As a speech pathology student, or early career clinician, you’re likely to hear about the Hanen program – and chances are it won’t be your last encounter with this amazing professional development. To make sure you get off on the right foot, here’s five things every SLP should know about The Hanen Program: an invaluable resource that may even end up in your professional repertoire one day!
1. What is The Hanen Program?
Are you working with young children who are struggling to develop their communication skills? Then you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the Hanen Program “It Takes Two To Talk” and “More Than Words”. Once you graduate as a speech pathologist, both professional development courses are available for you! The former is typically used when a toddler’s language development appears delayed or disordered. The latter focuses specifically on autistic kids’ communication needs. You can pick which one best suits your caseload.
2. The courses sell out fast!
After graduating as a speech pathologist, you may be considering jumping into the Hanen program. As an aspiring health professional, it’s important to know that these professional development courses fill up fast! To give yourself a competitive edge in securing your place on the upcoming courses make sure you get your name down on their expression of interest list. That way when a spot opens up – you’ll be among those first notified. This means you’ll be giving yourself all the chances of getting set-up with these sought after skills early on in your career!
3. It’s a significant investment
Upgrading your professional skills is an important part of enhancing the quality of your speech pathology practice. These 3-day courses are a great investment! It’s evidence-based so you can be confident that what you learn will have lasting value. The prices for the Hanen Program range from $850 – $1000+. It ain’t cheap so you need to consider this in terms of your professional development allowance. However, at the end of the day I can guarantee you, its worth every dollar for the invaluable learning these courses offer!
4. Hanen certified
Finishing the Hanen course gives you certification, allowing you to proudly call yourself a certified practitioner. The fun doesn’t stop there though! To stay on top of your game, membership fees and evidence that courses have been completed need to be provided. Nonetheless, you get to provide treatment for parents as part of their child’s journey too. So remember all this when looking into what it takes to become an instruction!
5. While you’re waiting to be trained
Written by Julie Sexton, Senior SLP and CEO of TalkHQ
