Serving children in schools who have speech and language impairments comes with great responsibility and planning. A student with an Individual Educational Plan (IEP) is being prepared for educational support to facilitate success in school for that year. Speech therapist implement the IEP speech goals. Most therapists experience how dynamic speech and language growth is as it is fostered and challenged by the ongoing learning needs. Despite the clinical features of the language impairment, students have to meet core educational standards. Students depend on acquiring communication skills that will serve their life long educational, vocational and social needs. Now more than ever, we are helping students meet a chameleon-economy and global vocational market. At times I felt enormous pressure to help students get everything they needed. Really, it’s impossible. I realized that children deserve the same steps of progression I had, regardless of ability. I can share that preparing the student for competence in literacy was a core goal. In fact there is evidence that supports reading interventions when teaching students with disabilities (Browder, 2006). My experience in the school setting informed the design and format of WORDStim, children’s version. Students are in store for fun with learning, literacy, speech workouts, and communication practice. While gathering speech and language samples, clinicians facilitate progress while implementing goals. Browder, D. M., Wakeman, S. Y., Spooner, F., Ahlgrim-Delzell, L., & Algozzinexya, B. (2006). Research on Reading Instruction for Individuals with Significant Cognitive Disabilities. Exceptional Children, 72 (4), 392–408.
Ayana Webb, speech pathologist and founder of WORDStim.
