9 Incredibly Controversial Topics For Speech Therapists (shhh!)
This post is all about controversial topics for speech
As a speech therapist of 14 years, I have heard so many controversial takes. What is your opinion?
01
Oral Motor Exercises
What were you taught? I was taught that you should only focus on specific speech sounds and words targeted to the client as opposed to oral motor exercises in relation to targeting articulation and phonological disorders.
02
ABA Therapy
...
03
Hand Over Hand Prompting
This one should be left in the past. It does overlap with ABA in the errorless learning portion.
04
"AAC replaces verbal language"
This is not true. Or evidence based. If anything, AAC helps to elicit verbal language by providing a visual, written and auditory cue for the word. If the student has some verbal output I believe best practice (in my humble opinion) is to pair words with a verbal word approximation, gesture or sign.
05
More Speech Is The Best Answer
Sometimes the missing piece is generalization (carry of of skills learned into other settings like the home and community). This can not be achieved by more speech therapy lesson in the classroom. This takes coordination and cooperation from teachers, parents, family members or anyone willing to carry over cues into other settings. This helps the client/student stay accountable when they leave the speech therapy doors.
06
Sensory Integration
Alright occupational therapists (OT's). Hear me out... When a client is not regulated it is harder for them to absorb communication. I do not think this should
07
ABA therapists treating swallowing
Apparently some ABA therapists are treating the behaviors surrounding swallowing (i.e. the environment the student is in and other peripheral details.
08
ASHA Dues
ASHA dues cost about $300 annually. Speech therapists get access to the website, which has evidence based research and they will also track your CEUs (at a cost).
09
Attention Seeking Behaviors
Popular opinion is to ignore the attention seeking behaviors to make them go extinct but I find the opposite works better. Give the attention seeking students special projects, have them hand out papers, give them more attention and usually they settle.
Thanks for reading about controversial topics for speech
Speech therapy tips are served with a side of sarcasm
