Disclaimer: Law, rules and regulations, not Guidelines, specify the requirements for practice and violating them constitutes professional misconduct. Not adhering to this Guideline may be interpreted as professional misconduct only if the conduct also violates pertinent law, rules and regulations.
Scope of Competence
Speech-language pathologists and audiologists may only practice within their scope of competence. This implies that unsupervised provision of services within the stated scopes of practice may only be provided by those professionals who have had education, clinical training, and experience appropriate to the needs of the clients/patients they serve.
According to Education Law, the practice of speech-language pathology includes the application of principles, methods and procedures of measurement, prediction, non-medical diagnosis, testing, counseling, consultation, rehabilitation and instruction related to the development and disorders of speech, voice, swallowing and/or language.
The practice of audiology includes the application of principles, methods and procedures of measurement, testing, evaluation, consultation, counseling, instruction, and habilitation or rehabilitation related to hearing, its disorders and related communication impairments and vestibular disorders for the purpose of non-medical diagnosis, prevention, identification, amelioration or modification of these disorders.
Scope of competence is not synonymous with scope of practice.