The Effects of Speech Support Programs for Teachers in Inclusive Day Care Centers

Park, So Hyun; Kim, Young Tae

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2009;14(3): 313-325.

So Hyun Park^` , and Young Tae Kim^`

박소현(So Hyun Park)| 김영태(Young Tae Kim)

ABSTRACT

Background & Objectives
As recognition of the importance of education of children with LI in an inclusive classroom increases, more institutions are providing speech therapy within these types of integrated environments. The purpose of the study was to investigate a teacher-implemented intervention as a means of facilitating language development in children with language delays.
Methods
Three teacher-student dyads including children with language delays participated in this study. The language ages of the three children ranged from 35 to 40 months. We used amultiple baseline design across all participants. The three teachers received 90 minutes of intensive training before the study began. The intensive teacher training program included four language intervention techniques: parallel talking, expansion, open-ended questions, and choice-questions. Evaluation and intervention phases followed the training period. All sessions took place in the children’s integrated classroom during free-choice activity time. Three weeks after the intervention phase was completed, the maintenance effects were evaluated.
Results
First, the percentage of correct use of techniques was increased for all three teachers. Increased use of technique was maintained following the intervention phase. Second, for the three children, there was an increase in the frequency of multi-word semantic relations, types of multi-word semantic relations, and number of different words. The percentage of responses to the teacher’s questions also increased. These improvements in language abilities were maintained following the intervention.
Discussion & Conclusion
The teacher training program was effective in increasing the teachers’ abilities to use language intervention techniques properly. As the correct use of techniques increased, the children produced more multi-word utterances. Since these techniques can be used easily within routine activities throughout the day, there is no need for teachers to set aside extra time to teach language skills. Therefore, this teacher training could be an effective and practical education program