'Thinking for two: a case study of speech and language therapists working through assistants - Assignment Example

Education “Thinking For Two A Case Study Of Speech and Language Therapists Working Through Assistants” Summary Elspeth McCartney, James Boyle, Susan Bannatyne, Emma Jessiman, Cathy Campbell, Cherry Kelsey, Jennifer Smith, Jane McArthur, and Anne O’Hare combine their efforts to produce the article “Thinking for two": a case study of speech and language therapists working through assistants”, which explores SLTs’ opinions on working with assistant SLTs. The number of speech and language therapists (SLTs) has progressively increased over the years and the authors sought to explore how this affects working practices.

The study’s purpose was to investigate the opinions the SLTs had about working through assistants. The researchers’ method and procedure involve the use of a case study, surveys, and interview techniques. Specifically, five SLTs presented their experiences of working with five assistant SLTs over a period of a school year. A research intervention study was designed to guide the process on how the five SLTs provided their intervention. This was under the study “A Randomised Controlled Trial and Economic Evaluation of Direct Versus Indirect and Individual Versus Group Modes of Speech and Language Therapy for Children with Primary Language Impairment (PLI).

” Through the questionnaires and formal interview procedures, it was easy to stimulate views on the impact of working through assistants. After this, a content analysis was conducted to scrutinize the varied opinions of the SLTs through their experiences. The outcomes had dissimilar conclusions. The respondents reported seeing value in the assistants, although they reported complications of acclimatising and apprising therapy procedures when working indirectly. In addition, they stressed the time required to suitably coordinate their efforts with the assistants.

In its conclusion, the article affirms that there is a need for considerable research to determine the necessary factors to make the relationship of SLTs and their assistants fruitful, although it presents several essential factors. Reaction In the main, the assistants, who are not workwise qualified, work under the direction of SLTs who are certified and qualified. For this reason, an assistant must always be under supervision of an SLT, such as decisions pertaining to choice of client for therapy, admittance to the caseload, and discharges.

Most of the assistant SLTs do not view their job as permanent; they only view it as a way to proceed their careers in other fields. Pertaining to the SLTs, they may be predisposed to work in a different way that may not be according to their formally trained nature. In essence, they may fail to perform as effectively as they can when working alone. The study reveals that SLTs are not as satisfied with working with assistants mainly because they do not experience significant benefits from the experience.

Similarly, since the assistants’ profession is still not taken seriously, there is need to motivate them and provide more opportunities for them to better their abilities in the same field of SLTs. The research findings were based on the opinions of the SLTs and this added to the reliability of the whole process in terms of first-hand information. The research topic is still new and the topic begs more analysis studies to produce comprehensive results.