Facilitating children’s speech, language and communication development: An exploration of an embedded, service-based professional development program

Abstract

Professional development can provide opportunities to develop new skills and knowledge, and to apply them to practice in a sustainable way. However, delivery of professional development needs to consider the philosophies and pedagogies of training recipients, and activities should be tailored to meet their needs. This article reports on an exploratory study of an embedded, service-based model of professional development for early childhood educators (educators), targeting children's speech, language, and communication skill development. This innovative model, conducted by speech and language therapy (SLT) students and a SLT professional practice educator, utilized co-teaching strategies to facilitate the professional learning of educators and SLTs in this context. A qualitative research design was employed and data gathered through focus group interviews with educators and individual semi-structured interviews with centre directors. The data were triangulated with some observational data of educators' practices with young children several months post program completion to explore their application of skills and knowledge that had been covered in the professional development program. The data contained four main themes: Communication, relationships, environment, and translating knowledge into practice. Observational data lent further depth and validation to the results by confirming the presence or absence of expressed practice values and experiences in the educators' everyday interactions with children. The observational data supported the themes relationships and translating knowledge into practice. The results contribute to our understanding of educators' and childcare centre directors' perspectives on their knowledge, skills, and practice in response to this embedded professional development program. This model of professional development may be appropriate to facilitate knowledge and skill development about children's speech, language, and communication skills for educators working with young children in a childcare setting. Benefits

Tiered Approaches to Rehabilitation Services in Education Settings: Towards Developing an Explanatory Programme Theory

“…13).' Other beneficial child and youth outcomes include earlier and potentially more accurate identification of needs resulting in an earlier intervention, decreased level of impairment, and decreased likelihood of labelling (e.g., learning disability) (Brebner, Attrill, Marsh, & Coles, 2017;Ehren & Nelson, 2005;Elksnin, 1997;Hutton, Tuppeny, & Hasselbusch, 2016). For parents and professionals, successful tiered approaches cultivate growth and development.…”

“…On a micro-level, all school-level stakeholders must acknowledge that parents, educators, rehabilitation professionals, and others are 'part of the fabric of the school' (Campbell et al, 2012, p. 56) and that all are equal and integral partners in supporting students in general education classrooms (Brebner et al, 2017;Christner, 2015;Chu, 2017). The knowledge, skills, and characteristics of rehabilitation professionals are important to the micro-level context.…”

“…One way to promote shared responsibility is through utilisation of 'common philosophical framework[s]' (Paul et al, 2006, p. 8), including theories, models, and/or terminologies relevant within education. Finally, fostering collaborative relationships also involves varying degrees of shared responsibility for teaching, or co-teaching (Bahr et al, 1999;Brebner et al, 2017;Justice & Kaderavek, 2004;Ritzman et al, 2006;Silliman et al, 1999;Soto, Mu Ller, Hunt, & Goetz, 2001;Staskowski & Rivera, 2005). Coteaching can take many nuanced and individualised forms including co-planning only, educator delivering lessons and rehabilitation professional circulating (to tailor content/ provide support as needed), rehabilitation professional delivering lessons (e.g., phonological awareness) and educator observing or circulating.…”

“…Reciprocally, capacity also is built among educators. Benefits noted for educators include increased knowledge and skill in recognising and assessing need, providing educational activities that are therapeutic, and more consistently carrying over rehabilitation activities within the classroom (Brebner et al, 2017;Dodge, 2004;Ratzon et al, 2009). Noted benefits can be achieved incidentally through observation of rehabilitation professionals, discussions, and/or role modelling and more formally via in-service education or educational materials.…”

Learning from students: Facilitators’ learning in interprofessional placements

“…The ECEs scaffolded the students to learn about normal child development through facilitating their gradual participation in everyday activities and routines of the childcare setting, whilst the students supported the ECEs' learning about children's communication skill development. Previous research findings suggest that ECEs' deep understanding of child development adds depth to traditional speech-language pathology 'point in time' interventions for children's communication skills (Brebner, Attrill, Marsh, & Coles, 2017), and that a role exists for speech-language pathology in facilitating children's early communication development in childcare settings (McDonald et al, 2015). In this study, Lave and Wenger's theorising about the transformative influence of sociocultural skills and knowledge that the students contribute within the community provided a framework to explore the gap in the literature related to what placement facilitators learn from students of professions that differ from their own; the perspectives of placement facilitators from education settings who work with health professional students; and to identify whether themes of power and hierarchy from previous research existed in this context.…”