Family-centered Services for Children with ASD and Limited Speech: The Experiences of Parents and Speech-language Pathologists.
Parents of minimally verbal autistic kids report lower levels of family-centered SLP services than SLPs themselves—ask families directly how included they feel.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Mandak et al. (2018) asked parents and speech-language pathologists to rate the same family-centered SLP services.
The survey focused on children with autism who have little or no speech.
Each group filled out questions about how well the SLP team listened, shared decisions, and helped the family join therapy.
What they found
Parents gave lower scores than the SLPs gave themselves on every family-centered item.
The gap was largest on questions like “I feel like part of the team” and “My ideas are used in therapy.”
In short, professionals thought they were doing family-centered work; families disagreed.
How this fits with other research
Houseworth et al. (2018) interviewed parents of minimally verbal autistic kids and heard the same complaint: services feel cold and one-sided.
Rattaz et al. (2014) ran a similar survey in France and also found parents were least happy with communication and involvement—an earlier echo of Kelsey’s gap.
McCauley et al. (2018) asked adults with autism and their families to rate employment services. Again, staff scored themselves higher than families did.
The pattern repeats across countries and life stages: professionals over-rate their own family-centered efforts.
Why it matters
If you serve nonspeaking clients, treat this gap as data. Add one quick question to every parent meeting: “On a 1–5 scale, how much do you feel part of the team?” Write the number in the session note and track it like any other outcome. When the parent number stays low, change the plan before the quarter review.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Although family-centered services have long been discussed as essential in providing successful services to families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), ideal implementation is often lacking. This study aimed to increase understanding of how families with children with ASD and limited speech receive services from speech-language pathologists (SLPs). 99 parents of children with ASD and limited speech and 211 SLPs who served children with ASD and limited speech completed questionnaires measuring their experiences with the provision of family-centered services. Findings revealed that parents and SLPs differed in their views on the degree to which family-centered services were being implemented. Clinical implications and future research directions are discussed in order to promote continued growth in the acquisition of family-centered skills.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2018 · doi:10.1007/s10803-017-3241-y