Department of Special Education, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.
School of Communication Science and Disorders, Florida State University, Tallahassee.
Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2024 Mar 7;33(2):1021-1039. doi: 10.1044/2023_AJSLP-23-00301. Epub 2024 Jan 29.
Family-professional partnerships are important for youth learning to use aided augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). This study examined the family-oriented beliefs and practices of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) working with preschool and school-aged children learning to use aided AAC (aged 3-21 years), specifically during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Participants were 25 SLPs who participated in an individual semistructured interview. Qualitative analysis was used to identify and describe groups of SLPs based on commonalities and differences in their beliefs and practices working with families. The characteristics of SLPs in each group was also explored descriptively (e.g., race/ethnicity, work setting, caseload).
SLPs clustered into three groups based on their beliefs and practices: (a) professionally centered, (b) family-allied, and (c) family-focused. SLPs varied across these groups in how they planned services, offered training/coaching, communicated, shared resources, offered emotional support, and adapted to and with different families.
Findings indicate the need to support greater family-centeredness in AAC services by building on the strengths of SLPs in the field. Promoting strong family-professional partnerships could in turn improve outcomes for students who use AAC.
家庭与专业人士的合作对于青少年学习使用辅助性增强和替代沟通（AAC）至关重要。本研究考察了从事学前和学龄儿童使用辅助性 AAC（年龄 3-21 岁）的言语语言病理学家（SLP）的以家庭为导向的信念和实践，特别是在 COVID-19 大流行期间。
参与者为 25 名 SLP，他们参加了一次单独的半结构化访谈。使用定性分析根据 SLP 在与家庭合作时的信念和实践的相似性和差异性，识别和描述 SLP 群体。还描述性地探讨了每个群体中 SLP 的特征（例如，种族/族裔、工作环境、病例量）。
根据他们的信念和实践，SLP 分为三组：（a）专业为中心，（b）以家庭为盟友，和（c）以家庭为重点。在服务计划、提供培训/指导、沟通、资源共享、提供情感支持以及适应和与不同家庭合作方面，SLP 群体之间存在差异。
研究结果表明，需要在该领域 SLP 的优势基础上，为 AAC 服务提供更多以家庭为中心的支持。促进强有力的家庭与专业人士的合作关系反过来可以改善使用 AAC 的学生的结果。
