Guest Blog Entry in the Advance

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Evidence-Based Practice: What It Means To Me

One of the teachers I work with and most respect recently told me: "There are no longer any veteran teachers when it comes to curriculum standards." School culture is changing rapidly, and we as school SLPs continue to evolve to keep up! 

As a result, I decided to explore evidence-based practice (EBP) for the first time since I received my master's degree. When I first learned about it, I knew it was important but I didn't understand the full implications of using it in the work environment as a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed graduate student. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association defines it for us and strongly requests we use it in our everyday work environment. So why not start with the gold standard?

The first EBP rule is using clinical expertise/expert opinion. As another wonderful teacher told me this past month (wow I talked a lot!): "I don't want to reinvent the wheel but I'm constantly pushing the envelope to make sure that I'm on the right track." As SLPs, we are tasked with knowing our field inside-out. From this standpoint, that means facing new and old student cases by relying on what you have seen in the past, noting how you dealt with it, and requesting assistance from those who have had different experiences from you. It's important to speak with both experienced teachers and new up-and-coming teachers who bring a fresh new perspective to the table! The best SLPs I've had the privilege of knowing are also among the best communicators with an open-door policy. 

An idea that I think takes a backburner approach at times is external scientific evidence. While in my department we frequently bring up the ASHA Leader and its excellent contents, there are wonderful journals out there full of research that we are missing out on each month because the time to review them is not always there and the inclination is wanting when there's a mountain of paperwork on our hands. With this blog I wish to remind myself of that and take the task of reviewing at least one article from one ASHA-endorsed journal a week. We can learn so much by standing on the shoulders of giants. Fish out old textbooks to figure out what's changed! Explore what grad students today are learning! We have a duty to ourselves to take advantage of all this information we have at our fingertips!

And finally, client/patient/caregiver (essentially individualized) values: It is so important to not forget the person or student in all this. They are a daughter, a son, a sister, a brother, a growing kid or a kid who had to grow up way too fast. I met a fourth grader this year who excels in several content areas and was only recently referred for speech screening. Even though she did not vocalize it to me, she appeared frightened at the thought of coming to see me. I tried my best to explain what I do to ease her anxiety. Many thoughts raced through my mind (Is it that in her culture it can be a sign of weakness? Does she think she's done something wrong?) It struck me to go from one day observing her in class, doing a show and tell presentation of magic tricks to the delight of her classmates showing her outgoing nature, to seeing her look to be on the verge of tears because I wanted to listen to her /s/ sounds. I think she is one of the reasons I just had to revisit this topic and figure out how to reach out to her and the many kids I know will pass through my door. In essence, they expect us to demonstrate the excellence ASHA starts out demanding from us, and as SLPs we have to work hard to make that happen for their sake and our own.

Thank you so much for reading. Please feel free to tell me your thoughts!