Poll Shows Need for Raising Awareness of Communication Disorders

May is Better Hearing & Speech Month (BHSM)—a time to celebrate our colleagues and collaborators, our clients and the everyday breakthroughs they make under our care, the latest practice and research advancements in the field, and the professions as a whole. This is also a time to look more broadly—and consider what the public at large knows about communication disorders. In this area, there’s work to do, indicate results of a new poll surveying more than 1,100 ASHA members about early identification—and there likely always will be. For example, 69 percent of poll respondents say parents of young children are not aware of the early warning signs of speech/language disorders. What better time to educate than BHSM? ASHA released the poll results to mark the start of our annual awareness month. Questions covered parents’ awareness about early signs of communication disorders and the benefits of early intervention. Aside from the finding about parental awareness of early warning signs, other interesting results in the “room for improvement” category include: 32 percent state, on average, symptoms of hearing loss go undetected in children for a year or longer. Just 12 percent feel parents generally act within 6 months of first observing signs of a speech-language delay or disorder—and only 20 percent say parents generally act within six months of first indicating concern about their child’s hearing. 70 percent don’t think parents of young children fully ...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Tags: Advocacy Audiology Slider Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: blogs