Year
2022Credit points
10Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unitPrerequisites
SPHY100 Communication and Development Across the Lifespan
Teaching organisation
150 hours of focused learningUnit rationale, description and aim
Speech is a designated Range of Practice Area (RoPA) that speech pathology students are expected to demonstrate competency within in order to meet Entry Level requirements into the profession. Thus, having the capacity to manage children with speech sound disorders such as phonological disorders, articulation disorders, motor speech disorders, and structural disorders is a key aspect of Speech Pathology practice. This unit will provide students with the theoretical knowledge, technical skills, and clinical reasoning skills to enable them to provide evidence-based management (assessment, analysis, diagnosis, intervention, discharge) of speech disorders originating in childhood, that for some, continue across the lifespan. This unit will emphasise the client as an individual and the effect that the speech sound disorder can have on an individual's participation in their world. As such, this aim of this unit is to contribute to the development of the skills required by students under Speech Pathology Australia's Competency-based Occupational Standards (CBOS) by providing a theoretical base that ensures successful preparation for future professional practice in the area of child speech disorders.
Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:
LO1 - Generate assessment plans for speech disorders using principles of evidence based practice, person-centred practice and culturally responsive practice (GA5, GA8, GA9).
LO2 - Apply their theoretical knowledge of typical speech development and speech disorders, to analyse and interpret assessment data to complete a diagnosis of speech disorder (GA5, GA8, GA9).
LO3 - Generate intervention plans for speech disorders using principles of evidence based practice, person-centred practice and culturally responsive practice (GA5, GA8, GA9).
LO4 - Demonstrate evidence-based speech pathology interventions for speech disorders (GA5, GA8, GA9).
Graduate attributes
GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession
GA8 - locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information
GA9 - demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media
Content
Topics will include:
Knowledge:
- Working collaboratively in teams
- the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health (ICF)
- Evidence based practice, person centred practice, and culturally responsive practice as applied to the management of speech disorders (assessment, analysis, intervention and discharge)
- Epidemiology of speech disorders
- Person-centred care
- Typical speech development
- Theories of speech development
- Classification systems of speech disorders
- Speech disorders of unknown origin versus organic origin
- General principles of assessment and intervention in speech
- Outcome measures in speech disorders
Skills:
- Assessment
- Taking a case history
- Oromotor assessment
- Screening and assessment tools
- Assessing single words versus connected speech
- Assessing stimulability, intelligibility, and variability/ inconsistency
- Assessing syllable structures and stress patterns
- Analysis and Interpretation
- Analysing speech samples (independent and relational analysis)
- Determining a differential diagnosis (e.g., severity, classification)
Intervention
- Selection of intervention targets: clinical decision making
- Selection and application of evidence based intervention approaches
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
Using a blended learning strategy, students will explore the essential knowledge underpinning the assessment and intervention of developmental speech disorders via a combination of lecture content and interactive face-to-face tutorials and workshops.
Lectures materials are primarily utilised to deliver core-teaching material. Delivering material in a lecture format allows for the rapid coverage of key factual information that students require in order to commence their understanding of developmental speech disorders.
Tutorials and workshops will include small group, collaborative learning with students engaging in active discussion and application of the theoretical unit content of developmental speech disorders. This will allow students to learn and practice technical and clinical reasoning skills required for clinical practice within a supported and safe teaching space. Case and inquiry-based learning will be utilised to allow students to better understand and explore the diagnostic and management processes required when working with individuals with speech disorders of a developmental nature. Learning activities within tutorials and workshops will be constructively aligned with the assessment tasks, in that students will have the opportunity to practice the technical skills, clinical reasoning skills, and communication skills required for the assessment tasks using parallel cases in tutorials and workshops. Tutorials and workshops will be face-to-face as ACU speech pathology graduates will be communication experts and likely to work in teams, it is important that students have the opportunity to interact face-to-face in tutorials and workshops and develop negotiation, team work, and oral communication skills.
Assessment strategy and rationale
This unit takes an authentic assessment approach allowing students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in clinically relevant scenarios. The unit requires students to demonstrate their knowledge of technical skills, communication skills, and clinical reasoning skills in the area of developmental speech disorders, and assists them to prepare for professional practice experiences in other units of study.
The test requires students to demonstrate their acquisition of knowledge relating to assessment, analysis, and diagnosis of speech sound disorders in children before they need to apply this in the next assessment task. This assessment targets the Speech Pathology Australia Competency Based Occupational Standards (CBOS) Unit 1: Assessment and Unit 2: Analysis and Interpretation.
The case-study task requires students to demonstrate their capacity to analyse and interpret assessment case data of speech disorders and to begin to identify recommendations for intervention. This assessment targets the CBOS Unit 1: Assessment, Unit 2: Analysis and Interpretation, and Unit 3: Planning evidence-based speech pathology practice.
For the Intervention task students will demonstrate their clinical reasoning skills pertaining to intervention for speech disorders. This task targets the CBOS Unit 3: Planning evidence-based speech pathology practice.
Finally, a hurdle task will allow students to demonstrate technical and communication skills requisite for intervention by conducting a simulated intervention activity, which targets CBOS Unit 4: Implementation of speech pathology practice. Students will be given two attempts at this hurdle.
Overview of assessments
| Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment Tasks | Weighting | Learning Outcomes | Graduate Attributes |
|---|---|---|---|
Test Students demonstrate factual knowledge of Speech Sound Disorders and apply knowledge to case based scenarios. | 30% | LO1, LO2 Occupational 1.2; 2.1; 2.3-2.4; 3.1; 3.4-3.5; 4.3-4.4 Professional 1.1-1.3; 2.2 | GA5, GA8, GA9 |
Case study: Students demonstrate the capacity to analyse, interpret, and explain assessment data for the range of practice area of paediatric Speech. (CBOS 1 & 2) | 50% | LO1, LO2, LO3 CBOS Alignment Occupational 1.1,1.2,2.1,2.4 Professional Occupational 1.1,1.3,2.2 | GA5, GA8, GA9 |
Intervention Task Students demonstrate the capacity to plan intervention for the range of practice area of paediatric Speech (CBOS 4). | 20% | LO3 CBOS Alignment Occupational 3.1-3.3; 3.6; 4.1-4.2 Professional 1.1; 1.3; 2.2 | GA5, GA8, GA9 |
Hurdle Demonstrate capacity to explain and implement intervention for paediatric speech via a simulated activity. | Hurdle | LO4 | GA5,GA9 |
In order to successfully complete this unit, students need to complete and submit all assessments and obtain an aggregate mark of 50% or greater.
Representative texts and references
Bauman-Waengler, J. (2012). Articulatory and phonological impairments: A clinical focus (4th ed.).: Pearson.
Bernthal, J. E., Bankson, N. W., & Flipsen, P. (2017). Articulation and phonological disorders: Speech sound disorders in children (8thed.) Pearson.
Bleile, K.M. (2015). The manual of speech sound disorders: A book for students and clinicians (3rd ed.). Cengage Learning.
Bowen, C. (2015). Children’s speech sound disorders. John Wiley & Sons.
Dodd, B. (2014). Differential diagnosis of pediatric speech sound disorder. Current Developmental Disorders Reports, 1(3), 189-196.
Dodd, B., Hua, Z., Crosbie, S., Holm, A., & Ozanne, A. (2002). Diagnostic evaluation of articulation and phonology. The Psychological Corporation.
Kummer, A. (2014). Cleft palate & craniofacial anomalies: Effects on speech and resonance (3rd ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Cengage Learning.
McLeod, S. & Baker, E. (2017). Children’s speech: An evidence-based approach to assessment and intervention. Pearson.
Williams, A. L., McLeod, S., & McCauley, R. J. (Eds.) (2021). Interventions for speech sound disorders in children.(2nd ed) Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company.