Speech and Language Support

CIU 20 offers itinerant speech and language support services for school age speech and language impaired students. In order for students to receive speech and language support services in the public schools, they need to be diagnosed with a speech and language impairment that adversely affects their ability to participate and progress in the general education curriculum.

According to IDEA 2004, speech or language impairment means a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, language impairment, or a voice impairment, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Curriculum and Instruction

All speech and language services are designed to relate to and support students in their given curriculum which may include the general education curriculum, adapted general education curriculum and supplanted curriculums.

The speech and language support staff provide screening and diagnostic evaluations; develop appropriate programs to improve the child’s communication skills; instruct and consult with staff members and other persons involved with the child; counsel the child, families or individuals in procedures related to therapy; teach students compensatory strategies to improve communication needs; and support children who have disorders/delays with articulation, phonology, stuttering, voice and language.

Therapists are trained in:

Natural Environment Teaching – A method of generalizing a student’s skills to the natural environment. This approach takes advantage of all communicative opportunities throughout a student's day.
Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) – A system of exchanging a picture of a desired item to a communicative partner in exchange for that item.
The Eden Curriculum – A highly structured, data based method of teaching basic skills using the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis. This program is based on a Discrete Trial Training (DTT) format.
Language Facilitation – The use of models, cues, social scripts, prompts and other instructional strategies to improve and develop the student's vocabulary, sentence structure and social language skills.
Assistive Technology –Teaching the student how to use equipment or products to increase, maintain or improve the way he/she interacts with the world around him/her.