Strategies

As with all students who receive special education services, collaboration of a multi-disciplinary team is necessary. Students with speech or language disorders will receive services from many education professionals, including general education teachers, special education teachers, and speech-language pathologists.

Speech-language pathologists provide a variety of professional services aimed at helping people develop effective communication skills. These services may include:

Helping children with articulation disorders to learn proper production of speech sounds
Helping children who stutter to speak more fluently
Assisting children with voice disorders to improve their voice quality
Helping individuals with aphasia to relearn speech and language skills
Assisting individuals who have difficulty swallowing as a result of illness, surgery, stroke, or injury
Evaluating, selecting, and developing augmentative and alternative communication systems
Enhancing communication effectiveness

The general education teacher should work with the speech-language pathologist to incorporate strategies to help the student generalize strategies mastered in speech therapy. This may include corrective measures, helping with speech and language exercises, and providing the student with immediate feedback when the speech-language pathologist is not present. The general education and special education teacher should both collaborate with the speech-language pathologist for interventions and teaching strategies.