Why is collaborating with other teachers, or integrating courses or curricula, a matter of importance to you or your students, or to their futures?

It is important to integrate other course work into therapy because it allows for a greater opportunity of generalization. Generalization occurs when a skill is in the final stage of the learning process just before mastery of the skill occurs. When including other course works into therapy students it not only gives students a chance to practice with other course work but they also become aware of their errors they are producing in outside the therapy room. Therapy time is very limited and if we as Speech Language Pathologists can encourage speech and language therapy outside of our room, it will maximize the students learning abilities. One of my professors once told us, “What happens in the therapy room is a big who cares, what happens in the outside if therapy is what’s important.” If we can help students generalize what they are learning in therapy to areas outside of therapy, the student will practice more and learn the skills faster. The faster the students learn the skills, the sooner they will be dismissed and no longer need services.