Williams, A.L. (2002). Prologue: Perspectives in the assessment of children’s speech. American
Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 11, 211-212.
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Main Point: The purpose of this article is to inform speech-language pathologists and students studying speech-language pathology of the importance of theory in assessment and treatment of phonological disorders. The hope is that this will lead to more efficacious treatment. |
Relevance: This article is relevant to the field of speech-language pathology because the author discusses the positive outcomes of using theory to prepare for assessment and the underlying treatment goals that would follow. By using theory to develop the assessment the clinician is providing a more efficacious assessment that will help in the development of treatment for the disorder. |
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Concepts: The concepts in this article are that intervention is rooted in assessment and using theory to guide assessment will provide for a more efficacious treatment. |
Connections: I recently evaluated a child that has a moderate-severe phonological disorder. After reading this article, I feel the assessment would have been more beneficial if I would have started by looking at theory and developing my assessment in that way. Developing the goals for therapy after the assessment was a task due to the amount of phonological processes the child used. Using a theory to develop my assessment would have helped me in developing the goals of therapy, and therefore would have provided me with more of an idea of an intervention plan. I feel that the next time I evaluate a child with a phonological disorder I will develop my assessment based on a theory. |
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Summarize: The author of this article emphasizes the importance of basing assessment and treatment on theory. By doing this clinicians will be able to provide more efficacious treatment, which is the goal of our profession. The author tells the reader by basing the assessment on theory we will be able to build stronger evidence as to why and which is the best and most efficacious assessment and treatment approach. |
Confusions: For me theory has always been abstract and somewhat confusing. I think to be able to use the approach the author calls for the clinician must understand the theory. What could we as practicing clinicians do to better understand and use theory in assessment and treatment? |
