Autism Spectrum Disorder and Educational Standards: Why Alignment Matters

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With a majority of the country having adopted the Common Core State Standards or standards quite similar in rigor, speech-language pathologists have been asked to align their intervention goals and objectives to grade-level standards. At times this can feel like a daunting task, especially for those children on our caseload who have significant communication and social deficits. The focus of this presentation will be to provide speech-language pathologists with the tools they need to determine the language underpinnings of the standards that require pragmatic language competence. By “beginning with the end in mind” whether this might mean college and career or social engagement and an achievable level of independence, clinicians are able to focus on what matters most. The goal of this course is to help speech-language pathologists sift through educational standards to determine just that.

Meet your instructor

Kimberly Murza

Kim Murza, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, received her doctorate in Education: Communication Sciences and Disorders from the University of Central Florida, where she specialized in language and literacy with a focus on autism spectrum disorder. She is currently an assistant professor in the department of Audiology and Speech-Language…

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Chapters & learning objectives

1. Beginning With the End in Mind

This section of the course is designed to introduce backward design and how SLPs can use it as a framework for judging the importance and relevance of educational objectives. Participants will be introduced to a graphic organizer which depicts pragmatic language competence and will support their work to consider the pragmatic language underpinnings of educational standards. In addition, participants will learn about several “Big Ideas” of communicative engagement and will be able to describe how the Common Core State Standards are organized. Participants will also be directed to the examples of Common Core State Standards with Pragmatic Underpinnings handout.

2. Unpacking the Standards

This section of the course teaches participants how to break down (unpack) educational standards into pragmatic language underpinnings. Participants walk through an example that examines the social demands of school and the workplace. Participants will explore specific Common Core State Standards related to social inference and the attributes employers look for that are aligned with a social competence focus.

3. Dynamic Assessment and Prioritizing Intervention

In this chapter, the presenter will describe dynamic assessment and how it relates to the META Framework created by the presenter and her colleagues. Participants will learn how to explicitly consider their student, the environment, and the communication partner when determining in which situation their student is most successful. They will also learn how to use dynamic assessment to determine how to extend and expand success across targets, environments and/or partners.

4. Creating Goals That Are Aligned with Educational Standards and Focus on Underpinnings

In this chapter, the presenter will present a case study to walk participants through the process of developing goals that are aligned, relevant and important. Participants will return to the META framework to consider the student, the communication partner, and the communicative environment. The concepts of obligatory context, levels of support, and qualitative vs. qualitative data collection will be discussed.

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