Speech and Language

Welcome to Elisa Schwartz's Classroom

Welcome to Elisa Schwartz's page about speech and language services at Maugham Elementary School. Children in need of speech services for articulation (sounds), voice, and/or fluency(stuttering) can be referred for assessment, and eligibility for speech services with its own speech IEP. I would be the case manager for this. If a child needs language services(words, sentences, pragmatics), then it is likely that a referral to the Child Study Team would be needed since language needs may affect a child more globally in the academic setting. In this type of situation, please write a letter to Ms. Suzanne Bassett, Director of Special Services, 500 Tenafly Road, Tenafly, New Jersey 07670; or the case manager at Maugham School, Ms. Maria Lucibello, Maugham Elementary School, 111 Magnolia Avenue, Tenafly, N.J. 07670. In both cases, an initial I and RS meeting and follow-up meeting, and then an identification meeting will be set up to create an evaluation plan if the referral is accepted. After assessments are completed, they will be reviewed by the team and an Eligibility meeting will be scheduled to determine if it is appropriate to provide services at school. In both scenarios, children must pass a vision and hearing screening. Speech IEPs and Child Study Team IEPs  are renewed annually. Retesting is done after a 3 year period unless there is a particular need for doing it earlier. Of course, any IEP can be changed as needed. 

An introduction to me most often begins at Maugham  Schoolwith children participating in the Sounds in Motion program in each kindergarten classroom on a weekly basis for phonemic awareness skills. Children who are eligible for speech and language therapy services will be given 1 speech pocket folder for the current academic year. If it is lost, then any other pocket folder is fine to transport homeworks and collect stickers earned. Homework must be signed or initialed by a helper who is typically a parent, another more mature family member, or parent designated helper. This is to ensure that homework has a listening component, as well as to keep the family informed of what is being done in sessions. From the first day of kindergarten, children spend 70% of their day listening(Lois Kam Heymann). The more consistently homework is completed, the faster progress is likely to occur; which in turn minimizes tme out of the academic setting. Specifically, this helps new speech and language targets become habituated to the level of not having to think about how and when to do them. This is called automaticity. It also helps to put the progress mostly in the hands of the family, which is a more natural learning experience for the children. Folders are typically filled after the current school day ends; to minimize time lost which could have been used for intervention. Then, folders are ready for children to take home the next day. Folders are filled with individually appropriate homework based on how the child did in the most recent session. That is why homework most often can't be planned in advance.  

Children are not always eligible for speech and language services in the school setting according to the Special Education Code. However, I am most often available to answer questions and provide resource information if needed. It would be my pleasure to help families with their children's speech and language needs as much as feasible. I always look forward to a very productive year with the children while students are at Maugham Elementary School!