Speech-language therapy students and attitudes towards disability: impact of past experiences, clinical experiences and development over time

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aims of this study were to describe the type and amount of experiences students have in the area of disability and determine whether significant differences in attitudes towards disability were present across three groups of students engaged in clinical practice and if attitudes changed over time. Twenty-two first professional year undergraduate, twenty-three first year postgraduate and twenty-three final year undergraduate speech-language therapy students participated in the study. A mixed method, cross-sectional pre-test post-test design was employed for all groups. Participants took part in part-time clinical placement experiences over a twelve-week period. Pre and post clinical placement, participants completed a questionnaire, including The Scales of Attitudes towards Disabled Persons (SADP) (Antonak [1982]. Development and psychometric analysis of the scale of attitudes toward disabled persons. Journal of Applied Rehabilitation Counselling, 13, 22–29), that was designed to examine experiences and attitudes towards disability and change over time. Overall, students reported almost all had personal experience with people with disabilities and over half of students sampled reported prior or current workplace experience. Students perceived their attitudes towards disability to be positive. In contrast to our hypotheses, student attitudes towards disability did not change significantly over time. Furthermore, first year postgraduate students held more positive attitudes towards disability compared to other student groups. Implications for clinical teaching and supervision in the workplace are discussed.