Joining Forces for Effective Treatments

Published: 06 Dec 2018 Tagged: medical specialtymultidisciplinaryparentspartnershipSLPSpeakablespeech language pathologistSpeech Pathologyspeech therapytask force

In a medical environment, it is usually common to see different specialists joining forces to offer a holistic solution to a patient, treating not only one symptom but the whole issue. When partnerships like these happen, the effectiveness of treatments is multiplied, as well as the confidence of the patient towards the expected results. In order to help you have more parameters to analyse effective partnerships, here are our tips to identify and select the most qualified and effective speech and language pathologists, or SLPs.

The first characteristic to mention is the child-friendly trait: the SLP is highly capable of making a child comfortable at the room to practice the activities during the session and is always focused on understanding the child’s interests and conditions which trigger their learning.

Secondly, the SLP’s experience and knowledge must make not only the child and their family feel confident that the used approaches, techniques and methodologies are up-to-date and perfectly in line with the patient’s needs. It’s important for parents and carers to discuss these approaches with the SLP regularly in order to achieve expected results.

Finally, the SLP must be aware of the parents’ and carers’ relevance for the child, placing them as partners in the whole process instead of only making them repeaters of activities. When SLPs and parents/carers make decisions together and extend the activities beyond the sessions, that is a really good sign of a professional SLP.