage and classic books for sale. Our first selection features books that evoke memories from our childhoods.

As you’ll see from the prices, we’re not looking to make much money. Instead, we want to share some of our great reads we’ve unearthed on our adventures.

While keeping the dream alive.

Check out Banter Vintage Books today!

Related articles:

Banter Speech & Language Banter Speech & Language
Banter Speech & Language is an independent firm of speech pathologists for adults and children. We help clients in our local area, including Concord, Rhodes, Strathfield and all other suburbs of Sydney’s Inner West.

Banter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.

David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP).

15 practical ways to help your son discover a passion for reading

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One of my sons would sooner have chewed off his right arm than sit down to read a book – until he discovered Andy Griffiths’ wonderful Treehouse series.  Now we have to pry the latest book out of his hands to get him to eat.

Boys in developed countries like Australia do not do as well as girls in standardised reading testing, including NAPLAN.  Boys make up the majority of students who struggle with literacy and far outnumber girls in remedial reading classes (e.g. Holbrook, 1988, Gambell & Hunter, 1999, Rutter et al., 2004).  On average, boys take longer to learn to read and read less than girls; and significantly more boys declare themselves to be “non-readers” than girls (Smith & Wilhelm, 2002).

We’ve posted before about evidence-based reading training and resources to improve reading decoding and comprehension.  But reading is often about the quantity of practice and a boy’s attitude to reading is just – if not more – important to reading outcomes.

So how can you help your book-shy son discover a genuine passion for reading?  Here are some practical ideas:

1. The right books are his books

A good book for a boy is one he wants to read (Maloney, 2002).

Many boys like books about action heroes, science fiction and/or fantasy.  Others like funny books, e.g. about bodily functions, practical jokes and general mischief.  Find books about things that your son is passionate about.  Even better, find series of books about things your son loves.  Some examples: Andy Griffiths’ Treehouse series, Darren Shan’s horror books, Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Anh Do’s WeirDo series, Liz Pichon’s Tom Gates series and Horrible Histories.

Don’t worry if they are below his reading level and be prepared to help him if he’s into a particular book above his reading level.  Look for books that are:

  • plot based and fast-paced (e.g. Zac Powers, Alex Rider, Darren Shan Saga, Artemis Fowl, Skulduggery Pleasant);
  • visual (e.g. Captain Underpants, Treehouse, WeirDo, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Tom Gates books, Captain Firebeard’s School of Pirates);
  • are full of information your son can use in conversations (e.g. terrible joke books);
  • are edgy or controversial – worth arguing about;
  • contain inspiring ideas – books that have “life-expanding appeal” – especially books about heroes conquering fears and obstacles and having a go (e.g. Roald Dahl, Harry Potter); and
  • novelisations of his favourite movies or television shows (e.g. Adventure Time books),

(Smith & Milhelm, 2002).

2. If your son is not into fiction, find other things to read that he is into

Consider science books, sports magazines, comic books, collector cards with stats on them (e.g. Pokémon, sports cards), text-based adventure computer games, even car instruction manuals.  The key is finding material that gives your son a reason to read it.

3. Choose books with positive male role models

Look for heroes who are courageous, sensitive, moral, socially adept, honest, nurturing, successful in relationships, responsible and reliable.  Many superheroes and action adventure heroes fit the bill.

4. Read aloud

Read aloud with your son so he can hear how a fluent reader sounds.  Again, choose books he is into. Use silly voices and actions to bring the story alive.

5. Use technology

Use a search engine like Google to investigate things mentioned in the book that interests your son in more detail.  For example, if your hero flies to Egypt to see the pyramids, use Google Maps to have a look at satellite images of them.  If the villain fashions a medieval catapult to lay seige to a King’s castle, check out Wikipedia for details about how to make one.  Use Google images (in safe mode) and Youtube to help your son visualise places, people and other details.

6. Create a play

Act out favourite scenes from books using action figures and Lego.  Build sets and lighting, and film the action on your smart phone.  Take it in turns to role play the goodie and baddie roles.

7. Audio books

Listen to audio books of your son’s favourite books in the car to increase his familiarity with the books and to hear great narrators at work.  Many of the Roald Dahl audio books are fantastic for this purpose.  So, too, are some Enid Blyton books and Just William books.

8. Devise a story line

Make up “missing scenes”, prequels and sequels to the books, which you can draw or write out, then perform.  The more outlandish, the better.

9. Have a discussion

Discuss what you’re reading with your son.  Encourage him to summarise what’s happened, and to predict what might happen next. Some more comprehension tips are set out here.

10. Deploy Dad or another male as a reading mentor

There’s a lot of evidence that male mentors reading books have a big impact on boys’ attitudes to reading.  Whether it’s Dad, another male relative, a male teacher, librarian or speech pathologist, or even a peer, males can help boys see that reading isn’t just for girls and can help show boys that there is a purpose for reading – even something as simple as sports stats, the news or even checking up on work emails.

11. Sport and reading programs

If you have a sporty son, see if any of his favourite sports run a reading program.  For example, check out the the NRL’s Rugby League Reads program.

12. Real world projects

Encourage real world projects that require research.  For example, ask your son to find out about how to make a go-cart or science experiment from scratch.  Then source the parts/materials and make it together following his instructions.

13. Create a book

Help your son to script and make digital comic books, short stories, books, websites (e.g. with WordPress), Powerpoint presentations (with text) or Youtube videos “on location” for relatives and friends.  Encourage him to create transcripts.  Again, tap into your son’s passions and encourage humour.

14. Family routine

Build recreational family reading time into your weekly routine.  Don’t require him to read school books.  Let him choose.

15. Don’t reinvent the wheel!

Need more suggestions and resources?  Check out these terrific websites for recommended book lists and much more good stuff:

Related articles:

Principal source:  Ontario Education. (2004). Me read? No way!: A practical guide to improving boys’ literacy skills. Toronto: Ontario Education, downloaded from here.

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Banter Speech & Language Banter Speech & Language
Banter Speech & Language is an independent firm of speech pathologists for adults and children. We help clients in our local area, including Concord, Rhodes, Strathfield and all other suburbs of Sydney’s Inner West.

Banter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.

David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP).