In order to qualify for speech services, a student's communication disorder must have an adverse impact on his or her educational performance. This means, the student's difficulty with communicating must get in the way of his or her ability to succeed in the classroom.
Areas of qualification for speech services:
Articulation
How the student forms speech. If a student's speech is difficult to understand because speech sounds aren't formed correctly or sounds are substituted or omitted, he or she could be referred for speech. Difficulty with articulation can impact reading and writing skills.
Receptive Language
How the student understands language. Difficulty understanding language could lead to problems with reading comprehension and following directions.
Expressive Language
What the student is able to say; how he or she expresses himself verbally. Expressive language skills include grammar, vocabulary, and content. Difficulty with deficient or delayed expressive language impacts a student's ability to tell others what he or she needs or wants, his or her ideas, thoughts, and feelings. He or she may have trouble sequencing steps or retelling a story. This could also cause difficulty with writing and expanding ideas on paper.
Fluency
The smoothness of the student's speech. Everyone has difficulty talking sometimes or gets stuck on a word. Very disfluent student's have a hard time saying words smoothly. This is commonly known as stuttering.
Voice Disorders
The quality of a student's voice. This is more than just the volume of his or her speech. A student with a voice disorder may sound hyponasal (stuffy nose), hypernasal (too much air coming out of the nose), hoarse, have issues due to a cleft palate or problems with their vocal cords. Generally, students must have a medical diagnosis to determine why their vocal quality is affected before a speech therapist will be able to help.
Areas of qualification for speech services:
Articulation
How the student forms speech. If a student's speech is difficult to understand because speech sounds aren't formed correctly or sounds are substituted or omitted, he or she could be referred for speech. Difficulty with articulation can impact reading and writing skills.
Receptive Language
How the student understands language. Difficulty understanding language could lead to problems with reading comprehension and following directions.
Expressive Language
What the student is able to say; how he or she expresses himself verbally. Expressive language skills include grammar, vocabulary, and content. Difficulty with deficient or delayed expressive language impacts a student's ability to tell others what he or she needs or wants, his or her ideas, thoughts, and feelings. He or she may have trouble sequencing steps or retelling a story. This could also cause difficulty with writing and expanding ideas on paper.
Fluency
The smoothness of the student's speech. Everyone has difficulty talking sometimes or gets stuck on a word. Very disfluent student's have a hard time saying words smoothly. This is commonly known as stuttering.
Voice Disorders
The quality of a student's voice. This is more than just the volume of his or her speech. A student with a voice disorder may sound hyponasal (stuffy nose), hypernasal (too much air coming out of the nose), hoarse, have issues due to a cleft palate or problems with their vocal cords. Generally, students must have a medical diagnosis to determine why their vocal quality is affected before a speech therapist will be able to help.