Speech/Language Therapist - The J Arthur Trudeau Memorial Center

About Us

For over 60 years, the Trudeau Center has been at the forefront of transforming the lives of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Our programs make an immediate and long-lasting impact on individuals of all ages, lifting them up by providing the support they need to thrive. And we have big plans to continue growing and evolving that work in the months and years to come.

Our Mission, Vision & Values

• Mission: Our mission is to promote an enhanced quality of life for individuals with developmental disabilities.
• Vision: We envision a diverse community where all people are valued and treated with dignity and have access to resources to help them lead productive lives.
• Values: We serve all individuals with compassion and respect. We are accessible and responsive and actively seek their input to better serve their needs.

Summary of Job Responsibilities:

Provide service coordination activities when assigned and direct/indirect treatment interventions to infants and toddlers. Participate in multidisciplinary evaluations as needed. Provide documentation of interventions consistent with Early Intervention Regulations.

Essential Functions & Principal Duties and Responsibilities:

• Protect the rights and dignities of individuals with developmental disabilities and extend these rights and dignities to family members or guardians.
• Upholds and complies with all safety programs and policies to maintain a safe work environment for employees, consumers, family members, and visitors.
• Commits to organizational quality initiatives by participating in programs that assure quality improvements and team processes.
• Provide essential functions, service coordination, and primary therapy in home-based, community, or center settings to achieve goals in all necessary areas.
• Participate in arena-style multidisciplinary evaluations, taking responsibility for assessing pre-linguistic and linguistic communication development and providing oral and written information to the child’s parents and other team members.
• Provide individual speech/language therapy treatment through family training and counseling when indicated through consensus of the multidisciplinary team, including the parents, and written into the child’s IFSP.
• Follows the Rhode Island Early Intervention Competencies.
• Obtain consultation from other team members in areas outside one's own expertise, such as social work, cognition, and motor development, in order to fully address the needs of individual children on the caseload.
• Serve as classroom staff in developmental groups and provide leadership in toddler groups, as directed.
• Maintain licensure and professional knowledge through participation in professional organizations, conferences, and in-services.
• Document all activities in accordance with your own licensure regulations and any requirements necessary for billing, agency policies, or early intervention regulations.
• Follow all agency guidelines and department-specific policies, e.g., sick time or vacation time usage, call-in policies, dress codes, etc., as specified in the personnel manual and Early Intervention-specific procedures.
• Perform other duties as directed by the supervisor related to the organization’s mission, goals, and operations.

Early Intervention Principles and Practices:

• Infants and toddlers learn best through everyday experiences and interactions with familiar people in familiar contexts.
  • Learning activities and opportunities must be functional and based on the interests and enjoyment of the child and family.
  • Learning is relationship-based.
  • Learning should provide opportunities to practice and build upon previously mastered skills.
  • Learning occurs through participation in a variety of enjoyable activities.
• All families, with the necessary support and resources, can enhance their children’s learning and development.
  • All families means ALL (income levels, racial and cultural backgrounds, educational levels, skill levels, living with varied stress levels and resources.
  • The consistent adults in a child’s life have the most significant influence on learning and development- not the EI providers.
  • All families have strengths and capabilities that can be used to help their child.
  • All families are resourceful, but all families do not have equal access.
  • Supports (informal and formal) need to build on strengths and reduce stressors so that families can engage with their children in mutually enjoyable interactions and activities.
• The primary role of the service provider in early intervention is to work with and support family members and caregivers in a child’s life.
  • Early Intervention providers engage with adults to enhance their confidence and competence in their inherent role as teachers and foster children’s development.
  • Families are equal partners in the relationship with service providers.
  • Mutual trust, respect, honesty, and open communication characterize the family-provider relationship.
• From initial contact through transition, the early intervention process must be dynamic and individualized to reflect the child’s and family members’ preferences, learning styles, and cultural beliefs.
  • Families are active participants in all aspects of services.
  • Families are the ultimate decision-makers regarding the amount and type of assistance and support revised accordingly.
  • Child and family needs, interests, and skills change; the IFSP must be fluid and revised accordingly.
  • Each adult in a child’s life has a preferred learning style, so interactions must be sensitive and responsive to individuals.
  • Each family’s culture, spiritual beliefs and activities, values, and traditions will differ from the service provider’s (even if from a similar culture); service providers should seek to understand, not judge.
  • Family “ways” are more critical than provider comfort and beliefs (short of abuse/neglect).
• IFSP outcomes must be functional and based on children’s and families needs and priorities
  • Functional outcomes improve participation in meaningful activities.
  • Functional outcomes build on natural motivations to learn and do, fit what’s important to families, strengthen naturally occurring routines, and enhance natural learning opportunities.
  • The family understands that strategies are worth working on because they lead to practical improvements in child and family life.
  • Functional outcomes keep the team focused on what’s meaningful to the family in their day-to-day activities.
• A primary provider who represents and receives team and community support most appropriately addresses the family's priorities, needs, and interests.
  • The team can include the family’s friends, relatives, community support people, and specialized service providers.
  • Good teaming practices are used.
  • One consistent person needs to understand and keep abreast of the changing circumstances, needs, interests, strengths, and demands in a family’s life.
  • The primary provider brings in other services and supports as needed, assuring outcomes, activities, and advice are compatible with family life and won’t overwhelm or confuse family members.
• Interventions with young children and family members must be based on explicit principles, validated practices, best available research, and relevant laws and regulations.
  • Practices must be on and consistent with explicit principles.
  • Providers should be able to provide a rationale for practice decisions.
  • Research is ongoing and informs evolving practices.
  • Practice decisions must be data-based, and ongoing evaluation is essential
  • Practices must fit with relevant laws and regulations.
  • As research and practice evolve, laws and regulations must be amended accordingly.
• Reflective practices best support families in developing strategies to understand, interpret, and nurture their child’s development.
  • Early Intervention providers take the time to pause and explore their reactions and feelings regarding their work with children and families.
  • Reflection occurs at individual, family, team, supervisory, programmatic, and interagency levels.
  • Reflective supervision supports individual, family, team, supervisory, programmatic, and interagency levels.
  • Reflective practices promote a parallel process whereby early intervention providers reflect on their relationships and interactions with parents/caregivers, who in turn reflect on their relationships and interactions with their children.

Internal/External Relationships:

Internal: Function as a member of a transdisciplinary team serving infants and toddlers with special needs, as well as their families. Provide individual or group formal teaching to parents and other team members in their expertise. Provide supervision, consultation, or orientation to other speech/language therapists on the team, as directed.

External: Consult with other members of the team in areas of own expertise, including promotion of overall communication development, adjustment of the home environment to promote functional communication skills, oral rehabilitation, signing and/or assistive technology needs, and achievement of communication goals within the natural setting.

Working Conditions: Natural settings, center, and home-based interventions, which shall require local travel. General business office conditions, working with computers, telephones, photocopying equipment, and fax machines. The work environment is contained in a program location that necessitates frequent child and family contact.

Physical and Mental Requirements: Ability to successfully perform the essential function of this job with reasonable accommodations considered to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions. Ability to deal with a wide range of individual and programmatic issues. Frequent sitting, standing, and walking. Must be able to lift 30 pounds. Must have a valid driver’s license, safe driving record, automobile insurance, and access to a vehicle to be used as directed and when needed for transport.

Education, Experience, and Skills: Master’s degree plus ASHA CCC registration and valid R.I. Speech/Language Therapy License required; 2-5 years experience providing treatment to infants and toddlers (birth to age three) in a family-focused, home-based setting; experience in the transdisciplinary provision of services. Advanced knowledge in one or more special treatments of PDD/autism; second language, signing, and/or experience working with minority racial, ethnic, and immigrant populations. Must have and maintain pediatric CPR certification.

Benefits at Trudeau

• 14 Paid Holidays
• Vacation, Sick, and Personal Time
• Medical, Dental & Vision
• Health Reimbursement Account (HRA)
• Employer Paid Life Insurance/Voluntary Life Insurance
• Voluntary Long-term Disability Insurance
• 403(b) Retirement Savings Plan
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Paid Trainings
• AAA Discount
• Verizon Discount
• Pet Insurance