The perspectives of professional placement educators on supporting autistic allied health students on professional placement
| Wednesday, May 29, 2024 |
| 11:10 AM - 11:25 AM |
| River View Room 05 |
Overview
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📚 Assumed knowledge of attendees: Foundational (new/casual familiarity with the topic e.g. treated a single case)
Presenter
The perspectives of professional placement educators on supporting autistic allied health students on professional placement
11:10 AM - 11:25 AMPresentation summary
The objectives relate to exploring the perspectives of Australian professional practice educators (PPEs) regarding the supervision and support of Autistic allied health students on placement.
The methods involved a mixed methods explanatory convergent parallel design of Australian PPEs from speech pathology, occupational therapy, social work, and physiotherapy. Sixty-five participants completed an online survey comprising Likert-scale and open-ended questions, and seven participated in a follow-up semi-structured interview.
The results revealed the importance of personal experience, workplace settings, and level of training in supporting Autistic allied health students on placement. When reporting attitudes towards hosting Autistic allied health students on placement, PPEs with self-reported adequate Autism training were more likely to report neutral or positive attitudes, and individuals from hospital settings were more likely to report negative attitudes. Integrative data analysis resulted in the following themes: Exposure to Autism and Autistic people, knowledge and training about Autism, views on provision of supports, views on factors associated with success, attitudes towards Autistic students and allied health providers.
In conclusion, the attitudes of PPEs appear to be influenced depending on the placement setting, level of training, and level of personal connection to Autistic people. By understanding the current gaps in knowledge and resources, this supports further consideration of the development of resources for PPEs in order to better support Autistic allied health students.
Key messages
1. The importance of Autistic representation, personal experience, and Autistic-led training in supporting Autistic speech pathology students.
2. What resources may be useful to speech pathologists in learning more about Autism.
3. What adjustments speech pathologists can provide to support Autistic speech pathology students.
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