Faye Friedman has been practicing as a certified, licensed speech and language pathologist since 1991. She specializes in working with children in grades K-12, and has developed expertise in the area of language and literacy. She is a certified provider for several reading programs such as Fast ForWord, Phonographix, Lindamood Bell (V&V and LiPs) and Read Naturally. Faye has worked with a range of students with disabilities, including those with autism and motor coordination disorder. She was the Educational Director for the Weinberg Academy for four years and is currently Program Director for SHEMESH, the organization that Hidden Sparks partners with in Baltimore.
This session will be a facilitated discussion to construct and deepen our understanding of language collaboratively. After the facilitated discussion, you can stay on to discuss students you have been observing, especially if they seem to have strengths or struggles having to do with language (time permitting).
PREPARATION MATERIAL & OPTIONS
For each Webchat, there are 3 levels of preparation: 1) Short prep (up to 45 min.), 2) Medium prep (up to 3 hours), 3) Long prep (over 3 hours). Choose the preparation level that corresponds to the amount of time you can spend on learning before the WebChat.
These webpages review the need to combat negative stereotypes, characteristics of children with language and communication disorders, implications for their social and emotional well being, ways for teachers to address the needs of students with both expressive and receptive language disorders, differentiating instruction and assessment. Please consider the following questions:
- What are some characteristics present in the student with a language and communication disorder that impact academic performance? Think about ways that a teacher might observe these characteristics.
- What is the relationship between a language and communication disorder and deficits in social interaction, cognitive functioning and/or behavior? How does this relationship manifest itself in the classroom?
- What are some ways that teachers can support students with language and communication disorders to succeed in the classroom?
“Implications in the Classroom” Speech and Language Disorders (Reading, Web)
In this chapter Dr. Levine explains the “language of language” we can use to describe what we observe of students’ receptive and expressive language strengths and challenges. Please consider the following questions:
- What advantage might a teacher have in understanding the normal and dysfunctional developmental patterns of language in school children? How might this advantage be applied in the classroom?
- Think of a student that you know with a receptive language disorder. Use Table 5-2 on page 151 to generate a description of the student’s strengths and weaknesses.
- Reflect on the three major areas of language production: word usage, sentence formulation and narrative and expository skill. Think about how deficits in each of these areas may present themselves in a preschooler, early and late elementary school age child, middle school and high school student, then identify how those deficits might impact academic performance.
“Language” Chapter 5 in Developmental Variation and Learning Disorders by Dr. Melvin D. Levine (Reading)
PDF pp. 140 – 186
Please complete the short and medium preparations.