Preparing Students to Understand and Honor Families as Partners

Abstract

Parent to Parent of Vermont, WinooskiAs service providers, speech-language pathologists are in the midst of a transition from the "expert" model of intervention to forming partnerships with families and serving as resources. Although the shift from client-centered to family-centered service delivery is underway, little information has been made available on steps being taken at the pre-service training level to accomplish this change and the success of such efforts. This paper describes an innovative approach to preparing speech-language pathology students to be family centered in their professional interactions and service delivery. Over a 4-year period, 41 students embarking on their first semester of clinical training were paired with families of children with special needs for a family visit of 2 to 4 hours in length. The components of the training included previsit classroom exercises focused on personal values clarification and language sensitivity, visit orientation for the students and families, a family visit, journal writing by students about the visit experience, and post-visit class discussion of the visit experiences and learning outcomes. Pre-and post-measurement of students' attitudes regarding a family's role in intervention reflected a statistically significant change in students' responses to questionnaire items. The students' responses indicated an increase in family-centered attitudes and demonstrated the effectiveness of this approach in shaping those attitudes.

Preparing Speech-Language Pathologists as Family-Centered Practitioners in Assessment and Program Planning for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…10,19,24 It is a way of being. 10,13 Impact for Children with Disabilities Families who have children with disabilities usually are involved in their children's lives across their lifespan. 25 They are the most consistent members on any team that serves children with disabilities 15 as service provider turnover is high, usually occurring annually.…”

“…8,28,32 Becoming a true partner with families requires that SLPs participate in comprehensive training in family-centered care. 10,13 The next section describes innovative training programs that have family-centered care at its core.…”

“…This transformation can only be created when certain essential elements of family-centered training exist within preservice educational programs. 10,13 ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF FAMILY-CENTERED TRAINING Family-centered values and principles must be embedded in all aspects of the curriculum in preparing health professionals, 26,37 special educators, and teachers. 38 Families must be involved early on in the preparation of service providers, both in the classroom and in the families' own homes.…”

“…38 Families must be involved early on in the preparation of service providers, both in the classroom and in the families' own homes. 10,13 Partnerships with families are predicated on the understanding that both families and providers are engaged in a relationship whereby each learns from the other. 36 Therefore, university programs must incorporate ''family faculty'' to teach alongside their regular faculty.…”

“…8,10,12 The family-centered philosophy must become the foundation upon which SLPs base their thinking and clinical decision-making. 13 Students' professional attitudes and values are to a great extent formed during their professional preparation. Therefore, preparing SLPs as family-centered practitioners in program planning and intervention for children affected by autism is best begun in their preservice education.…”