Speech and Language Development

Student Population: Students ages three to twenty-one who have been staffed to receive speech and/or language services.

Class Size: Classes range in size from one to four students.

Goals for Language: To increase/improve student's communicative skills to cover a full range of communication functions, i.e., behavioral regulation, social interaction and joint attention.  For many students, this includes the use of AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) systems.

Goals for Speech: To improve intelligibility of speech.

Activities: Activities to promote improvement of student's pragmatic skills; e.g., requesting objects/actions, appropriate protest; commenting, labeling; directing attention; engaging in joint action routines, etc. Activities in language therapy include functional language skills to be used in a variety of settings.  Activities in speech therapy include correct production of targeted sounds in isolation, in words, in sentences, then spontaneous speech.

Therapy is based on data gathered from evaluation reports, as well as teacher/parent input and classroom observation.  The emphasis on therapy is on maximizing functional communications.

Teacher/Staff Positions: Two Speech and Language Pathologists.

Page updated: 08/11/2005