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Speech-Language Services for Youthful and Adult Offenders

NCJ Number
72223
Journal
Federal Probation Volume: 44 Issue: 2 Dated: (June 1980) Pages: 37-41
Author(s)
J S Taylor
Date Published
1980
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Pursuant to the implementation of Public Law 94-142, Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, specific services to individuals confined to correctional facilities are mandated; included are speech, language, and hearing services.
Abstract
Speech pathology and audiology are supportive or related services. Terms used in this field include communication (any means for relating knowledge, experiences, or ideas), language (a structured symbolic system for communication), speech (the expressive form of language), and hearing. Disorders occur when speech and language deviate from the accepted standards in terms of intelligibility, linguistic quality, rate, or vocal characteristics. The assessment and the management of the communicatively disordered client must be handled on an individual basis. Although commercial tests are available to assist the speech-language pathologist in diagnosing clients with communicative disorders, such assessments must be supplemented by observation and should result in an accurate estimate of the individuals' ability to communicate in their immediate environment. The techniques and strategies employed must also relate to the clients' present environment and should prepare them to function adequately in future communicative situations. While some communicative disorders can be managed within the time frame of juvenile incarceration, elaborate long-range therapeutic intervention is usually precluded. Therefore, the pathologists' major objective is a comprehensive diagnosis referral either within the institution or without. Therapy may have to be implemented entirely after release, or planned as a continuum through interaction between the institution and an educational or private agency. Remediation of the communicative disorders of troubled individuals may not solve juvenile and adult crime, but the incidence of such disorders among institutionalized delinquents is higher than among nonincarcerated individuals. PL 94-142 recognizes that handicapped youths in any setting must be provided access to services to alleviate their problems. Five references are provided.