1. Guidance to Support SLD Listening Comprehension and Oral Expression
SLD Executive Leadership Committee Presentation
IASEA Conference
March 2012
Rich

2. SLD Executive Leadership Work Team
Lisa Carriere, Vallivue
Stephanie Dahlke, Oneida
Kim Graham, Bonneville
Sue Shelton, Post Falls
Marnie Schell, Boise
Carol Treat, Post Falls
Gina Hopper, SESTA
Rich

3. To review guidance documents to explain the context of the design.
To provide the field with guidance to support the field’s work related to eligibility for Language Impairment or determining SLD with Oral Expression and Listening Comprehension.
To review guidance documents to explain the context of the design.
To have a Q/A format to have questions addressed from the team.
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4. Stephanie

5. Glossary of New Terms
Auditory Processing: The ability to perceive, analyze, synthesize, and discriminate auditory stimuli such as speech.
Crystallized Intelligence: The knowledge and skills that are accumulated over a lifetime. This type of intelligence tends to increase with age.
Expressive Language (Oral Expression): The ability to express wants and needs or thoughts and ideas in a number of different modalities such as speech, sign or writing.
Carol:
The Glossary of Terms identifies terms related to Language Impairment and Specific Learning Disability in Oral Expression or Listening Comprehension.
Many terms are identical to the glossary in the current Idaho Special Education Manual (Revised 2009).
The first two terms relate to psychological processes that would be part of the SLD report when looking at strengths and weaknesses in the student’s psychological processes.
Oral Expression is a part of Expressive Language.
Only the new terms have been highlighted in this presentation.

6. Language difference: When the primary language is not English.
Language delay: The failure to develop language on the usual developmental timetable. This refers specifically to a delay in the development of the underlying knowledge of language.
Language difference: When the primary language is not English.
Language disorder: Disorder that involves the processing of linguistic information involving grammar, semantics, or other aspects of language and may be receptive, expressive or a combination of both.
Carol:
The team felt it was important to note the definitions of these concepts to distinguish the differences in these terms.

7. Progress monitoring: A scientifically based practice that is used to periodically assess students’ academic performance and evaluate the effectiveness of instruction at regular intervals.
Psychological processes: Brain processes, operations, and functions used any time mental contents are operated on or when information is perceived, transformed, manipulated, stored, retrieved, or expressed.
Receptive Language (Listening Comprehension): The comprehension of language – listening and understanding what is communicated. It involves being attentive to what is said, the ability to comprehend the message, the speed of processing the message, and concentrating on the message.
Progress monitoring is part of the RTI process and an important component of the SLD report.
The new SLD criteria requires that we look at a child’s psychological processes rather than a full scale intelligence score.
Receptive Language and Listening Comprehension are both the comprehension of language.

8. Specific learning disability in Listening Comprehension: Student does not make sufficient progress in response to interventions in listening comprehension combined with low achievement in listening comprehension, as well as, a pattern of strength and weaknesses in psychological processes that closely relate to listening comprehension (receptive language).
Specific learning disability in Oral Expression: Student does not make sufficient progress in response to interventions in oral expression combined with low achievement in oral expression, as well as, a pattern of strength and weaknesses in psychological processes that closely relate to oral expression (expressive language).
Verbal Comprehension: The ability to understand language through the receptive mode.
The definitions of SLD in Listening Comprehension and Oral Expression require that the student does not make sufficient progress in response to interventions in those areas, low achievement in those areas AND a pattern of strength and weaknesses in the psychological processes that closely relate to those areas.
Psychological processes that closely relate to Listening Comprehension are: Auditory Processing, Short-term Memory, Crystallized Intelligence, Fluid Intelligence, and Attention
Psychological processes that closely relate to Oral Expression are: Working Memory, Crystallized Intelligence, Fluid Intelligence

9. Shared Roles and Responsibilities
General Education Teachers
Special Education Teachers
Speech-Language Pathologists
School Psychologists
Administrators
Assist in selection of universal screening measures.
Serve as a member of intervention assistance teams.
Assist in assessing the need for a student to receive intervention in the area(s) of oral expression and/or listening comprehension.
Participate in the development and implementation of progress monitoring systems.
Participate in the analysis of student outcomes and interpret results of screening and progress monitoring to families.
Consult and collaborate with school personnel and parents to meet the needs of students in the implementation of the RtI model and subsequent evaluations if needed.
Take advantage of continuing educational opportunities.
LISA: Some roles and responsibilities overlap. While the SLP’s input on the choice of interventions and progress monitoring for oral expression and listening comprehension may be weighted heavily, the implementation and completion of the interventions and progress monitoring will not be the sole responsibility of the SLP.

10. Roles and Responsibilities: General Education Teachers
Tier 1:
Teach with awareness of the language demands for oral expression and listening comprehension embedded within the curriculum.
Consider the impact of cultural, linguistic, and economic diversity and make appropriate accommodations.
Perform ongoing curriculum-based data collection and analysis aligned with progress monitoring and common core state standards.
Make the initial contact with families when concerns about oral expression or listening comprehension arise.
Refer to the SLP for possible language screenings that could be completed
Actively identify and address barriers to learning and make appropriate adaptations/modifications as possible.
Engage in ongoing collaboration to address small group and individual student needs.
Consult with other professionals and parents regarding early intervention activities in the classroom and at home.
Tier 2:
Identify, implement, document, and analyze evidence-based interventions.
LISA:
Listening skills are the hidden curriculum. Teachers need to be aware of and understand the language demands of their curriculum. (i.e., vocabulary complexity, sentence complexity, use of concepts, number of steps to follow in spoken or written directions, etc.). Both a language impairment and a specific learning disability are not the direct result of environmental, cultural, limited English proficiency, or economic disadvantage. Teachers need to make the initial contact with parent able to explain their concerns with a child’s oral expression and/or listening comprehension. The teacher is the school’s closest link between the child’s home life and the school’s resources for supporting diversity and overcoming disadvantage.

11. Roles and Responsibilities: Special Education Teachers
Become familiar with the language demands of the general education curriculum at each grade level.
Assist in assessing the need for a student to receive an intervention in the area(s) of Oral Expression and/or Listening Comprehension.
Utilize their expertise in identifying a student with a learning disability to advise intervention assistance teams.
Observe students in the instructional environment in order to help identify appropriate intervention strategies and accommodations, to identify barriers to intervention, and to help collect and analyze response to intervention data.
Support colleagues through mentoring and close collaboration to provide consistency in documenting interventions and outcomes.
LISA:
Children with SLD-OE/LC will likely have academic deficits as well. Special educators need to be able to explain how a language learning disability can impact reading comprehension and to compare/contrast a learning disability in reading or math from a language learning disability. Special educators, in collaboration with the SLP, can consult to assist general educators with the gathering of data that will be needed for a referral to special education and for completing sections A, B, and C (as well as F, if the student has been identified as LEP) on the SLD eligibility form.

12. Roles and Responsibilities: Speech-Language Pathologists
Become familiar with general curricular goals and academic benchmarks, having an idea of the language demands of the curriculum at each grade level.
Assist in assessing the need for a student to receive an intervention in the area(s) of Oral Expression (OE) and/or Listening Comprehension (LC), utilizing their expertise in language, its disorders, and treatment to advise intervention assistance teams.
Observe students in the instructional environment in order to help identify appropriate intervention strategies and accommodations, to identify barriers to intervention, and to collect response to intervention data. Please consider: Is attention a factor in the student’s ability to listen and comprehend the core instruction?
Consult and collaborate with school personnel and parents to offer prevention activities and/or to meet the needs of students in the implementation of RTI model and subsequent evaluations, if needed.
Evaluate the student’s relevant environmental, cultural, linguistic, and economic status and the impact of these factors on learning before a student is referred to special education.
Know how to differentiate and explain the difference between SLD-OE/LC and Language Impairment (LI).
LISA:
The SLP should be seen as an integral member of a problem-solving team at both the pre-referral and referral stage when a learning disability is suspected. Because it would be impossible to differentiate a possible SLD-OE/LC from LI at the pre-referral stage, the SLP will have a new role in advising intervention assistance teams on designing appropriate interventions and progress monitoring for language. The SLP should not be solely responsible for carrying out all interventions and collecting PM data, but rather serve as a consultant and trainer to the team.

13. Roles and Responsibilities: School Psychologists
Engage in ongoing communication and consultation with administration, teachers, and parents.
Identify systemic patterns of student need (e.g., persistent difficulties among kindergarten and first grade students in basic phonics skills).
Assist in assessing the need for a student to receive an intervention in the area(s) of Oral Expression and/or Listening Comprehension.
Use expertise in the area of specific learning disabilities and psychological processes to advise intervention assistance teams.
Observe students in the instructional environment in order to help identify appropriate intervention strategies and accommodations, to identify barriers to intervention, and to collect response to intervention data. Please consider: Is attention a factor in the student’s ability to listen and comprehend the core instruction?
Evaluate the student’s relevant environmental, cultural, linguistic, and economic history and status and the impact of these factors on learning before a student is referred to special education.
Evaluate the student’s cognitive functioning and the psychological processes that relate to oral expression and listening comprehension.
LISA:
Psychologists are also seen as active members of the RtI team.

14. Roles and Responsibilities: Administrators
Provide opportunities and resources for continuing education and training in RtI, SLD, Oral Expression and Listening Comprehension.
Provide support for progress monitoring individual students.
Enforce policies and procedures for referrals and for tracking struggling students.
LISA:
The support of the administrators helps the whole process run smoothly.

15. More Information on Roles and Responsibilities in the RtI Process
The website also included roles and responsibilities for reading/literary coaches, parents and families, and social workers.
Sources included:
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)
Division for Learning Disabilities (DLD)
International Dyslexia Association (IDA)
International Reading Association (IRA)
Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA)
National Association of School Psychologists (NASP)
National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD)
National Education Association (NEA)
School Social Work Association of America (SSWAA)
LISA:

16. Interventions -Oral Expression & Listening Comprehension Social Language Development
Teach the student to turn to a partner for a content-related conversation.
Teach the student to stay on topic of conversation and/or discussion.
Teach the student to follow rules for asking questions in class (i.e. raising their hand).
Teach the student to resolve conflicts by talking to peers.
MARNIE:
If you look through the handout you’ll see a range of examples that might be used depending on the student and their needs. The examples on the slide relate to Social Language Development and would require explicit teaching instruction for the student to learn the skill but all require either a listening comprehension or oral expression skill.
The typical question that is often asked is “Who” will be doing these interventions? It will depend on the student and their needs. It may make sense for a general education teacher to implement a simple intervention with the SLP’s guidance. There would be other students whose needs require more intensive intervention with the expertise of an SLP. The team will determine who makes the most sense to intervene with a particular student.
Refer to the sample guidance list.

17. Progress Monitoring Oral Expression & Listening Comprehension
Formal Progress Monitoring
Informal Progress Monitoring
Developmental Stages
Common Core Standards – Future Progress Monitoring
MARNIE:
We’ve figured out the actual skill deficit of the student either listening comprehension and/or oral expression and identified the intervention and who will be implementing the intervention. Now comes the progress monitoring. We still want to know if they are making progress.
Progress monitoring for Oral Expression and Listening Comprehension will look different than what we use for the academic skills. Currently there are many options for teachers when a student has an academic difficulty. Teachers can use AIMSweb, easycbm, cbmfocus, to compare against a norm sample.
There are limited progress monitoring tools for oral expression and listening comprehension. We’ve outlined some options to consider – Refer to Handout on Progress Monitoring. The handout describes in more detail a few of these tools – we are not saying one is better than the other – it would be up to each professional and team to decide what is needed and how they will progress monitor.

18. Formal Progress Monitoring MARNIE:
I am going to go through the forma progress monitoring and touch on a few basic points with each. Many of your SLPs may be already using some of these tools.
The first one Narrative Language Measures for School Age is a product developed by Language Dynamics Group. It is free and on-line and can be used for clinical/educational purposes. There are two subtests that use the same 25 stories
NLM:SA Test of Narrative Retell (TNR) subtest includes real time scoring procedures for efficient administration and scoring. Graphing children’s performance on a line graph will display their progress or lack of progress over time.
It is important for children to be able to tell parents about their day or report a conflict to a teacher. Personal narrative skills help children engage socially with their peers, which facilitates further language practice. The Test of Personal Generation was developed to meet this need.
The NLM:SA story structure is based on Stein and Glenn (1979) story grammar. Story structure tends to increase in complexity as language develops so kids learn certain elements over time. By the time children are in the later elementary grades, they are typically able to produce all the main story structure elements found on the NLM:SA TNR Scoring Form.
Edmonton Narrative Norms Instrument - The student tells a story about a picture. Again this is a free on-line system for educational purposes. Even though there are norms for each identified category listed it is a very small norming sample and in Canada.
The TNL-Pr by Gilliam & Gillam (2010) is used to measure story elements and literate language (adverbs, noun phrase elaboration, conjunctions, etc.) with school-age children during narrative production tasks. This could be a tool where the student is progress monitored against themselves and/or local or school norms could be developed.
The Mindwing’s Data Collection & Progress Monitoring is starting to be used by several SLPs in the valley. It is a product to purchase but is likely more used as a therapy tool than for progress monitoring. The student’s progress can be compared against themselves but there are no norms.

19. Other Progress Monitoring
Informal Progress Monitoring
Developmental Stages
Common Core Standards
(Speaking & Listening Standards)
The standards require that students gain, evaluate, and present increasingly complex information, ideas, and evidence through listening and speaking as well as through media.
An important focus of the speaking and listening standards is academic discussion in one-on-one, small-group, and whole-class settings. Formal presentations are one important way such talk occurs, but so is the more informal discussion that takes place as students collaborate to answer questions, build understanding, and solve problems.
The Speaking and Listening Standards require students to develop a range of broadly useful oral communication and interpersonal skills. Students must learn to work together, express and listen carefully to ideas, integrate information from oral, visual, quantitative, and media sources, evaluate what they hear, use media and visual displays strategically to help achieve communicative purposes, and adapt speech to context and task
MARNIE:
The informal progress monitoring will look very similar to IEP goals and how you are measuring them. There is not a normative comparison – you would compare the student against themselves. On the handout you’ll see these are samples of ideas and SLP’s would be able to figure out what is needed for each student to determine progress. You can see that it is not as clear cut as we are used to with the other progress monitoring systems we have that help us establish a goal and tell us what percentile the student is functioning at based on the grade level norm sample.
Brown’s Developmental Stages is based on Roger Brown’s research where he described 5 Sequential Stages for normal expressive language development. This would be considered a norm reference as the research indicates all students would reach these stages. This would be helpful to determine what students have met Brown’s Stages of Language. Stage 5 is at 52+ months so a student at 5 or 6 years should be expressing themselves in at least 4 words. Using the Brown’s Stages becomes difficult if students are older. There are also typical language developmental milestones that ASHA references.
Developing interventions and progress monitoring will make more sense when the Common Core Standards are implemented and we can look at Speaking and Listening Standards. Consistent standards will provide appropriate benchmarks for all students, regardless of where they live.
Go over this only if needed….
These standards define the knowledge and skills students should have within their K-12 education careers so that they will graduate high school able to succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing academic college courses and in workforce training programs. The standards:
Are aligned with college and work expectations; Are clear, understandable and consistent; Include rigorous content and application of knowledge through high-order skills; Build upon strengths and lessons of current state standards; Are informed by other top performing countries, so that all students are prepared to succeed in our global economy and society; and Are evidence-based.
Speaking and Listening: The standards require that students gain, evaluate, and present increasingly complex information, ideas, and evidence through listening and speaking as well as through media.
An important focus of the speaking and listening standards is academic discussion in one-on-one, small-group, and whole-class settings. Formal presentations are one important way such talk occurs, but so is the more informal discussion that takes place as students collaborate to answer questions, build understanding, and solve problems.
Speaking and Listening: Flexible communication and collaboration
**Including but not limited to skills necessary for formal presentations, the Speaking and Listening standards require students to develop a range of broadly useful oral communication and interpersonal skills. Students must learn to work together, express and listen carefully to ideas, integrate information from oral, visual, quantitative, and media sources, evaluate what they hear, use media and visual displays strategically to help achieve communicative purposes, and adapt speech to context and task. These standards relate back to the examples on Social Language that I shared on the first slide.

20. Individual Evaluation Planning Form
Demographics
Description and Areas of Concern(s): Oral Expression and/or Listening Comprehension
Evaluation includes assessments (New or Existing) and evaluation tools/tests for the areas of:
Language
Achievement
Psychological Processes
Observation
Developmental, Health and Medical
Additional Measures
(**Complete Referral and Consent for Assessment Forms - Provide parents with Procedural Safeguards)
SUE:
This is an optional planning form to assist in the process of identifying if a student has a SLD in OE and/or LC and may or may not need Language as a related service or has a Language Impairment. Begin with the Demographics and then Describe the Concern and Identify if OE and/or LC. Collect information in the areas listed.

21. Individual Evaluation Planning Form
Preponderance of Evidence
Evaluation meets the procedures outlined in Chapter 4, Section 5 of Idaho Special Education Manual 2007, Revised 2009
Evidence of low academic achievement as demonstrated by two subtests
Evidence of insufficient progress in response to effective, evidence-based instruction/intervention
Pattern of psychological processing strengths and weaknesses that align to area of low academic achievement (OE or LI)
SUE:
Collect evidence and Look at the Results. Is there evidence to support the following:

22. Individual Evaluation Planning Form
Student’s learning difficulty is not primarily the result of:
A visual, hearing, or motor impairment
Cognitive impairment
Emotional disturbance
Environmental or economic disadvantage
Cultural factors
Limited English Proficiency
Scores 1.5 standard deviations or more below the mean, or at or below the 7th percentile, on a standardized measure in either receptive or expressive language.
At least two procedures, at least one of which yields a standard score, are used to assess receptive language and/or expressive language.
SUE:

23. Individual Evaluation Planning Form
Adverse Effect
Specially Designed instruction
Summary of Results: The student does or does not meet eligibility criteria for special education in the area(s) of:
SLD-Oral Expression (OE)
SLD-Listening Comprehension (LC)
SLD-OE & LC
Language Impaired
SLD (OE &/or LC) and Language as a related service
(Complete Eligibility Report for Specific Learning Disability or Language Impaired)
SUE:
Is there an adverse effect and does the student need SDI. Does the student meet eligibility criteria for SPED in one of the following:
NOTE:
Refer audience to flowchart to make the connections.

24. Sample Eligibility
See handout
STEPHANIE:

25. Sample IEP Goals
See handout
KIM:

26. Special Education Statewide Technical Assistance (SESTA)
Center for School Improvement & Policy Studies, BSU
Gina Hopper Katie Bubak
Director Statewide Coordinator
Calendar
PBIS
Mentor Network
Statewide Special Education Training
Provide Technical Assistiance for Statewide Initiatives.

27. www.idahotc.com Training and Technology for Today’s Tomorrow
Supported By:
Idaho State Department of Education (ISDE), Special Education
Project Team:
Cari Murphy
Shawn Wright
Website to link school professionals and parents with special education training opportunities and resources across the state

28. Contact Information:
Please write your questions for this presentation on the SLD FAQ page found on the Idaho Training Clearinghouse at…