TC I hear what you say, - but it isn't the Hanan they are doing. It is a course 'based' on Hanan.
I have a meeting tomorrow with no less than 3 SLTs, - LOL to tell them exactly what I want and a phonecall booked with and extremely senior person in the PCT afterwards to feed back.
I have a list of 30 complaints and have created this to back-up what I am saying. It didn't take very long and I bet I could add a million more quotes:
But puting it here for anyone to nick..........
Evidence and research to support what we are saying we need to happen, but which has not been happening to date (a year under the SLT service):
- Targeted support based on need rather than assumptions about asd
? The child?s needs to be viewed holistically, rather than being defined by a diagnosis (Together from the start)
- Parents having a significant role in the therapy
? For professionals to work in partnership with families with parents fully involved in decision making processes affecting the provision of support to their child (Together from the start)
? Engaging parents in the process of children?s learning is integral to them
making good progress. (Lamb Report)
? Positive attitudes to parents, user-friendly information and procedures and awareness of support needs are important. There should be no presumption about what parents can or cannot do to support their children?s learning. (CofP)
? If your child is attending nursery or pre-reception school, the priority of the speech and language therapy is to work with you and your children. This is because your child?s family is the main focus of your child?s life. (Hertsdirect)
? Parents and caregivers are involved from the beginning and are key to the management so they can be supported and have the opportunity to acquire skills and strategies for managing children and adults with ASD. Specialist programmes may be devised targeting areas of need. (RCSLT Resource Manual for Commissioning and Planning services for SLCN 2009 asds)
? Acknowledgement and drawing on parental knowledge and expertise in relation to their child. (TftS)
- Communication with parents
? Good, honest and open communication is key to the development of positive working relationships and requires practitioners who listen to parents and are trusted by them. Parents? confidence in the SEN system and in schools and local authorities in particular, is significantly coloured by the quality of communication with them (Lamb report)
? Good communication is not just better for parents and professionals, it is better for children. In the most successful schools, the effective engagement of parents has an impact on children?s progress (Lamb report)
? Open communication and a culture that values listening to parents are vital. Everyone working with parents of disabled children and children with SEN needs to be prepared to be part of that culture. (Lamb report)
? The speech and language therapist will always discuss and agree with you the aims for your child. (Hertsdirect)
- Availability of information
? To respect the right of the parents to receive comprehensive, accurate information about their child and service provision options(Together from the start) Providing information to families is a key function of service provision. Good information enables families to remain in control as they take decisions about what to do. Difficulty accessing relevant information is positively disempowering in a situation that is often already very stressful (Together from the start).
? A public service, funded to meet public objectives must share, publicly, information on how it goes about its work. (Lamb report)
? Information provision is central to government policy in health and social care. (TftS)
? clarify intended purpose of intervention (CQ3 Section 9.2)
? Parents should be able to access the information that they need, when they need it, in ways that are convenient to them. (Lamb report)
- Therapy given by an appropriately trained therapist with relevant experience and monitoring
? They should demonstrate commitment towards keeping their professional knowledge and skills up to date (Together from the start)
? If a child receives the right help early on, he or she has a better chance of tackling problems, communicating well and making progress. If a child does not benefit from early intervention, there are multiple risks which may become evident over a period of years ? of lower educational attainment, of behavioural problems, of emotional and psychological difficulties, of poorer employment prospects, of challenges to mental health and, in some cases, of a descent into criminality. (Bercow)
? The development of clinical expertise is essential in order to ensure that clinical practice is developed and delivered on the basis of evidence of efficacy. Specialist SLTs are responsible for the appropriate clinical support, education and training to more junior (Bercow 3.46)
- To receive a service that uses data-driven evidence-based practice to inform intervention
? (Service standard 23 CQ3) The service has a strategic and systematic approach to establish and evidence-based resource as the basis for provision. (CQ3)
? There also needs to be a tighter focus on outcomes for children and value for money. This needs to be informed by what is known about the most effective approaches in securing children?s progress. (Lamb report)
? (Service standard 56 CQ3)Clinical care standards are linked to the published research evidence base and consensus views on best practice (CQ3)
? Speech and language goals should be: SMART, formulated in conjunction with the carer; discussed, agreed and evaluated with carers; evidenced based, needs based, take into account the skills and knowledge of the agent of change; measured. (CQ3 Section 9.2.3)
? We have highlighted the importance of designing and planning provision around a clear set of outcomes for children and young people. It is also important that provision is based on sound evidence of what works. We have highlighted the need for a stronger evidence base and the challenges of gathering evidence in this area. (Bercow 3.76)
? Establishment of an evidence-based resource as the basis for provision of clinical care, organisation of services and service development (RCSLT 2006:116)
? Evidence-based practice contributes to an improvement in clinics services, makes clinicians more accountable, decreases the gap between research and practice and reduces the variation of services provided to clients (International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders)
- To have a service that works with other key deliverers, particularly those who work with Ross on a daily or weekly basis.
? Advice from the therapist should be incorporated into your child?s Individual Education Plan (IEP) which is tailored to meet your child?s needs. (Hertsdirect website)
? As ASD and atypical autism are lifelong conditions, an individual?s behaviours need to be continually assessed throughout their life, especially at transition points between pre-school, primary and secondary school transitions and out into life, (National Service Framework for Children, Every Child Matters 2003, Children Act 2004, National Service Framework for Children 2005).
? Once a child?s SLCN has been identified, we recommend that a range of information, advice and support should be readily available to families, particularly at key stages in a child?s life, including in the early years, at the time of a diagnosis, when starting preschool, nursery, primary etc (Bercow 1.25)
- To have acknowledged the parents research and preference for the method of intervention and have written recommendations for the statement on that basis, particularly as that intervention has shown to have positive outcomes and is reported as such by the SLT professional organisation.
? One good controlled clinical trial in the USA compared the effects of three treatments for 61 preschool children with ASD (Howard et al, 2005). The children were assigned to treatment groups according to their parents? preference. Twenty-nine children in the intensive behaviour analytic intervention group received 25-40 hours per week of treatment on a 1:1 adult:child ratio. Sixteen children received an intensive ?eclectic? intervention which used a combination of methods for 30 hours per week in 1:1 or 1:2 adult::child ratio. Another group of 16 children attended a non-intensive early intervention programme which consisted of a combination of methods for 15 hours per week in small groups. At follow-up the behaviour group had higher mean standard scores in all skills than the other two groups. The differences for all skills were statistically significant apart from for motor skills. At follow-up learning rates were also considerably higher in the behaviour group than the other groups. There were no significant differences between the mean scores of the eclectic and small groups group. (RCSLT Resource Manual for Commissioning and Planning Services for SLCN)