Understanding Speech-Language Pathology from the Standpoint of Families: A Systemic Analysis

Kathryn Underwood (), Alice-Simone Balter, Thanya Duvage, Catriona Kollar, Tricia van Rhijn and Michelle Jones
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Kathryn Underwood: School of Early Childhood Studies, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada
Alice-Simone Balter: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON M6J 1H4, Canada
Thanya Duvage: Independent Researcher, Toronto, ON M4C 1B4, Canada
Catriona Kollar: School of Early Childhood Studies, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada
Tricia van Rhijn: Department of Family Relations & Applied Nutrition, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
Michelle Jones: Faculty of Education, Western University, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada

Social Sciences, 2024, vol. 13, issue 12, 1-17

Abstract: The Inclusive Early Childhood Service System (IECSS) project is a longitudinal institutional ethnography that studies disability services in early childhood, and the interactions between these services and other systems, from the standpoint of families. In this paper, we examine speech-language services as part of a system of services and a site of participation for disabled children. We use longitudinal data from annual interviews with 117 informants to map Speech and Language services over the first six years of children’s lives. We report that speech and language pathology (SLP) as a professional discourse holds cultural significance and influences the organization of disabled children and their families. The analysis of the data illustrates the pervasiveness, organizational structure, and governance of speech and language pathology (SLP) in early childhood, leading to professional discourses of childhood and disability in early intervention, preschool, and school-based services which reinforce individualized pathology as the dominant way of understanding development. We discuss how the professional practices of SLP-related services could help to disrupt disabling constructs of childhood development and colonial practices in early childhood disability services. We emphasize how speech and language development emerges in relationship with individuals and socio-political contexts. We suggest possibilities for SLP to operate within community contexts where speech and language services contribute to reducing family workload, increasing the participation of all children, and disrupting ableism in practice.

Keywords: language and communication; disabled children’s childhood studies; systemic ableism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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