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Logemann (2003) raised an important issue for a profession that aspires to scholarship: CEU offerings should have a database. This provides some assurance that such offerings are more substantial than authoritarian pronouncements, dogma, hype, or intuition.
The philosophy of science literature indicated that there are two basic kinds of data: rationale evidence and empirical evidence derived from rationale evidence (Kaplan, 1964; for complete references, search on the title of this letter). Philosophical views and theoretical perspectives comprise rationale evidence. Such evidence should underwrite clinical services because it provides disciplined understandings of issues. Resolution II-B (1983 ASHA training standards) indicated that all clinical coursework should be theory-based.
Searle (1992) indicated that constructionism is the most coherent view. This view holds that children are active processors of information toward making intent recognizable (Sperber & Wilson, 1986). Following constructionism, Ninio, Snow, Pan, and Rollins (1994) indicated that "any complete description of the language capacity" should portray repertoires derived from actual social commerce.
Perera (1994) identified influential theoretical perspectives over the previous 25 years. The five theories were learnability, relevance, bootstrapping, modularity, and connectionism.
The field of test and measurement shifted whereby theory-driven construct validity must be established for all assessments (Messick, 1980). Muma (2003) reviewed more than 20 popular speech and language tests and found that none exceeded to this scholarly standard.
With these developments, those who render clinical services, and CEU offerings, should state which philosophical views and theoretical perspectives underwrite their services. For example, the SMILE procedure is based on constructionism and attachment theory (Muma, 1998).
John Muma
Hattiesburg, MS
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