Scanlan Center for School Mental Health
Scanlan Center for School Mental Health
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PROJECT STIRS: SLP TRAINING TO IMPROVE RESILIENCE IN STUDENTS WITH COMMUNICATION DISORDERS

Funding Source
Duration

Abstract

The proposed project, entitled “Project STIRS: SLP Training to Improve Resilience in Students with Communication Disorders,” is intended to mitigate anxiety among early elementary students who have communication disorders by maximizing their social-emotional well-being. Communication disorders are speech and language impairments that interfere with a person’s ability to express themselves and/or comprehend others. Repeated communication breakdowns due to challenges with speech sound production, stuttering, vocal quality, vocabulary, grammar, and/or pragmatics can lead to feelings of frustration and anxiety about future interactions. In this two-year randomized controlled trial beginning in July 2022, the interdisciplinary research and advisory team will develop and deliver a case-based resilience training to school speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in four eastern Iowa AEAs. These trainings will focus on two domains of resilience that are rapidly developing and malleable during the early elementary years: self-awareness (e.g., growth mindset, self-efficacy) and self-management (e.g., emotion regulation, motivation). These two domains are of particular importance for maneuvering communicative adversity and within 5-8-year-olds’ zone of proximal development. Training effects will be evaluated using pre-/post-training measures administered to participating SLPs and a selection of their K-3 students who have IEPs focused on speech/language goals. The anticipated outcomes for the SLPs are improved awareness, knowledge, and competency of self-awareness and self-management needs and supports for students with communication disorders as measured immediately before and after the STIRS training. The K-3 students with communication disorders are expected to show improvements in therapy engagement, communication attitudes, and anxiety symptoms as measured immediately after training and three months later.

Project Team

  • Naomi Rodgers, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Iowa
  • Philip Combiths, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Iowa, Director of Clinical Linguistics and Disparities Laboratory
  • Elizabeth Walker, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Iowa
  • Yanchen Zhang, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychological and Quantitative Foundations, University of Iowa