Impaired communication is a fundamental characteristic of autism.
This area of difficulty manifests itself differently across the autism spectrum and between people with autism spectrum disorders. Impaired areas of speech and language that may be treated include:
- Receptive and Expressive language
- Articulation
- Pragmatics
Providing consistent therapeutic approaches to these problems is the task of the Speech-Language Pathology Department. The department is located within Autism Services’ Education Program, where Clinicians deliver direct-therapy services to school-age children (5-21) in accordance with the students’ Individualized Education Programs (IEP).
Speech-Language Pathologists serve as part of individual treatment teams by:
- Attending team meetings
- Participating in CSE (committee on special education) meetings
- Consulting with parents, teachers and therapists from other disciplines
- Working cooperatively within the interdisciplinary team
Speech-Language Therapy contributes to be the agency’s global objective to assist each person in increasing their functional independence. This contribution is made by:
- Developing goals that target improvement in specific need areas that are identified in speech-language assessments.
- Individualizing approaches to communicative problems.
- Obtaining and supporting use of assistive, augmentative communication devices (PECS, Dynamyte, Chat, PC, etc.).
- Supporting generalization of communication skills across environments.