The primary purpose of this study was to assess the confidence and preparedness of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to work with clients with hearing loss across various employment settings.
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
No immediate change to audiology clinical practice is warranted, but findings suggest stronger inter-professional collaboration and referral pathways between audiologists and SLPs may be needed given reported SLP confidence gaps.
Identifying self-reported confidence gaps in SLPs working with hearing-loss clients points to training curriculum deficiencies that, if addressed, could improve interdisciplinary care quality.
- 01SLPs surveyed reported variable confidence and preparedness when working with clients who have hearing loss.
- 02Gaps were noted across multiple clinical settings, suggesting a systemic training issue.
- 03Study published in the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.
- 04Results call for enhanced hearing-loss content in SLP graduate education.
- 05Findings are relevant for audiologists who collaborate with or refer to SLPs.
Speech-language pathologists report variable confidence and preparedness when working with clients who have hearing loss.
studypartially supported- PMID
- 42525876
- DOI
- 10.1044/2026_AJSLP-25-00385.
- Journal
- American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 4
- Population
- Speech-language pathologists working across various clinical settings
- Intervention
- Survey of self-reported confidence and preparedness with hearing-loss clients
Primary outcomes
Self-reported confidence levels; Self-reported preparedness ratings when working with clients with hearing loss
