How and Why to Involve Parents of Adult Clients

I’ve been working with adults with developmental disabilities for as long as I’ve been practicing as a speech-language pathologist, which is more than 15 years. I treated many adults with complex communication needs and other significant speech and language difficulties. I recommended communication systems and trained these adults to use their systems efficiently with all communication partners. Throughout these experiences, I found parent involvement significantly different from working with children or teens. Why is this? I discovered a variety of reasons including the older age of parents who perhaps moved away or live in a different residences. Of course, when a parent does accompany your adult client to a session, it’s easy to collaborate. However, when a parent isn’t there, it’s up to us to seek their involvement and learn the valuable information they can share. Even if the client lives in a group home, I feel parent collaboration remains key to success in treatment. Below, I list some ideas on how to get parents of adult patients involved and why you should go to the effort. Empower parents: Parents are parents regardless if their child is 5 or 45. For about two years, I worked with a nonverbal adult and when I met him, he used an inefficient communication system. This communication system used symbols without meaning for him and he got no support through communication treatment. This led to significant behavior issues in the day program and at home. Once ...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech Therapy Authors: Tags: Speech-Language Pathology Augmentative Alternative Communication Autism Spectrum Disorder Language Disorders Speech Disorders Source Type: blogs