Abstract
Young children's social communication is key to their development and well-being. Naturalistic interventions can promote social communication in young children. Anyone concerned about children's social communication—families, professionals, planning teams, referral sources, funders, and policymakers—should understand the complementary roles of behavior analysts (BCBAs) and speech-language pathologists (SLPs), who both utilize naturalistic interventions. Resistance to collaboration may be rooted in broader conversations about differing theories of language development. BCBAs and SLPs likely have similar overarching goals and expectations, but collaboration has been unfortunately rare, due to field-specific training and recommendations. BCBAs and SLPs who adopt a unified theory of practice will place children, families, and educators at the center of all decisions. An interdisciplinary model rooted in research about naturalistic interventions, collaboration, and equitable practices that incorporates feedback from providers and researchers in each field, could address challenges. This model highlights (a) understanding key tenets from each respective field, (b) developing interdisciplinary teams, (c) measuring and evaluating collaborative planning, and (d) promoting mutual respect and equity. Children benefit when professionals collaborate.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 104-112 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences |
Volume | 10 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s) 2022.
Keywords
- behavior analysts
- collaboration
- communication
- naturalistic instruction
- speech-language pathologists
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology
- Public Administration