The National Outcomes Measurement System for Pediatric Speech-Language Pathology

Abstract

Purpose The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s (ASHA’s) National Outcomes Measurement System (NOMS) was developed in the late 1990s. The primary purpose was to serve as a source of data for speech-language pathologists (SLPs) who found themselves called on to provide empirical evidence of the functional outcomes associated with their clinical services for child and adult clients who were exhibiting various speech-language pathologies. The present discourse focuses on data that were collected in school settings from the prekindergarten NOMS and the K–12 NOMS. This initial account describes how the data collection systems were developed and the data were collected as well as an overview of the information contained in these databases. Method ASHA’s Functional Communication Measures (FCMs) were used to describe the disorder-specific communicative dysfunction(s) of each student. These data were obtained at the initiation of a child’s speech-language pathology services and again at the time of discharge from these treatments by the SLP. Results As of December 2007, data on more than 2,000 preschool students and 14,000 K–12 students have been reported to these 2 NOMS components by SLPs working in school settings. Discussion The availability of these data has proven to be a very valuable tool with respect to the efforts of school-based SLPs and administrators to document the beneficial impact of speech-language pathology services in school settings.