Alyssa and John partnered with Andrea Bertone to write a paper describing how SLPs can use an inclusive mindset to create educationally relevant IEPs. We interviewed SLPs from Wisconsin to learn their approach to inclusive practice. Inclusive practice, sometimes called “push-in” or classroom-based service, requires SLPs to have strong collaboration with other educators and understand the school context. In this paper, freely available on our site, we used quotes from the SLPs to show how they navigate inclusive practice to serve their students.
An Inclusive Mindset helps SLPs to understand present levels of functioning
“Sometimes I’ll have kids that can do things on a standardized test but are not necessarily carrying it over. Or, they’re not answering questions on a standardized test, so I will focus on how they do it functionally. I use a lot of observation and parent and teacher interviews to see where their challenges are.“
An Inclusive Mindset helps SLPs determine the effects of a disability on academic achievement and functional performance
“I know turn taking happens all throughout the school day. I know that kids are required to answer inferential questions that are not directly from the text. I know kids have to be able to advocate for themselves if they don’t know how to do something. I know kids are going to be required to problem solve. Those are huge markers of their day.”
An Inclusive Mindset helps to develop goals that align with curricular and participation needs
“So, one of the [special education] teachers and I are big fans of our social language curriculum, so we have been using that specifically with one student and it was really beneficial. I would do things from the eyes of an SLP, and she would do it more from the eyes of a special education teacher. When you get those partnerships going, students benefit greatly.“
Inclusive Practice takes work, but can have a big impact
“Teachers are starting to take more initiative with our kids with special needs. I think before it was more like these are the special ed teacher’s students or these are your students, these are not my students, so that’s been a huge takeaway, and again there’s teachers who do it more than others, but I think all are learning.“