The role of the speech and language therapist in the education of children with special educational needs

Abstract

ABSTRACT An overall aim of the study is to identify effective forms of collaboration between speech and language therapists, teachers and parents in Scotland. The study seeks to define and clarify the roles and responsibilities of speech and language therapists, teaching staff and parents in facilitating the development of speech, language and communication in children and young people with language and communication difficulties. In particular, the contribution of speech and language therapists to educational programmes is investigated. The focus is on children with significant levels of need but not exclusively those with a Record of Needs. The project employs both quantitative and qualitative methods. Visits have been made to a variety of educational locations and in‐depth interviews were carried out with speech and language therapists and teaching staff. National surveys were conducted through postal questionnaires to speech and language therapists, speech and language therapy managers, teachers, advisers in special educational needs, educational psychologists, and parents. Different questionnaires were designed to elicit information specific to each group. Questionnaire returns were received from: 381 (>80%) of speech and language therapists with children on their caseload; 41 speech and language therapy managers (two outstanding); over 800 teachers from 415 schools (mainstream and special); 17 advisers in special educational needs (11 outstanding; and 11 principal educational psychologists (21 outstanding). However, since the analysis of the data is in process, this paper will focus on data collected from 47 interviews carried out during the Autumn term 1994 in five special schools and five mainstream schools located in six Scottish regions. Intervews have allowed the identification of certain elements that may enable effective speech and language therapist/teacher collaboration, these include: working together with individuals or groups of children; joint planning of classroom activities; speech and language therapist input to educational programmes; curricular influences on speech and language therapy programmes; time spent in sharing information, planning and assessment; speech and language therapists and teachers attending training sessions jointly; share framework for the integration of language and communication into the curriculum; formal remit for speech and language therapists to work within the context of educational programmes. At this stage in our research, we are not able to draw the full implications for policy development. However, we shall discuss those strategies which are being employed successfully to promote collaboration and its effectiveness in these 10 schools. The project is commissioned and funded by the Scottish Office Education Department