The Roles of Speech-language-hearing Therapists in Support for Children with Developmental Disabilities in a Case of Suspected Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

[Purpose] People with developmental disabilities face various difficulties according to their life stages, and therefore need continuous and careful support. However, the number of reports from speech‐language‐hearing therapists (STs) to formu‐late such support is limited. This study examined the case of a preschooler with suspected developmental disabilities, fo‐cusing on the details of support for the child, parental support systems, and the roles of the ST in charge working in a medical institution. [Subject and Methods] The child was a male aged 5 years and 10 months. There were no noticeable delays in his develop‐ment, but his parents experienced difficulty parenting him. Through periodic assessments and interviews, the ST provided support to the child, which reduced the mother's anxiety and feeling of impatience, and examined appropriate methods to support the child with suspected developmental disabilities, and deal with his parents from the perspective of an ST. [Results] The child's characteristics became clear through periodic assessments. Furthermore, there were positive changes in his parents' behavior after clarifying their emotions and ways of interacting with the child through interviews, and pro‐viding advice. [Conclusions] The findings from this case study highlighted the importance of not only advice for children, but also support for their parents, when supporting children with suspected developmental disabilities. Communication problems are preva‐lent among children with mild or suspected developmental disabilities, and STs are expected to play important roles in special needs education for these children, but ST support is not yet sufficient in developmental disabilities. The roles of STs, who are capable of providing specialized approaches to language aspects, such as sociability and communication, are important, and they should continuously support people with developmental disabilities from their preschool period through collaboration with related institutions.