Cascella, P.W., & Coella, C.S. (2004). Knowledge of autism spectrum disorders among connecticut school speech language pathologists.  Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 19. 245-252. DOI on paper.

• communication needs of public school students are challenging to SLPs
• 65% of SLPs serve students with ASD
  • need to provide high-quality intervention
  • know of new trends in intervention
  • parents expect that SLPs know how to address needs
  • no literature on qualifications, knowledge or experinece
• CT SLPs - asked to self-report on knowledge
  • high prevalence of ASD
  • self-monitoring is an ethical part of practice
• many reports - SLPs have little preprofessional training in ASD
• Research question
  • preprofessional training in ASD
  • general knowledge of ASD
  • knowledge of communicaion issues associated with ASD
• Method
  • random sample of 166 selected
  • 82 respondents (50.3%)
  • rating scale developed
    • content validity and item validity was assessed
  • distribution of the scale - only distributed in 2001
  • rating scale - 5 sections
    • 1 - preprofssional and demographing information
      • highest degree
      • decade
      • state
    • 2 - academic preparation
      • undergraduate courses
      • graduate courses
    • 3 - how many children worked with in clinical training overall impression of clinical training
    • 4 - professional inservice training
      • training sought on their own
      • how much provided by work
      • years experience working with children with ASD
      • number of children assessed/treated
    • 5 - ASD knowledge - how knowledgable did SLPs feel knowledgable about ASD?
      • rated on a 4-point Likert scale
      • 28 general ASDstatements
      • 25 ASD communciation statements
• Results
  • Caseloads
    • 778% - had ASD on caseloads for at least 4 years
    • 34.6% - more than 10 year expereince
    • most participants worked with preschool children for 5.1 years and elementary students for 7 years
    • 79.7 - worked with 15 or fewer children with ASD
  • Preprofessional training
    • all had a masters
    • 16.5% had a post master's certificate
    • 15 different states - mostly
      • CT
      • NY
      • MA
    • most stated mimimal professional training in ASD (69.2%)
    • 50% one course that had some information on ASD
    • 89.4% - five or fewer class sessions where ASD is discussed
    • clinical preparation
      • 75.3% - no clinical preparation
      • 51.2% - no hands-on experience
    • small increase in preparation from 1991-2000
  • Professional training and current experience
    • 81.7% - ongoing continuing education
    • 89.1 - attended on their own
    • 54% - training through work
    • 31.2% refer to themselves as somewhat experienced
  • ASD general knowledge
    • diverse self-ratings
    • knowledgeable about behavioral characteristics
      • social interacitons
      • relatedness
      • limited repertoire
      • scattered skills
      • DSM-IV knowledgable
    • least knowledgeable about educational interventions and assessment
      • CDD - not as much knowledge
      • dynamic assessment
      • hearing assessment
      • sensory integration
      • naturalistic interventions
  • knowledge of communciation disorders
    • diverse self-ratings
      • most knowledgable about communciation characteristics
      • more knowlegeable about development and assessment
      • knowledgeable about Social Stories and sociocommunicative interventions
      • least knowledgeable about
        • apraxia
        • feeding
        • parent-child dyad
        • repair strategies
• Discussion
  • professional and continuing education
    • SLPs in CT are underprepared to serve children with ASD
    • minimal training and clinical experience
    • when individuals were trained - considered to be low incidence disability
    • we're in need of an upgrade
    • SLPs need to be continually reflective and getting more training
      • inservice
      • internet opportunities
      • summer trainings
      • published materials
    • less experienced
      • more support
      • mentor
      • graduated guiance
      • community and ongoing coaching
    • teams shoud continually be evaluating skills
  • topics in continuing educaiton
    • reported DSM knowledge
    • reported knowledge in assessment and internvention, dvelopment, and two specific intervetions
    • need for hands-on training
    • need broad educational strategies
    • multidisciplinary interventions
      • teamwork and collaboration
      • need self-evaluate their efficacy when interveing
    • prosody
    • apraxia
    • feeding
    • repair
    • language sampling
    • inclusion procedures
  • Limitations
    • response bias
    • no objective verification of ratings
    • no guidlines for SLPs serving children with autism
      • ASHA needs to create this!
    • regional bias is needed
    • PDD - might be better to define kids as having ASD
    • provide definitions for some interventions
    • only about preschool and elementary school practitioners - should not generalize to older students