Purpose: Print knowledge is a powerful predictor of later reading abilities, which are crucial to children's academic success. Children with speech sound disorders (SSDs) are at risk for literacy difficulties. Speech sound therapy is an opportune time to address not only speech sound production but also the connections between speech sounds and…

Background: Person-centred care (PCC) has shown positive effects in various health-care settings and therefore is desirable in clinical work. However, as PCC is still being developed, the literature reflects a heterogeneous use of both terminology and conceptualisation. This lack of consistency hinders the implementation or adaptation of PCC in…

Purpose: The present study aims to evaluate the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of a novel multi-tiered narrative intervention program--the multimodal narrative (MMN) program--in Catalan that was co-created to boost preschool children's narrative and pragmatic skills. Method: First, we describe here in detail the novel program, which…

Background: Key Word Signing (KWS) is one system that can be used to support the communication needs of children with Down syndrome (DS) who attend mainstream school. The success of KWS in schools is mediated by staff experiences and perceptions of KWS. The current study is one of the first to explore KWS use in mainstream schools. Aims: To…

Background: Debilitating speech and communication changes in Parkinson's disease (PD) lead to diminished quality of life for people with PD and their communication partners. Maintenance of the long-term effects of treatment such as LSVT LOUD® remains equivocal. Development of supported long-term maintenance programs is warranted. Aims: This…

Purpose: The impact of stuttering can be significant, and effective treatment is critical. Despite evidence supporting direct treatment approaches for school-age children who stutter, a complex set of barriers can prevent access at school. One potential solution is telepractice. To date, however, there is no published evidence regarding the use of…

Students diagnosed with specific learning disabilities, autism, or emotional disturbance may also receive speech-language services as part of their individual education program. This article focuses on the use of telepractice for providing speech-language services in schools. The benefits of telepractice are described, including the accessibility,…

"Augmentative and alternative communication" (AAC) refers to a wide variety of communication devices, systems, tools, and strategies that support or replace spoken language. Augmentative and alternative communication users represent a range of ages, abilities, and communication needs. Support for AAC often begins in the public school…

This paper describes a voice therapy program for adolescent vocal abusers that utilizes a varying signal-to-noise ratio to deal with varying environmental noises. The 10-session program teaches vocal abusers to maintain an appropriate fundamental frequency and vocal intensity in their speaking voice. (Author/JDD)

Parents of 12 preschool children with delayed phonological development were taught to model, reinforce, and in other ways teach their children speech production skills. The speech production skills of experimental subjects improved significantly compared to a period of no intervention and to a contrast group receiving no intervention. (Author/JDD)

This article describes ideas for using administrators to facilitate the change to a collaborative consultative model and offers some thoughts on initiation of the model. (Author/JDD)

The role of the speech-language pathologist (SLP) has developed considerably over the last 10 years given the medical and technological advances in life-sustaining procedures. Over time, children born with congenital, surgical, or "medically fragile" conditions have become mainstreamed into regular school-based settings, thus extending…

The Language Resource Room Level of Service is a model developed by the Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) School District to provide intensive speech-language services for children with moderate to severe speech-language disorders, in the least restrictive setting. The speech-language pathologist assumes the roles of coteacher, consultant, and direct…

This article describes experiences encountered in making the transition from a traditional pull-out treatment approach for students with speech-language impairments to a collaborative-consultative model. The two factors identified as key to the success of the program were flexibility and perseverance. (Author/JDD)

This technical assistance document discusses retraining of speech-language personnel and formulating and implementing programs to comply with federal legislation. It addresses priorities in the use of qualified personnel to provide services in schools, planning and implementing of statewide retraining, approaches to retraining to meet the highest…