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I agree with Stephen Sacks ("The Elephant in the Room," May 29, 2007). I meet thousands of SLPs annually and can attest to this fact: We are beginning to leave articulation treatment behind. This is a travesty for the profession and our clients.
Some SLPs are not allowed to work on articulation in the public schools. They have been forced to accept the idea that articulation errors do not impact a child's educational development. Where did this idea come from? Reading in particular can be affected. As one parent asked, "How can my child learn to read if he doesn't understand speech sounds?"
Many SLPs have told me, "We can only work on functional communication." I advise them to inform their superiors that there is nothing more functional about communication than the ability to speak clearly.
One SLP who works with 2-year-olds told me that she is allowed to work on "anything that has to do with words but nothing that has to do with phonemes." How can we teach a child to produce words if we are not allowed to teach him how to produce phonemes? Charlie Van Riper must be rolling over in his grave.
We are speech-language pathologists. We should not let the "speech" part be swept out from under us. The remediation of articulation errors is one area our profession is uniquely suited to address. If we do not help clients with speech sound errors, nobody will.
Pam Marshalla
Mill Creek, Washington
pam@pammarshalla.com
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