Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Programs for Higher Education
Advisor
Marie A. Daigle
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
activities at home, attendance, communication, newsletters, parent education, parent involvement, parental knowledge, parental participation, parents, question box, seminars, speech and language, speech-language goals, speech therapy, student progress, teacher education, treatment process
Abstract
This applied dissertation was designed to provide parents with the education necessary to facilitate speech and language enriched environments at home. The problem to be resolved was that minimal parental participation delayed the students’ progress with their speech-language goals. The writer created a parent education program for parents who have children with a speech or language eligibility.
Parents were asked to attend three 1-hour 30-minute seminars on the topic of speech and language services. The first seminar introduced the foundations of speech and language. The second seminar introduced specific information about the treatment process. The last seminar allowed parents to ask questions about the strategies that they had utilized since the previous session. The writer communicated with parents monthly. Furthermore, monthly newsletters were distributed to provide parents with information regarding speech and language foundations, and to offer parents suggestions regarding activities that can be carried out at home. A question box was placed in the front office for parents and teachers to submit questions.
The projected attendance was not obtained. Four parents participated in this study; therefore, based on lack of parental turnout, the preestablished objectives could not be achieved. However, there have been experiences throughout this project that have demonstrated increased parental knowledge of speech and language skills.