Relationship with the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
In 1995, Specialty Recognition was established by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Effective January 1, 2014, the Clinical Specialty Certification (CSC) program replaced the previous Clinical Specialty Recognition (CSR) program.
Clinical Specialty Certification enables a speech-language pathologist or audiologist with advanced knowledge, skills, and experience beyond the Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC) to be identified by colleagues, employers, referral and payer sources, and the general public as a Board Certified Specialist (BCS) in a specific area of clinical practice.
The CSC program is overseen by the Council for Clinical Certification in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CFCC) through the CFCC’s Committee on Clinical Specialty Certification (CCSC). The CFCC establishes minimum standards for both specialty areas of practice (Area Standards) and the certification of specialists (Specialist Standards). The CCSC monitors a Specialty Certification Board’s (SCB) adherence to the CFCC’s standards for the program and approves applications for new clinical specialty areas.
The Autism Specialty is an independent Board with 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization status. The Board relates to the Autism Specialty through CCSC. The council serves as both as a resource for the Board and an oversight function to assure that the standards set by the Autism Specialty are being maintained and that as changes to the program are made the consumer is being fully considered. The Autism Specialty submits an annual report for review by CCSC.