Opportunities to Enhance Children's Communication Development at School in Underserved Communities

Area of Science:

• Speech and Language Therapy
• Education Policy
• Inclusive Education

Background:

• Alternative service delivery models are needed for children with communication difficulties in underserved areas.
• Schools possess unique resources that can be leveraged for communication support.
• The Maldives, a Majority World country, faces challenges in providing adequate support for these children.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the current support for early years children with communication difficulties within the Maldivian education sector.
• To identify opportunities for enhancing communication support in schools.

Main Methods:

• A qualitative multimethod approach was employed.
• Data collection included 520 minutes of classroom observations in four remote schools.
• Interviews were conducted with four special education needs teachers and one Ministry of Education official.

Main Results:

• The existing support system aimed to align with the Maldives' Inclusive Education Policy.
• Concerns were raised about the scarcity of allied health services, such as speech-language therapy.
• Teachers frequently utilized imitation, but opportunities for modeling language and child-led interaction were limited, with fewer resources in Grade 1 and 2 classrooms compared to preschool.

Conclusions:

• Findings indicate a need to build teacher capacity in specific classroom communication support strategies.
• Training teachers on identified areas can enhance the support provided to children with communication difficulties.