Scope of Competence vs. Scope of Practice

In my previous post, I described general areas that speech therapists are certified to treat based on ASHA’s official guidelines. I also mentioned how broad of a scope that really is, which is why many therapists prefer to treat within their “scope of competence” rather than their “scope of practice”. 

Just because you are technically certified to treat all areas of communication does not mean that you have to feel comfortable doing so. 

As a personal example, because I am a certified SLP, I am “allowed” to treat feeding and swallowing disorders. However, I haven’t practiced this type of therapy since graduate school and do not follow the recent research or have access to the necessary materials to do so. If I meet with a family that is concerned about their child’s feeding, I would refer them to a feeding specialist because, while within my field’s scope of practice, I would not consider it within my scope of competence. 

To my fellow speech therapists, it is okay to hone in on special interests and dedicate your time and continuing education to becoming really great at that thing, rather than feeling pressure to just be “okay” at a lot of things. 

To parents and clients: Ask questions when looking into therapy! You get to decide whether a generalist or specialist is right for you. Some questions you could ask are,

“Do you consider yourself a specialist in any particular areas?”
”Is there anything you don’t treat?”
”Can you tell me about what continuing education you have in this particular area?”