Children with accents and dialects may be referred for special education services, speech services, or viewed as low achievers. Current efforts by the American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA), consider these referrals misguided. The organization is attempting to avoid these potential discriminatory actions. An accent is defined as a phonetic trait from a primary language that is carried over to the way a second language is spoken. The level of pronouncement of an accent on the second language depends upon the age and circumstances under which the second language was acquired. A dialect is defined as differences that make one English speaker’s speech different from another. Dialects have distinguishing characteristics, which may include: phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, or pragmatics. Dialects and accents are considered language variations that are accepted differences in speech (Cole, 1983). A determination by the IEP team to provide special education services must be grounded on what children who are culturally and linguistically diverse need to be successful based on academic standards, not on accent or dialect differences. The fourth and final consideration, working with families, is one that shows respect and increases the possibility of carry-over from school interventions to the home setting. In addition to cohesive planning during the IEP process, family literacy programs supported by the Charter LEA have been especially meaningful for those who are culturally and linguistically diverse. The information for this section is attributed to Barbara J. Moore-Brown and Judy K. Montgomery. Their book, Making a Difference for America’s Children, Speech-Language Pathologists in Public Schools, 2001, is available from Thinking Publications. In referring culturally and linguistically diverse children for special education services, care must be taken to determine whether learning, language-speech, and/or behavior problems demonstrated by the child indicate a disability or, instead, manifest cultural, experiential, and/or socio-linguistic differences. A. All English Learners (ELs) in special education programs must, • Receive an English Language Development (ELD) curriculum approved by the Charter LEA; • All academic IEP goals for ELs must be linguistically/culturally appropriate; • ELD standards are aligned with the Common Core standards and should be used when writing goals for ELs. Please refer to the following documents posted on the Desert//Mountain Charter SELPA website for in-depth information regarding special education assessment, IEP development, and re-classification criteria: English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) on the CDE website at https://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/ep/ B. In General: Child Find/Pre-Referral Activities It is especially important for the SST to determine whether accommodations and supports in the general education curriculum or in the manner in which instruction is provided may assist the child in overcoming their learning, language-speech, and/or behavioral problems. The
Chapter 1 – Identification & Referral of Individuals for Special Education, Charter SELPA
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As of 8/26/2021 Steering Committee Review
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