Chapter 14 Readers of this chapter will be able to do the following: 1. State a rationale for providing treatment for communication disorders in secondary school students. 2. List the appropriate products of intervention at the secondary school stage. 3. Describe a range of intervention methods for working with students at the advanced language stage. 4. Describe connections among oral language, learning, and literacy at the secondary level. 5. Discuss the appropriate contexts for intervention at the secondary school level. 6. Discuss the process of transition planning for students over the age of 14. 7. List appropriate goals and procedures for secondary age students with severe communication disorders. 8. List methods of improving social communication skills for speakers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It is fair to ask what benefit can be provided to an adolescent like Michael who has received services throughout his school career and will never be “cured” of his disability. Wouldn’t he do just as well if left alone to do his best to get through high school without lavishing additional expensive services on him that will probably not make a great deal of difference in his final status at the end of his school years? Although the question is legitimate, there are good reasons for continuing to provide services to adolescents in advanced language stages. Larson and McKinley (2003a) and Nippold (2010) summarized them: 1. The ante is continually “upped” as the student proceeds through the secondary grades. Even if intervention allowed students to function in mainstream settings in elementary school, the more intense demands of the secondary curriculum can often cause students who could “make it” in earlier grades to sink beneath their weight, creating the “porpoise kid” phenomenon (Launer, 1993). The transition from one educational setting to another and from school to work or higher education also places stressful requirements on the shaky communication skills of adolescents with language learning disorders (LLD). Students may need special services in secondary school to allow them to maintain the same level of performance in these new high-demand settings that they were able to achieve in earlier grades. 2. A transition from concrete to formal operational thinking that typically takes place during adolescence is necessary to succeed in the secondary school curriculum. The level of abstract thinking and language use required at this level may not be accessible without support for students with disabilities. The speech-language pathologist (SLP) can provide important linguistic scaffolding to this new level of thinking. 3. Administrators often ask whether the communication needs of students with LLD cannot be managed in the context of the mainstream language arts curriculum, again questioning the need for special services. Here it is important to remember that only academic communication needs are stressed in these settings. Communication skills needed for interaction and functional communication for vocational and independent-living environments are only addressed through services delivered by an SLP, and instruction in these areas is mandated by the 1997 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). 4. Communication programs targeted for adolescents pay off in terms of reduced dropout rates (Larson & McKinley, 2003a). Kaufman, Kwan, Kline, and Chapman (2000) and Rukeyser (1988) have documented that every potential dropout who stays in school saves taxpayers money—in terms of the costs of adult literacy programs, welfare, basic job training, and incarceration—that would have to be spent later if the student dropped out of school. Language services can make the difference for students at risk for leaving school without graduating.
Intervention for advanced language
Issues in intervention at the advanced language stage
Rationale for services to adolescents
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Michael had been diagnosed with autism when he was 3. At that time, he was not talking at all, was withdrawn and preoccupied with spinning things. He received intervention throughout his preschool years, and by the time he was 6, he was speaking in full sentences. IQ testing at that time showed that his nonverbal IQ was in the superior range. He was able to draw complex, scaled drawings of buildings and memorize train and airplane timetables. He was placed in mainstream classrooms and received supportive services throughout elementary school. Consultative services were provided to his teachers in middle school, to help them adapt their programs to his communicative abilities. He always did well in math and science. His vocabulary was enormous, as one of his hobbies was reading the dictionary. But he had trouble with subjects such as English, history, and geography that required any kind of social understanding. He was perplexed by the feelings described in the literature he read for English class and had a great deal of difficulty understanding the plots of stories. He had a hard time getting along with others, too. Although he no longer spent hours spinning objects, he continued to be preoccupied with his obsessive interests of drawing, map reading, timetables, and dictionary reading. All of his attempts at conversation with peers, teachers, or family centered on these subjects, and he seemed both mystified by and uninterested in conversations about anything else. Despite his obvious talents in architectural drawing and his superior memory, Michael was unable to use his abilities in a functional way, always falling back into his preoccupations. As he entered high school, his family’s concern about his future increased, and they requested an assessment of his current educational needs, so that some intervention to improve his functional skills could go on during his last years in school.
