Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools最新文献

Purpose: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act guidelines for Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) require that students with disabilities should, to the fullest extent appropriate, receive services that promote academic achievement that are delivered within the general educational environment. In this clinical focus article, we will demonstrate how the inclusive practice service delivery model can assist speech-language pathologists (SLPs) with the development of educationally relevant IEPs.

Method: Twelve SLPs who saw at least 30% of their students in a general education context shared their perspectives on inclusive practice. Their responses were transcribed and coded using deductive qualitative analysis. Their insights were combined with relevant literature to demonstrate how inclusive practice promotes educationally relevant IEPs.

Results: We provided practical examples of using curriculum-based assessments and academic standards to gauge students' present levels of academic and functional performance. We next described how engaging with the school community and observing students in the educational environment assists with determining the effects of a student's disability on academic achievement and functional performance. We concluded by describing how an inclusive mindset helps to align services to meet students' needs.

Conclusion: An inclusive framework can help create IEPs that promote students' access, engagement, and progress in age or grade-level curriculum, instruction, and environments by highlighting the impact of a disability on academic achievement and functional performance.

Supplemental material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.24354319.

As professionals working in schools, we are often expected to function as teams to meet the unique needs of the children, youth, and families we serve. This provides us the opportunity to work with people of diverse experience, perspective, and expertise. In this context, we will encounter conflict. How we engage this challenge will ultimately determine what is possible. Conflict has the potential to be productive or destructive. Our individual and collective experience with conflict is based on the choices we make in our engagement of this shared experience. Ineffective conflict engagement practices will often compromise trust, erode social capital, and challenge psychological safety. This may result in individual and collective disengagement from the pursuit of a shared objective and be manifested in the avoidance of, and unwillingness to, engage critical complex challenges. We can individually and collectively adopt practices and develop skills for aligning our actions and speaking with what we say we believe that there is value in diversity of experience and perspective. New learning, innovation, and creativity are born in the context of conflict. Effective and intentional conflict engagement practices have the potential to build trust, build social capital, increase the possibilities for innovation and creativity, and improve the capacity to address complex challenges. We can learn to leverage conflict to better serve the needs of the children, youth, and families we serve. In this viewpoint article, we will explore the role of conflict in shared learning, innovation, and creativity in service of children with special needs.

Purpose: Federal special education requirements specify that information districts must gather and review during the process of finding a student eligible for special education and developing a student's Individualized Education Program (IEP). The purpose of this tutorial is to describe the federal requirements related to evaluation and assessment and to apply best practices in assessment to those expectations, thereby enhancing teams' ability to identify students' strengths and needs, determine eligibility for services, and create high-quality IEPs.

Method: This tutorial includes a detailed review of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) statute and regulations and the U.S. Department of Education guidance related to evaluation, assessment, and IEP development. The tutorial also reflects on an analysis of existing data regarding the identification of students with speech-language impairment in one state and a narrative review of the current literature related to assessment and its role in intervention planning.

Results: The results indicate that the IDEA requires rigorous evaluation and assessment practices to determine eligibility (evaluation) and identify students' unique strengths and needs for intervention (assessment). By adhering to these requirements and employing evidence-based assessment practices, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) can be assured that they are gathering accurate and useful information. This information is fundamental to developing an IEP that will support students' acquisition of the knowledge and skills needed to progress in the general curriculum.

Conclusions: This tutorial reviews federal requirements related to assessment and links these with best practices in assessment, to facilitate compliance with federal evaluation requirements and IEP development in a manner that meets the needs of all students. SLPs can rely on the IDEA for guidance in completing their special education evaluations and assessments, using this as a framework for employing evidence-based assessment practices.

Purpose: The purpose of this clinical focus article is to discuss processes and procedures for building school-based programs to address the feeding and swallowing needs of students in the public-school setting. Interprofessional practice (IPP) team member roles and responsibilities, screening, eligibility, considerations for developing Individualized Education Programs that address the needs of students with pediatric feeding disorder (PFD) and dysphagia, as well as billing documentation requirements, are discussed. Additionally, coordination across the continuum of service delivery for students with PFD and dysphagia is investigated. Guidance on documentation, processes, and procedures that comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act mandates will be provided.

Conclusions: This clinical focus article will demonstrate that students with PFD and dysphagia continue to present to public schools and require skilled services and supports in order to meet their individualized needs. School-based speech-language pathologists have a legal requirement to provide these supports when deemed educationally relevant. Schools must employ processes and procedures that result in the timely and effective evaluation and identification of students with PFD and dysphagia. An IPP approach to the management of PFD and dysphagia is critical to ensure optimal outcomes for students found eligible for services.

Purpose: Picture-word writing curriculum-based measures (PW CBM-Ws) are technically sound, formative measures of descriptive, sentence-level writing but cannot estimate underlying linguistic skills. The purpose of this exploratory alternative scoring investigation was to apply metrics from language sample analysis (LSA) to PW CBM-Ws as a complementary measure of underlying language skills in beginning writers' sentence-level writing.

Method: LSA metrics were applied to 104 typically developing first through third graders' PW CBM-W samples across fall and spring semesters. Factorial analyses of variance with post hoc Bonferroni pairwise comparisons were applied after obtaining alternate-form reliability and criterion-related validity estimates.

Results: Analyses revealed reliable discrimination between grades and significant growth between fall and spring semesters for three LSA metrics: mean length of T-unit in words, mean length of T-unit in morphemes, and number of different words. While mean length of T-unit in words and morphemes demonstrated evidence of discrimination and growth in first grade only, number of different words showed evidence of reliable discrimination and growth in first and third grades.

Conclusions: Mean length of T-unit in words, mean length of T-unit in morphemes, and number of different words showed evidence of adequate criterion-related validity, discrimination among grades, and sensitivity to growth when calculated using PW CBM-W samples to gauge underlying linguistic skills in first- and third-grade students. Implications and future directions for research are discussed.

Supplemental material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25050290.

Purpose: Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) serving students who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing (Deaf/hh) and their deaf education counterparts must navigate complexities in language that include modalities that are spoken or signed and proficiency, which is often compromised. This tutorial describes a practice-informed framework that conceptualizes and organizes a continuum of auditory and visual language supports with the aim of informing the practice of the SLP whose training is more inherently focused on spoken language alone, as well as the practice of the teacher of the Deaf/hh (TDHH) who may focus more on visual language supports.

Method: This product resulted from a need within interdisciplinary, graduate programs for SLPs and TDHHs. Both cohorts required preparation to address the needs of diverse language learners who are Deaf/hh. This tutorial includes a brief review of the challenges in developing language proficiency and describes the complexities of effective service delivery. The process of developing a practice-informed framework for language supports is summarized, referencing established practices in auditory-based and visually based methodologies, identifying parallel practices, and summarizing the practices within a multitiered framework called the Framework of Differentiated Practices for Language Support. Recommendations for use of the framework include guidance on the identification of a student's language modality/ies and proficiency to effectively match students' needs and target supports.

Conclusions: An examination of established practices in language supports across auditory and visual modalities reveals clear parallels that can be organized into a tiered framework. The result is a reference for differentiating language for the interdisciplinary school team. The parallel supports also provide evidence of similarities in practice across philosophical boundaries as professionals work collaboratively.

Purpose: This pilot study aimed to examine the effects of a caregiver-supported, narrative-based intervention program on the story retelling skills of a group of preschoolers who are deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) using listening and spoken language (LSL).

Method: A concurrent multiple baseline design across participants was used to determine the effect of a narrative intervention on the story retelling skills of three preschool-age participants who demonstrated complex language delays. Their primary caregivers also functioned as participants. The 6-week narrative intervention program was implemented using a caregiver coaching model during individual therapy sessions. The dependent variable probes were administered twice per week across phases to assess the preschool participants' story retelling skills, including story grammar, complexity, and completeness. Social validity was also evaluated using a caregiver questionnaire.

Results: A functional relation was demonstrated between the intervention and story retelling across all three preschool participants with notable increases in the inclusion of story grammar elements and episodic completeness. All three participants maintained scores above baseline levels on dependent variable probes across the 6-week maintenance period. Social validity was strong according to the results of a caregiver questionnaire completed at the conclusion of the intervention.

Conclusion: These findings offer preliminary support for the use of a caregiver-supported, narrative-based intervention program to improve storytelling and retelling skills in preschoolers who are D/HH using LSL.

Purpose: Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in public schools have a key role in assessment, intervention, program design, compliance, and prevention. They address the needs of students of all ages and disorders, ensure the educational relevance of their services, and provide culturally competent care. Given the scope of their work, SLPs must balance and prioritize their varying responsibilities in school settings. This study investigates how SLPs navigate their involvement with the prevention-oriented framework Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) while providing direct support to students with disabilities through Individualized Education Programs (IEPs).

Method: This study took place in a district with a stated goal for the academic year of deepening their involvement with the MTSS framework. Eight SLPs working in this rural district participated in a series of interviews over the course of the 2022-2023 school year. Qualitative data were collected about SLPs' motivations and evolving views related to MTSS.

Results: While participants in this study were motivated to engage in MTSS because they viewed this framework as a useful mechanism to support students outside of special education, they were limited by time constraints and the challenges of forming collaborative relationships. Each participant navigated the process of balancing their efforts related to MTSS and IEPs in a unique way that reflected their specific setting and circumstances.

Conclusion: This study directly investigated how SLPs navigate this balancing act in real time and provided a novel perspective on the potential synergies and disconnects between SLPs' efforts related to MTSS and their responsibilities related to providing appropriate speech-language services via IEPs.

Purpose: From preschool through high school, eating is part of the school day. Children with feeding and/or swallowing issues are now in our neighborhood schools, our responsibility in our care, and require adequate nutrition and hydration to participate in school and access the curriculum. The whole child is in school, including all of their medical, behavioral, social, and educational needs. This clinical focus article describes a holistic process of evaluating swallowing and feeding in the school setting for the school speech-language pathologist (SLP) leading the team supporting the child.

Method: This clinical focus article explores the evaluation process in the educational setting for the school SLP in identification of pediatric feeding disorders (PFDs), which can involve dysphagia. Detailed descriptions of the related U.S. educational law, PFD, assessment processes for the multiple systems relating to eating, and collaboration with an interdisciplinary team are highlighted. Using the four overlapping domains of PFD (medical, psychosocial, feeding skill-based systems and associated nutritional aspects), medical and background history gathering; integration with instrumental results; and the need to consider the complex interaction of developmental, physical, cognitive, social, behavioral, family, and cultural aspects in the evaluation are detailed.

Conclusions: School-age children require safe and adequate nutrition and hydration for learning and social participation. The SLP has a lead role in the school team in evaluating swallowing and feeding, and developing a plan for team implementation. A holistic school-based SLP clinical evaluation process is described.

Purpose: Children with pediatric feeding disorder (PFD) and dysphagia are increasingly prevalent in school-based caseloads. This tutorial discusses the current best practices for treating children with PFD and dysphagia as well as considerations for service delivery in educational settings.

Method: The rationale for treating PFD and dysphagia in an educational setting is discussed. A review of various interventions for PFD and dysphagia and a discussion of the available evidence are provided. The principles of experience-dependent neuroplasticity and theory-driven practice are discussed in light of the need for additional empirical research. Practical considerations to enhance evidence-based practice for PFD and dysphagia in educational settings are explored.

Results: The reader will be able to identify evidence-based interventions for students with PFD and dysphagia and plan for the implementation of these approaches in the school setting.

Conclusions: Students with PFD and dysphagia require skilled interventions to support their participation in educationally relevant activities and to promote continued development of feeding and swallowing skills while at school. A discussion of the current evidence for various interventions is provided to promote the utilization of evidence-based interventions in school-based settings.