An Investigation of Sex-Bias in Classroom Teachers' Speech and Language Referrals

Kindergarten through sixth grade classroom teachers in four school districts completed questionnaires designed to determine whether they would be more likely to refer a boy than a girl with an identical communication disorder. The teachers were found to be equally likely to refer a girl as a boy who presented a disorder of articulation, language, or voice, but they were more likely to refer a boy for speech-language remediation who presented the disorder of stuttering. The tendency for the teachers to allow the sex of a child to influence their likelihood of referral for stuttering remediation, to overlook a sizeable percentage of children with chronic voice disorders, and to be somewhat inaccurate generally in their referrals suggests that teacher referrals are best used as an adjunct to screening rather than as a primary procedure to locate children with communication disorders.

The Influence of Categories of Cumulative Folder Information on Teacher Referrals of Low-achieving Children for Special Educational Services

Artificial cumulative folders were constructed, each purporting to reference a fourth grade boy with average ability but low academic achievement. The eight folders factorially varied three categories of information: presence or absence of comments concerning previous misbehavior, race (black or white), and parents’ educational level (some high school or postsecondary). A random sample of 104 central North Carolina elementary teachers examined the folders and recorded various recommendations regarding the kind of outside-class educational help that would be appropriate for a child. The most influential category information was comments concerning misbehavior. With negative behavioral comments, teachers judged a child more likely to need special educational help, more time in a resource room, and special forms of help. Although complicated by interactions, the general pattern was to expect more favorable educational progress and less need for special help for blacks and for children of less educated parents than for whites or children of well educated parents.

Accuracy of Teacher Referrals of Speech Handicapped Children

This study investigated the ability of 30 third grade teachers to identify speech handicapped children and the extent to which this ability was related to the type and/or the severity of the speech problem. Results indicated that classroom teachers identified approximately two out of five children with speech problems; however, teachers referred four out of five children whose speech problems were severe enough to warrant therapy. The percentage of accurate referrals tended to rise as the severity of the disorder increased. These results, when considered with those obtained in similar studies, may be interpreted two ways: (a) teachers consistently fail to identify a large percentage of speech handicapped children, and (b) therapists' judgments as to what constitutes a speech problem are unnecessarily severe.