Introduction to the “Need to Know” Disorders in Speech Language Pathology

In a few weeks the school semester will begin and many speech language pathologists will be heading back to school to resume their duties. Seasoned professionals, newly minted clinical fellows, and eager graduate students will embark on assessment and treatment of children with a variety of communication disorders. In the course of the next school year they will encounter, assess, and treat children with a number of diagnoses which result in accompanying speech language deficits. Many of these diagnoses will be familiar, a number will be new, some complex, yet others will be less known or controversial.

In recent years, select previously little known disorders, affecting the children’s language abilities, have been rising to prominence in our field.  These include: Auditory Processing Disorder, Social Pragmatic Language Disorder, as well Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Since all three disorders underwent some considerable controversy with respect to identification, symptom recognition and treatment options, I’ve prepared for you an evidence based practice “Introduction to … series in order to provide a clear, relevant and applicable overview of all 3 disorders.

Introduction to Auditory Processing Disorders is a 25 slide presentation which provides an introduction to auditory processing disorders (APD).  It outlines the referral process for differential assessment of auditory processing disorders, as well as explains the roles of both audiologist and the speech language pathologist in the assessment and remediation of auditory processing disorders.  It also cites select assessment instruments sensitive to detection of auditory processing deficits, explains the benefits of multidisciplinary approach to identification and differential diagnosis of processing disorders as well as provides general explanations for professionals with respect to treatment approaches to auditory processing disorders.