Speech & Language Therapy
Our NW BOCES speech-language pathologists (SLPs) provide a breadth of services to all of our member district schools. They are involved in the screening, evaluation, intervention, and often case management for students with communication concerns. SLPs develop appropriate individualized programs of therapy to meet individual needs of students with speech and language impairments, which might be delivered in an individual, small group or consultative setting.
Speech-language pathology assistants provide services to students with communication challenges in some schools under the supervision of an SLP.
The SLPs support the multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) process including ongoing education for families, teachers and staff regarding typical communication development, as well as assisting with the creation of progress monitoring systems. Our SLPs regularly assist with training and developing interventions for teachers and specialists to use in their classrooms or in smaller groups.
SLPs work with students with concerns in the following areas:
- Articulation
- Expressive language
- Receptive language
- Pragmatic language
- Stuttering or fluency
- Voice
NW BOCES SLPs are also actively involved in the implementation of augmentative and alternative communication systems (AAC), as well as the diagnosis and treatment of speech-language impairments with culturally and linguistically diverse students.
The overall goal of the speech/language pathologist is to provide support to the students and fellow educators in all education settings, and provide research-based interventions that maximize a student’s ability to be academically successful in all educational settings.
Resources
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)-ASHA is the professional, scientific, and credentialing association for 135,000 members and affiliates who are audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists. This website has information for the public as well as the professionals about all the different speech and language disorders.
Colorado Department of Education (CDE)- Clicking here will take you to CDE's "Speech or Language Impairment" page where you will find a wealth of information about speech language therapy in Colorado schools.