Report Writing Tips for Speech Language Pathologists

Report Writing Tipsfor Speech Language Pathologists Christy Weddington, M.S. CCC-SLP c-weddington@hotmail.com

Purpose of an FIE • To identify if a child has a communication disorder • Articulation, Voice, Fluency, Language • By reason of the disorder/disability, the child needs special education and related services • Based on the student’s current levels of performance

Address vs. Assess • IDEA requires that a Full & Individual Evaluation ‘address’ all areas as denoted in the federal and state regulations: • Health • Vision • Hearing • Social/Emotional Status • General Intelligence • Academic Performance • Communicative Status • Motor Abilities • You only need to ‘assess’ in the area of suspected disability

Communicative Status • Report the reason for the referral. This will help determine which area(s) need to be addresses and which ones need to be ‘assessed’. • Describe the student’s level of proficiency in the home language and second language. Use information from LPAC committee, parent information, and teacher information. Sometimes Student information is useful as well. • Describe the student’s level of mode of communication such as verbal, non-verbal, ASL, etc.

Communicative Status:Standardized Testing Do not to use standard scores as a ‘cut off’ for determination of a disorder! Careful reporting standard scores for CLD populations. If the test was not normed on the child’s native language, then standard scores cannot be used. Description of strengths & weaknesses should be provided instead.

Communicative Status:Standardized Testing • You should describe the child’s performance on the test and how it relates to educational performance • Examples: • “Johnny was able to identify pictures of common nouns but struggled with identifying actions on the picture vocabulary section.” • “Johnny was able to use simple sentences during the Formulated Sentences subtest but had difficulty combining sentences using conjunctions such as ‘and, but, or’. “ • Too many people describe the test and not the child! • Summarize each test administered to indicate whether there is a concern.

Informal Assessments • Observation of a student is not considered an informal assessment. • Informal assessments should include how the assessment was conducted and how it was interpreted • Example: • “A probe of 10 antonyms was developed using grade level vocabulary taken from ___ ISD’s Scope and Sequence. The student was given 3 multiple choice answers. Criteria was set to 70% as passing (no concern) which is similar to ____ ISD’s grading policy on similar tests.”

Summary & Conclusions Build a case in your summary as to ‘why’ the child has a disorder or doesn’t…not just that they do. Report the conclusive findings. Parents and other professionals need to have a clear picture of whether the child has a disorder or not.

Example of Summary & Conclusion • Example: • “Classroom teacher did not report any concerns with oral language skills but did have concerns with Johnny’s speech sounds primarily of /k/ and /g/. Teacher is concerned that his speech sound errors are impacting his writing. Parent reported similar concerns with Johnny’s speech. Standardized testing supported these concerns and his performance indicated atypical productions for his age and compared to his peers. Based on the data collected, it appears that Johnny demonstrates an articulation disorder. This disorder impacts his functional performance of communicating effectively in the classroom as well as his educational performance.”

Recommendations • Recommendations to the ARD Committee for consideration of eligibility can be made. Careful not to state that they ‘meet eligibility criteria’. That is an ARD committee decision. • Example: “Johnny demonstrates an articulation disorder that adversely affects his educational and functional performance in school. Therefore, he meets federal, state, and _____ ISD’s guidelines as Speech Impaired. It is recommended that the ARD committee consider eligibility for SI at this time.”

Recommendations • Include in recommendations: • Service Delivery Type for Speech • “Direct services are recommended on a weekly basis” • Areas of specific weakness to target in therapy • “Student needs support with formulating compound sentences using coordinating conjunctions (and, but or).” • “Target phonological processes including fronting, stopping, and final consonant deletion” • Specific strategies and accommodations • “Teachers should utilize graphic organizers to develop vocabulary”

Recommendations:Three Questions of Eligibility • Some school districts include the three stages of Eligibility in their report in the Recommendations section or in the Summary/Conclusion section 1. Is there a communication disorder present? • Does this communication disorder significantly impact the functional and academic performance of the student? • Are the direct services of a Speech Pathologist needed in order for the student to make progress in his/her curricular setting? • This allows the ARD Committee to consider all three questions and the professional recommendation of the speech pathologist.

Three Questions of EligibilityFor Speech Only Example of Separating the Questions: In order for the ARD Committee to consider eligibility as Speech Impaired, the following questions must be answered in the affirmative: • Is there a communication disorder present? “Yes. Johnny currently demonstrates an articulation disorder. His errors of /k/ and /g/ are atypical productions for his age” • Does this communication disorder significantly impact the functional and academic performance of the student? “Yes. His articulation errors appear to impact his writing as he phonetically spells out words. Teacher also has difficulty understanding his requests in the classroom setting.” • Are the direct services of a Speech Pathologist needed in order to for the student to make progress in his/her curricular setting?“Yes. The direct services of a speech pathologist are required to remediate the articulation disorder. Weekly direct services with the student is recommended to target the errored sounds in isolation, words, sentences, and conversation.”

Three Questions of Eligibility For Language with Other Disabilities EXAMPLE 1 – Doesn’t Need Speech: “When looking at Jane's overall developmental areas including cognitive, self-help, communication, and socialization, her language delays are commensurate with her other developmental abilities rather than a specific language disorder that is impacting those developmental areas. Jane may always demonstrate delays in language/communication due to cognitive deficits. However, her current levels of performance for communication are a strength for her. Jane’s communication is considered functional in her current academic placement and allows her to have access to the curriculum. Therefore, direct services of a speech pathologist are not needed at this time. Language development can be adequately addressed through her special education curriculum and programming.”

Three Questions of Eligibility For Language with Other Disabilities Example 2 – Needs Speech: “Based on the data collected, Jane continues to demonstrate a disorder in functional communication skills and articulation. Her developmental communication skills are similar to that of a 2-3 year old. Although her communication skills are commensurate with her cognitive functioning, further skills need to be developed in the area of semantics, syntax, pragmatics, and articulation at this time. These areas would be best addressed by a speech pathologist in addition to the classroom teacher. Based on the data collected, Jane currently meets ____ ISD guidelines for Speech Impaired. Direct and/or collaborative speech therapy services are recommended at this time. As her skills develop, the service delivery model of speech therapy should be reconsidered as functional skills become more independent.”

Three Questions of Eligibility For Language with Other Disabilities Johnny’s language skills are currently at a reflexive/reactive level and as such, are not having an adverse affect on Johnny's academic achievement or functional performance; rather, lack of functional communication skills reflect Johnny’s current developmental levels, including the vision and motor skills he needs to learn in order to establish pre-linguistic language skills (e.g., development of purposeful looking, motor movements and vocalizations). Therefore, Johnny DOES NOT MEET eligibility guidelines as a child demonstrating a Speech Impairment (SI) at this time. An IEP that focuses on pre-linguistic skills development (e.g., signals involving looking, vocalizing and body movement) while also developing Johnny's functional vision and motor skills is recommended. As an IEP of this type can be implemented by the classroom teacher, direct speech therapy services are not indicated at this time. A speech-language consultation should, however, be considered at least annually to address whether speech therapy services are needed as a part of Johnny’s specially designed instruction in the future.”

More Tips • Use key words such as: • Reported • Informed • Appear • Displays • Demonstrates • At this time • Concern/no concern • Guidelines vs. criteria

Resources / Links • Legal Framework • www.esc18.net/framework • Texas Speech and Hearing Association – Eligibility Guidelines • www.txsha.org

Questions / Comments

Report Writing Tips for Speech Language Pathologists