Variability in Interpreting “Educational Performance” for Children With Speech Sound Disorders

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 938-949 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Farquharson ◽  
Lisa Boldini

Purpose Speech sound disorders (SSDs) can have a negative impact on literacy development, social–emotional well-being, and participation across the life span. Despite this, many public schools do not provide appropriate or timely services to this population of children. In large part, this is a result of variation in how state and local agencies interpret “educational performance” as outlined within the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. The purpose of this study was to explore which educational performance factors speech-language pathologists (SLPs) consider when determining eligibility for children with SSDs. Method This study surveyed public school SLPs to investigate how educational performance is interpreted for children with SSDs. Data from 575 SLPs across the United States are included. Results Results supported variability in interpretation of educational performance within a nationwide sample of SLPs. Specifically, SLPs appear to consider educational performance as multidimensional. We also found within-state and between-states variability, indicating ambiguity in interpreting federal mandates. Finally, caseload size and number of years of experience were significantly related to which educational performance factors SLPs chose. Conclusion There is significant variability across the United States with respect to factors considered part of educational performance for children with SSD. This variability reflects the general quality and specificity of guidelines and/or special education code published by individual states. Clinical and legislative recommendations are included.

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly L. Storkel

Purpose The purpose of this clinical forum is to provide guidance on which children with speech sound disorders should qualify for services in the public schools. The articles in the forum consider how to define impaired articulation (viewed more broadly as referring to articulation and phonology), adverse effects, and educational performance. Conclusion The take-home message across articles is that determining eligibility for speech-language services is complex, requiring a comprehensive understanding of a child's skills with speech sounds but also the impact of their speech errors on written language and social–emotional well-being. These decisions cannot be made quickly with minimal information. Speech-language pathologists may need to advocate for a realistic allotment of time to conduct a comprehensive assessment, including time to think about the results and implications of that assessment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (05) ◽  
pp. 384-394
Author(s):  
Kelly Farquharson ◽  
Kaia L. Stevenson

AbstractNormative data concerning speech sound acquisition are widely and heavily used in the United States to determine eligibility for services. Normative studies differ in the age and geographic location of participants, which can limit applicability across the United States. In 2016, we queried school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in the United States using a web-based survey to determine which speech sound norms are used. Nine regions from the U.S. census were represented. The Iowa–Nebraska norms were most commonly reported. However, many SLPs were unable to name the source of the data that they used. More than 60% of the sample indicated that they referred to one source of normative data. Results of a logistic regression indicated that region of the United States predicted if SLPs used one or multiple sources. Specifically, SLPs in the West North Central region of the United States (which includes Iowa and Nebraska) were more likely to use only one source of data, the Iowa–Nebraska norms. We recommend that speech sound norms are less heavily relied upon for eligibility decisions, particularly due to the substantial variations in culture and dialect throughout the various regions of the United States.


2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 50-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Farquharson

Speech sound disorders are a complex and often persistent disorder in young children. For many children, therapy results in successful remediation of the errored productions as well as age-appropriate literacy and academic progress. However, for some children, while they may attain age-appropriate speech production skills, they later have academic difficulties. For SLPs in the public schools, these children present as challenging in terms of both continuing treatment as well as in terms of caseload management. What happens after dismissal? Have these children truly acquired adequate speech production skills? Do they have lingering language, literacy, and cognitive deficits? The purpose of this article is to describe the language, literacy, and cognitive features of a small group of children with remediated speech sound disorders compared to their typically developing peers.


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassidy Bibo ◽  
Julie Spencer-Rodgers ◽  
Benaissa Zarhbouch ◽  
Mostafa Bouanini ◽  
Kaiping Peng

Commonwealth ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennie Sweet-Cushman ◽  
Ashley Harden

For many families across Pennsylvania, child care is an ever-present concern. Since the 1970s, when Richard Nixon vetoed a national childcare program, child care has received little time in the policy spotlight. Instead, funding for child care in the United States now comes from a mixture of federal, state, and local programs that do not help all families. This article explores childcare options available to families in the state of Pennsylvania and highlights gaps in the current system. Specifically, we examine the state of child care available to families in the Commonwealth in terms of quality, accessibility, flexibility, and affordability. We also incorporate survey data from a nonrepresentative sample of registered Pennsylvania voters conducted by the Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics. As these results support the need for improvements in the current childcare system, we discuss recommendations for the future.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Rigoli

Research has shown that stress impacts on people’s religious beliefs. However, several aspects of this effect remain poorly understood, for example regarding the role of prior religiosity and stress-induced anxiety. This paper explores these aspects in the context of the recent coronavirus emergency. The latter has impacted dramatically on many people’s well-being; hence it can be considered a highly stressful event. Through online questionnaires administered to UK and USA citizens professing either Christian faith or no religion, this paper examines the impact of the coronavirus crisis upon common people’s religious beliefs. We found that, following the coronavirus emergency, strong believers reported higher confidence in their religious beliefs while non-believers reported increased scepticism towards religion. Moreover, for strong believers, higher anxiety elicited by the coronavirus threat was associated with increased strengthening of religious beliefs. Conversely, for non-believers, higher anxiety elicited by the coronavirus thereat was associated with increased scepticism towards religious beliefs. These observations are consistent with the notion that stress-induced anxiety enhances support for the ideology already embraced before a stressful event occurs. This study sheds light on the psychological and cultural implications of the coronavirus crisis, which represents one of the most serious health emergencies in recent times.


2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Jerald F. Dirks

Prior to the landmark Supreme Court decision of June 1963, which banned public prayer from the public schools, Christian religious education was often a routine part of the overt instruction provided by the American public school system. However, in the wake of that legal milestone, even though instruction in the Judeo-Christian interpretation of religious history continued to be taught covertly, American churches began relying more heavily on providing Christian religious education. This article briefly presents Christianity’s contemporary status in the United States and reviews such religious education methods as Sunday school, vacation Bible school, Christian youth groups, catechism, private Christian schools, Youth Sunday, and children’s sermons. The survey concludes with a look at the growing interface between such education and the lessons of psychology as well as training and certifying Christian religious educators.


2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-77
Author(s):  
Dale L. Flesher ◽  
Craig Foltin ◽  
Gary John Previts ◽  
Mary S. Stone

ABSTRACT Both the business media and the popular press have emphasized the underfunding problems associated with pension funds that are set aside for state and local government workers, a group that also includes teachers and professors at state-affiliated colleges and universities. The realization that pension funds are typically underfunded stems from the fact that the accounting standards associated with state and local government employee pension funds have led to greater transparency since 2011. This paper examines, explains, and interprets the historical development over the last 70 years of accounting standards for state and local government pension funds in the United States. Changing accounting standards, along with economic and social change, have led to consequences such as employers transforming their pension programs to avoid substantial costs and significant liabilities, for example by changing from defined benefit to defined contribution plans.


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