Mrs. Addington’s Speech-Language Intervention Program at Warner Elementary

Traditional Therapy Sessions:

During speech-language therapy sessions, I provide a variety of experiences that are meaningful and provide the students with opportunities to develop vocabulary, grammar, social skills, and appropriate speaking patterns. I use a variety of children’s literacy, exploration activities, music, art activities, games, and practice activities to help students develop oral communication skills. To the casual observer, the activities seem like fun and games; however, these are used as the basis for getting the child to participate and practice their oral communication skills.

Non-Traditional Therapy Sessions:

Fast Speech: Instead of traditional speech therapy where the child receives services in a small group setting, I have implemented an intensive program where the student is seen for five minute individual sessions several times each week. This program is mainly for students who are close to dismissal or for students who have been in speech for several years and/or are making limited progress towards their goals. The program is clinically proven to remediate speech sound errors in a shorter amount of time. The daily short session promotes carry-over and generalization. It also dramatically decreases the amount of time the student is away from the regular classroom and also provides 1:1 instruction. We had great success with this program at Warner last year.

Collaboration: I have provided collaborative services at Warner for many years. When I visit a classroom, I use the same types of experiences I would use in my small group therapy sessions. The difference between small group and collaboration is that these activities are designed to help students carry over communication skills. These sessions also provide intervention for students who may need a little assistance but don’t need therapeutic services and assist teachers in developing teaching strategies to improve oral communication skills in their students.

First Grade Tiered Intervention/Collaboration: A new program I am developing with some of our first grade teachers is a combination of Fast Speech and Collaboration. In these first grade rooms, a 15 minute speech-language therapy session will be provided four days per week. Whole group instruction in sound awareness and vocabulary (pre-reading skills) will be integrated with the speech-language goals of students who receive services during three of the sessions. One classroom visit will be devoted to providing a short burst of individual practice for speech-language students. Students who receive services in this fashion will have increased exposure to their communication objectives, which will build carry-over and will provide all the benefits of collaboration listed above. This program will serve as a universal intervention that correlates with Tiers I & II of Jessamine County’s Pyramid of Interventions for struggling students.