Empathy, Compassion, Generosity, & Empowerment

Motivational Mondays:

I was finishing up my ASHA Leader for August (I know... it took me a week to read it lol) and came across a super inspiring article by Drew Dudley discussing leadership, which will be the theme for this year's national convention in Philadelphia, PA. It encourages us a speech-language pathologists to maintain and demonstrate core values throughout our practices, interactions and involvement with the populations we serve and their families. I thought it was especially interesting that some of the questions that he proposed, are questions and concepts that Rush and Shelden encouraged in my most recent continuing education course on the Coaching Interaction Style approach to early intervention. The questions were as follows:

1. What have I done today to help a vulnerable client feel empowered?
2. What I have I done today to recognize another's leadership?

As professionals, the ball is in our court to empower families through our knowledge, skills, and practices and to respect their role as the primary caregiver and/or family members. We must respect boundaries, cultural and religious beliefs, and family dynamics. In addition, we have to be sure to teach the skills to the family in order to assist the family in achieving  and addressing the functional outcomes and priorities in a way that they can confident to conduct effective and consistent carryover, and we are not seen as "magical" but as a facilitators, communication & developmental coaches, and an equal team player. Lastly, we must recognize that although we may go into their homes every week, and interact with their child and engage in their family dynamics through routines-based play, they will always be the expert in knowing their child's interests, reactions, dislikes, etc. and the person ensuring skills are met through carryover during all of the thousands of hours we are not present. I try to remember when a family or caregiver lacks confidence or did not follow up with the joint plan, it is my responsibility to dig deeper into why the plan was not conducive enough to incorporate into daily routines and ultimately why the parent was not confident or empowered enough to be consistent in moving forward with the joint plan. Let's all (me included) strive to ask these questions daily so that we are maximizing children's development potential and work diligently to collaborate with families in helping their children :).