Speech Language Pathology and Common Core

Common Core Standards

• Developed to prepare students for the global workplace.
• Specifies content knowledge and cognitive skills for each grade level.
• Focus for SLPs is on linguistic and communication expectations.

Determining Eligibility for Services

• Determined by state or district criteria, based on completed evaluation.
• IDEA provides broad guidelines, but states/local authorities can set their own.
• The primary determining factor is adverse educational impact which is not limited to academic performance.
• Requires informed parental consent and adherence to procedural safeguards.
• Documentation may include a test score 2+ SD below the mean, two scores 1.5 SD below the mean or a combination of test scores + severity rating.
• Students may receive instruction at all RTI levels before SPED referral.

The IEP Process

Describes the order of the IEP writing process:

• Invitation, Participants, Parental Attendance, Eligibility, Nonpublic School Questions.
• Strengths & Needs, Transition Information, Transitional Goals, Course of Study & Student Rights.
• Goal Need List, Goal Review, LRE Questions, Supplemental Aids/Services Need List.
• Program/Service Details, State Assessment, District Assessment, Transportation.
• Follow Up Details, Additional Comments, Notice Information.

Family Involvement in Assessment

• Parental permission is required for testing.
• Parents should be informed throughout the assessment process.
• Attendance at a meeting is required upon completion of assessment (IEP).

Identifying Students

• Screening, including possible hearing screening at kindergarten entry, requires standardized, efficient, and accurate methods.
• Response to Intervention (RTI) is another method.
• Referral may be made.

Response to Intervention (RTI) Levels

• Level I: Whole class instruction on reading.
• Level II: Small group reading instruction in class.
• Level III: Pull out intervention in small groups of 2-4 students.

Standardized Tests

• Usually a requirement for school speech-language services eligibility.
• Documents significant deficits compared to peers.
• Comprehensive batteries identify strengths and needs.
• Assess both pragmatic and semantic/syntactic deficits.
• Assess oral language foundations for literacy (phonological awareness, word finding).
• Can be supplemented with informal measures for pragmatics.

Dynamic Assessment

• Composed of test-teach-retest, non-word repetition, language sampling, and fast mapping.

Analyzing Complex Syntax

• Steps: Words, morphemes, phrases, clauses, sentences.

Complex Syntax

• Requires at least one main clause (MC) and one or more subordinate clauses.
• Example: The striped cat watched the wild turkey as the sun was setting.

Clauses

• A group of words that expresses meaning.

Main Clause (Matrix)

• Carries the basic meaning of the sentence, which can stand alone.
• Conveys information about person, number, and tense.

Subordinate Clause (Dependent)

• Cannot stand alone as a sentence.

Left Branching Clauses

• Places significant information before the subject, disrupting typical sentence structure.

Right-Branching Clause

• Modifies the phrase or clause appearing after the main subject and action.

Types of Finite Subordinate Clauses

• Nominal, adverbial, and relative.

Participles

• Describe nouns and function like adjectives.
• Nonfinite, ending in -ing, -ed, or -en (e.g., crooked, twisted, broken).

Infinitive

• Always occur in the form "to + verb" (e.g., to hike, to run).
• Form does not change based on person or number.

Nominal Clause

• Example: Dad was surprised that John cooked dinner.
• Subject and verb tense agree within the clause.

Adverbial Clause

• Example: Once the French cyclists have reached the mountains, they will take the lead.
• Subject and verb tense agree within the clause.

Relative Clause

• Uses relative pronouns (who, whom, which, that) to describe a noun in the main clause.
• Example: The poet, who was sitting by the fire, was inspired.

Gerundive

• Look like participial clauses but act as nouns representing activities.
• Example: Hiking in the desert is Mary's favorite activity.

C-Unit

• Communication unit, used for spoken language.
• Contains a main clause.

T-Unit

• Terminable unit, used for written language.

Mazes

• Hesitations, pauses, repetitions, or restarts in speech.
• Disrupt conversation flow and may indicate word retrieval or sentence formulation issues.
• Distinct from stuttering, which is a speech disorder.

Noun Key Properties

• Can be animate or concrete.
• Can be singular or formal names.
• Can be preceded by a determiner.
• Can include gerunds (e.g., smoking).

Comparative Adjective

• Compares two things, indicating one has "more" of a quality.
• Uses the suffix -er (e.g., taller, smaller, happier).

Superlative Adjective

• Compares more than two things, indicating one has the "most" of a quality.
• Uses the suffix -est (e.g., tallest, smallest, happiest).

Possessive Pronouns

• Indicate ownership or privileged access (e.g., her mother).

Personal Pronouns

• Substitute for names of people, animals, or objects.
• Examples: I, you, me, he, she, we, they, them, us, it, him, her.

Subject Pronouns

• Act as the subject of a sentence, performing an action (e.g., I, you, we, he, she, it, they).

Object Pronouns

• Receive the action of the subject (e.g., us, him, her, them).

Gender-Neutral Pronouns

• Inclusive words used for transgender or nonbinary individuals (e.g., they, them, their).

Demonstrative Pronouns

• Single out people, animals, or objects for attention (e.g., this, that, these, those).

Relative Pronouns

• Introduce relative clauses, describing the noun in the main clause (e.g., that, who, whom, whose, which).

Indefinite Pronouns

• Refer generally to a person or thing (e.g., any, anybody, everyone, some, something).

Interrogative Pronouns

• Initiate questions (e.g., who, what, why, when, how).

Verbs

• Can be finite (agree with subject, marked for tense) or nonfinite.
• Example: The cyclist is riding over the bridge.

Modal Verbs

• Express the speaker's mood or attitude (e.g., might, may, should, must, would, could, shall).

Auxiliary Verbs

• Helping verbs that carry information about person, number, and tense.

Copula Verb

• Verb of existence, or the verb "to be" (e.g., is, are, am, was, were, will be).

Past Progressive Verb

• Indicates an ongoing action in the past.

Present Progressive Verb

• Indicates an ongoing action or activity.

Factive and Nonfactive Verbs

• Factive verbs (e.g., notice, know) presuppose the truth of the following clause.
• Nonfactive verbs (e.g., think, believe) indicate uncertainty.

Future Progressive Verb

• Tells what will happen in the future.

Metacognitive and Metalinguistic Verbs

• Metacognitive verbs refer to thinking or feeling (e.g., believe, know, assume).
• Metalinguistic verbs refer to speaking or writing (e.g., say, tell, write).

Adverbs of Time

• Tell when something happens (e.g., tonight, early, before, after, soon, later).

Adverbs of Place

• Tell where something happens (e.g., somewhere, here, there, everywhere, anywhere).

Adverbs of Manner

• Answer the question "How?" (e.g., carefully, slowly, recklessly, cautiously, nervously).

Adverbs of Likelihood

• Indicate how likely something is to happen (e.g., probably, possibly, certainly).

Adverbs of Magnitude

• Indicate the amount or degree of something (e.g., considerably, slightly, substantially).

Articles

• Precede and identify nouns or adjectives (the, a, an).
• Can be definite (the) or indefinite (a, an).

Coordinating Conjunctions

• Join two main clauses to form compound sentences (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so - FANBOYS).

Subordinating Conjunctions

• Introduce subordinate clauses to form complex sentences (e.g., after, although, because, if, when, while).

Correlative Conjunctions

• Link objects or actions in pairs (e.g., both X and Y, either X or Y).

Adverbial Conjuncts

• Join two sentences to express a logical relationship (e.g., therefore, however, consequently).

Preposition

• Gives information about location, time, direction, or topic (e.g., to, in, for, by, under).
• Introduces a prepositional phrase (preposition + noun phrase/pronoun).

Service Delivery Format Factors

• Consider least restrictive environment.
• Format: 1:1, small group, large group, or mix.
• Amount of time (intensity) needed.
• Number of sessions (frequency).
• Length of services (duration).

Phonology Classroom Model

• Group of students with SSD (i.e., 15 four-year-olds).
• 2 hrs/day, 4 days/wk, 6 weeks.
• Two SLPs teach specific phonological patterns, using Hodson Cycles Approach.
• Two-hour block divided into eight 15-minute sessions with rotating activities.

Self-Contained Program Model

• SLP is the special education teacher, responsible for complete curriculum.
• Often team-taught with support staff.
• Less common due to LRE mandate in IDEA 2004.

Receding Schedule Model

• Useful for students with multiple articulation errors.
• Starts with intense, frequent, and direct individual services, such as 30 minute sessions, 4 times a week.
• Intensity and duration decrease with student progress.
• After initial services: 15 minute sessions 2x per week.
• Achieved 70% accuracy: 30 minutes of indirect service.
• Works best in states with flexible IEP writing.

Blast or Burst Schedule Model

• Conducive for students with SSD.
• Short, intensive, multiple sessions (5-15 mins, 3-5x per week).
• Provided in the hallway outside of class.
• Uses rapid drills with minimal materials.
• 1:1 services with immediate corrective feedback.
• Minimizes out-of-class time.
• Useful when parents worry about child missing instruction.

Resource Room Model

• 1:1, group, or combination services.
• More common in middle school: 1-2 periods per day.
• Students may receive course credit.
• Treatment focuses on strategy-based remediation: intertwines IEP goals with homework/curriculum.

Block Schedule Model

• Most effective in middle/high school.
• Longer periods allow pull-out, individualized, or small group instruction, followed by push-in and team teaching.
• Clinical strategies include milieu language teaching, scaffolding, semantic maps, social routines, script training, and situational pragmatics.

Scaffolding (Intervention Approach)

• Asking guided questions to bring student to higher level of understanding with support.

Milieu Teaching (Intervention Approach)

SLP should:

• Select language targets based on developmental level.
• Structure the environment to promote student-initiated communication.
• Encourage child-initiated utterance expansion.
• Reinforce the child’s communication attempts for attention or objects.
• Outcomes include more frequent communication, longer & complex utterances, expression of familiar functions with advanced forms.

Script Training (Intervention Approach)

• Practicing routine phrases or dialogues used in daily activities or specific contexts.

Semantic Maps (Intervention Approach)

• Visual organizers enable student to see linked information using relevant contexts, attributes, comparisons/contrasts, reasoning, cause/effect, analogies etc.

Situated Pragmatics (Intervention Approach)

• Focuses on teaching language needed in specific social routines.

Four-Step Model (Consultation Model)

• Define and explain the problem.
• Generate alternative solutions through brainstorming.
• Decision-making: select one teacher strategy.
• Verification: assess if the chosen strategy is effective.

SLP Role (Consultation Model)

• Develops an intervention plan.
• Trains another educator.

Support Provided (Consultation Model)

• Information and training to caregivers.
• Feedback for teachers.

SLP Awareness (Consultation Model)

• The SLP continues to provide some direct intervention.

Activities (Consultation Model)

• Analyzing/adapting instructional materials.
• Programming AAC.
• Monitoring progress.
• Conducting assessments.

Team Teaching Model

• Classroom teacher and SLP both teach from their area of expertise.

Research on Push-In Model

• Effective.

Benefits (Team Teaching Model)

• More appropriate accommodations.
• Teachers have improved awareness of communication disorders.

Student Improvements (Team Teaching Model)

• Increased utterance completion.
• Increased intelligibility.
• Increased vocabulary comprehension.
• Higher scores in listening, writing, and generalization skills.

Teacher/SLP Requirements (Team Teaching Model)

• Planning and dividing the workload.

Science Lesson Focus (Team Teaching Model)

• Teacher: Concepts.
• SLP: New vocabulary.