About the community

Join Our Discussion!

For this ASIP topic cycle, we’re exploring how we support, collaborate and offer meaningful assessment and intervention for individuals who do not use speech to communicate. 

We’ll be discussing the different kinds of non-speaking clients whom you may encounter in your practice, including:

  • - Individuals with cognitive disabilities or learning disabilities

  • - Very young children who have not yet developed speech

  • - People who used to use speech but now can’t speak due to, for example, dementia or brain trauma

  • - Individuals who, in certain circumstances, find it too overwhelming to use speech effectively (situational mutism)

  • - Individuals who can speak but find it more comfortable or effective to use an alternative way to communicate, such as written or electronic communication forms

  • - People who have physical difficulties and use devices like alternative and augmentative communication

  • - People whose language is a non-speech language, for example, deaf clients who use a manual visual language

Do you have any other examples of clients that you work with who do not use speech to communicate?

We’re interested in sharing how we support and engage these clients in, for example, collaborative goal-setting and choice-making.

Do the pace and engagement required by communicating without speech bring advantages to sessions? What are the aspects of ASI Fidelity which make SI practitioners well-trained to support in this area?

Bring us your questions and suggestions! 

Whether your comments are inspired by the papers shared in this topic’s Journal Club, the real-world examples shared in the Skills Group, provoked by some of the curated resources we’ve gathered for you or the SI on the Fly podcast, or your own clinical experiences, we would love to hear from you.

(X) ASIP Mar-Apr 2023: Supporting Non-Speaking Clients

  • 17 members
  • 27 posts
  • Free

Join in the Community Discussion Today!