1. Scaffolding Toward Improved Outcomes

Secondary to living through a pandemic, certain populations have become more susceptible to communication disorders, for example, children learning language/in critical years of development, and individuals with hearing loss. Identifying individual areas of need helps us to identify the instructional strategies needed to help scaffold students’ knowledge. This includes directly teaching students skills regarding social-emotional competence and self-regulation, which positively benefits students’ cognitive, academic, communicative and behavioral capabilities. (Scaffolding 101 for SLPs)

2. Increasing Opportunities for Communication Post-Pandemic

Opportunities for incidental learning in naturalistic environments were decreased, impacting students’ processing from implicit to explicit memory. Naturalistic environments in schools may include before/after school programs, socialization in the cafeteria, communication through physical education team building activities or during peer/ group work time in classrooms. Additional opportunities for language and socialization within naturalistic environments creates an avenue for practitioners to observeb functional language and provide individualized feedback. This supports students’ abilities to become effective communicators and lay the foundation for later developing literacy skills. (Improving Students’ Learning With Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions From Cognitive and Educational Psychology)

Resource: Refreshing Social Skills in a Post-Pandemic World

3. Roles and Responsibilities of Speech-Language Pathologists With Respect to Reading and Writing in Children and Adolescents

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) play a critical and direct role in the development of literacy for children and adolescents with communication disorders, including those with severe or multiple disabilities. SLPs also make a contribution to the literacy efforts of a school district or community on behalf of other children and adolescents. These roles are implemented in collaboration with others who have expertise in the development of written language and vary with settings and experience of those involved. (Roles and Responsibilities of Speech-Language Pathologists With Respect to Reading and Writing in Children and Adolescents)

"Literacy development is also heavily reliant on the development of strong speech, language and communication abilities. The impacts of the pandemic identified a reduction of exposure to new vocabulary which is a primary predictor of student entry level performance and future academic outcomes."