"The Importance of Interdisciplinary Collaboration to Support Narrative Development for Students with Significant Disabilities."

Abstract

By Elizabeth Duke, Communication Sciences and Disorders; Ellie Wright, Communication Sciences and Disorders

Advisor: Carney Sotto

Presentation ID: PM_C07

Abstract: Individuals with significant disabilities bear compound intellectual profiles that include differences in executive functioning, attention, and memory. These differences influence language, literacy, communication, and learning. Having a strong foundation of narratives, such as story elements, grammar, and characters can help strengthen a student's cognitive ability. Through our work in narrative development, the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration among special education teachers and SLP's became apparent and resulted in a direct impact on the individual at hand. This study looks at the degree of impact that narrative development has on a student with cognitive, social, and academic disabilities. This study also discusses the benefits that multidisciplinary teams (of Speech-Language Pathologists and Intervention Specialists) bring to the progress of narrative development. Methods and suggestions on how to build narrative development and work in multidisciplinary teams are scrutinized is discussed also.