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JCPSLP Volume 14, Number 1 2012 49
over the short duration of the program. Finally, 76 children
who had more complex problems participated in the
4-week program. Each child attended a session each
day for 5 days each week. The results of the screening,
assessment, and therapy outcomes are currently being
analysed and will be reported elsewhere. The important
aspect of this report is that all the university students
indicated positive learning experiences. They enjoyed
working with the children, the school environment, and
gained a unique experience in a rural Aboriginal community.
This program demonstrated that there are alternative
ways to provide services to rural and remote communities
and that university students can help to fulfill this need.
However, that is not to say that this should be the primary
mode of service delivery to rural communities. The long-
term goal must be to have speech pathologists living and
working in these communities. The local schools that
participated in the program have collaborated further and
have advertised locum positions for 6 to 8 weeks. Students
who have participated in this clinical experienced have
expressed interest in these positions.
This work demonstrates that as McAllister and others
have indicated there are numerous opportunities for
innovation to provide new, worthwhile experiences to
university students that can also help to provide a valuable
service to clients.
References
Jones, D., Grant-Thomas, D., Bourne, E., Clark, P., Beck,
H., & Lyle, D. (2011). Model for rural and remote speech
pathology student placements: Using non-traditional sites and
partnerships. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 19, 52–53.
McAllister, L. (2005). Issues and innovations in clinical
education. Advances in Speech–Language Pathology, 7,
138–148
McAllister, L., & Lincoln, M. (2004). Clinical education in
speech language pathology . London: Whurr.
McAllister, L., Wilson, L., Clark, L., McLeod, S.,
Beecham, R., & Shanahan, L. (2004). Educating speech
pathology graduates for the future: A non-medical
curriculum. In B. E. Murdoch, J. Goozee, B.-M. Whelan,
& K. Docking (Eds.), Proceedings of the 26th International
Association of Logopaedics and Phoniatrics (IALP) 2004
Congress, Brisbane, Australia.
the prep students at the schools, and any other students
referred by teachers, 2) multidisciplinary and comprehensive
assessments of hearing, vision, gross and fine motor
skills, speech, language, conversational and literacy
skills (including reading, writing, spelling and maths) for
students who were deemed to need them, and 3) intensive
intervention for some students at the schools. In addition,
CSU would offer support to the local preschools aimed
at early intervention programs. Five different visits were
organised for the period June 2009 through December
2010. These visits were for one or two weeks with the last
one a 4-week intensive therapy program. Table 1 shows
the number of university students involved in the various
programs, the number of supervisory staff, the program
type, and the duration of each program visit.
Correspondence to:
Dr Carl Parsons
Andrew Dean Fildes Foundation for Language-Learning Disabilities
391 High Street
Ashwood, Victoria 3147
email:
website:
Table 2. The type of programs offered and the
number of children seen
Type of program Number
of children
Preschool screening 76
Primary school screening 100
Primary school comprehensive assessments 44
Primary school intensive therapy – 2 weeks (10 days) 18
Primary school intensive therapy – 4 weeks (20 days) 76
The uni students worked from 8.30 to 5.00 each day. They worked
with clients from 9.00am until 3.30.
Table 1 shows that 30 students from two different
speech pathology programs participated in this unique
experience. Nine different qualified and experienced
speech pathologists were employed to assist in supervising
different parts of the programs. Table 2 shows the type
of program offered and the number of children who
participated in each program.
A total of 76 preschool children were screened and 100
primary children were screened across the four schools.
Forty-four students required additional assessments that
were conducted during our programs. These assessments
required classroom observations, language samples,
reading samples, and multiple tests. In a number of
cases the occupational therapy students collaborated
with the speech pathology students in assessments.
The assessment data were used to make referrals, make
a formal diagnosis, apply for funding, and/or to ensure
that a suitable intervention program could be provided.
Eighteen children received a 2-week intensive comprising
of daily 30-minute therapy sessions, 5 days per week
for two weeks. These children mostly had articulation or
grammatical errors that were believed to be “remediable”