Can Speech Pathology Complement Occupational Therapy?

As Occupational Therapists, we have the privilege of working with many different clients and their families. Often, we work with families that have more than one child receiving some kind of therapy support. Trying to get your children out the door on time for school is a hard-enough task, but then to remember their different therapy appointments on top of that? It can be challenging! So, suggesting your child see more than one therapy provider may not be what you want to hear, but after taking 5 minutes to read this, hopefully you will see the benefits of Speech Pathology and how this can complement Occupational Therapy intervention to provide a more complete therapy approach for your child.

To understand how Speech Pathology and Occupational Therapy complement each other, it is worth defining the role of a Speech Pathologist in a paediatric setting. As highlighted by Speech Pathology Australia, their role is to assess and treat communication and/or swallowing difficulties. Their intervention may include table-top activities, social role play, or food play activities.

Let’s discuss play. While this wasn’t mentioned  in the definition provided by Speech Pathology Australia,  it is arguably one of the most important parts of a child’s development. As Occupational Therapists, our therapy intervention is often based around age-appropriate play. However, how can we expect children to play outside a therapy environment and with peers their own age, if they have challenges communicating with others? If a child has challenges understanding language and expressing themselves, they will experience significant challenges in their play abilities, which will in-turn impair their ability to form friendships. Another consideration is whether the child understands their play environment. Occupational Therapists and Speech Pathologists can work together to support children to understand the different components of play and how to successfully join in a play environment with their peers.

Many of the children we support experience challenges with their emotional understanding and regulation, which often has a negative impact on their relationships with others in their environment. As a compensatory strategy, we often explore and implement the Zones of Regulation principles or a 5-Point Scale. These concepts provide the child with a basic visual of more abstract words that can then be used as a communication tool. The Speech Pathologist can then work with the child to further develop their language, comprehension, and emotional understanding.

If children experience challenges with their attention and concentration, it will not take them long to become dysregulated when required to sit and complete a table-top activity. Speech Pathologists are often working with children to complete tabletop language-based activities. As Occupational Therapists, we can provide recommendations specific to each child that will support their ability to concentrate and attend in such activities and get the most out of their therapy sessions. If children have not been given the opportunity to develop their upper limb strength and coordination before working on table-top activities, such as handwriting, this could be interpreted as them having impaired literacy and motor skills.

Signs of dysregulated children in a classroom environment often present similar to children being “naughty”. They may start to move around the class, distract and/or poke others, rock on their chair, and so on, and these are all signs of children who are dysregulated. When you see this in your child, consider what they are trying to communicate, what we are expecting them to achieve, or what demands are currently being placed on them. This is another area in which Occupational Therapists and Speech Pathologists can work together to identify the barriers within the environment and develop strategies specific to the child that will support their regulation and engagement.

These are just some of the many ways in which a Speech Pathologist can support the work of an Occupational Therapist, and vice versa. I encourage you to speak with your Occupational Therapist about how a Speech Pathologist may support your child to get more out of their therapy intervention and achieve their full potential.

Speech Pathology Australia 2016, Let’s talk about Speech Pathology, Speech Pathology Australia, viewed 31 August 2020 <https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/>.