• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Banter Speech & Language

Banter Speech & Language

Sydney speech pathologists helping adults and children speak for themselves.

  • Home
  • Our Speech Pathologists
  • Shop
    • Speech
    • Language
    • Stuttering
    • Reading
    • Decodable Readers
    • Writing
    • Primary School
    • High School
    • Online resources
    • Business Templates
    • NDIS Templates
    • NDIS Training
  • Cart
  • Banter Supervision
  • Contact Us
  • Show Search
Hide Search
You are here: Home / Language / How can speech pathologists help youth offenders? A practical framework

How can speech pathologists help youth offenders? A practical framework

David Kinnane · 11 May 2015 · Leave a Comment

For almost 50 years, researchers have observed consistently that youth offenders are much more likely to have communication problems than others.  (As we’ve previously discussed, up to 50% of youth offenders have language disorders, compared to around 3-7% for the population in general.)

In Australia, there have been some small, but promising, developments.  For example, the Parkville Youth Justice Centre in Melbourne has a full-time speech pathologist at the Parkville College.  I know some others in Sydney who are working to get communication supports for young people in court, following the UK model.

But why – given all the evidence – aren’t we treating youth offenders with language disorders across the system?

Lack of money is an obvious reason.  But to get system-wide funding, we need:

1. a cohesive framework to plan and deliver treatments; and

2. evidence of effectiveness and value for money.

It’s hard to do this without funded pilot trials.  It’s like a young man trying to secure his first job as a waiter.  Everywhere he goes, he’s told that experience is essential.  But how is he to get experience if no-one will give him a start?

A communication intervention framework for youth justice settings

Associate Professor Pamela Snow and colleagues have recently published a paper proposing a way forward.  Adapting a US education policy called “Response to Intervention” (RTI), they propose a tiered framework based on evidence-based principles for working with adolescents in a correctional facility.

4 evidence-based principles for working with youth offenders 

  • Work with students to determine the purpose of the treatment and give the students some ownership of goals.
  • Promote shared responsibility between students and staff to address speech-language needs.
  • Counsel students on the consequences of inappropriate communication.
  • Promote engagement by giving students success in a safe, supportive environment.

(Source: Sanger et al., 2002.)

Snow’s Framework: 3-levels of support for youth offenders and those working with them

Tier 1 support: Speech pathologists would:
  • screen everyone, expecting (based on research evidence) that around 1/2 of the students will have a communication disorder;
  • “flag” students with diagnosed needs, e.g. autism, and then assess their communication needs comprehensively;
  • help modify the classroom and other places where students will learn to make it easier for students to understand the lessons and to express themselves appropriately;
  • train teachers and justice staff about the high incidence of speech-language disorders in youth offender populations, language-learning difficulties, generally, and the link between language disorders and anti-social behaviours;
  • promote social language skills (e.g. eye contact, listening, giving and receiving feedback, conversation skills, negotiating, expressing emotions, and assertiveness);
  • promote oral language skills (e.g. story telling, and functional vocabulary); and
  • use classroom observation tools to help teachers understand the demands of the classroom on students with communication problems (e.g. the Communication Supporting Classrooms Observation Tool, Dockrell et al., 2012).
Tier 2 support: Speech pathologists would:
  • work with small groups of students with diagnosed communication disorders targeting language and literacy needs, recognising many youth offenders can “talk the talk”, but not “walk the walk” when it comes to using language appropriately in the real world; and
  • adapt tools and tasks designed for younger children to help older students at developmentally appropriate levels (e.g. the START-IN programme, Montgomery & Moore, n.d.).
Tier 3 support: Speech pathologists would:
  • provide 1:1 intervention to students with high needs and students who do not respond sufficiently to Tier 1 and 2 supports;
  • work with high needs students to identify personalised, meaningful and functional goals, e.g. to attain specific vocational skills;
  • instruct individual students directly about specific language and literacy skills; and
  • develop hypotheses about, experiment, and then measure outcomes of specific interventions using single-case research methods.

Not perfect

There are very few speech pathologists employed in youth justice settings in Australia.  In this context, Snow admits frankly that her recommended framework is “aspirational”.

The model on which Snow’s framework is based – RTI – itself has a number of documented shortcomings, including a lack of evidence to support some of its assumptions, problems measuring outcomes, and challenges applying the model across a system (vs. in a pilot study) (e.g. Reynolds & Shaywitz, 2009).  These shortcomings shouldn’t be ignored in any attempt to pilot the model in Australia.

Bottom line

To justify the investment of public funds into communication skill interventions for young offenders, speech pathologists need to:

  • educate governments, justice staff and other stakeholders on the the high incidence of communication disorders within the youth offender population;
  • explain why it matters – to the youth offenders themselves, governments and the general public;
  • explain how speech pathologists can help using evidence-based treatments; and
  • demonstrate outcomes for youth offenders (and society) from specific intervention programs by acting as both clinicians and researcher-scientists.

Snow’s paper gives speech pathologists and policy makers a working model to discuss the issue, and a framework within which to trial and evaluate specific interventions.

Given the small scale and sometimes ad hoc nature of speech pathology interventions for youth offenders in Australia (and elsewhere) this paper is a valuable contribution to an important issue  – especially for those speech pathologists (like me) who want to work with youth offenders, but don’t know where or how to start.

Source: Snow, P., Sanger, D.D., Caire, L.M., Eadie, P.A., & Dinslage, (2015). Improving communication outcomes for young offenders: a proposed response to intervention framework. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 50(1), 1-13.

Image: http://tinyurl.com/llnmnma

Hi there, I’m David Kinnane.

Principal Speech Pathologist, Banter Speech & Language

Our talented team of certified practising speech pathologists provide unhurried, personalised and evidence-based speech pathology care to children and adults in the Inner West of Sydney and beyond, both in our clinic and via telehealth.

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
  • Email

Print Friendly, PDF & EmailPrint Friendly

Share this:

  • Email
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn

Related

Language language problems and young offenders

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Get in touch

115 Queen Street
North Strathfield NSW Australia
(02) 87573838
hello@banterspeech.com.au
Monday-Friday: 8.30am to 5.30pm
Saturday: 7.30am to 2.30pm
Closed Sundays and public holidays

Shop at our store

  • Conjunction Board Game Conjunction Board Game $4.99 including GST
  • Subject Verb Negative (No) Object Sentences Subject Verb Negative ("No") Object (SVNegO) Sentences $4.99 including GST
  • Story Wizards' Master Story Builder The Story Wizards' Master Story Builder $12.00 including GST
  • Client Intake Form $5.99 including GST
  • UNLESS (as a subordinating conjunction) Sentences Sentence builders: "Unless" as a Subordinating Conjunction $4.99 including GST
  • Narrative Language Workout for Young Primary Schoolers: Mercury and the Woodman, a Fable by Aesop $5.99 including GST
  • Blanks 3: What will happen next? $4.99 including GST
  • Complaints Management Policy $9.99 including GST

Store categories

January Featured Resource

  • Setting Goals for this Year: an Oral Language Workout $10.00 including GST

Recent articles

  • My child’s speech is hard to understand. Which therapy approach is appropriate?
  • Free preview: How to Supervise Speech Pathologists Properly in Private Practice
  • Selective Mutism: key things to know
  • Help your child to make inferences when reading

Featured Articles

What do you think about when you think about speech pathology?

Ask Us Anything: 17 things our readers and followers really want to know about speech pathology (but were too shy to ask)!

Language therapy works. But can we make it better?

Stuttering: what do we mean by ‘recovery’?

Lifting the lid on speech therapy: How we assess and treat children with unclear speech – and why

Too many children can’t read. We know what to do. But how should we do it?

I want to help my late talker to speak, but I’m stuck at home. What can I do?

Free Resources

Big book of child speech pathology answers

Getting ready to read at big school

Is your kindy kid really reading

The Scatter-Slayer Adventures

Free decodable: Book 1 of The Scatter-Slayer Adventures. The first in our decodable digital ‘select-your-sequel’ series for reluctant readers, aged 7-12.

Get our free resource

Subscribe to receive our blog articles

Check out our therapy and provider resources Go to our shop

Banter Speech & Language

Copyright © 2021 · BANTER SPEECH & LANGUAGE PTY LIMITED ·

  • Articles
  • Shop
  • Cart
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.