Children's Perception of Roles in Intervention

Abstract

Sixteen children enrolled in school intervention for articulation disorders were interviewed regarding their view of the roles of speech-language pathologists, teachers, and children both in classroom and intervention settings. In addition, sixteen school speech-language pathologists were interviewed and asked to predict how the children would respond to the questions. Results indicated that children have well demarcated role differences and are highly consistent in their perspectives of role related behaviors. The children interviewed generally see speech-language pathologists as helping them, and teachers as making them do things. They see themselves as being asked to say things in intervention and be quiet and do work in class. Speech-language pathologists' predictions differed significantly from the children's responses with the exception of the role of the child in intervention. All subjects appeared to see the speech-language pathologist and the teacher as possessing authority and control over the learning context.