How to Be a Good Communication Partner

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Originally published in TEACH Magazine, May/June 2024 Issue

By Laura Baukol, MA, CCC-SLP

5 tips from an SLP to teach students to be more inclusive of classmates with communication disorders.

As a speech-language pathologist (SLP), I am an expert in communication disorders in children. My 15 years of experience has spanned from early intervention with our youngest communicators through public education with elementary and secondary students.

In these roles, I have learned that teaching peers, families, educators, and friends to be strong communication partners can be just as important as teaching new skills to the child with the disability.

Communication disabilities can be hard to see, so it’s often easy for others to ignore, interrupt, or even laugh at someone with a disability. People can have disabilities in any of the following areas of speech: articulation (pronunciation of sounds), fluency (stuttering), voice (loudness and quality), language (written or verbal), pragmatics (social and nonverbal communication), or hearing. That’s a lot of areas!

Communication disabilities affect a large portion of our population. In fact, nearly 1 in 12 children ages 3 to 17 has had a communication-related disorder. That means every elementary classroom in our public school system is bound to have at least one and likely several students with a communication disability. It also means that our general education students are regularly interacting with other students who have these disabilities.

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Laura Elizabeth Baukol, MA, CCC-SLP, is a bilingual speech-language pathologist working in public education in the Denver Metro area.

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Laura Baukol
Laura Baukol
Laura Elizabeth Baukol, MA, CCC-SLP, is a bilingual speech-language pathologist working in public education in the Denver Metro area.

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