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pathology services for children with intellectual disability. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology . DOI: 10.3109/17549500903312107 Crais, E. (1993). Families and professionals as collaborators in assessment. Topics in Language Disorders , 14 (1), 29–40. Crais, E. R., & Belardi, C. (1999). Family participation in child assessment: Perceptions of families and professionals. Infant-Toddler Intervention , 9 (3), 209–237. Crais, E. R., Poston Roy, V., & Free, K. (2006). Parents’ and professionals’ perceptions of the implementation of family-centred practices in child assessments. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology , 15 , 365–377. Donaldson, N., McDermott, A., Hollands, K. Copley, J., & Davidson, B. (2004). Clinical reporting by occupational therapists and speech pathologists: Therapist’s intentions and parental satisfaction. Advances in Speech-Language Pathology , 6 (1), 23–38. Farrell, A. F., O’Sullivan, C., & Quinn, L. (2009). Parent perspectives on early childhood assessment: A focus group inquiry. Early Childhood Services , 3 (1), 61–76. Flynn, M. C., & Parsons, C. L. (1994). A consumer view of computer generated versus traditional assessment reports. Australian Journal of Human Communication Disorders , 22 (1), 24–39. Law, J., & Camilleri, B. (2007). Dynamic assessment and its application to children with speech and language learning difficulties. Advances in Speech-Language Pathology , 9 (4), 271–272. Leitão, S., Scarinci, N., & Koenig, C. (2009). Ethical reflections: Readability of speech pathology reports. ACQuiring Knowledge in Speech, Language and Hearing , 11 (2), 89–91. Paikoff Paikoff Holzmueller, R. L. (2005). Case report – Therapists I have known and (mostly) loved. American Journal of Occupational Therapy , 59 , 580–587. Rahagvendra, P., Murchland, S., Bentely, M., Wake-Dyster, W., & Lyons, T. (2007). Parents’ and service providers’ perceptions of family-centred practice in community-based paediatric disability service in Australia. Child: Care, Health and Development , 33 (5), 586–592. Rosenbaum, P., King, S., Law, M., King, G., & Evans, J. (1998). Family-centred service: A conceptual framework and research review. Physical and Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics , 18 , 1–20. Watts Pappas, N. (2008). Parental involvement in intervention for speech impairment . Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, Australia. Watts Pappas, N., & McLeod, S. (2009) Working with families in speech-language pathology . San Diego, CA: Plural Publishing. Watts Pappas, N., McLeod, S., McAllister, L., & McKinnon, D. (2008). Parental involvement in speech intervention: A national survey. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics , 22 (4), 335–344. Dr Nicole Watts Pappas is the co-editor of ACQ and an adjunct lecturer at Charles Sturt University. Her research has focused on accessing parental views to identify family-friendly approaches to service delivery for SPs. She also works with families as a senior SP at Mt Gravatt Children’s Developmental Service. Dr Watts Pappas is currently extending her research into families; she is conducting her latest study, “the lived experience of being a parent”, while caring for her son on maternity leave. Correspondence to: Nicole Watts Pappas, PhD Co-editor, ACQuiring Knowledge in Speech, Language and Hearing Senior speech pathologist, Mt Gravatt Children’s Developmental Service Adjunct Lecturer, Charles Sturt University email: nwattspappas@hotmail.com

et al. (2004) found that although clinicians may intend to use family-friendly reporting styles, this intention is often not realised in practice. While family-centred practices have been promoted in early intervention it appears that the report- writing practices of SPs and other allied health professionals may have undergone limited change. A number of solutions to this problem are suggested: 1. It is suggested that the use of standard report proformas, in which children’s details are inserted into pre-written documents, may lead to a lack of individualisation of reports and limited consideration of the unique needs of each family. Alternatively, Donaldson et al. (2004) suggested that report guidelines should be established to encourage clinicians to individualise the report for each family. A bank of explanations and information regarding resources could be used to aid SPs; however, it is important that these insertions are individualised for each child. Expanding on Donaldson et al.’s suggestion, a report-writing guideline is presented in this article as a possible method to prompt the SP to gather important information from the family during the assessment and to ensure that the report produced is useful and accessible to families (see appendix 1). This tool could be used in tandem with other tools (such as example reports and banks of information) to ensure that reports are family- friendly while maintaining an individual focus for the recipient family. Applying the report checklist to a selection of previously written reports is suggested as a useful exercise for individual SPs to determine whether they use family-friendly approaches in their report-writing practice. 2. University training programs may need to consider whether SP students are provided with sufficient instruction to produce reports that meet families’ needs. 3. The use of family-friendly reporting practices also requires the support of workplaces. Individual services could consider the use of quality assurance projects to evaluate the reporting practices of clinicians and to identify any barriers to the use of more family-friendly reporting styles. Conclusion Accessing family perceptions and experiences regarding assessment reports is a useful method by which to identify strategies to increase the family-friendliness of SP reports. This review of the literature has indicated that SPs and other allied health professionals may not always use family-friendly practices when writing reports. Family perceptions of assess­ ment reports were synthesised to produce a number of clinical strategies for SPs to consider in their report-writing practice. A report writing guideline has been presented to facilitate SPs use of family-friendly practices in assessment and report- writing. However, changing SPs’ report writing styles may require institutional as well as individual change. An increased focus on the use of family-friendly reporting styles in university training programs and the support of workplaces may also be required to align SPs reporting practices with current models of recommended best practice in early intervention. References Band, S., Lindsay, G., Law, J., Soloff, N., Peacey, N., Gascoigne, M., & Radford, J. (2002). Are health and education talking to each other? Perceptions of parents of children with speech and language needs. European Journal of Special Needs Education , 17 (3), 211–227. Carrigan, N., Rodger, S., & Copley, J. (2001). Parent satisfaction with a paediatric occupational therapy service: A pilot investigation. Physical and Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics , 21 (1), 51–71. Carroll, C. (in press). “It’s not everyday that parents

get a chance to talk like this”: Exploring parents’ perceptions and expectations of speech-language

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