Speech therapy caseloads can get into the triple digits in some school districts, reducing the amount of direct contact time each child gets with the speech-language pathologist and leading to burn out among professionals.
Why Does Treatment for Speech Sound Disorders Take SO Long
Articulation therapy has long been the bread and butter of the field of speech-language pathology. However, in recent years, more push has been given towards acknowledging that SLPs are more than 'just' speech teachers. Given the scope and breadth of SLP practice, language and literacy goals are often viewed as the front runners for functional impact areas of focus.
1. Speed progress by making every speech repetition high quality
Given the amount of repetition needed for motor learning for speech sounds, we want to make sure we’re not reinforcing incorrect movement patterns and making practice counter-productive.
2. Accelerate speech progress with frequent repetitions at home or outside of the session
After kids know how to produce the target sound accurately, the next step is to try and start chipping away at those repetitions.
3. Identify kids who aren’t making expected progress
If kids are able to produce a sound correctly with support and provided with enough opportunities to repeat the correct motor pattern, progress will follow.
4. Understand whether opportunities for repetition are adequate
Teaching correct movement for target sounds and selecting the correct level of appropriateness of stimuli is a skilled task that speech-language pathologists are trained to complete.
Conclusion
If an SLP’s caseload size prevents them from directly supervising 100 to 300 repetitions of a target sound weekly, then a home practice program must augment the direct time of the SLP for progress to occur.