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language problems and young offenders

How can speech pathologists help youth offenders? A practical framework

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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.

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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.

What’s your story, son?

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When charged with an offence, we all have the right to tell our story; to explain and defend ourselves, whether it be to a policeman, a lawyer, the magistrate or the judge.

We all have this legal right in Australia.  But not all of us can use it.

Telling your story is harder for some people than others, and if you do a bad job – no eye contact, use short, vague sentences, ramble on chaotically, or simply answer questions with a shrug – people are more likely to assume you’re guilty.

If you are unlucky enough to have a significant language problem, you might struggle to understand what your lawyer or the authorities are telling you.  You might not be able to find the words or string sentences together logically to explain what happened.  Or both.

Is this a major issue for youth justice in Australia?

You betcha.

Consider what Associate Professor Pamela Snow and other leading researchers have found in the last decade or so:

  1. Up to 50% of young offenders have a clinical (often previously undetected) oral language impairment (Snow & Powell, 2008).
  2. When young people with language problems are under pressure, e.g. are being interviewed by police, they are likely to produce monosyllabic, poorly elaborated and non-specific answers that may be accompanied by poor eye contact and shoulder shrugs, which may lead to perceptions of apathy, rudeness and a lack of compliance (Snow & Sanger, 2011).
  3. Language skills and empathy develop as we interact with loved ones (Cohen, 2001).
  4. Language development can be affected adversely by abuse and neglect (Snow, 2009).
  5. Pre-school children reared in poverty perform well below expected levels on oral language tests, regardless of their intelligence (Locke, Ginsborg & Peters, 2002).
  6. Poor language ability in the early years increases the risk of anti-social behaviour at 14 years of age (Bor, McGee & Fagan, 2004).
  7. Kids who learn to read easily often start school knowing how to talk and to listen well, tell stories, link sounds to letters, blend sounds into words, and segment words into sounds learn to read (Paul, 1995).  Literacy, which is essentially a language-based skill, is essential for academic success, which, in turn, makes it more likely that kids will go on to study and obtain meaningful employment. (Dockrell, Lindsay and Palikara, 2011).
  8. Although the causes and effects – the directions and size of the relationships – are yet to be untangled, the combined effects of poor academic achievement, family dysfunction and low socioeconomic status are predictors of kids hanging out with the wrong crowds and coming to the attention of authorities (Stephenson, 2007).

So, if you have a language problem and live in poverty you are more likely to fall in with the wrong crowd, less likely to learn how to read or find a good job and, if picked up by the authorities, less likely to be able to defend yourself.  Oh, and you probably won’t be able to afford a good lawyer either.

Does that seem fair to you?

What should we do about it?

Stay tuned….

 

Key source: Snow, P., & Powell, M. (2012). Youth (in)justice: Oral language competence in early life an risk for engagement in anti-social behaviour in adolescence. Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, 435.

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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.

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