Family-centered services for children with complex communication needs: the practices and beliefs of school-based speech-language pathologists

Abstract

This study used an online focus group to examine the beliefs and practices of school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) who served children with complex communication needs regarding their provision of family-centered services. Participants revealed that despite their desire for family involvement and reported beliefs in the importance of family-centered services, there were barriers in place that often limited family-centered service provision. Across the SLPs, many were dissatisfied with their current provision of family-centered services. The SLPs varied in their reported practices, with some reporting family-centered services and others, professional-centered services. Future research is recommended in order to investigate which factors contribute to the variation among SLPs and how the variation impacts children who require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and their families. Potential clinical implications for in-service and pre-service SLPs are discussed to improve future family-centered AAC services.

Keywords:

• Family-centered services
• focus group
• school services
• augmentative and alternative communication

Acknowledgements

Portions of this article were submitted by the first author in partial fulfillment of PhD requirements at The Pennsylvania State University Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported, in part, by funding from (a) the Penn State AAC Leadership Project, a doctoral training grant funded by U.S. Department of Education grant #H325D110008; and (b) the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (The RERC on AAC), funded by grant #90RE5017 from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation (NIDILRR) within the Administration for Community Living (ACL) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).