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Different
Models Lead to Different Recommendations
by Valerie Johnston, MS, CCC-SLP
Parents
often ask why speech/language therapy for their child is not recommended by
speech-language pathologists (SLPs) who work the public schools, while it is by
SLPs who work in private practices. The
answer is that speech-language-pathologists who work in the schools and those
who work in private practices follow different models to make decisions about
whether intervention is necessary.
SLPs
who work in school districts must follow
an educational model to determine if therapy is necessary. This means that in order for them to
recommend speech therapy for a child, the disorder must interfere with the
child’s performance in an educational setting.
On
the other hand, private practitioners follow a medical model for deciding if
treatment is needed. This allows them to
take a broader view of the disorder and evaluate how it is impacting all areas
of the child’s life, not just performance in an educational setting.
So,
it is the difference in the diagnostic criteria used by these two groups of
SLPs that sometimes leads to differing opinions about whether a child has a
speech or language disorder. Neither
view is right or wrong; they are just different ways of determining if
intervention is warranted.
If you have questions or need more information you can contact us at:
Overton
Speech & Language Center, Inc.
4763 Barwick Drive, Suite 103
Fort Worth, TX 76132
(817) 294-8408