Speech & Language

Goal

The Communication Department at Lake Drive School has three central purposes:

• To guide each child to develop effective communication skills.
• To support the development of English language learning as the central tool for the development of literacy.
• To provide direct intervention in order to build the foundation for academic achievement.

Program

Speech, language and listening intervention provided regularly for every student.

• Individual or small group instruction based on each student's IEP.

Planned Intervention

• Development of residual hearing
• Receptive and expressive language development
• Facilitate phonological/phonemic awareness and development
• Oral-motor development
• Development of oral speech production
• Development of cognitive/linguistic processes

Social Language Skills

• Self expression
• Interpersonal relationships
• Conflict resolution

Staff

• Highly trained, licensed and clinically certified speech/language specialists
  • Specialized training in hearing loss
    • Listening and Spoken Language
    • Total Communication
• We have one full time and one part time certified Listening and Spoken Language Specialists (LSLS) on staff
• We have two full time staff members with First Years Certification of Completion in Listening and Spoken Language
• We have two full time staff members trained in Orton-Gillingham Instruction
• Training in Auditory Verbal therapy strategies and techniques
• Training in PROMPT technique
• Training in Cued Speech
• Skilled in Apraxia Intervention

Collaborative Intervention Model

• Classroom teachers
• Physical therapists
• Mental health staff
• Occupational therapists
• Parents
• Social workers
• Administration

Listening and Spoken Language Specialists (LSLS) implement Auditory Verbal Therapy which employs techniques and strategies promoting the acquisition of spoken language and literacy through listening. Results of early diagnosis as well as the advancement in hearing technologies such as cochlear implantation, digital hearing aids, and integrated FM systems have given children with hearing loss the opportunity to develop spoken language, acquire advanced listening skills and succeed in mainstream educational environments. Students are taught to use their amplification and residual hearing to maximize their capacity to process verbal language and communicate using speech.

Listening and Spoken Language Specialists guide families to help their children develop spoken language through listening. The child's parent or primary caregiver is a crucial component in the intervention process, which follows developmental models of audition, speech, language, cognition and communication. High expectations are maintained in listening, spoken language, literacy and independence so that students with hearing loss have many educational, social and vocational options in life.

We have two certified LSLS professionals on staff:

• Carla M. Dorsey, MA CCC/SLP LSLS Cert. AVT
• Cassie Oakes, MA CCC/SLP LSLS Cert. AVT

Our Listening and Spoken Language Specialists work closely with parents, teachers and audiologists to ensure that listening and spoken language is developed to each child's optimal potential.

Click here to visit the website for the Listening and Spoken Language Center - Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.