Voices from the classroom: Teachers' perspectives on collaboration with speech-language therapists in learners with special educational needs schools.
Haseena Mahomed Joosub, Marguerite De Jongh, Rahab Mothapo
Teachers in South African special-needs schools valued SLT support for communication and classroom guidance but reported SLTs were often stretched thin by extra duties and too few in number.
They wanted clearer role training and more SLT time in classrooms.
Key findings
1Teachers reported mixed experiences of SLT involvement: five described meaningful support for communication and classroom activities, while four reported limited engagement and a need for more support.
223.8% of teachers (n = 5) had no formal or informal training for working with LSEN, and 38.1% (n = 8) were only partially trained.
3Six participants reported SLTs were frequently assigned duties beyond their core responsibilities, and four highlighted the limited number of SLTs in their schools.
Still to come
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Four schools in one district; findings reflect a specific South African LSEN context and cannot be generalised to other regions or school types. Only teachers' perspectives were collected; SLTs' own views on the collaboration were not gathered. Twenty-one teachers completed questionnaires but only 11 were interviewed, so the qualitative depth rests on a small subset. Interviews were conducted in English, which may not have been every participant's first language, potentially limiting the richness of responses. The study captures perceptions and experiences, not measured changes in learner outcomes.
Declared interests
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, or publication of this article.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that SLT-teacher collaboration improves learner outcomes. It reports what teachers said about their experiences, not measured changes in learners. The 98% progress figure that appears in the discussion comes from a different study (Pentek et al., 2018) and is not a result of this one.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →