One of the major themes of the WisCCA project is documenting the educational impact of a student’s communication disability. The guidance is clear – IDEA requires that we document and serve the educational impact of a disability for a student to be eligible for services. Further, we must know the nature of the educational impact to design IEPs that improve access and functioning within school environments.
For students with speech and language skills that are significantly below their peers, can’t we just assume that their academic and social functioning will be impacted? If students have a smaller vocabulary, won’t they have difficulty explaining concepts to their teachers and peers? If students have difficulty comprehending complex sentences, won’t they have difficulty understanding teachers’ instructions and comprehending their science texts? If students are not very intelligible, won’t they have difficulty expressing their needs and desires to their peers and teachers?
Many studies have shown that language disorders, phonological disorders, and other communication disorders significantly impact children’s day-to-day functioning. Looking at children with different communication needs as a whole, we see worse grades and more social difficulties when compared to groups of children without communication needs.
A recent study out of Boys Town National Research Hospital provided more detailed summary of the impact of a language disorder on children’s participation in day-to-day activities (citation below – paper is free to access on the ASHA site). Each child completed a norm-referenced language assessment and the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale – 3. The Vineland asks caregivers to report on different aspects of daily functioning, such as interpersonal relationships, play and leisure, coping skills. The results were fascinating:
- Children with language disorders, as a group, had weaknesses in communication, interpersonal relationships, and academics
- They had relative strengths in domestic and personal aspects of daily living, play, coping, and gross motor skill
- The impact on academics, socialization, and community involvement varied widely between children with language disorders
- The level of impact on functioning was not related to scores on norm-referenced tests. Some children with higher test scores had low day-to-day functioning. Some children with lower test scores had good reports of day-to-day functioning
This study has major implications for SLPs working in the schools. Certainly, we need to make sure that students who qualify for services have significantly impaired speech and language functioning, and norm-referenced tests can help with that. However, in order to truly see the educational impact of an impairment, we need to rely on our more descriptive, authentic, academic, and functional assessment tools.
McGregor, K. K., Ohlmann, N., Eden, N., Arbisi-Kelm, T., & Young, A. (2023). Abilities and disabilities among children with developmental language disorder. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_LSHSS-22-00070