Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools

PURPOSE: We replicated a prior survey study (Hoffman et al., 2013) to document current evidence-based practice (EBP) patterns as reported by school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) during the 2021-2022 school year. METHOD: Via an online survey, SLPs reported their training experiences and needs, workplace resources, and frequency of engagement in EBP activities. RESULTS: A total of 889 SLPs in 50 states participated in the survey...

PURPOSE: This study aimed to elucidate the nature of the relationship between the development of decoding and encoding skills in the first year at school. METHOD: The foundational literacy skills of one hundred eighty 5-year-old children were examined on three occasions over their first year of literacy instruction. Participants received the same literacy curriculum. The predictive utility of early spelling on later reading accuracy, reading comprehension, and spelling outcomes was explored...

PURPOSE: Children with cochlear implants (CIs) have difficulty with literacy, and although it is established that phonological processing underlies literacy skills in children with typical hearing (TH), the relation of phonological processing and literacy in children with CIs is not fully understood. This study evaluated the contributions of phonological processing to word-level reading and spelling skills of children with CIs. METHOD: Thirty children with CIs and 31 children with TH in Grades 3 through 6 completed measures of word reading, spelling, and phonological processing...

PURPOSE: We report findings from a survey of elementary teachers regarding reading instruction. The purpose was to examine teachers' beliefs about how children in the first 7 years of schooling develop reading comprehension skills and to characterize the self-reported practices and strategies they use to support children to comprehend connected text. METHOD: A web-based survey was used to collect data from 284 Australian elementary teachers about their beliefs and practices regarding reading comprehension instruction...

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to situate developmental language disorder (DLD) within the impairment and disability framework of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF); describe the functional strengths and weaknesses of a cohort of first-grade children with DLD and their peers; and explore the ways that language-related disabilities relate to language impairment, developmental risk, and receipt of language services. METHOD: We queried the caregivers of 35 children with DLD and 44 peers with typical language development about their children's language-related functions, developmental risks, and language services using mixed quantitative and qualitative methods...

PURPOSE: This exploratory study developed a process for reinterpreting previously published research studies in the bilingual literature. Three previously published studies on bilingual phonological acquisition were revisited due to the following characteristics: (a) they applied a theoretical framework for bilingual speech production developed by white bilingual researchers, the dual-systems hypothesis , and (b) project data were interpreted without the input and perspective of researchers representative of the community being studied...

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of generalization when treating complex targets with shared sounds in Spanish for a 5-year-old Spanish-English bilingual child with a phonological delay. METHOD: Two complex clusters (/fl/ and /fɾ/) and one additional target (/l/) were chosen for treatment. Intervention sessions were held in Spanish over the course of 1 year on a weekly basis. The accuracy of the treated and untreated targets was monitored using a single-subject case design and was assessed using visual analysis...

PURPOSE: The purpose of this review article is to conduct a critical analysis of state-level policies focusing on the provision of speech-language therapy and special education to children and youth who are racialized emergent bilinguals (REBs) suspected or labeled as dis/abled. METHOD: We analyzed the state-level policies focusing on speech-language therapy and/or special education of California, Kansas, Florida, and New York. We coded content in terms of labels used to describe REBs; the focus of states' policies, whether the policy mentioned the provision of bilingual services, and the orientation toward bilingualism...

PURPOSE: Students with multiple disabilities who are beginning communicators require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) to communicate during school and participate in its academic and social aspects. Triadic gaze is a method for accessing low-tech AAC that minimizes physical demands on access for students with limited mobility, such as students with multiple disabilities. Thus, this study evaluated an instructional protocol for teaching triadic gaze as a low-tech AAC access method for students with multiple disabilities...

PURPOSE: Ideologies are like rocks onto which individuals and institutions anchor their thoughts about what it means to be an "ideal language user" and what "standardized languaging" is. These deeply ingrained beliefs, influenced by colonial legacies and sociopolitical contexts, invisibly enforce a hierarchical order between people and their access to rights and privilege within societies. They inferiorize, marginalize, racialize, and nullify students and their families. The purposes of this tutorial are to reflect upon common dominant ideologies about language and languaging that are present in definitions, practices, and materials used in school-based settings by speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and to offer an invitation to interrupt the practices that are birthed from upholding these beliefs and are dehumanizing to children and families living at the intersections of marginalization...

PURPOSE: This tutorial aims to introduce school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to developmental systems theory as a framework for considering interactions across functional domains, such as language, vision, and motor, for students with complex needs. METHOD: This tutorial summarizes the current literature on developmental systems theory in its application to working with students who have needs in multiple domains of functioning in addition to communication...

PURPOSE: This viewpoint will expose readers to disability as a social construct shaped by power and oppression, not an individual medical issue defined by diagnosis. As professionals, we are doing a disservice if we continue to silo the disability experience to the limits of service delivery. We must intentionally seek ways to challenge how we think, view, and respond to disability to ensure that our approach is consistent with the current needs of the disability community. CONCLUSIONS: Specific practices related to accessibility and universal design will be highlighted...

PURPOSE: Systematic reviews of bilingual children's reading development are very limited, and none of which solely focus on predictors of reading difficulties among those with developmental language disorder (DLD). The present scoping review fills an important need by analyzing the recent research literature on the reading outcomes of bilingual children with DLD. Specifically, this study aims to identify predictors of reading difficulties among bilingual children with DLD to improve early identification...

PURPOSE: This qualitative pilot study explored cultural perspectives and needs of two bilingual (Spanish/English) Latina mothers with children on the autism spectrum in conversations with their children's speech-language pathologists (SLPs), one identifying as Mexican American and the other identifying as White American. METHOD: Dyadic interviews were used to promote dialogue and learning opportunities for the participants. Two dyads (mothers and SLPs) participated, completing background questionnaires, dyadic interviews, and post-interview written reflections...

PURPOSE: Children at the intersections of language learning, racialization, and dis/ability status experience systems of power in a very particular way. This work amplifies the "voices" of bilingual nonspeaking children and their families to upend the notion of educational and medical professionals as the experts. It positions familial ways of being and knowing as central to learning and offers educators tools to actively collaborate with and follow the lead of children and families to engage in "reciprocal carryover...

PURPOSE: Developmental language disorder (DLD) is a relatively new, internationally promoted term to describe individuals with language impairments not secondary to a biomedical condition. This study aimed to better understand speech-language pathologists' (SLPs') current level of comfort using DLD terminology and knowledge of DLD in the United States to help SLPs better understand how and why they should consider adopting DLD terminology in their clinical practice. METHOD: After completing an online presurvey to evaluate current comfort levels in using DLD terminology and current knowledge of DLD, currently practicing SLPs viewed a 45-min prerecorded educational video on DLD...

PURPOSE: The purpose of this tutorial is to guide practitioners to a critical praxis of speech, language, and hearing. This tutorial provides a foundational knowledge of critical theory as an approach to framing, conceptualizing, and interpreting phenomena and demonstrates its application to the speech, language, and hearing profession. METHOD: This tutorial reviews critical theory as a category of frameworks that challenge existing power structures and provides a critical analysis of the profession's approach to language using a raciolinguistic framework...

PURPOSE: This review article critically interrogates the history and the current practice of standardized assessment in speech and language therapy. Speech and language assessments utilizing standardized linguistic norms are a critical tool for constructing disability and controlling disabled individuals. Such practices are rooted in a medical model of disability where the linguistic practice(s) of the individual is pathologized to create normalcy and disorder. METHOD: We examine how these practices are anchored in eugenics and the racist logics of intelligence testing in which racialized populations were rendered as linguistically and biologically inferior...

PURPOSE: Culturally responsive teaching (CRT) is a recurring topic in preservice teacher and special education personnel training, especially as academic institutions work to implement anti-racist and anti-oppressive teaching pedagogies. These methods of instruction, specifically in the areas of language and literacy, can be implemented by programs that understand the needs of the Indigenous students that their trainees or students will eventually serve. Academic institutions must transform their teaching and mentoring approach to better prepare educators and clinicians who engage with Indigenous communities...

PURPOSE: This study examined public school (PS) speech-language pathologists' (SLPs') perceived confidence in managing pediatric feeding disorders (PFDs). Perceived confidence is a rater's self-reported assurance level to manage PFDs. The study then looked for relationships between personal and professional factors that might account for perceived confidence. Geographic location as well as administrative supports and resources were also examined. METHOD: Participants were PS SLPs from across the United States who were recruited via American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Special Interest Groups...