| Almost all 50 of the United States now have adopted the Common Core State Standards, which call for students with disabilities to be "challenged to excel within the general curriculum." Speech-language pathologists (both in schools and other settings) can collaborate with general and special education teachers, other professionals, and parents to modify systems to support student learning. Cognitive-linguistic systems within students and social-cultural and political systems outside of students combine to influence how children and adolescents with diverse abilities learn. Interdisciplinary teams can take deliberate steps to accommodate the different learning needs of students with disabilities and other language-learning risks, while helping them develop stronger oral and written communication skills.
This lecture will provide information on how to use a model of language levels (sound/word and sentence/discourse levels) by modalities (listening, speaking, reading, and writing modalities) to understand students' needs and to plan individualized, contextualized services that are relevant to meeting high standards of academic and social participation. A "pinball wizardry" model of cognitive-linguistic processing will be introduced and four questions will be discussed for guiding curriculum-based language assessment and intervention. Methods for conducting curriculum-relevant and curriculum-based language intervention will be distinguished. The principles and methods for using a clinic-based "homework lab" and a classroom-based "writing lab approach" as contexts for comprehensive language intervention will be described. Group data and case examples demonstrating students' learning and communication outcomes will illustrate the principles and, hopefully, stimulate planning for new possibilities by participants for their clients.
Learner Objectives
After attending these sessions, participants will be able to:
- Use a language levels by modalities model to describe a particular student's language intervention strengths and needs.
- Apply at least two curriculum-relevant techniques for assessing sound/word and sentence/discourse skills.
- Describe methods for collaborating with a classroom teacher to set up a writing lab approach to language assessment and intervention.
- List examples of expected outcomes when a writing lab approach is used to provide spoken and written language intervention.
|
