Highly Effective Strategies to Help SLPs Support Students with Reading and Language Deficits (Grades PreK–12) Presented by Dr. Lyndsey Zurawski, SLP.D, CCC SLP Outstanding Speech-Language Pathologist and National Presenter

Specifically Designed for Speech Language Pathologists Serving Students in Grades PreK-12

Practical Ideas and Materials

As a Speech-Language Pathologist, your expertise in oral language and literacy skills makes you an invaluable member of the literacy team at your school. In this seminar, Lyndsey Zurawski, an experienced Speech-Language Pathologist will share practical methods for assessing and treating reading skills in students with language disorders. You will learn effective, efficient and easy-to-implement techniques to identify children who are at risk for problems with decoding or reading comprehension.

Lyndsey will review current research about the language skills that strongly predict performance on state literacy exams and provide strategies to help you address these language skills in your daily therapy. This seminar will focus on practical, workable strategies that can be implemented in the context of therapy, as well as Tiers 2 and 3 intervention models with a special emphasis placed on reading in the content areas. You will leave with numerous ideas for helping students with moderate to severe reading and language deficits as well as ways to maximize your effectiveness as an SLP in the school(s) where you work.

Ten Key Benefits of Attending

1. What Every SLP Should Know About Reading Deficits and How They Relate to Students
   Learn the different types of reading profiles you will see in children with significant language-literacy disorders, dyslexia (specific reading disorder), receptive and expressive language disorders, and autism spectrum disorders.
2. Learn About the Impact of Oral Language, Written Language, and Literacy Skills on Students’ Reading Skills
   Gain practical information about the language and reading assessments that literacy specialists use and the different types of language skills that each assessment demands … Tailor your language assessment to best uncover a child’s unique profile
3. Expand Your Role as an SLP in Teaching Decoding and Spelling
   Utilize techniques such as morphology and word investigation to help children develop detailed lexical representations that include information about the word’s meaning, grammatical uses, spelling, and pronunciation within your current vocabulary lessons
4. Establish Yourself as a Key Team Member for Students with Reading Disorders
   Bring your unique expertise in language, literacy, phonology, and pragmatics to the table in your consultations with classroom teachers and reading specialists
5. Expand Your Toolkit of Therapy Ideas Both Inside and Outside the Classroom Setting
   Learn practical and effective techniques to systematically help your students generalize their language and literacy skills in reading
6. Align Your Therapy with the State Standards to Foster Literacy Development
   Discover what research says about oral language skills that are most predictive of a positive outcome on state literacy examinations … Evidence-based techniques to build the language skills that will help your students become skilled readers
7. Utilize the Most Effective Inclusive Practices for Implementing Language and Literacy Skills
   Maximize your time as an SLP by learning how to most efficiently use inclusion … When and how to work in the classroom, how to  make pull-out sessions effective and ways to coach teachers and paraprofessionals to address your language goals all week long
8. Implement Effective Behavior Interventions to Support Student Success
   Manage behavior utilizing research-based strategies and real life examples to support students with language disorders
9. Observe Video Clips and Work Samples of Real Students During Treatment
   Powerful video clips that illustrate assessment and therapy techniques with children similar to your own students … See how it all works in action
10. Receive an Extensive Handbook
    Each participant will receive an extensive reading and language deficits handbook filled with resources, worksheets and strategies presented throughout the seminar

Outstanding Strategies You Can Use Immediately

• Practical ways to incorporate reading goals into all aspects of your oral language therapy
• Advanced strategies for addressing phonological awareness systematically and hierarchically
• How to coordinate your therapy with the reading programs your students use in the classroom and in their specialized reading interventions
• What aspects of reading break down for children with the common communication disorders that SLPs treat every day
• Efficient, practical methods for assessing reading comprehension in the context of your language evaluations
• Current research about the language skills that most strongly predict success on state literacy exams
• Specific ideas and strategies to strengthen the core language skills that allow your students to become good readers
• How, when and why to use content-based vs. strategy-based approaches to improve reading performance
• Practical therapy techniques that align with state standards
• How your unique role as an SLP differentiates you from the reading teacher – and why you are such a key player on the team
• Ideas for incorporating multi-disciplinary instruction in programs addressing language and literacy deficits
• Strategies to help teachers and paraprofessionals carry over the work you are doing in therapy
• How to use an integrated approach to reading and language therapy so you can address all your goals in the limited time you have with your students
• Various ideas for setting up collaborative treatment programs
• Ideas to make therapy fun, engaging and effective for your students
• Strategies to help content area teachers understand the language challenges your students face in learning their subject
• How to teach your students to be strategic learners and to independently use the skills you teach
• Explore highly effective tools to enhance professional evaluations
• How to make the most of your data to inform decision making
• Ways to affect change by advocating for a variety of service delivery models
• Receive a comprehensive handbook full of ideas and resources about language and literacy disorders, and inclusive practices

A Message From Your Seminar Leader

Dear Colleague:

For many years now, I have worked with children who have challenges in reading and writing – basically, any child who has a language disorder. I love reading and can’t imagine any skill more important to teach! When I first started working on literacy skills, many teachers and school administrators expressed skepticism about why the SLP should have anything to do with a child’s reading problems. I’m thrilled to see how much our role as SLPs has expanded, and how widely our expertise in language and literacy is now recognized. Still, we have a long way to go! Many teachers and reading specialists do not realize that SLPs know about more than just speech. We can help with spelling, reading fluency and most importantly, with reading comprehension and writing skills.

With the new focus on reading in the content areas that is built into state standards, our role in literacy has expanded even further. With so much already on our plates, we need a practical approach to addressing literacy skills along with our oral language goals. What we don’t need is more work! What we do need is an integrated, easy-to-implement way to address reading in the context of our current therapy programs and effective strategies to teach other specialists what we know about language and literacy.

I have designed this seminar to show you highly effective ways that we, as SLPs, can support students with reading and language-literacy deficits. We will explore how intertwined oral language and literacy skills really are and how valuable your expertise is to the entire school team. We will look at different types of reading difficulties that your students with language disorders encounter across the curriculum, from recognizing the words on the page to understanding the content of the passage. The emphasis will be on practical, doable methods to evaluate students and to develop individualized and specialized treatment programs that can be implemented via direct therapy, whole class instruction and consultation. We will explore current research that pinpoints the critical role of language and literacy to support students within the general education setting. The focus will be on new, innovative and evidence-based therapy approaches. My goal is to send you home empowered with many new ideas you can implement right away!

Sincerely,
Lyndsey Zurawski, SLP.D, CCC-SLP

P.S. I know how valuable your time is, so my focus for the day will be on sharing practical strategies that work in today’s schools with today’s students.

Who Should Attend

Speech-Language Pathologists serving students in Grades PreK-12.

Special Benefits of Attending

Extensive Resource Handbook
Each participant will receive an extensive resource handbook specifically designed for this seminar. The handbook includes:

• Comprehensive descriptions of all skills and strategies addressed throughout the seminar
• A review of research in reading, including an extensive reference list
• Engaging sample worksheets to address a variety of the skills discussed in the seminar
• An extensive list of helpful materials and programs
• An appendix with the strategies outlined in this program applied to literature used in the classroom

Consultation Available
Lyndsey Zurawski will be available at the seminar for consultation regarding your questions and the unique needs of your own SLP program.

ASHA - CEUs

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