AI and Your SLP (That also Includes Me, the Person Writing this To You)

Laura Elliott Adams, M.S., CCC-SLP

I want to have a conversation with you. Not in the “We need to talk because something is wrong” way. Rather, in the “I have an idea in my head, and I’d like to share it with you” way. The kind of asynchronous conversation that starts with a feeling, molded into words, and typed with my fingers onto my keyboard as I’m sitting here on my couch. The kind where I’m here imagining you on the other end and what this communication may mean to you. Perhaps you’re a parent of one of our clients. Maybe you’re a graduate SLP student studying AI applications in speech therapy. It could even be that you’re an AI programmer here in Silicon Valley just down the street from our office. The only AI in sight that I think I’m using is the familiar word prediction software to help correct the typos my older eyes and fingers don’t immediately catch.

Are you noticing it too? AI, Artificial Intelligence, is everywhere now. I did an internet search and thought I had found the one soul speaking to me and answering my question and two sentences in, I realized the content is AI generated. They…it…is not able to have a conversation with me at the level I’m seeking at the moment.
So let me start again. I’d like to have a conversation with you. Really.

There are entire books written on the implications of AI use in our daily lives. Books that are written both by people and, I’m sure by now, by the AI generation. Oh, I’d love to chat about all of it with you; however, I need to narrow this down quite a bit! I think that you may have some questions about what AI can look like in terms of speech therapy services. So I’ve compiled a few FAQs.

Frequently Asked Questions

What emails, reports, and other documentation that I receive have been generated with AI?

Good uses examples:

• AI gives suggestions for how to finish a sentence. There is still a human brain deciding whether or not that sentence fits the communication.
• Some standardized test publishers have software that automatically plugs in data saving hours of time in manual test scoring. They may generate AI reports that discuss the data. They won’t analyze the data in relation to other evaluation testing, observation, interviews, and case history compilation to come up with an overall diagnosis and treatment plan. That is still what the human brain and your SLP does!

We WON’T: Send out anything without vetting it first through our eyes and brains.

Are therapy plans and goals written with AI?

SLPs have used goal banks for wording suggestions of specific goals for decades. We all have goals in mind based on an individual evaluation. Just as a writer consults a thesaurus to find “le mot juste,” we may consult asynchronously with SLPs who have come before us and then decide if that wording perfectly matches the goal we are formulating in our minds. AI has compiled many more of these and can recognize patterns to make suggestions. Rest assured, all therapy plans and goals are 100% individualized to each client based on the results of evaluations and our own data collection. The SLP is the one who ultimately determines if a written goal fits. AI simply does not have clinical judgment.

What are the rules, regulations, and guidelines concerning AI in speech-language pathology services?

We are guided by the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association Code of Ethics and have taken courses about the ethical use of AI in our profession.

Do I have to worry that my teletherapy SLP is actually AI????

Well, I don’t think we’ll have to worry quite yet about your real-time, live SLP being AI via in-person or teletherapy services. That is still science fiction. I’ll add that question here if we get there. And I promise you, we’ll have a conversation about that.