“All the magic happens in between therapy sessions”: Speech-language pathologists’ experiences of collaborative approaches with families

Interest is growing for collaborative approaches in speech-language pathology. How these approaches can be achieved with families is less commonly discussed in research. This study explores speech-language pathologists’ perspectives and experiences in implementing collaborative approaches with children and families in clinical and research settings.
An online survey was conducted to explore questions: 1) What do speech-language pathologists perceive to be the core elements of collaborative approaches with children and families? and, 2) How do speech-language pathologists implement collaborative approaches in practice? Qualitative Content Analysis informed findings about categories and frequency of important elements.
Findings show that speech-language pathologist knowledge, skills, and confidence, as well as advocacy and resourcing of services and systems, are required for implementation. Strategies centred on collaborative decision-making, with further emphasis on how communication occurs, facilitation of an identified collaborative approach, and relationships between all involved.
Findings contribute to literature through a focus on how collaborative approaches are implemented with children and families, and using Qualitative Content Analysis, what is most important in speech-language pathology. Findings strengthen collective understanding of implementation and bring focus to an often-tacit process and knowledge, which serves to democratise clinical and research practice.