Teachers’ Perceptions of Their Students With Communication Disorders

This study investigated the impact collaborative training had on teachers’ perceptions of students with communication disorders. Class rankings for 28 students with communication disorders were collected from 16 teachers, half of whom were trained in the collaborative model and half of whom were not. Teacher rankings for students with communication disorders were compared to teacher rankings for students without communication disorders who had the same achievement/ability indices (i.e., Stanford Achievement/Otis Lennon). These data were analyzed to determine the differences with which trained and untrained teachers perceived the overall classroom performance of students with communication disorders. Results indicated that teachers who were trained in a collaborative model of service delivery were more accurate in their perceptions of ability levels for students with communication disorders than teachers who were not trained