Forum: Morphological awareness as a key factor in language-literacy success for academic achievement

Purpose: This article introduces the Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools Forum: Morphological Awareness as a Key Factor in Language-Literacy Success for Academic Achievement. The goal of this forum is to relate the influence morphological awareness (MA) has on overall language and literacy development with morphology acting as the “binding agent” between orthography, phonology, and semantics (Perfetti, 2007) in assessment and intervention for school-aged children. Method: This introduction provides a foundation for MA development and explores the influence MA has over the course of school-aged language and literacy development. Through summaries of the 11 articles in this forum, school-based speech-language pathologists will be able to convey the importance of MA to promote successful educational outcomes for kindergarten to adolescent students. The forum explores researcher-developed assessments usedto help identify MA skill level in first-through eighth-grade students at risk for literacy failure to support instructional needs. The forum also provides school-based speech-language pathologists with details to design and implement MA interventions to support academic success for school-aged students with varying speech-language needs (e.g., dual language emersion, vocabulary development, reading comprehension) using various service delivery models (e.g., small group, classroom-based, intensive summer camps). Conclusion: MA is effective in facilitating language and literacy development and as such can be an ideally focused on using multilinguistic approaches for assessment and intervention. The articles in this issue highlight the importance in assessment measures and intervention approaches that focus on students’ MA to improve overall academic success in children of all ages and abilities.