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  2. Disability and Communication [SPE4244]

School: Medical and Health Sciences

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

  • Unit Title

    Disability and Communication

  • Unit Code

    SPE4244

  • Year

    2026

  • Enrolment Period

    1

  • Version

    1

  • Credit Points

    15

  • Full Year Unit

     N

  • Mode of Delivery

    On Campus

  • Unit Coordinator

    Dr Charn NANG

Description

This unit explores the communication skills of people with developmental disabilities. Students learn how to profile key characteristics of disabilities according to the World Health Organization (WHO) ICF and consider the impact across the lifespan. The assessment and intervention techniques that support a client with complex communication needs, including the use of augmentative and alternative communication, will be critiqued. Students will learn the importance of developing close working relationships with professionals from other disciplines leading to an interprofessional team environment. Students will evaluate the implications of government policy on speech pathology practices in this field.

Non Standard Timetable Requirements

Lectures will be delivered across two weeks in January (alongside other units) before 4th year practicum requirements commence.

Prerequisite Rule

Students must have passed SPE3105, SPE3106, SPE3125 and SPE3111 or SPE3128

Co-Requisite Rule

Students must be enrolled in Y02 or Y12

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Appraise contemporary research to develop a profile of a developmental disability across the lifespan.
  2. Apply evidence-based interventions to the management of communication disorders in disability.
  3. Develop a management plan for a client with a developmental disability and complex communication needs.

Unit Content

  1. Biopsychosocial implications of developmental disabilities with complex communication needs across the lifespan.
  2. The diagnostic process.
  3. Grief and loss.
  4. The psycho-social impact of developmental disabilities.
  5. Developmental disability characteristics and the impact for the client.
  6. Assessment and management of clients with developmental disabilities and complex communication needs.
  7. Roles and responsibilities of the team.
  8. Multi-modal communication.
  9. NDIS.

Learning Experience

Students will attend on campus classes as well as engage in learning activities through ECU's LMS

City CampusJoondalupSouth West (Bunbury)
Practicum7Not Offered3 x 8 hour lectureNot Offered

For more information see the Semester Timetable

Additional Learning Experience Information

The on-campus seminars are highly interactive and introduce the central concepts of the unit and guide students through the literature. The mode of delivery for this unit is an intensive set of seminars commencing prior to the semester. Students participate in group discussion, case studies and active problem solving activities to consolidate learning. Guest lecturers from the disability field will contribute to lectures.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
Assignment ^Assessment of Complex Communication40%
Case Study ^Device selection and intervention planning60%

^ Mandatory to Pass

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Assessment

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. Informal vivas may be conducted as part of an assessment task, where staff require further information to confirm the learning outcomes have been met. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

Academic Integrity

Integrity is a core value at Edith Cowan University, and it is expected that ECU students complete their assessment tasks honestly and with acknowledgement of other people's work as well as any generative artificial intelligence tools that may have been used. This means that assessment tasks must be completed individually (unless it is an authorised group assessment task) and any sources used must be referenced.

Breaches of academic integrity can include:

  • Plagiarism: Copying the words, ideas or creative works of other people or generative artificial intelligence tools, without referencing in accordance with stated University requirements. Students need to seek approval from the Unit Coordinator within the first week of study if they intend to use some of their previous work in an assessment task (self-plagiarism).
  • Unauthorised collaboration (collusion): Working with other students and submitting the same or substantially similar work or portions of work when an individual submission was required. This includes students knowingly providing others with copies of their own work to use in the same or similar assessment task(s).
  • Contract cheating: Organising a friend, a family member, another student or an external person or organisation (e.g. through an online website) to complete or substantially edit or refine part or all of an assessment task(s) on their behalf.
  • Cheating in an exam: Using or having access to unauthorised materials in an exam or test.

Serious outcomes may be imposed if a student is found to have committed one of these breaches, up to and including expulsion from the University for repeated or serious acts.

ECU's policies and more information about academic integrity can be found on the student academic integrity website.

All commencing ECU students are required to complete the Academic Integrity Module.

Assessment Extension

In some circumstances, Students may apply to their Unit Coordinator to extend the due date of their Assessment Task(s) in accordance with ECU's Assessment Procedure - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000001386.

Special Consideration

Students may apply for Special Consideration in respect of a final unit grade, where their achievement was affected by Exceptional Circumstances as set out in the Assessment Procedure - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000003318.

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