In a recent post I wrote about my work as a secondary SLP (check it out here). In that post I talked about how I primarily serve students through inclusive services. I do this for a variety of reasons that I won’t get into now, but here is some information I stumbled upon this past week that talks more about what inclusive practices look like (found in the ASHA Leader February 2014):

http://leader.pubs.asha.org/Article.aspx?articleid=1830636#.Uw0k-NbehWA.email

I really can’t say it better than Ms. Dixon does in this article. Basically, it’s not a one size fits all approach. Personally, I’ve had the most success using the supplemental teaching method working in conjunction with resource teachers – but I’ve been heavily advocating to my principal that we need time to collaborate together so we can deliver some team teaching lessons.

If you want more info on this topic, I found this Considerations Packet that has lots of good info and resources for implementing inclusive practices. As a school based speech language pathologist, I feel like I am uniquely set up to deliver inclusive services within the classroom (the place where kids spend the vast majority of their day).

Some of the benefits I see everyday include:

– increased student motivation (once students hit middle school, they hate anything that might mark them as “Different” so pull out is a no go)

– increased teacher carry over of what I’m doing: I LOVE when teachers ask me for my materials OR when they hand me materials they know I will be interested in

– teachers in my schools KNOW WHAT I DO!!!!!

– goal writing has become so much more collaborative between myself and teachers  (with a focus on goals that address the curriculum)

– students are making progress (even students that aren’t on my caseload)

Is anyone else using inclusive practices? How’s it going?