• Speech

    Shayna Wilkers and Jessica Penza are Thomas Jefferson’s Speech/Language Specialists. Our program helps children with various communication difficulty in articulation (speech sounds), language, listening, fluency (stuttering) and voice.Children are identified as eligible for speech and language services through screenings, teacher referrals and parental requests.

    There are two models of therapy provided to the students:

    1. In-class speech lessons, where the speech specialist works in the classroom with all students, targeting the speech students’ specific needs and collaborating with the classroom teacher to reinforce classroom activities.

    2. Traditional pull-out speech lessons where the child leaves his or her classroom for thirty minutes one or more times per week to work in a small group setting on specific speech or language goals.

    All speech students receive status letters specifying day, time, type of therapy, and basic information concerning the child’s program.

    At the end of each year all parents are invited to annual review conferences to review the year’s progress and plan their children’s goals for the coming school year.