22 Speech or Language Impairment
This section includes the IDEA definition of the disability from federal law, along with specific information about eligibility criteria in Virginia. In addition, there is information about the prevalence, causes, and characteristics of this disability, along with specific strategies and accommodations that can meet the needs of students with this disability.
IDEA Definition
Speech or language impairment means a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
Eligibility Criteria
VDOE Supplemental Guidance for Evaluation and Eligibility Virginia-specific guidance document that includes sample eligibility checklist (Refer to Table of Contents pages 2-4 and click on page number for disability category)
Advocacy organizations
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) – This advocacy organization provides a variety of information around hearing impairment:
- ASHA advocated for Cognitive Rehabilitation legislation in Texas and for essential coverage of habilitation and rehabilitation in DC;
- ASHA Talking Points for Applied Behavior Analysis
A list of speech language and swallowing websites with support groups/advocacy
ABOUT speech or language impairment
Prevalence
- 5-10% Americans in the US have a communication disorder (Ruben, 2000).
- 1 in 12 (7.7%) U.S. children ages 3-17 has had a disorder related to voice, speech, language, or swallowing in the past 12 months.
- 34% of children ages 3-10 have multiple communication and/or swallowing disorders.
- 25.4% of those ages 11-17 have multiple disorders (Black et al., 2015).
Visit the US Department of Education’s Open Data Platform to access IDEA Child Count Data by disability category, age, and other demographic and special education variables.
Causes
Causes vary based on diagnosis (i.e. aphasia, apraxia, autism spectrum disorder, cleft lip & palate, fluency disorder, social communication disorders, expressive/receptive language disorder, articulation delay or disorder). A resource to look at each of these individually with the definitions, incidence/prevalence, signs/symptoms, causes and additional resources is the Practice Portal and Clinical Topics developed by the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA).
Characteristics
Characteristics vary based on diagnosis (i.e. aphasia, apraxia, autism spectrum disorder, cleft lip & palate, fluency disorder, social communication disorders, expressive/receptive language disorder, articulation delay or disorder). A resource to look at each of these individually with the definitions, incidence/prevalence, signs/symptoms, causes and additional resources is the Practice Portal and Clinical Topics developed by the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA).
instructional strategies
Instructional strategies that are effective for all children are also effective for children with communication delays and disorders including:
- Spark interest in the topic first
- Measurable, behavioral objective of the lesson related to the SOL and/or IEP goals
- Link new knowledge to prior knowledge
- Development of vocabulary BEFORE, during, and after the lesson (pre-teaching)
- Instructional sequence = logical steps that include modeling
- Opportunities for guided practice
- Independent practice
- Evaluation format that is used to assess mastery of the concept Immediate corrective feedback
- Conclude with summary of the concept
- Frequent review
- Build background knowledge (group sharing of experiences, family involvement, field trips, videos, direct and explicit instruction, hands-on activities, role-play)
accommodations / modifications
resources
- Speech_Language Impairment – This PowerPoint slide deck provides basic information about speech and language impairment.
