General Instructional Guidelines
Communication Overview
Research has shown that standardized, formal assessment does not accurately reflect the scope of communicative strengths, abilities, and needs of students with Developmental Cognitive Disabilities (DCD). Age equivalent scores do not adequately aid staff in meaningful intervention strategies. The purpose of these guidelines is to support classroom staff in using an integrated model of intervention to develop student's communication and language skills. Authentic interaction and life skills are promoted when a more descriptive, strengths -based profile for students with DCD is used in educational programming.
The purpose of these resources are to serve as a useful tool for staff to use within the educational teaming process:
- Assess and document the student's strengths, skills, interests, and needs so they can create a more holistic student communication profile and then share this comprehensive information with the students' parents, caregivers and service providers.
These resources support an intervention model where the Communication Disorders Specialist works with students and classroom staff in the everyday activities that make-up their school day, addressing IEP goals in the natural learning contexts.
Speech, language, and communication developmental stages are currently not addressed in these resources. Educational teams can consult with their speech and language specialist for this information.