Speech and Language Services

The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS)

A Semi-structured assessment of communication, social interaction, and play for individuals suspected of having autism or other pervasive developmental disorders.

Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) Evaluations, Consultations, and Integrations

CREC’s Speech/Language Pathologists, who specialize in alternative augmentative communication, will conduct trials of various strategies in the individual’s typical environment to determine the best AAC tools and strategies to facilitate increasing the individual’s communication skills. Training and job-embedded consultation to build capacity among district team members in AAC.

Communication is always happening. This means there are always opportunities for modeling AAC, interacting and building language. CREC’s Speech/Language Pathologist, who specialize in AAC, can assist the team in learning about and using strategies throughout the student’s day to facilitate the development of communication.

Social Communication

The members of our Speech Language Pathologist team have extensive experience evaluating and supporting students with social communication disorders from PK-age 21.

Speech-Language Consultation

Our Speech and Language Pathologists can provide consultation to a student's educational team on building capacity for programming to support an identified communication disorder that impacts social, emotional or academic progress.

Integrating Speech-Language Services into Daily Activities

Students who received a comprehensive classroom teacher and Speech Language Pathologist collaborative intervention program achieved higher scores in listening and writing, and higher abilities in understanding vocabulary when compared with control peers (Farber & Klein, 1999). Our CREC Speech Language Pathologist Team can provide coaching and technical assistance to teams that would like to develop an effective collaborative model.

Ecological Evaluations

A vital part of the structure of maintaining evidence-base practices in a school is through an ecological evaluation. Students eligible for special education may perform or behave well in some environments but have difficulty in others. An ecological assessment performed by the CREC Speech Language Pathologist Team will provide educational teams with data pertaining to student performance and function in different settings or environments.

Comprehensive Evaluations/Re-Evaluations

This evaluation includes standardized and informal tests as well as, when appropriate, play-based assessments addressing the student’s language comprehension, verbal and written expression, and nonverbal communication skills.

Executive-functioning skills

A Speech Language Pathologist’s intervention for executive functioning skills focuses primarily around the language aspects of the deficits. Higher level executive functioning skills involve meta-cognition – the process of “thinking about thinking”. These skills are language based, as they involve self-talk and language processing to monitor, plan, and execute actions.

Supporting Written Language

Speech Language Pathologist’s play a critical and direct role in the development of literacy for children and adolescents with communication disorders due to their expertise in language that applies to oral and written modalities. This expertise not only allows for addressing speaking and listening but also reading and writing deficits. Speech Language Pathologist’s contribute to the literacy efforts of a school district or community.

Phonological Processing and Phonemic Awareness

All three components of phonological processing are important for speech production as well as the development of spoken and written language skills.

Fluency

Speech Language Pathologist’s provide direct therapy for students exhibiting dysfluencies/stuttering, which impacts effective communication and participation during classroom activities, group tasks, as well as overall social interaction. Consultation is also provided to assist staff in extending the implementation of research-based strategies and techniques that have proven beneficial for individual students who stutter.

Staffing Services and Program Reviews

Direct services

Direct services can be provided to a district if their employed Speech Language Pathologist is out on leave or there is a vacancy that has not been filled.

Speech and Language Program Reviews and Independent Education Evaluations

CREC's program review experts analyze and assess specialized program efficiency and effectiveness. We provide evidence-based recommendations that address challenges, including curriculum and academic rigor, educational benefit, effective processes, organizational structure, professional development, and resource allocation.