Six hours a day. That's roughly how long a school-aged child spends inside a classroom, using communication in more demanding ways than almost any other setting in their life. Now compare that to the 30 or 60 minutes a week they might spend with a speech pathologist. It's pretty clear where most of the real-world practice has to happen — and why the relationship between their teacher and their speech pathologist matters so much. (For more on why session frequency alone isn't the whole story, see our article on therapy dosage and intensity.)
Children don't just need to learn a new sound or a new sentence structure in a therapy session — they need to use it in the classroom, on the playground, and in conversations with friends and teachers. That's where the magic of collaboration comes in.
Why Generalisation Is the Real Goal
In speech pathology, we talk a lot about "generalisation" — the ability to take a skill learned in one setting and use it confidently in another. A child might produce a perfect /r/ sound during a therapy activity, but if they can't use it when answering a question in class or chatting with a friend at lunch, the job isn't done yet.
The classroom is where communication matters most for school-aged children. It's where they need to follow instructions, answer questions, tell stories, read aloud, write sentences, negotiate with peers, and express their ideas. If therapy goals aren't connecting to what happens in the classroom, we're missing the biggest opportunity for real-world practice.
What the Research Tells Us
The evidence strongly supports collaboration between speech pathologists and teachers as a key factor in successful outcomes for children with speech and language needs.
Ehren and Ehren (2001) described the speech-language pathologist and teacher as a "collaborative team" and argued that neither professional working alone can adequately address the communication demands of the curriculum. Their work highlights that speech pathologists bring specialist knowledge of language systems, while teachers bring deep understanding of curriculum expectations and classroom dynamics — and children benefit most when these two perspectives are combined.
In Australia, there has been growing recognition of the importance of education-health partnerships. Speech Pathology Australia's position statement on speech pathology in schools emphasises that speech pathologists working alongside educators can support students' access to the curriculum and improve both academic and social outcomes (Speech Pathology Australia, n.d.).
Research by Starling, Munro, Togher, and Arciuli (2012) demonstrated that when teachers were trained in language modification strategies — such as simplifying instructions and using visual supports — students with language difficulties showed measurable improvements in classroom performance. This study, conducted in Australian secondary schools, reinforced the value of building teachers' capacity to support students with communication needs.
Teachers Are Already Doing Much of This
Here's something worth celebrating: most of the "best practice" strategies speech pathologists recommend are strategies great teachers already use. Visual timetables, pre-teaching key words, extra processing time, rephrasing rather than just repeating — these are hallmarks of good teaching and good language support rolled into one. When a teacher knows a child's specific therapy goals, they can point these existing skills at the right targets with very little extra effort.
Across more than a decade working alongside classroom teachers, learning support staff, and teacher aides, the thing I've come to believe most strongly is that many of the teachers I've worked with are doing language-rich teaching already, without realising it has a name. Half my job is naming it, the other half is helping them stretch it a little further for the child who needs it most.
For a practical run-through of the strategies themselves — visual supports, pre-teaching vocabulary, modifying instructions, narrative scaffolding, and supporting social communication in the classroom — see our companion article: Speech Therapy Strategies Teachers Can Use in the Classroom.
The Classroom as a Natural Therapy Environment
One of the most exciting shifts in speech pathology over the past decade is the move towards working within the classroom rather than always pulling children out for individual sessions. Classroom-based therapy allows the speech pathologist to:
- See how the child communicates in their natural environment
- Target skills in real, meaningful contexts (actual classroom tasks rather than worksheets)
- Model strategies for the teacher to continue using after the session
- Reduce the stigma some children feel about being taken out of class
This doesn't mean pull-out therapy isn't valuable — sometimes children need that quiet, focused one-on-one time. But combining both approaches often gives the best results.
How This Partnership Works in Practice
Effective teacher-SLP collaboration doesn't have to be complicated. It might look like:
- A quick conversation at the start of term about the child's goals and what the teacher can do to support them
- Shared documentation — the speech pathologist provides a simple summary of the child's targets and suggested classroom strategies
- Classroom visits — the speech pathologist observes or works alongside the child in the classroom
- Regular check-ins — even a short email or five-minute chat each fortnight to share progress and troubleshoot
- Joint planning — for children with significant needs, the teacher and speech pathologist can plan lessons or activities together
The key is communication. The strongest outcomes happen when the speech pathologist and teacher work as a genuine team. When teachers and speech pathologists are talking to each other regularly, children get consistent support across settings — and that's when the real progress happens.
What Parents Can Do
As a parent, you're the link between school and therapy. Here are a few things you can do to support this partnership:
- Share information — let your child's teacher know they're seeing a speech pathologist, and share any relevant goals or reports (with your therapist's guidance)
- Ask about collaboration — check whether your speech pathologist and teacher are in contact, and encourage it if they're not
- Advocate for your child — if your child needs specific supports in the classroom, speak up. You know your child best
When a child's teacher, speech pathologist, and family are all working towards the same goals, the results are genuinely powerful. If your child is at school and you'd like to explore how we can work together with their teacher, let's start the conversation.
Ready for practical strategies? Read our companion article: Speech Therapy Strategies Teachers Can Use in the Classroom | Brisbane
Alexandra Bouwmeester is a Senior Speech Pathologist (MSPA, CPSP) with over 14 years' school-based experience. She offers mobile speech pathology to families across Brisbane's south side and Logan, helping children generalise their therapy skills.
References
- Ehren, B. J., & Ehren, T. C. (2001). New or expanded roles for speech-language pathologists: Making it happen in the schools. Seminars in Speech and Language, 22(3), 233–243.
- Starling, J., Munro, N., Togher, L., & Arciuli, J. (2012). Training secondary school teachers in instructional language modification techniques to support adolescents with language impairment: A randomised controlled trial. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 43(4), 474–495.
- Speech Pathology Australia. (n.d.). Speech pathologists in education position statement. Speech Pathology Australia.
