Image of woman providing speech therapy services to young girl

Speech / Language Therapy Services

The NIA speech language therapy department provides speech language therapy services and speech language supervision for member districts. Speech language therapy services aim to enhance each student's educational potential, supporting instruction through referral process, evaluation, intervention and collaboration. Speech language supervision services can be purchased separately for the purpose of developing capacity in district SLPs through professional discussion and collaboration around evidence based practice.

Services

Speech Language Therapy

Referral and Evaluation: Students are assessed to determine their language, speech and general communication needs. Referrals are initiated by members of the educational team and evaluations are completed upon consent from the student’s parent(s) or guardian. SLPs follow district guidelines for speech/language screening and MTSS intervention.

Intervention and Collaboration: The therapists support students by working with teams to:

Create goals to support educational access and success.
Adapt classroom environments and equipment.
Design activities to enhance communication within the school setting.
Utilize direct and consultative intervention that will improve communication across the educational environment.
Deliver high quality assessment and interventions including:
- Articulation and phonology remediation
- Receptive and expressive language therapy
- Pragmatic language and social communication training
- Support of feeding needs per educational relevance
- Support of AAC use in the school setting, from lite/lo-tech to high tech
- Speech/language screening per district policy
- Speech/language intervention (RtI or MTSS) services per district policy
- Comprehensive speech/language evaluation

All Speech Language Therapy Services include performance evaluation, staff development, and staff supervision/support.

Speech Language Supervision

Clinical assistance and development for district hired SLPs across the NIA region
Facilitation of SLP department meetings and/or inservice days
Access to specialized resources via the NIA Speech library
Discussion of current research as it applies to evidence based practice
Support SLP understanding of certification and renewal requirements for ISBE PEL, ASHA, and IDFPR
Support SLP understanding and implementation of rules, regulations, and policy changes required for the practice of speech language pathology in the school setting
Clinical Fellow (CF) Supervision or Staff Evaluation as needed
Co-signer for Speech Medicaid referrals available

Image of woman teaching young boy with speech therapy

Who We Are

NIA Speech Language Pathologists hold a Master’s Degree in Speech Language Pathology and a ISBE Professional Educator License (PEL) with a Speech Language Impaired endorsement. NIA Speech Language Pathologists may also hold their IDFPR license and maintain their ASHA Certificate of Clinical Competence. Our Speech Language Pathologists complete a minimum of 10 hours of continuing education each year to keep their skills current and maintain their certificates and licenses.They also participate in the professional SLP community within NIA, which provides access to SLP Supervisors, specialized resources, and a network of SLPs upon whom to draw on for expertise and clinical problem solving.

Image of male teach working on speech therapy with young boy

Speech Language Supervision Services are provided by an SLP with Supervisory Endorsement and Evaluation approval.