The impact of family concept coursework on second-year graduate speech language pathologists' attitudes about both the importance of family -centered interventions and their training programs' performance in that area

Federal laws and social policies mandate the provision of special services to individuals with handicaps and their families. Research indicates an increase in positive outcomes for persons with handicaps when family members are present and participate in establishing and implementing intervention strategies. Speech-language pathology is a profession regulated by these policies. Minimal research has been conducted on the influence of family-centered intervention and speech/language intervention outcomes. Family-centered intervention is consistently recommended in a variety of habilitation/rehabilitation disciplines. Models for implementing speech-language family-centered intervention are few.;This study examines the influence of exposure to family concept coursework on second year graduate speech-language pathology student's attitudes about their training program's level of family-centeredness and the importance of family-centered intervention. Respondents in this study included 136 students representing training programs distributed throughout the six national accreditation regions. Pearson Product Moment Correlations and ANOVA were performed to analyze the data. Relationships between exposure to certain topics of family coursework and attitude about both program performance and importance of family centered intervention were demonstrated.;Exposure to Family Relations and Systems Theory coursework indicates positive influences on attitudes about training program performance and the importance of family centered intervention. Several of the family centered factors measured in this study can be correlated with components of the Guidelines and Recommended Practices for the Individualized Family Service Plan (McGonigel, et al 1990).;The results of this study indicate that exposure to family concept Theory coursework influences attitudes about training program performance and the importance of family centered intervention. Several of the attitudes measured by the Family-Centered Program Rating Scale are addressed under the intent of P.L. 99-457. Exposure to Family Relations and System Theory coursework may predict attitudes about the level of family centered program performance, importance of family centered intervention as well as the practice of family centered intervention as intended by federal law.