The “New Role” of the School Speech-Language Pathologist!

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (www.asha.org) represents school speech-langauge pathologists in the formulation of public policy among other things. It has now published  an update of “Roles and Responsibilities of the Speech-Language Pathologist in Schools (2010).”  At first glance, it appears to be a transition document.  It moves beyond the outdated year 2000 version, and points toward future [...]

Rosa’s Law (S.2781) and Speech-Language Pathology

All Voices, Local to Global News,  reported on Oct 12, 2010, on the adoption of Rosa’s Law, a federal law changing  the public use of Mental Retardation “…to “intellectual disability” in all federal statutes.”  The Marcellino family did not agree to have their child labeled mentally retarded.  Brother Nick testified: ‘ ”We’re not allowed to use the words at my house, it [...]

Speech Pathology Caseload Headaches and Money

Without a union, school speech-language pathologists have been struggling on their own to get states to adopt caseload size standards with modest success.  Hence they have been left to ask for more help from administrators who have many personnel requests and budget problems.   Now in February 2011 we see nationwide budget cuts in schools [...]

School Speech Pathology Blogs

Blogs allow SLP writers to express personal views derived from all kinds of sources including experience.  Especially important are grassroots blogs from the people who work in schools. Eric Sailer has been a continuing interest in school issues, with a growing interest in technology: Speech/Language Pathology Sharing: Eric Sailer’s Blog The Online Education Data Base (February, 2011) lists top SLP sites: [...]

Superintendents, Money, Special Education and SLPs

Public policy in education – from federal to state to LEAs — revolves around money.  Superintendent are the chief administrators.   Some facts come to light because of school board meetings, and negotiations with local unions.  However, much of it is secretive for many reason, including personnel privacy and employee sensitivities.   Since 2008, the pressure is [...]

School Speech Pathology Caseload Size and Money!

In 2008 came the big economic crash in the U. S.  Prior to that, school SLPs complained about having large caseloads and the “burnout” problem.  Across the country it seems caseloads were 35% over what they should have been.  Advocates said SLPs needed to fight for caseload controls state-by-state.  All this was true. Come 2o11, [...]

Money and Speech-Lanaguage Pathology in Schools

A theme running throughout education at all levels, federal to LEAs, is the role of money in shaping school policy and decision-making.  One visitor to SSP asked a provocative question:  ”Is a school district speech pathologist a waste of money?” Taken seriously, there are so many facets to the question.  It is hard to start to [...]

Impact of School Speech Therapy on Pupil Achievement

One of our themes at SSP is that school speech-language pathologists along with other specialists do not consider among their special education placement criteria the potential of negative impact on long-term academic success.  It seems routine.  He or she has an “artic problem” so give the test and make the placement.  All seems innocent.  However, [...]

Education Reform and Speech-Language Pathology

Efforts to Reform No Child Left Behind are Moving Forward.   We hope high school graduation becomes a key target, not paperwork compliance.  We hope more innovation comes to keep at risk speech and language children ouf ot special education in the first place, letting them receive forward thinking response to intervention programs instead. We hope speech-language pathologists [...]

School “Speech-Language Pathology” vs. “Speech Therapy”

As we have pointed out in a prior post, more often web authors use “speech therapy” to refer to speech-language pathology.   The following search hit rates were presented: Speech therapy—–8,320,000 Speech pathology—–1,222,000 Speech-language pathology—–943,000 Speech therapy reflects medical- diagnostic and programmatic thinking rather than scientific.  The speech therapy era effectively ended in 1960 when the field of communication disorders experienced a [...]