
Early in my career, I underestimated the social aspects of learning, especially for my students who presented with complex communication needs. I often took my students into a small "treatment room" either individually or in a small group and taught specific skills. I celebrated their successes in this environment, but often experienced difficulty getting kids to replicate these skills in their classrooms or with other communication partners. The current literature regarding AAC use is littered with similar experiences about the difficulty in getting kids who use AAC to generalize their skills beyond certain isolated activities or communication partners. There is even evidence to suggest that most AAC devices are abandoned within their first year of use.
While working for a medium sized school district I was supported in exploring the current research regarding this issue. I was encouraged to evaluate the effectiveness of various speech-language pathology k-12 service delivery models, while considering the population I was serving. At that time, I was mainly serving students who spent the majority of their day in a self-contained classrooms, referred to as life skills or functional life skills classrooms. Based on our research, myself and several other SLPs decided to launch a pilot project. There were several aspects to the pilot, but in terms of service delivery, we decided to concentrate on building relationships with our teachers and teaching assistants using classroom based services that included team teaching and one teach, one watch (Flynn, 2010).
These classroom based service models were initially met by classroom special education teachers with fear. Change is hard. But, what this model offered was "in the moment" modeling, coaching and discussions with the student, teacher and teaching assistants on how to best facilitate communication and integrate the student's AAC devices into all aspects of their day.
Using these models takes time. Time to develop trust and relationships with other professionals. I believe my successes have far outweighed my failures to date. Since implementing this model, I have not gone back to pull-out services. In my experience, the "one person is an expert" model did not work. Successful AAC use is a group effort and the responsibilities must be shared among participants.
I create weekly lessons using some specialized software and technology as well as "mainstream" technology. Please check out my section: K-12 activities that get kids communicating!
Communication Rocks!
Robin
Flynn, P. (2010). New Service Delivery Models: Connecting SLPs with Teachers and Curriculum. The ASHA Leader.
While working for a medium sized school district I was supported in exploring the current research regarding this issue. I was encouraged to evaluate the effectiveness of various speech-language pathology k-12 service delivery models, while considering the population I was serving. At that time, I was mainly serving students who spent the majority of their day in a self-contained classrooms, referred to as life skills or functional life skills classrooms. Based on our research, myself and several other SLPs decided to launch a pilot project. There were several aspects to the pilot, but in terms of service delivery, we decided to concentrate on building relationships with our teachers and teaching assistants using classroom based services that included team teaching and one teach, one watch (Flynn, 2010).
These classroom based service models were initially met by classroom special education teachers with fear. Change is hard. But, what this model offered was "in the moment" modeling, coaching and discussions with the student, teacher and teaching assistants on how to best facilitate communication and integrate the student's AAC devices into all aspects of their day.
Using these models takes time. Time to develop trust and relationships with other professionals. I believe my successes have far outweighed my failures to date. Since implementing this model, I have not gone back to pull-out services. In my experience, the "one person is an expert" model did not work. Successful AAC use is a group effort and the responsibilities must be shared among participants.
I create weekly lessons using some specialized software and technology as well as "mainstream" technology. Please check out my section: K-12 activities that get kids communicating!
Communication Rocks!
Robin
Flynn, P. (2010). New Service Delivery Models: Connecting SLPs with Teachers and Curriculum. The ASHA Leader.