Comparison of Ten Interventions for a 7-year-old with Unintelligible Speech

The management of speech impairment of unknown origin in children requires SLPs to make important clinical decisions around assessment, analysis, diagnosis and intervention. Ideally, clinicians should be guided in their decision making by evidence. Over thirty years ago, this was a relatively straightforward task. Most children’s speech problems were assessed, analysed and treated from an articulation perspective. Since the paradigm shift from articulation to phonology, clinical decision making has become more challenging. This challenge is in part due to the increase in possible approaches. This short course will outline the application of ten intervention approaches to one child and will conclude with a description and outcomes of one intervention approach Internationally recognized phonologists and speech researchers will present ten intervention approaches for Jarrod, a seven-year-old boy with highly unintelligible speech. Each theoretical framework will be outlined, followed by relevant methods of assessment and recommendations for intervention based on analysis data. Videos of the child during assessment will be shown to help participants understand his speech sound system. The intervention that was implemented will be summarized and results will be provided. Participants in this session will have opportunities to compare major phonological evaluation and intervention approaches currently being used in Australia, America, Canada, and England

A day in the life of a home care physical therapist

At 8:15 a.m., Kait, a home care physical therapist, begins her Friday. With coffee in one hand, her phone in the other, and a laptop on the table she organizes her day. “I synchronize my laptop to get updated patient information and check voice mail for any changes in my schedule. The first thing I do is prepare a list of telephone calls and visits that need to be made.” Kait calls her patients and confirms windows of time when she expects to visit. With her to-do lists written, she is off to her first visit