An Evaluation of the Factors that Influence the Amount of Time and Place of Service Provision in the Schools

The purpose of this study was to examine factors impacting the amount of time and place school-based Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) provided speech and language intervention. A national survey completed by 1,897 school SLPs indicated that students with severe and moderate disabilities participated in intervention 2-3 times a week for 20-30 minutes in groups outside the classroom. Students with the least severe disability were provided therapy once a week for 20-30 minutes in groups outside the classroom. Analysis using multinomial logistic regression indicated the amount of time was impacted by the SLP's caseload size, their year of graduation and the number of years worked in the schools. For place, the SLP's caseload size and clinical training experiences influenced their selection. These findings suggest that workplace and SLP characteristics impact SLP decisions; whereas, child characteristics did not differentiate time and place of services. Implications for training programs and future research are discussed

The Effects of Fast ForWord Language on the Phonemic Awareness and Reading Skills of School-Age Children With Language Impairments and Poor Reading Skills

Purpose—To examine the efficacy of Fast For-Word Language (FFW-L) and 2 other interventions for improving the phonemic awareness and reading skills of children with specific language impairment with concurrent poor reading skills. Method—A total of 103 children (age 6;0 to 8;11 [years;months]) with language impairment and poor reading skills participated. The children received either FFW-L computerized intervention, a computer-assisted language intervention (CALI), an individualized language intervention (ILI), or an attention control (AC) computer program. Results—The children in the FFW-L, CALI, and ILI conditions made significantly greater gains in blending sounds in words compared with the AC group at immediate posttest. Long-term gains 6 months after treatment were not significant but yielded a medium effect size for blending sounds in words. None of the interventions led to significant changes in reading skills. Conclusion—The improvement in phonemic awareness, but not reading, in the FFW-L, CALI, and ILI interventions limits their use with children who have language impairment and poor reading skills. Similar results across treatment conditions suggest that acoustically modified speech was not a necessary component for improving phonemic awareness