New Role in Response-to-Intervention: The Speech-Language Pathologist’s Perspective

Response-to-Intervention (RTI) is a multi-tiered prevention model in which supports are immediately available when children fail to respond to evidence-based instruction. In the traditional model, students were often failing to meet expected learning benchmarks before being evaluated for educational supports, including speech language therapy. If a student met certain criteria, speech therapy could be implemented to assist the student with educational goals. The traditional method of therapy included pulling individual or small groups of students from their instructional classes. This model can cause students to miss valuable class instruction and experience less generalization of skills from the therapy treatments. The traditional model also limits teacher and speech-language pathologist (SLP) collaboration. To address these issues, the RTI model promotes providing supports before students experience critical educational delays. Under the RTI model, students are able to remain in their classrooms with opportunities for language-enriched collaborative lessons with teachers and SLPs. Students are able to participate in valuable instruction and experience better generalization of skills in a naturalistic way. RTI appears to provide strategies to address gaps in educational achievement. We gave Montana Speech-Language-Hearing Association (MSHA) members an online survey to identify areas perceived as barriers to providing speech-language therapy services under the RTI model. We used a qualitative constant-comparative design to assess and classify the results to discover themes regarding perceived advantages and disadvantages. These themes will help highlight areas for future research and provide helpful considerations for SLPs and educators planning to implement the model