Speech-Language Pathologist Ethical Issues Paper

Introduction
Looking for a health care profession, there is a lot of consideration that need to be taken while treating a patient/client. A vast majority of cases that are reported in the medical field are either illegal or unethically treated. As an aspiring Speech- Language Pathologist we are held to the standard of fixing the speech disorder, or to fix the brokenness of communication that a person is facing. Well, that is not always the case, as Speech-Language Pathologist we work on different techniques to ensure our client is not behind in their developmental stage and allow them to feel confident in what they are saying. A curious amount of people asks, what is standard American English? What are Speech-Language Pathologist trying to “fix” or how are they modeling to their client standard

This controversial topic about what is standard American English hinders many Speech Language Pathologists while trying to “correct” African American English. This ethical dilemma, “where a choice must be made between unpleasant alternatives and involves giving up something and suffering something bad, no matter what course of action is taken” (Pozgar, 2016 pg. 67) promotes the unethical behavior of the SLP. Some Speech-Language Pathologist try to fix the clients dialect variation when ethically that is not on our caseload. AHSA states that AAE “is not evidence of a speech sound disorder, but rather one of the phonological features of AAE” (Speech Sound Disorder). Although, omission and substitutions are significant speech disorder, SLP must distinguish between a dialect disorder and a communicative disorder while treating their patient (Speech Sound Disorder). While, some SLP do this on a regular basis, it is not an ethical decision and it goes against our code of ethics that AHSA has laid out for