Financial Disclosure: Ellen Kester, Ph.D., CCC-SLP. Dr. Ellen Kester is the owner of Bilinguistics and receives a salary. Bilinguistics receives royalty payments for online courses.

Non-Financial Disclosure: Ellen Kester does not have any non-financial relationships to disclose.

Financial Disclosure: Scott Prath, M.A., CCC-SLP is a salaried employee of Bilinguistics. Bilinguistics receives royalty payments for online courses.

Non-Financial Disclosure: Scott Prath does not have any non-financial relationships to disclose.

This presentation was a collaborative conversation between a speech pathologist and a diagnostician/Licensed Specialist in School Psychology (LSSP). Discussion focused on the similarities and differences between the two positions and explored reasons why there may be conflicting testing results. Data from a research study sheds light on the commonalities among referrals that were most appropriate.

Participants will:

Describe similarities and differences between the roles of Diagnosticians/LSSPs and SLPs
List the objectives of each profession’s evaluation process
Understand how to create a framework for evaluating referral packets
Discuss how to improve the quality of referrals received for testing for special education
Time-Ordered Agenda:
05 minutes: Introduction
05 minutes: Professional Responsibilities
05 minutes: Evaluations
05 minutes: Qualification
05 minutes: Referral
05 minutes: Testing for Learning Disabilities
05 minutes: Cognitive Testing
05 minutes: Relationship to Language Tests
05 minutes: Predictive Value of Tests
05 minutes: Review and Concluding Remarks