ment, paired with consistent AAC intervention for those students receiving specialized instruction, must come together to facilitate meaningful learning and continued communication develop- ment in the classroom. These experiences and observations through SEE-KS gave us a framework that we could apply and use with all students, regard- less of developmental level or disability, to foster student engage- ment in any learning environment. With this knowledge in hand, educators can plan to proactively embed social-emotional sup- ports and strategies within their lessons to boost student invest- ment (interest), independence, and initiation to optimize learning for academic concepts, communication, and social connection. DEVELOPING COMPREHENSIVE DISTRICT SUPPORTS With new knowledge gained through SEE-KS, we shifted our focus slightly from primarily targeting AAC implementation, to a broader focus on overall student engagement using AAC meth- ods. The learning environment is essential to supporting contin- ued development of communication. As our work evolved to include educator training on so- cial-emotional engagement using UDL principles, it became clear that consistency across the district was essential to support sustainability and access for students at every school. Not every school or district program participated in formal SEE-KS profes- sional development. We began to ask ourselves, “What resources and support do teachers need to foster their ability to maximize student engagement for learning?” As SLPs focusing on AAC and communication, we knew that students must be engaged and motivated to have a reason to communicate. Upon reflection, we noted that the missing piece was an explicit focus on stu- dents’ early social development abilities, starting with increased awareness of people, a reason to interact, and joint attention to develop communication abilities. We also knew that educators were aware of the importance of visual supports, but noted implementation was generally in- consistent across classrooms, grades, and schools. We were also aware that a student’s ability to use visual supports was highly dependent on their exhibited level of social and communication development. Through collaborative reflection and input from a variety of district colleagues of varying disciplines, we developed sever- al key resources for school-based educators. The goal was to maintain a consistent and comprehensive set of resources for educators to promote student engagement that also considers students’ developmental levels. Educator supports were developed for 4 key areas. 1. Common developmental terminology for both social development and communication development that can be used by district staff, school-based educators, and families.
2. Developmentally based priority targets outlining key social-communication goals, so embedded supports or lesson expectations appropriately correspond to stu- dents’ level of development. 3. A standard set of visual supports grouped by purpose and developmentally aligned. 4. A comprehensive guide to foster social-emotional en- gagement through a lesson-planning form that guides educators to embed UDL supports to boost the “Three I’s” of student engagement—Investment, Independence, and Initiation. This intentionally developed set of comprehensive supports and resources for school-based staff and district trainers ensures that educators are supported, students are empowered, and student engagement for learning is maximized. LESSONS LEARNED While the comprehensive set of educator resources has en- dured over the years, conversation would not be complete, with noting only the high points and celebrating the successes. Along this incredible journey, we observed recurring challenges—pat- terns that shaped our growth and impacted sustainability. Some challenges stemmed from shifts in priorities and re- sources, while others reflected the realities of implementing systemic change within a large organization. Maintaining mo- mentum requires ongoing communication and a shared vision across schools and departments. The years of the COVID pan- demic and its enduring characteristics were an added layer that amplified the impacts of noted challenges. Among the most significant challenges encountered was the continual need to train new staff each year and proactively plan for staff turnover, ensuring that incoming educators understood and could implement the frameworks in place. Similarly, hav- ing dedicated district staff assigned to support these concepts
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