Present Levels Wizard Now Available for Communication
Student-Centered Speech and Language Statements
We are excited to announce an expansion of the Present Levels Wizard to include the area of Communication which encompasses speech and language statements. The wizard now contains all of the following areas:
- Reading
- Writing
- Math
- Behavior
- Communication
- Functional and Life Skills
The Challenge of Creating Comprehensible Speech Statements
The Present Levels Wizard helps Speech and Language Pathologists (SLPs) with some of the most challenging elements of describing communication needs to everyone on the IEP team.
Speech and language needs are highly specialized and require specific strategies and knowledge to address them. Knowledge of these strategies is almost exclusively held by SLPs, which means speech statements contain technical elements that are domain specific.
One of the ways we help SLPs communicate the highly technical aspects of speech present levels statements is by creating clear categories for communication:
- Articulation
- Fluency
- Receptive Language
- Expressive Language
- Social Communication & Pragmatics
All of the categories are broken down by the level of assistance and prompting level and the statements range from Complete Assistance to Fully Independent. Although the statements address the highest level of need with the complete assistance level, all statements explicitly include independent level behaviors that scaffold towards autonomy.
Individualized and Qualitative Statements for Speech and Language Needs is Critical
One of our goals with communication present levels statements is to elevate the qualitative aspects of speech and language statements. Speech statements often only contain the quantitative data that capture how students perform on highly specific speech assessments. The statements generated by the present levels wizard in Goalbook Toolkit help SLPs add the qualitative component that translates the test results for sped teachers, general educators, and families.
For example, if a student scores within a certain range on the CAAP-2 or the DEAP assessments that measure certain aspects of articulation, the present levels wizard gives SLPs the ability to point out the specific sounds and settings that the students actually need to work on rather than just providing the articulation scores or functional ranges.
As with all present levels statements that are generated by the wizard, speech and language statements are fully customizable, saveable, and shareable. Our hope is to continue refining the statements and resources in the Communication Present Levels Wizard so SLPs can draft high-quality present levels for their students.
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