Identifying students with speech-language disorders in New York City Jewish day schools
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Abstract
Speech and language skills are the foundation for success at school and employment. Developing speech and language skills is an extraordinarily complex process that children experience. Research has shown that children who enter school with strong speech-language (SL) skills will exhibit strong academic and nonacademic behaviors that are associated with their educational success (Rosenbaum & Simon, 2016). A noteworthy minority of children experience difficulties in the attainment of SL skills therefore requiring SL services to overcome those challenges. This study examines how Jewish day schools in New York City identify students with SL disorder to determine eligibility for students to receive SL services. It incorporates mixed-methodology research that explores the different approaches in which different schools incorporate in order to complete the identification process. The important idea of mixed methods research studies is that the use of quantitative and qualitative research approaches in combination may offer an enhanced understanding of research problems and multifaceted phenomena rather than each approach offers independently (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007). Quantitative data was gathered using a survey created in Qualtrics which is a digital tool used for survey collection. Seventy-six participants responded to the 19-question survey. Qualitative data was gathered using an amalgamation of structured and open-ended questions from participants. The results suggested that Jewish day school teachers often identify children with difficulties such as forming language, expressing language, understanding language, pronouncing sounds/words and/or using language appropriately in social situations. They also tend to report, in order of frequency, that they would alert an administrator, would alert special education staff, would do a further assessment, or contact the parent if a teacher determines that a student may have SL difficulties. Teachers indicated that they tended to rarely use formal assessments but were somewhat more likely to use informal assessments. Finally, although many teachers tended to feel that they could identify and refer students for SL evaluations, they often did not feel supported or given resources they needed for these students. Further research is needed to understand how Jewish day schools can implement changes that would best serve the needs of children with SL disorders.