What is it about?
Our article is about the long standing practice of CSD dividing up the lifespan population into two broad categories: children and adults and how this binary framework overlooks adolescents, leading to their (unintentional) neglect. To understand how this practice may operate in CSD graduate programs, we reviewed course titles related to language development and disorders across 298 programs to assess if adolescents were specifically mentioned through inclusive language (words) or had their own dedicated courses.
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Why is it important?
The neglect of adolescents in research, teaching, and clinical practice can lead to data interpretations, policies, and programs that don't adequately address the unique needs, experiences, and challenges faced by this age group. The findings from our research demonstrate that adolescents are severely underrepresented in course titles (only 12.08%) and dedicated course offerings (less than 2%) in CSD graduate programs. Our findings mirror previous research suggesting a long history of neglect for this population.
Perspectives
The words or labels we use matter, and when used well, create a common understanding. We hope that CSD graduate programs will become leaders in the CSD field by teaching future SLPs to avoid language habits that may unintentionally lead to neglect and exclusion. Together, we must build adolescents’ inclusion through the power of language.
Dr Kristin M Nellenbach
LaTech University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Words Matter: Reframing Communication Sciences and Disorders Programs' Thinking About Adolescents, Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, April 2024, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA),
DOI: 10.1044/2024_persp-23-00051.
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