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The present study evaluated the effectiveness of three service delivery models in the elementary school setting. Differences were investigated between (a) a collaborative approach, (b) a classroom-based intervention model with the speech-language pathologist (SLP) and classroom teachers working independently, and (c) a traditional pull-out model for children in kindergarten through third grade who qualified for speech or language services. The same curricular vocabulary targets and materials were used in all conditions. This study also examined the vocabulary skills of regular education children who participated in the collaborative approach, the independent classroom-based model, or received instruction from only classroom teachers, without the SLP's involvement. Results indicated the collaborative model was more effective for teaching curricular vocabulary to students who qualified for speech or language services than a classroom-based model (teacher-SLP independent) or a traditional pull-out model. The findings for students who were not enrolled in speech or language services indicated the collaborative and classroom-based models increased vocabulary skills to a significantly greater degree than receiving only regular instruction from the classroom teacher. The results are congruent with the theoretical advantages of the collaborative model reported in the literature and support the use of integrated service delivery models for intervention in the school setting.
Key Words: teacher-speech-language-- pathologist collaboration, service delivery models, classroom-based intervention, curriculum-based intervention, vocabulary
The introduction of the Regular Education Initiative (REI) (Will, 1986) challenged special educators in the public schools to deliver more services in the regular classroom. The REI has also had an impact on the provision of speech and language services. The optimal service delivery in the literature has shifted from the traditional pull-out model towards a collaborative classroombased approach. Suggested advantages of collaboration include increasing speech-language pathologists (SLPs') knowledge about curriculum, increasing teachers' strategies for children with communication difficulties, improving generalization of skills to classroom curriculum, and serving a larger population including "at risk" children who do not qualify for speech or language services (Block, 1995; Cirrin & Penner, 1995; Ebert & Prelock, 1994; Miller, 1989; Nelson, 1989). The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the collaborative model for teaching vocabulary compared to both classroom-based intervention without collaboration and the traditional pullout model. Measures of change included the number of words acquired and the level...