Considering the impact of maltreatment on children in Out of Home Care when providing speech language pathology intervention: case examples

ABSTRACTPurpose: As the number of children entering into Out Of Home Care (OOHC) increase, an increasing body of evidence is emerging, exploring the impact of maltreatment on a range of child development domains, for example, communication, behaviour, and cognition. Current research identifies the negative impacts of maltreatment on communication development, however to date, there is limited research relating to speech-language pathology (SLP) services with children in OOHC, including implementation and recommendation of modifications in SLP intervention.Method: A retrospective clinical audit of eight clients in OOHC who had accessed SLP services was conducted. The medical files were reviewed and general demographic data and clinical information was gathered. The files were reviewed for specific strategies that had been used or modified based on considerations of the child’s situation. These strategies were analysed across the cases by the authors in regards to patterns that emerged for successful implem...