Jessica Quezada

September 30, 2014

SERP 301c
Benchmark Part 1: Background Information
For the purposes of this document the name of the child has been changed.
This year I am working with Eva who is a five-year-old student in a kindergarten
classroom at Borton Magnet School. Prior to this school year Eva attended preschool in two
different programs that were in two different school districts. For one year she attended the
PACE program in the Tucson Unified School District, and the next year she attended the Head
Start program in the Sunnyside School District. It was during her time in the Sunnyside School
District that she acquired her IEP. This year that IEP was transferred over to her new school.
Evas has speech and language impairment, which is a high-incidence disability. In Evas
case she falls under the category of articulation disorder, which simply means that she has
difficulties pronouncing certain sounds, whatever sounds she cannot produce she replaces with
other sounds that she can make. Some of the letters that I have noted are especially difficult for
her to pronounce are the letter g, and the letter c. Eva receives support outside of her
classroom from the speech and language specialist. She receives this support at least once a week
for about 40 minutes at a time. Due to the nature of her disability she does not receive any
medication.
The goals listed in Evas IEP include communicating with others orally using the English
language. Another goal is to create sporadic sentences using visuals in picture books. The last
goal is to have Eva use grammatical morphemes, regular past tense, present tense, subject
pronoun, auxiliary copula and gerund and progressive verbs.

There are several ways in which Eva is helped in the classroom. For her it is important to
have time to express herself, since it give her practice in pronouncing many different sounds.
Another thing that is important for Eva is listening to others speak, especially people who are
correct pronunciations, and speech patterns. Paraphrasing what she says is another way in,
which Eva can be helped. When she hears an adult repeating a lot of the same words and phrases
that she has just used it can help her understand how to modify her own speech. Many of the
practices listed above are already integrated into our daily classroom routines. This is good for
Eva because it means that she has many opportunities for grown in everyday.
When it comes to Eva her challenge is simply the pronunciation of specific sounds. Even
though Eva has a speech impediment communicating with others is actually a strength of hers.
The difficulty she has pronouncing different sounds does not deter her from communicating with
others, I have also noticed that students don't have a hard time understanding her when she
speaks to them. Even though she does have a hard time pronouncing different letters the fact that
she speaks in long complete sentences, as well as in a loud voice makes it is easy to for teachers
and students to interpret what she is saying. She has confidence in her communication skills,
which is helpful for her since it means that she in frequently practicing the pronunciation of
different letters.
Speech and Language disability can affect children in many different ways that are both
physical, and mental. There are several kinds of disorders that fall under the category of speech
and language. Some of these disabilities include stuttering, cluttering, apraxia, and articulation
disorder. All of there are common especially in young children, and they all affect children in
very different ways. Cluttering affects a persons speech fluency, in the case of cluttering the
individual is able to get all of their thoughts out but the way in they come out many be

disorganized. A persons speech might sound jerky because of the strange pauses they use while
speaking. Stuttering is when a person repeats the beginning sound of a word, or when they hold
any sound in a word for a long period of time. Another category of speech and language
disabilities is articulation disorder. This is a disorder that encompasses a wide range of
articulation problems. A student with articulation disorder may substitute certain letter sounds
for other letters, another characteristic of this disorder is the omission or addition of sounds to
words. Lisping which is the substitution of s and z with the th sound also falls under this
category. The last category of speech and language disabilities is apraxia. This refers to problems
with motor coordination specifically in the mouth. Students with apraxia might had a difficult
time mobilizing muscles found in their mouth which makes it harder for them to create certain
sounds.
Speech and language disabilities can be acquired several different ways. The construction
of language happens in the brain, this means that any kind of brain damage can be a cause of a
speech impediment. Even something as simple as hearing loss, or having frequent ear infections
as a child can affect how a persons language develops. If at a young age children are not able to
hear the different sounds that are produces through language, it can be harder for them to know
how to create those sounds in the future. Developmental and genetic disorders such as autism
and Down syndrome are another causes of speech and language developmental delays. In other
cases a speech and language delay is just a case of genetics.
Having a more in depth knowledge on speech and language developments has made it
clear to me how I can help Eva continue to develop her language in a positive way. I feel that I
have a better understanding of what she is going through and what I can do as a student teacher
to continue to develop over the year. Having all of this information I know that I will be more

aware of how I communicate with Eva, and I will strive to use the language that is necessary for
her to be hearing. Having the opportunity to identify her strengths and challenges was also
important for me because it gives me a cleared picture of where she needs concentrated support.

References
National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials
Article: Curriculum Access for Students with Low-Incidence Disabilities: The Promise of UDL
http://aim.cast.org/learn/historyarchive/backgroundpapers/promise_of_udl/what_li_d#.VCo0tksQ5uY

American Speech - Language - Hearing Association:

Article: Speech Sound Disorders: Articulation and Phonological Processes
http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/SpeechSoundDisorders/

Cincinnati Childrens:
Article: Speech Disorders
http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/health/s/speech-disorder/

Teens Health from Nemours:

Article: Speech Problems
http://kidshealth.org/teen/diseases_conditions/sight/speech_disorders.html#