What is the Role of the Speech-Language Pathologist at E.C. Stevens School?
Speech and language pathologists have extensive training in many specific areas, including phonological development and disorders and language acquisition and related disorders. We are trained in the specific communication areas of articulation, voice, stuttering, hearing impairment and auditory processing. Because our field is extremely dynamic, we frequently attend conferences to keep abreast of changes in both special education and in our specialized field. In addition to servicing special education students, we also play a role in supporting regular education students who are having academic or speech related difficulties in the classroom. Due to our specific training in phoneme acquisition, we may provide support for students who display weak phonological awareness skills in kindergarten and first grade. Research continues to show that phonological awareness is essential in learning to read. More than two decades of this research has concluded that phonological awareness is a pote