• Differences in children with Autism with co-existing Intellectual Disability VS High functioning Autism VS Asperger’s
• Importance of understanding parental mental health
• Using the Developmental Behavior Checklist (DBC, copyrighted) developed by Prof. Bruce Tonge and Prof. Stewart Einfeld @ Monash to figure out what behaviors the child presents with (since it’s such a broad bunch of children we’re talking about) and how that might change over time (secondary to development and intervention). This checklist is now being published by Western Pyschological Services (WPS) so peeps in the US might start seeing more of this soon.

They also directed us to really useful fact sheets that parents and even teachers or specialists like me could find helpful as a quick introduction to autism and the different topics (even controversial ones, like vaccinations). The biggest learning point for me was the importance of parental mental health in these families. I’m not yet a parent, and can’t even fathom the big responsibilities that come with parenting typically developing children, let alone children with a disability.

This really made me think hard about paying attention to parents of the children or clients I see – how are they coping? Are they trying to balance their lives and taking care of their own health? This can really affect the child’s performance in speech therapy as well as home follow up. We live in a culture that is so fearful of being invasive and therefore, unless you’re a psychologist or a counselor, or you really know the parents VERY well, you don’t normally ask too much about the parent’s health. I tend to guess from cues like dressing, facial cues, etc., but spending 5 minutes chatting with the parent could give you some very helpful information and with that, direct them to the appropriate source of help if necessary.

Another big thing was using this behavior checklist which looks SO USEFUL. Especially from an SLP’s perspective when planning social/pragmatics/language therapy to achieve the behavioral outcomes we would work on. What do people think? What sorts of checklists do you use? How do you approach parents?

Speech and langauge pathology, also known as speech and language therapy in some countries, is the study of disorders that affect one’s speech and language communicative abilities as well as ways to treat and rehabilitate these speech and language delays and disorders. In recent years, Speech and Language Pathologists (SLPs) have also expanded the scope of practice to include dysphagia (swallowing disorders). SLPs are trained to assess and treat children and adults in:

• Speech (articulation/phonological disorders)
• Language
• Stuttering
• Voice
• Swallowing

SLPs often find a niche population to work with upon graduating. Some examples are:

• Speech and language disorders in school age population
• Children with special needs (E.g., Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation, Down Syndrome, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Autism, Fragile X, Williams Syndrome)
• Children with cleft lip/and palate
• Early intervention (0-3 year olds)
• Hard of hearing population
• Adults with aphasia
• Tracheostomy
• Head and neck cancer patients

Obviously this is not an extensive list but it’s a start especially if you are a prospective student or even a new graduate like me; it’s never too early to start thinking about which area(s) you would like to specialize in and start gaining the appropriate experience(s).

Personally, I haven’t quite worked out which area(s) to settle in to…I started out in grad school with the intention of only working with school age population, but I have recently started doing part time work with early intervention and am really enjoying it. I also really enjoyed working in hospitals with post stroke patients on language and dysphagia rehab. But for now, I am working with school age kids on the week days and am loving it. The children crack me up all the time, even the most “difficult” ones. There also appears to be a great demand for SLPs specializing in kids with autism, a population I have started to grow fond of as well. I’m keeping my options open…but I also have to remember to try to focus.