A survey of reading teachers (Watson et al., 2020)

Purpose: This study investigated reading teachers’ (RTs) views of speech-language pathologists’ (SLPs) abilities to provide services for clients who have written language disorders. Previous research has shown SLPs often do not provide such services due to time constraints, lack of training, and their perception that other school personnel are more qualified. However, little is known about RTs’ views of SLPs’ abilities to provide reading/writing intervention.

Method: Three hundred twenty-three RTs responded to a survey designed to determine their perceptions and experiences of SLPs providing services to children with written language difficulties. Respondents were from all regions of the United States.

Results: Approximately 80% of the respondents supported the idea of SLPs providing written language intervention services, with 69% recognizing that there was an evidence base for such intervention. However, many RTs registered some disagreement that SLPs had sufficient training to provide written language instruction and may lack knowledge of the curriculum. These results also identified factors that SLPs wishing to be involved in literacy instruction may need to address including administrative support, involvement in school-wide literacy learning decisions, and participation in professional development opportunities on literacy instruction.

Conclusion: These results indicated that RTs may be supportive of SLPs addressing the written language needs of the students they serve. Although written language intervention is within SLPs’ scope of practice, SLPs currently practicing in school settings may need to advocate for themselves to actively be involved in written language instruction.

Supplemental Materials. Survey sent to reading teacher participants.

Watson, M., O'Keefe, C., Wallace, A., & Terrell, P. (2021). A survey of reading teachers: Collaboration with speech-language pathologists. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 5(1), 304-313. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_PERSP-19-00006