Speech or Language Impairment (SLI)

According to The Texas Education Agency (2019) a Speech Impairment means "a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance."

Common traits/characteristics 

• Difficulty with articulating ideas 

• Difficulty pronouncing sounds and syllables

• This may also be characterized by stuttering 

Educational challenges:

• This may impact student's ability to write and spell

• Additionally, this may affect a student's reading skills

• Students may have a difficulty processing and understanding verbal information that has been relayed to them.

Tips/ recommendations for teachers:

• Provide opportunities for students to receive extra time for assignments

• Reinforce, through modeling, how to pronounce words in a natural way that helps the language development of the student

• Provide opportunities for students to express themselves with as much time as they need