ACQ Vol 12 No 2 2010

Working with families

From the president Christine Stone

This issue of ACQuiring Knowledge in Speech, Language and Hearing turns the spotlight on these families and challenges us to explore how we best partner with them as they undertake critical therapeutic roles and deal with significant personal challenges. And what demanding responsibilities these families shoulder. Whether as a therapist, a communication partner, a source of accurate case history information, an advocate, or a consumer of our services, their skilled and active engagement is pivotal to successful therapy outcomes. The articles within encourage us all to “walk a mile in their shoes” and to evaluate our therapeutic practice from their perspective. They challenge us to critically appraise the effectiveness of some time-honoured practices and to seek new and innovative models with the family at the centre. I hope you will draw inspiration from the articles about the amazing families we all have the privilege of working with.

What a complex, critical, and diverse role families play in communication across our lifespan. They witness and facilitate our first communication attempts, catalogue our progress, share our secrets, our struggles, and our triumphs, recognise and celebrate our idiosyncratic style, and participate in so many of the myriad social exchanges that make up our lives. Whatever our role(s) – parents, siblings, life partners, children - families are as central to communication as communication is to families. We know that when one family member experiences difficulty with communication, the impacts are felt throughout the family unit. It is families that grapple with the potential diminishment of social, vocational, and relationship opportunities and with their own personal grief, isolation, and loss of relationship. At the same time, they are often asked to take on a range of vitally important roles for which they may feel ill-equipped.

Christine Stone

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ACQ Volume 12, Number 2 2010

ACQ uiring knowledge in speech, language and hearing