ASHA Urges Quick Reunification Of Separated Families
ROCKVILLE, Md. (PRWEB) June 21, 2018 -- The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) calls upon the Trump Administration to ensure that recently-separated migrant families are reunited in a timely fashion.
Forcibly separating children from their families, and detaining the children in separate facilities from their families, has threatened to inflict unnecessary and unacceptable trauma on the children. Trauma may precipitate the development of mental and behavioral disorders, both of which are correlated to language disorders and language development.
For example, research has shown the impact of trauma on communication, such as the onset of selective mutism or acquired stuttering.* Children who suffer traumatic experiences often require long-term comprehensive and sustained supports in order to achieve resiliency into adolescence and adulthood. The children impacted by the Administration’s recent separation policy will require close monitoring in the months and years to come.
"ASHA’s vision is 'making effective communication, a human right, accessible and achievable for all,'" said Elise Davis-McFarland, PhD, CCC-SLP, 2018 ASHA President.
"The practice of indiscriminately separating children from families was potentially very harmful, even destructive, to children and their families; and, incompatible with our vision. ASHA calls upon the Administration to ensure that families are reunited quickly in order to mitigate as much damage as possible."
*See Perez, H.R., & Stoeckle (2016). Stuttering: Clinical and research update. Canadian Family Physician, 62(6), 479-484, and Wong, P. (2010). Selective mutism: A review of etiology, comorbidities, and treatment. Psychiatry, 7(3), 23-31.
About the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)
ASHA is the national professional, scientific, and credentialing association for 198,000 members and affiliates who are audiologists; speech-language pathologists; speech, language, and hearing scientists; audiology and speech-language pathology support personnel; and students. Audiologists specialize in preventing and assessing hearing and balance disorders as well as providing audiologic treatment, including hearing aids. Speech-language pathologists identify, assess, and treat speech and language problems, including swallowing disorders. http://www.asha.org
View all ASHA press releases at http://www.asha.org/about/news.
Joseph Cerquone, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, http://www.asha.org, +1 (301) 296-8732, [email protected]
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