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mike_cole@useyourwordsspeech.com
6/13/2016 12:30 PM
The involvement of parents and caregivers in speech therapy sessions
is one of the larger components of my therapy practice. It is actually part of the intake information
I hand to the families that they review and sign. With any speech language therapy issue from
articulation to language to those with complex communication needs, I have
found involving the families has greatly improved outcomes.
I think this takes on an added layer of importance when
dealing with augmentative and alternative communication. This is because we are utilizing tools that
families and caregivers are at varying levels of acceptance and comfort to use
with their children or loved ones. AAC
is also something that really takes all of those around the individual to
participate to implement successfully.
Without family/caregiver participation, I find what usually happens is
the AAC tools become associated with, “speech time,” and not carried across
during the week.
For families who are transitioning from another speech
therapy setting to begin seeing me or from a school setting, I often ask, “What
has your son or daughter been working on?”
Many times, the answer is, “I don’t know.” Or I ask how the communication tool is being
used with their child and the answer is, “I don’t know.” There are a myriad of factors that can go
into this such whether parents/families being, ready and available emotionally to
participate, the availability of individuals to attend therapy sessions, and the
comfort of clinicians to involve others in the therapy sessions. The nature of the school setting being
separate from the home setting makes participation and collaboration between
the two very difficult.
Including the families/caregivers as partners during the
sessions is a crucial piece to long term success of the clients. However, this can also be a difficult
task. I have had colleagues tell me; “I
can get much more done during a therapy session and be more focused when
working with just the individual.” While
this may be true, the effectiveness of the therapy session tends to stay in
within that session rather than expanding outward.
Including families/caregivers in therapy sessions also opens
us up to some very uncomfortable conversations due to the nature of describing
disabilities, or families/caregivers being at varying levels of acceptance
regarding the needs of their loved one.
This too can make collaboration difficult and many times results in
therapy sessions being more separate.
However, these are some of the most important times to push through and
include those working with the family member.
I look forward to continued discussion this week and hearing
some of the successes, hurdles, anecdotes, and questions related to the
inclusion of and collaboration with families/caregivers of those we serve. This is a great community and hopefully this
will facilitate learning from each other.
I also look forward to responding with my experience and helping you as
much as I can.
Some guiding questions to get us started may be:
1. Do you currently include family members/caregivers in your work with individuals? Why/Why not?
2. What are some hurdles you have found to this?
3. What successful ways have you found to collaborate?
4. Are there unique situations where some creative solutions have had to be used that you can share?
5. How has collaboration affected progress of your clients?
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I totally agree with your ideas, Mike. I think that family members should be equal partners in both assessment and intervention, to the extent that is feasible.
charity.rowland@gmail.com - 6/14/2016
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I agree that the best outcomes occur,with parent participation in therapy. That said, our billing systems and our training usually are built around d a medical model, assuming that the therapist provides direct hands-on intervention to "treat" the communication disorder. It has been helpful to establish guidelines for roles and responsibilities in therapy --sometimes, the parent can model an activity from home, and I'll imitate it, adding ideas to expand the interaction or model new language. Sometimes, I'll take the leadership role, with the parent imitating or with the.parent prompting the child to talk about an activity that the chold did with me.some parents like 6o build memory boxes or experience stories that the child brings to therapy sessions to share. But we must establish roles before working together so we are not overwhelming the child with too much input from multiple adults .
We often don't include parents because we aren't sure what to do ourselves, and we are not confident enough to tell the parents this,and to problem solve with them as partners. ..we don't want to give up our expert persona and admit we don't have,all the answers.
Linda Hagood - 6/14/2016
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Linda Hagood - 6/14/2016
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Linda Hagood - 6/14/2016
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Linda Hagood - 6/14/2016
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The only way I know that he wants something is because he fusses or whines when he's unhappy or uncomfortable, and he smiles, makes noises or calms down when he's happy and comfortable. Does this statement describe your child?
She doesn't come to me to let me know what she wants, but it's easy for me to figure out, because she tries to do things for herself. She knows what she wants, and her behavior shows me what she wants. If she runs out of something to eat, she will just try to get more, rather than trying to get me to give her more.
Does this statement describe your child?
He knows how to get me to do something for him. He uses some of the kinds of behaviors below to communicate:
Does this statement describe your child?
Each question you will see is related to a certain message that your child might be able to express using a variety of behaviors. Read the question and decide whether your child is able to express the message described using any of the listed behaviors. If the answer is YES, then you must also decide whether your child has mastered the use of each behavior or whether it is still at an emerging stage. Check either the mastered or emerging box next to any behaviors your child uses to express the message. Use the following definitions to decide whether a behavior is mastered or emerging
– Does this independently most of the time when the opportunity arises
– Does this in a number of di erent contexts, and with di erent people
– Does this inconsistently
–
Only does this when prompted or encouraged to do so. Only does this in one or two contexts or with one person.
Each question you will see is related to a certain message that your child might be able to express using a variety of behaviors. Read the question and decide whether your child is able to express the message described using any of the listed behaviors. If the answer is YES, then you must also decide whether your child has mastered the use of each behavior or whether it is still at an emerging stage. Check either the mastered or emerging box next to any behaviors your child uses to express the message. Use the following definitions to decide whether a behavior is mastered or emerging
