Question
I am hoping to find clarification on an SLP's role for social skills therapy. I have several students on my caseload for pragmatics however, they demonstrate appropriate social skills with peers (in a structured setting) and with adults. Outside of the speech room, such kids are victims of bullying or are bullying other students. I feel that dealing with issues of bullying is beyond the scope of practice for an SLP. Am I right? Is it appropriate to have such students working on social skills in a speech therapy setting or would counseling be more appropriate? In addition, I have a similiar situation with defiant students. Such students are able to demonstrate appropriate social skills when they are doing something they like or when they choose to do so. However, they are disruptive in class, refuse to work, throw rocks on the playground, etc. Again, I am looking for clarification as to the boundaries of social skills therapy for an SLP.
Answer
Bullying is probably beyond our scope of practice but the children we serve can often be victims of bullying. If the children are on our caseloads for speech and language disorders other than social skills, it may be beneficial for us to be involved with a program that would reduce the bullying. It some instances it seems that working with the counselor on the bullying situations might be appropriate since we have the skills to work on the responses and the problem-solving those situations require. It might also be beneficial for us to work with the student on how to respond to the situation which may reduce some of their negative responses to the bullying.
It does sound like many of your defiant students do need to be involved in counseling for possible anger management, defiant behaviors and other concerns. If they are using their social skills appropriately in most situations throughout the school day they may need counseling to help them. Would the school be able to set up a program for bullying for everyone? If they are on your caseload for other speech and language disorders other than social skills then the question of why they are being defiant needs to be answered. Is it behavioral or is it a response to the speech and language disorders? Many children on our caseloads demonstrate behavioral concerns because they are embarrassed, do not know how to deal with situations or know it is difficult for them so they may act out.
Susan Powers, MA, CCC-SLP has been a speech-language pathologist for over 28 years. Although she specializes in pediatric language disorders, she has experience with both children and adults with a wide range of diagnosis. She has worked in private practice, home care, nursing homes, group homes and schools but her primary interest lies in nonprofit outpatient pediatric speech-language therapy. She is currently the Director of Rehabilitation Services for Easter Seals Northern Ohio.