Don't Let the Quiet, Good Girl Fall Through the Cracks

More often than not, SLPs find themselves evaluating the upper level elementary female student (grades 3-5) for speech and language services. Prior to the assessment, the team has observed that the young lady presents with difficulties in reading comprehension and suspects underlying language difficulties. Through careful assessment, the SLP uncovers that the student presents with expressive and receptive language skills equivalent to a second grader; however, she is sitting in a fourth grade classroom. As the SLP reviews the scores, the SLP asks, "

~"How did she get this far and why was she not flagged for services sooner?"

The SLP is now sitting in an eligibility meeting listening to all team members share insights from assessments and observations. One common theme stands out to the SLP, everyone hails that the female student is a:

"Quiet and well behaved student"

In that moment, the SLP realizes, the quiet, good girl fell through the cracks, and now the same quiet, good girl is preparing to transition to fifth grade with the reading and language skills of a second grader. In a sea of 24-30 students, this female student did not garner attention because she was quiet, well behaved, and did not disrupt order within the classroom.

However, her quietness could have also been a compensatory strategy to camoflauge her language challenges.

Compensatory Strategies

We have to consider that children who present with educational and learning challenges may develop compensatory strategies to either avoid the challenging task (e.g., acting out in order to be removed from the classroom and avoid completing the reading and mathematic assignment) or mask the difficulty (e.g., determining that being quiet and appearing to complete assignments does not garner attention). In a lot of cases, female students choose the latter, and try to become a wallflower in the classroom. Of course when compared to peers who may engage more boisterous and attention seeking behaviors, the quiet female student is the golden child in the classroom. The teacher may not check on her frequently because she appears to be completing the assignment. (It is important to note that I applaud the work of teachers and acknowledge that the oversight of the quiet female student is not intentional, but rather a reality of navigating a large class).

Actionable Steps

Step 1: Complete one-on-one or small group check-ins.

Step 2: Have the quiet, well behaved student read aloud to you and answer comprehension questions to determine if she is able to decode grade level material, comprehend the vocabulary and grammatical structure of the passages, and formulate grade level appropriate responses.

Step 3: If you notice a break down in any of these processes (ability to decode passages, vocabulary and grammatical comprehension, or formulating responses), please reachout to the SLP. SLPS can support reading and writing development. It is part of their scope of practice.

Step 4: Monitor the student's grade. The student who is borderline passing should be closely monitored just as much as the student who is completely failing. It is a matter of time before, the academic demand increases, and the student's weaker system may fail them, which would become apparent in failing grades.

Takeaway

The quiet and well behaved female student could benefit from speech and language services as well. As a team, let us all work together to ensure no student is falling through the cracks and drowning in school as the academic demand increases. We want to ensure that they have a pleasant educational experience.