Connecting Us to Others
Meet Our Team
Jennifer Tai
M.Cl.Sc. SLP, Reg. CASLPO
Founder, Speech Language Pathologist
Jennifer is a licensed Speech-Language Pathologist with seven and a half years of experience providing speech therapy to pre-school and school-aged children in the areas of articulation, phonology, language, early intervention, caregiver coaching, and literacy (reading and writing).
After working as a Communicative Disorders Assistant for a few years in private practice and in a school/therapy centre dedicated to children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, she decided to pursue a Masters of Clinical Sciences in Speech-Language Pathology at Western University.
Jennifer speaks English and Cantonese (conversational). She currently has training in Hanen: It Takes Two to Talk, More Than Words, Target Word, PROMPT, and LIDCOMBE. Workshops in Natural Language Acquisition have also been a major focus to ensure language modelling matches the learning style of the child. Neurodiversity-affirming practices are also implemented in her everyday practice to allow children to freely be themselves and for their personalities to shine through. Her ongoing professional development in evidence-based practices will ensure that she provides the best and highest quality service.
Roles and Qualifications of a Communicative Disorders Assistant
(the following is taken directly from the Communicative Disorders Assistance Association of Canada)
CDAAC Position Statement
Supportive personnel are defined as “individuals who are directly assigned clinical tasks and related work and are supervised by the [CASLPO] member to assist in the provision of speech language pathology intervention” (The Use of Support Personnel by Speech Language Pathologists, March 2017).
CDAs have all of the following:
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a diploma and/or an undergraduate degree, typically in human services or social sciences,
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a post-graduate CDA diploma or certificate,
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and, in most cases, prior work or volunteer experience in the field of communication disorders.
CDAs’ coursework and training covers all of the following areas:
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speech (including anatomy and physiology, sound acquisition and developmental errors, phonological processes, apraxia, dysarthria, transcribing using the international phonetic alphabet, fluency and voice),
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language (including typical development, special populations, language sampling and calculating mean length of utterance),
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pragmatics,
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adult neurogenic disorders,
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audiology (including anatomy of the ear, basic audiometric screenings and hearing aid technology),
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augmentative and alternative communication (including Voice Output Communication Aids, the Picture Exchange Communication System and use of communication software such as Boardmaker),
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how to work as supportive personnel,
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and two 6-8 week placements in the field of communication disorders
Supervision
As CASLPO states in its 2017 position statement, “Support personnel must demonstrate the knowledge, skill and judgement associated with assigned tasks.”. Additionally, they state “The amount and method of ongoing supervision the support personnel requires will depend on the following: Complexity of the patient and presenting disorders, issues and concerns, risk of harm associated with the assigned task, the specific competence of the support personnel, experience and level of comfort of the support personnel, experience and level of comfort of the SLP”.