Skip to main content
Main Menu Toggle
Special Programs » Speech & Language Team

Speech & Language Team

Speech-Language Resources, games, and activities

Welcome to our Speech & Language team!

Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs):

Tamara Beasley- Eastside Elementary School- K-2 & Millicoma School- Grades 3-6

Cynthia Voller -  Marshfield Junior High School - Grade 7 -8 & Marshfield High School- Grades 9-12

Lori Smith - Madison Elementary School- Grades K-2 & Sunset School- Grades 3-6

TBD - Evaluations, EEACE/EI, Destinations, AYA, Resource Link, Ranch, Autism

Speech-Language Pathology Assistants (SLPAs):

Wendy Farrell  – Millicoma & Eastside

Alicia Maggio – Madison & Sunset

*Students in private school will schedule with their home school for services.

All speech-language pathologists in our district are certified by their national organization, the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (AHSA).  They also hold a license through the Oregon State Board of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology.  Some SLPs additionally hold a teaching license through the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission.

Speech Language Pathologist Assistants (SLPAs):

All speech-language pathologist assistants (SLPAs) in our district hold a license through the Oregon State Board of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. They work under their supervising SLP as assigned. 

Roles and Responsibilities

https://www.asha.org/policy/PI2010-00317/#sec1.2

(extracted from the above website)

SLPs become key players in reform efforts in elementary and secondary schools by focusing on helping students with a wide range of speech–language-related problems to meet performance standards. Their work includes prevention, assessment, intervention, and program design efforts that are integrated within a school. The educational reform movement has ushered in a new era of accountability for student outcomes by all educators, thereby requiring a significant focus on data collection and analysis and compliance for the SLP.

Critical Roles — SLPs have integral roles in education and are essential members of school faculties.

  • Working Across All Levels — SLPs provide appropriate speech-language services in Pre-K, elementary, middle, junior high, and high schools with no school-level underserved. (Note: In some states infants and toddlers would be included in school services.)
  • Serving a Range of Disorders — As delineated in the ASHA Scope of Practice in Speech-Language Pathology and federal regulations, SLPs work with students exhibiting the full range of communication disorders, including those involving language, articulation (speech sound disorders), fluency, voice/resonance, and swallowing. Myriad etiologies may be involved.
  • Ensuring Educational Relevance — The litmus test for roles assumed by SLPs with students with disabilities is whether the disorder has an impact on the education of students. Therefore, SLPs address personal, social/emotional, academic, and vocational needs that have an impact on attainment of educational goals.
  • Providing Unique Contributions to Curriculum — SLPs provide a distinct set of roles based on their focused expertise in language. They offer assistance in addressing the linguistic and metalinguistic foundations of curriculum learning for students with disabilities, as well as other learners who are at risk for school failure, or those who struggle in school settings.
  • Highlighting Language/Literacy — Current research supports the interrelationships across the language processes of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. SLPs contribute significantly to the literacy achievement of students with communication disorders, as well as other learners who are at risk for school failure, or those who struggle in school settings.
  • Providing Culturally Competent Services — With the ever-increasing diversity in the schools, SLPs make important contributions to ensure that all students receive quality, culturally competent services. SLPs have the expertise to distinguish a language disorder from “something else.” That “something else” might include cultural and linguistic differences, socioeconomic factors, lack of adequate prior instruction, and the process of acquiring the dialect of English used in the schools. This expertise leads to more accurate and appropriate identification of student needs. SLPs can also address the impact of language differences and second language acquisition on student learning and provide assistance to teachers in promoting educational growth.

Range of Responsibilities — SLPs help students meet the performance standards of a particular school district and state.

  • Prevention — SLPs are integrally involved in the efforts of schools to prevent academic failure in whatever form those initiatives may take; for example, in Response to Intervention (RTI). SLPs use evidence-based practice (EBP) in prevention approaches.
  • Assessment — SLPs conduct assessments in collaboration with others that help to identify students with communication disorders as well as to inform instruction and intervention, consistent with EBP.
  • Intervention — SLPs provide intervention that is appropriate to the age and learning needs of each individual student and is selected through an evidence-based decision-making process. Although service delivery models are typically more diverse in the school setting than in other settings, the therapy techniques are clinical in nature when dealing with students with disabilities.
  • Program Design — It is essential that SLPs configure schoolwide programs that employ a continuum of service delivery models in the least restrictive environment for students with disabilities, and that they provide services to other students as appropriate.
  • Data Collection and Analysis — SLPs, like all educators, are accountable for student outcomes. Therefore, data-based decision making, including gathering and interpreting data with individual students, as well as overall program evaluation are essential responsibilities.
  • Compliance – SLPs are responsible for meeting federal and state mandates as well as local policies in the performance of their duties. Activities may include Individualized Education Program (IEP) development, Medicaid billing, report writing, and treatment plan/therapy log development.
Critical Roles in Education

The expansion of the number of students with disabilities who are served in the schools means that SLPs must be able to serve those students, including those with severe disabilities. More students with autism, traumatic brain injury, and severe medical conditions may now be part of an SLP’s workload. Further, the growing emphasis on the prevention of school failure through work with at-risk students presents another population with whom SLPs may play critical roles. SLPs contribute to educational equity by identifying and implementing appropriate assessment methodologies and approaches that lead to accurate disability determinations regardless of the students’ cultural, linguistic, or socioeconomic backgrounds. Roles and responsibilities have to be redefined to accommodate this expanded scope.