Communication and Imagination
‘Speech pathologist? Why does he need to see a speech pathologist? He has no problems with his speech.’
My mum didn’t quite get it when I told her that one of my sons was having sessions with a speech and language pathologist (SLP).
And I must confess, when we first received my son’s autism diagnosis, and his paediatrician recommended speech pathology sessions as part of his ongoing therapy, I was a bit confused too.
Both of my boys are notoriously chatty and articulate, and have been from a very early age. The only person I knew that had ever had ‘speech therapy’ was one of my cousins, who worked with an SLP when he was a little boy whose speech was very difficult to understand.
It turns out that, like many other people who have had little to do with SLPs, my understanding of the profession was rather narrow.
The work of an SLP is so much broader than ‘correcting’ lisps and stutters. Sitting in on my son’s SLP sessions, I quickly learned that SLPs are experts in communication, in all its forms. They are experts in assessing an individual’s ‘communication challenges’, whether those relate to mastering the mechanics of speech, decoding written language, or understanding the body language and social cues that are such an important part of our conversations with others. They are experts in breaking down these tricky elements of communication into manageable, learnable chunks. They are experts in building positive relationships with their clients, working with skill, patience, compassion and humour to understand and meet each client’s specific needs and goals, however large or small.
When a person has difficulties with communication – whatever those difficulties might look like– they face enormous barriers to being able to be understood, and/or being able to understand others. These barriers have a massive impact on that person’s confidence and wellbeing, especially when ‘everyone else’ seems to be getting along just fine. It can make individuals feel frustrated, isolated and, ultimately, disengaged.
As SLPs have skilfully, patiently, graciously, compassionately worked with my son to help him learn the ‘social thinking’ skills that many of us take for granted in our communications with other people, I have seen him grow enormously in ability to build positive relationships. He’s become a much happier, more confident, young man. It’s so wonderful to see.
In my role working in schools with Story Island, I have seen first-hand how students thrive when they have the skills and confidence to share their stories, and to read, hear and understand the stories of others. But I’ve also seen how painful it is for young people when they don’t have those skills, or that confidence.
Embedding SLPs in schools to work alongside students with speech and language challenges makes so much sense. It allows SLPs to combine their specific skills and evidence-based strategies with those of teachers to more effectively support the needs of students, particularly those who may not have access to private SLP sessions. It empowers these students with the tools they need to master language and literacy, and enjoy success in their wider learning – at school and in later life.
Beyond the classroom, mastery of language and literacy enhances people’s wellbeing and increases their ability to enjoy and participate in the world around them. But there’s more. The ability to communicate clearly, to be understood and to understand others, allows for empathy. Writer Glennon Doyle describes empathy as ‘the magical leap of imagination’; the capacity to ‘see and feel what the “other” might see and feel’. It’s something our broken world needs so much right now.
Kate Gross is Co-founder of The Story Island Project. Kate was a writer/editor at the Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies and has a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Teaching. Kate writes here for the Colleagues @ the Heart of Literacy initiative.