1. Specific Language Impairment in the Regular Classroom
By: Katie Lovelady

2. Specific Language Impairment
Official definition of Specific Language Impairment provided by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Specific Language Disorder (SLI) is a language disorder not caused by any other known underlying neurological, cognitive, emotional or sensory disorder, such as Down Syndrome, Autism or Hearing Impairment. Also referred to as: speech delay, language delay, developmental language disorder, persistent language impairment

3. What is Specific Language Impairment (SLI)?
Type of speech, language, and communication disorder
Main area of difficulty is talking and understanding language
Most common childhood learning disability
More common in males than females

4. How do we know which child has SLI?

5. About SLI
The real problem with distinguishing children who have SLI from other normal learning children is that SLI children are usually as able and healthy as other children with the exception of enormous difficulty talking and understanding language.
Children with SLI all have very individual cases.
Some cases are very mild and short-lived, while others are severe and persistent.
Most children with SLI are labeled as students with “behavior problems” or students who “do not try.”

6. Children with SLI may show the following signs:
Have difficulty saying what they want to, even though they have ideas
Talk in sentences, but be difficult to understand
Find it difficult to understand words and long instructions
Develop behavior problems
Show difficulty learning to read and spell

7. Statistics show…
Studies have shown that in students of 5 years old, SLI affects about 2 children in every classroom (about 7%).
It is more common in girls than boys.

8. What is Your Part?
It is often difficult to remember that students with SLI are as their classmates.
As professional educators, it our responsibility to act as advocates for children with SLI, doing everything in our power to make their learning experiences meaningful.

9. Be Proactive in Your Classroom
Provide a variety of visual support systems to help with understanding
Timetables on the wall, targets shown on the whiteboard, picture cards and wordbooks
Present your information in a variety of ways
Include the use of real objects, practical activities, pictures, and videos

10. Be Proactive in Your Classroom
Lesson plans that include explicit opportunities to build speaking and listening skills for all children
Incorporate therapy goals for individual students
Present directions and instructions in a variety of ways and allow time for students to process them
Have a Speech Language Pathologist speak to the classroom staff
Explain SLI and what it means for a child in your school

11. Make Adjustments When Necessary
A part of being proactive when teaching in classrooms with children with SLI is the ability to make adjustments when the needs arise.
Areas where adjustments can be made are as follows:
Planning
Teaching
Assessment
Environment
Resources

12. Adjustments in Planning
Plan with others
speech language pathologists, AVTs, special education staff, year level teams and subject area teams to incorporate the priorities for the student
Consider the IEP as a way of prioritizing adjustments needed to access the curriculum
Example: communication goal
student to ask for help from peers as well as the teacher
Make instruction and activities multimodal
use as much visual and kinesthetic as possible

13. Adjustments in Planning
Directly teach routines and structures of the school and classroom.
Plan access to rewarding activities during the day.

14. Adjustments in Teaching
Use teamwork for task completion
Provide a range of responsibilities within the student team
Example: recorder, designer, store person, encourager, researcher, explainer and speaker
Provide an outline of what is to be learned
focus on key concepts
Teach use of organizers
color coding, pictorial labels, visual timetables and sequences, now/later charts.

15. Adjustments in Teaching
Reduce the amount and complexity of materials where appropriate
break into small, achievable steps.
Increase the opportunities to practice new skills and concepts
teaching younger child, demonstrating to other adults, practicing on the computer with a peer
Use available human resources
adults & peers
Provide additional modelling and concrete examples.

16. Adjustments in Teaching
Do not assume understanding of spoken instructions.
Teach the use of diaries and checklists to support sequencing and completing tasks.
Orient student to topic before commencing instruction.
Teach the vocabulary of instruction
draw, underline, circle, analyze, brainstorm, classify, compare

17. Adjustments in Assessment
Collect annotated work samples over time.
Use pictures to support text
diagrams, flow charts, and timelines
Use alternative communication system to demonstrate student learning
Clearly identify assessment goals before beginning a unit of work
Allow students some capacity to negotiate some aspects of criterion-based assessments

18. Adjustments in Environment
Reduce distractions
auditory, physical, movement
Provide space to enable flexible learning areas
focus activity, quiet and listening areas
Provide pictorial rule reminder charts, and book and storage labels
Provide space for students to work quietly with an adult volunteer or aide

19. Adjustments in Resources
Provide a range of source materials at various levels
readers, magazines, posters
Use computers to provide additional practice of concepts and skills
Create resources with symbol/visual support
using specialized software or digital photos
Use Assistive Technology
text to speech, word prediction, visual organizers etc.

20. References