Content area
Full Text
Abstract
Fueled by educational reforms such as the Regular Education Initiative, the inclusion movement, and Goals 2000, speech and language pathologists (SLPs) have explored the use of collaborative consultation in providing integrated service delivery. The implications of classroom-based services are discussed, along with models that have been adopted by SLPs, learning disabilities specialists (LDSs), and classroom teachers. The characteristics of students served, and the areas of speech and language (i.e., language, articulation, fluency, voice) targeted in the classroom, are reviewed. Ways in which SLPs, LDSs, and classroom teachers can collaborate, including collaborative assessment; Individualized Education Program development; teaching listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills; and teaching students the language of the classroom, are described.
The merits of collaborative consultation have been discussed at length by professionals representing the disciplines of special education and school psychology (e.g., Branden-Miller & Elias,1991; Dettmer, Thurston, & Dyck, 1993; Elksnin & Elksnin, 1989; Gutkin, 1990; Huefner, 1988; Morsink, Thomas, & Correa, 1991; Nevin, Thousand, PaolucciWhitcomb, & Villa,1990; Zins, Curtis, Graden, & Ponti, 1988). Speech and language pathologists (SLPs) also have explored the use of collaborative consultation in providing speech and language services in the classroom. Changes in speech and language service delivery have significant implications for teachers of students with learning disabilities (LD), as many of these students evidence speech and language difficulties (Gerber, 1993; Reed, 1994; Wallach & Butler, 1994).
Like special education, speech and language pathology emerged from a medical model that stressed the need to diagnose the language or learning problem and develop a treatment plan. The impact of this model on service delivery has been discussed at length by Hoskins (1990a) and Simon and Myrold-Gunyuz (1990). During the late 1970s, SLPs acknowledged that language is more easily learned in the natural rather than the clinical setting (Nelson, 1990). This acknowledgment has set the stage for the SLP to move from a separatist role as expert to a participatory, collaborative role (Gerber, 1987). Just as learning disabilities specialists (LDSs) began to question traditional service delivery models with the emergence of the Regular Education Initiative (Will, 1986) and the inclusion movement (Smith, Polloway, Patton, & Dowdy, 1995), SLPs also have explored classroom-based rather than pull-out programs.
There is considerable discussion today about reforming education through the...