Speak Out June 2017

Professional practice

The difficulties, disorder, disability dilemma Time for confidence and consistency in providing children with a diagnosis

your broken leg was a sprain. After days/months of not being able to walk around, or sleep and in pain you insist on an x-ray and it is found that you have a break. That is what often happens for parents of children with a language or speech sound disorder. They are told their child is delayed or has a difficulty in a particular area but for a variety of reasons it sometimes takes years (if ever) before their child is diagnosed with a disability. “We saw an audiologist and ENT repeatedly from when [my son] was 5, and then a psychologist for behaviour problems for a while, but he wasn’t referred to a speech pathologist until he was 11” (Client interviewed for Speech Pathology 2030). Now I know the diagnostic process isn’t as simple as having an x-ray, but I also have tremendous confidence that speech pathologists can, and do, have the necessary skills to conduct a differential diagnosis. Or, as is often the case with very young children, report on the difficulties observed, implement some form of intervention, and then review progress as part of the diagnostic process. It is essential that clients are informed of all of the possibilities as you work through the process. Trust me – having been told “not to worry” by a health professional “until we know the results of a test” didn’t make me worry less but made me

SPEECH PATHOLOGY AUSTRALIA recently made a commitment to support the use of the terminology, “development language disorder” and “language disorder”, as proposed by the CATLISE Consortium*. There is no question that consistency of terminology is needed. A dilemma speech pathologists may face is labelling young children with a disorder and hence a disability. As a profession we need to be confident in our diagnostic abilities, consistent in the reporting of a diagnosis and clear as to why we need to be diagnosing children with a disorder/disability. Let’s start with “why?” At its best, speech pathology practice is life-changing. Time and time again, as part of the Speech Pathology 2030 project, clients who had received ideal speech pathology practice told Speech Pathology Australia what a profound positive impact it had on their lives. Interviewees also stressed that they wanted choice and control and for their values, needs and goals to be central to the assessment, diagnostic, and therapeutic process. Our clients deserve accuracy and the truth Yes, no parent wants to hear that their child has a disability and of course you don’t want to be the one to provide them with that news, but imagine if you went to the GP and they told you that

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June 2017 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

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