COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on School-Based SLPs, Four Years On
Presentation Type
Poster
Faculty Advisor
Lesley Sylvan
Access Type
Event
Start Date
26-4-2024 9:45 AM
End Date
26-4-2024 10:44 AM
Description
The COVID-19 pandemic greatly disrupted the operation of public schools around the country. As school resumed in the fall of 2020, many educational professionals wondered how the pandemic may impact students and the educational system as a whole. School-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) felt many effects from the pandemic, such as needing to quickly adopt more flexible service delivery methods, manage large caseloads, and grapple with concerns about their and their students’ health. However, four school years have begun since the pandemic. One may wonder, “is everything back to normal again?” The aim of this poster is to present the results of a nation-wide study that probed for school-based SLPs’ experiences and perceptions of the pandemic’s ongoing effects at the beginning of the 2023 school year. It illustrates the ways in which SLPs perceive their work to have returned to “normal” and the ways in which they continue to see lasting impacts. It asked questions regarding how the pandemic continues to impact their approaches to assessment, service delivery, and caseload management as well as questions regarding the pandemic’s impact on student achievement and language development. Because this survey is a follow-up to two previous surveys regarding the impacts of the pandemic, this poster will also endeavor to illustrate the evolution of SLPs’ perceptions over time.
COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on School-Based SLPs, Four Years On
The COVID-19 pandemic greatly disrupted the operation of public schools around the country. As school resumed in the fall of 2020, many educational professionals wondered how the pandemic may impact students and the educational system as a whole. School-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) felt many effects from the pandemic, such as needing to quickly adopt more flexible service delivery methods, manage large caseloads, and grapple with concerns about their and their students’ health. However, four school years have begun since the pandemic. One may wonder, “is everything back to normal again?” The aim of this poster is to present the results of a nation-wide study that probed for school-based SLPs’ experiences and perceptions of the pandemic’s ongoing effects at the beginning of the 2023 school year. It illustrates the ways in which SLPs perceive their work to have returned to “normal” and the ways in which they continue to see lasting impacts. It asked questions regarding how the pandemic continues to impact their approaches to assessment, service delivery, and caseload management as well as questions regarding the pandemic’s impact on student achievement and language development. Because this survey is a follow-up to two previous surveys regarding the impacts of the pandemic, this poster will also endeavor to illustrate the evolution of SLPs’ perceptions over time.