The Pediatric SLP’s Role in Hospice, Palliative Care, and Grief Support

Speech-language pathologists play an important but often overlooked role in supporting children and families facing serious illness, end-of-life care, and grief. In this course, Jennifer Eggert, MS, CCC-SLP, C/NDT, examines how SLPs can provide meaningful support throughout pediatric hospice and palliative care, with a focus on communication, feeding and swallowing, caregiver guidance, advocacy, and quality of life.

The course explores the differences between hospice and palliative care and how clinical priorities may shift as a child's condition changes. You'll learn how children's understanding of illness, death, and grief develops with age and how to support their ability to ask questions, express emotions, participate in difficult conversations, and maintain meaningful connections with loved ones.

Practical strategies for supporting siblings, classmates, and peers are also addressed, including the use of children's literature, storytelling, visual supports, and other communication tools. Through case examples and clinical applications, you'll gain a better understanding of how to provide compassionate, developmentally appropriate care across healthcare, school, early intervention, home-based, and community settings.