Collaborating to assess young children’s narrative language skills and response to intervention: A case study

This case study describes how a teacher and speech-language pathologist (SLP) collaborated to differentiate narrative language instruction in a pre-K classroom for 10 kindergarten-age children who did not meet benchmarks for school readiness at school entry. Using an evidence-based intervention and a response to intervention (RTI) framework, progress monitoring showed that six of the 10 participants responded to Tier 1 instruction, two caught up to peers after six sessions of Tier 2 instruction, and two remained minimally responsive following Tier 3 instruction. Results indicated that assessment and intervention procedures were effective for identifying academically at-risk students to refer for additional evaluation. The procedures were also efficient, requiring approximately 1.2 h per week for intervention and assessment. Implications include recommendations to improve efficiency further in applied settings.