BackgroundThe Child Talk study aimed to develop an evidence-based framework to support the decisi... more BackgroundThe Child Talk study aimed to develop an evidence-based framework to support the decision-making of speech and language therapists (SLTs) as they design and plan interventions appropriate to the needs of individual children with primary speech and language impairments and their families. The need for early identification and effective intervention for these children continues to be a government policy priority because of the link between children’s early speech and language skills and their broader well-being and outcomes in later life. The first phase of Child Talk sought to map and describe current SLT practice for these children; identify and summarise the existing research evidence relating to practice; and investigate the perspectives of parents, early years practitioners, preschool children and ‘underserved’ communities on speech and language therapy. The second phase of Child Talk focused on the development of a toolkit – assessment tools, outcome measures and a dat...
International journal of speech-language pathology, 2008
This paper reports on the development and evaluation of a software program aimed at assisting chi... more This paper reports on the development and evaluation of a software program aimed at assisting children with phonological impairment. An experimental approach was used whereby children's speech output was assessed pre- and post-therapy. Children were randomly assigned to a computer, a tabletop or a no therapy group. Those children receiving the computer therapy were exposed to an experimental software program that mirrored the tabletop activities using interactive computer games. The results showed no significant difference between any of the three groups with regard to change in speech output. These results may relate to the amount and frequency of therapy given and also to the heterogeneous nature of children included in the study. There was considerable variation in individual performance across all three groups and the data were therefore analysed to look for patterns that might predict performance. Stimulability and gender were identified as possible predictors. Female child...
Background: Systematic reviews are increasingly being carried out in speech-and-language therapy ... more Background: Systematic reviews are increasingly being carried out in speech-and-language therapy and are used by practitioners, service commissioners, policy-makers and researchers to inform decision-making, as the body of evidence available about speech-and-language therapy grows. Although systematic reviewing is developing to incorporate new methods of review and synthesis, there are currently limitations in the use of some types of systematic reviews within speech-and-language therapy. Aims: The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the steps involved in the systematic review process and the range of options available. It highlights some challenges to using this process in speech-and-language therapy, with examples based in part on the authors’ experiences of involvement in two systematic reviews. A number of developments in systematic review methodology will be outlined and several new approaches to reviewing, both within and outside of speech-and-language therapy, ...
Acknowledgements: We would like to thank the practitioners in our five sites for their contributi... more Acknowledgements: We would like to thank the practitioners in our five sites for their contribution to this project. Perhaps it goes without saying that it would not have been possible without their input but we would like to thank them especially for their enthusiasm about the project and for contributing to the different elements of the project. Similarly, we would like to thank the parents who gave so readily their time to contribute to the project. It was clear that they valued the service and wanted to improve it for other parents. We are especially grateful to our PPI groups who helped steer the project, as did the Expert Advisory Group hosted by Public Health England and the Department for Education. And, finally, we would like to thank Nikki Hawley, administrator at Newcastle University, for help in data entry and support for the project.
International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 2001
A focus group of seven speech and language therapists (SLTs) who work with children with phonolog... more A focus group of seven speech and language therapists (SLTs) who work with children with phonological difficulties was invited to share their views on their current ways of working. Qualitative data was generated through discussion of two video‐taped recordings of children with phonological difficulties and a series of brainstorming tasks. The results indicate the use of an eclectic approach, a mixture of theories rather than a single one. Similarities and differences between SLTs are identified. Implications for the development of clinical guidelines and the investigation of effectiveness are discussed.
International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 2012
BackgroundChildren who are bilingual and have speech sound disorder are likely to be under‐referr... more BackgroundChildren who are bilingual and have speech sound disorder are likely to be under‐referred, possibly due to confusion about typical speech acquisition in bilingual children.AimsTo investigate what is known about the impact of bilingualism on children's acquisition of speech in English to facilitate the identification and treatment of bilingual children with speech sound disorder.Methods & ProceduresA systematic review of studies from the last 50 years was conducted. Studies investigating speech acquisition in bilingual infants and children (where one language was English) were identified through searching seven electronic databases, bibliographies of relevant articles and e‐mailing authors. Sixty‐six studies investigating bilingual speech production met inclusion criteria, with 53 describing typically developing children and 13 describing children with speech sound disorder. The 66 studies were analysed thematically and summarized in terms of methods, key findings and u...
Objective (1) To examine the evidence for the effectiveness of differences in timing and type of ... more Objective (1) To examine the evidence for the effectiveness of differences in timing and type of speech and language therapy for children with cleft palate with or without a cleft lip and (2) to identify types of interventions assessed. Design Nine databases, including MEDLINE and EMBASE, were searched between inception and March 2011 to identify published articles relating to speech and language therapy for children with cleft palate with or without cleft lip. Studies that included at least 10 participants and reported outcome measures for speech and/or language measures were included. Studies where the experimental group had less than 90% of children with cleft palate with or without cleft lip were excluded. Two reviewers independently completed inclusion assessment, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment for all studies identified. Results A total of 17 papers were evaluated: six randomized control trials and 11 observational studies. Studies varied widely on risk of bias, ...
Background: Systematic reviews are increasingly being carried out in speech-and-language therapy ... more Background: Systematic reviews are increasingly being carried out in speech-and-language therapy and are used by practitioners, service commissioners, policy-makers and researchers to inform decision-making, as the body of evidence available about speech-and-language therapy grows. Although systematic reviewing is developing to incorporate new methods of review and synthesis, there are currently limitations in the use of some types of systematic reviews within speech-and-language therapy. Aims: The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the steps involved in the systematic review process and the range of options available. It highlights some challenges to using this process in speech-and-language therapy, with examples based in part on the authors’ experiences of involvement in two systematic reviews. A number of developments in systematic review methodology will be outlined and several new approaches to reviewing, both within and outside of speech-and-language therapy, ...
Background: Early interventions to support young children’s language development through responsi... more Background: Early interventions to support young children’s language development through responsive parent-child interaction have proven efficacy but are not currently delivered universally. A potential universal delivery platform is the Health Visitor (HV) led 2-2½ year old review in England’s Healthy Child Programme. It is unclear if it is feasible to offer such interventions through this platform. We report an intervention development process, including extensive stakeholder consultation and co-design to develop an acceptable, feasible and equitable early language intervention for delivery in this context.Methods:The study involved five phases including 13 stakeholder co-design workshops with 7 parents and 39 practitioners (HVs, early years practitioners and speech and language therapists). 1) Identification of existing intervention evidence. 2) Qualitative review of intervention studies extracting candidate target behaviours for intervention and intervention techniques. 3) Co-de...
International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 2001
In the past decade, there has been growing recognition of the need to involve clients in decision... more In the past decade, there has been growing recognition of the need to involve clients in decisions about the healthcare they receive and in the evaluation of services offered. In health services research, survey and scaling methods have become important tools for research into 'consumer views' and the perspectives of people receiving healthcare. In spite of the increase in recent years in the participation of parents in their children's Speech and Language Therapy (SLT), there has been little attempt to investigate parents' perceptions and opinions of the services they receive. Moreover, there has been no previous attempt to derive a scale to measure these attitudes. The paper reports a study that explored the attitudes to therapy of 81 parents whose preschool children were receiving SLT intervention. Factor analysis of 12 items on a questionnaire revealed three issues salient in parental attitudes to therapy: practical help, emotional support and the perceived effectiveness of the service. The validity of these factors was supported by other findings from the questionnaire. The properties of the resulting scales are discussed and the ways in which they might be further refined and developed for use in SLT are suggested.
Background: Receptive language impairment (RLI) is one of the most significant indicators of nega... more Background: Receptive language impairment (RLI) is one of the most significant indicators of negative sequelae for children with speech and language disorders. Despite this, relatively little is known about the most effective treatments for these children in the ...
This study concerns the decisions and expertise of speech and language therapists (sits) working ... more This study concerns the decisions and expertise of speech and language therapists (sits) working with preschool children, in particular, the selection and prioritisation of newly referred youngsters for therapy. The literature review covers three aspects: the difficulties of identifying communication disorders in preschool children; the nature of speech & language therapy knowledge; the nature of the selection and prioritisation task. These three aspects provide the theoretical foundations of the study and gave rise to the selection of a multimethod and predominantly qualitative methodology. Using a series of knowledge elicitation tasks, the selection and prioritisation decision was explored. A small group of expert slts participated in semistructured interviews, case history analyses, focus group discussions and card sorting exercises. The results are summarised under three headings: the child, the process and the expertise. The study identifies areas considered significant in the ...
BackgroundThe Child Talk study aimed to develop an evidence-based framework to support the decisi... more BackgroundThe Child Talk study aimed to develop an evidence-based framework to support the decision-making of speech and language therapists (SLTs) as they design and plan interventions appropriate to the needs of individual children with primary speech and language impairments and their families. The need for early identification and effective intervention for these children continues to be a government policy priority because of the link between children’s early speech and language skills and their broader well-being and outcomes in later life. The first phase of Child Talk sought to map and describe current SLT practice for these children; identify and summarise the existing research evidence relating to practice; and investigate the perspectives of parents, early years practitioners, preschool children and ‘underserved’ communities on speech and language therapy. The second phase of Child Talk focused on the development of a toolkit – assessment tools, outcome measures and a dat...
International journal of speech-language pathology, 2008
This paper reports on the development and evaluation of a software program aimed at assisting chi... more This paper reports on the development and evaluation of a software program aimed at assisting children with phonological impairment. An experimental approach was used whereby children's speech output was assessed pre- and post-therapy. Children were randomly assigned to a computer, a tabletop or a no therapy group. Those children receiving the computer therapy were exposed to an experimental software program that mirrored the tabletop activities using interactive computer games. The results showed no significant difference between any of the three groups with regard to change in speech output. These results may relate to the amount and frequency of therapy given and also to the heterogeneous nature of children included in the study. There was considerable variation in individual performance across all three groups and the data were therefore analysed to look for patterns that might predict performance. Stimulability and gender were identified as possible predictors. Female child...
Background: Systematic reviews are increasingly being carried out in speech-and-language therapy ... more Background: Systematic reviews are increasingly being carried out in speech-and-language therapy and are used by practitioners, service commissioners, policy-makers and researchers to inform decision-making, as the body of evidence available about speech-and-language therapy grows. Although systematic reviewing is developing to incorporate new methods of review and synthesis, there are currently limitations in the use of some types of systematic reviews within speech-and-language therapy. Aims: The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the steps involved in the systematic review process and the range of options available. It highlights some challenges to using this process in speech-and-language therapy, with examples based in part on the authors’ experiences of involvement in two systematic reviews. A number of developments in systematic review methodology will be outlined and several new approaches to reviewing, both within and outside of speech-and-language therapy, ...
Acknowledgements: We would like to thank the practitioners in our five sites for their contributi... more Acknowledgements: We would like to thank the practitioners in our five sites for their contribution to this project. Perhaps it goes without saying that it would not have been possible without their input but we would like to thank them especially for their enthusiasm about the project and for contributing to the different elements of the project. Similarly, we would like to thank the parents who gave so readily their time to contribute to the project. It was clear that they valued the service and wanted to improve it for other parents. We are especially grateful to our PPI groups who helped steer the project, as did the Expert Advisory Group hosted by Public Health England and the Department for Education. And, finally, we would like to thank Nikki Hawley, administrator at Newcastle University, for help in data entry and support for the project.
International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 2001
A focus group of seven speech and language therapists (SLTs) who work with children with phonolog... more A focus group of seven speech and language therapists (SLTs) who work with children with phonological difficulties was invited to share their views on their current ways of working. Qualitative data was generated through discussion of two video‐taped recordings of children with phonological difficulties and a series of brainstorming tasks. The results indicate the use of an eclectic approach, a mixture of theories rather than a single one. Similarities and differences between SLTs are identified. Implications for the development of clinical guidelines and the investigation of effectiveness are discussed.
International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 2012
BackgroundChildren who are bilingual and have speech sound disorder are likely to be under‐referr... more BackgroundChildren who are bilingual and have speech sound disorder are likely to be under‐referred, possibly due to confusion about typical speech acquisition in bilingual children.AimsTo investigate what is known about the impact of bilingualism on children's acquisition of speech in English to facilitate the identification and treatment of bilingual children with speech sound disorder.Methods & ProceduresA systematic review of studies from the last 50 years was conducted. Studies investigating speech acquisition in bilingual infants and children (where one language was English) were identified through searching seven electronic databases, bibliographies of relevant articles and e‐mailing authors. Sixty‐six studies investigating bilingual speech production met inclusion criteria, with 53 describing typically developing children and 13 describing children with speech sound disorder. The 66 studies were analysed thematically and summarized in terms of methods, key findings and u...
Objective (1) To examine the evidence for the effectiveness of differences in timing and type of ... more Objective (1) To examine the evidence for the effectiveness of differences in timing and type of speech and language therapy for children with cleft palate with or without a cleft lip and (2) to identify types of interventions assessed. Design Nine databases, including MEDLINE and EMBASE, were searched between inception and March 2011 to identify published articles relating to speech and language therapy for children with cleft palate with or without cleft lip. Studies that included at least 10 participants and reported outcome measures for speech and/or language measures were included. Studies where the experimental group had less than 90% of children with cleft palate with or without cleft lip were excluded. Two reviewers independently completed inclusion assessment, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment for all studies identified. Results A total of 17 papers were evaluated: six randomized control trials and 11 observational studies. Studies varied widely on risk of bias, ...
Background: Systematic reviews are increasingly being carried out in speech-and-language therapy ... more Background: Systematic reviews are increasingly being carried out in speech-and-language therapy and are used by practitioners, service commissioners, policy-makers and researchers to inform decision-making, as the body of evidence available about speech-and-language therapy grows. Although systematic reviewing is developing to incorporate new methods of review and synthesis, there are currently limitations in the use of some types of systematic reviews within speech-and-language therapy. Aims: The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the steps involved in the systematic review process and the range of options available. It highlights some challenges to using this process in speech-and-language therapy, with examples based in part on the authors’ experiences of involvement in two systematic reviews. A number of developments in systematic review methodology will be outlined and several new approaches to reviewing, both within and outside of speech-and-language therapy, ...
Background: Early interventions to support young children’s language development through responsi... more Background: Early interventions to support young children’s language development through responsive parent-child interaction have proven efficacy but are not currently delivered universally. A potential universal delivery platform is the Health Visitor (HV) led 2-2½ year old review in England’s Healthy Child Programme. It is unclear if it is feasible to offer such interventions through this platform. We report an intervention development process, including extensive stakeholder consultation and co-design to develop an acceptable, feasible and equitable early language intervention for delivery in this context.Methods:The study involved five phases including 13 stakeholder co-design workshops with 7 parents and 39 practitioners (HVs, early years practitioners and speech and language therapists). 1) Identification of existing intervention evidence. 2) Qualitative review of intervention studies extracting candidate target behaviours for intervention and intervention techniques. 3) Co-de...
International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 2001
In the past decade, there has been growing recognition of the need to involve clients in decision... more In the past decade, there has been growing recognition of the need to involve clients in decisions about the healthcare they receive and in the evaluation of services offered. In health services research, survey and scaling methods have become important tools for research into 'consumer views' and the perspectives of people receiving healthcare. In spite of the increase in recent years in the participation of parents in their children's Speech and Language Therapy (SLT), there has been little attempt to investigate parents' perceptions and opinions of the services they receive. Moreover, there has been no previous attempt to derive a scale to measure these attitudes. The paper reports a study that explored the attitudes to therapy of 81 parents whose preschool children were receiving SLT intervention. Factor analysis of 12 items on a questionnaire revealed three issues salient in parental attitudes to therapy: practical help, emotional support and the perceived effectiveness of the service. The validity of these factors was supported by other findings from the questionnaire. The properties of the resulting scales are discussed and the ways in which they might be further refined and developed for use in SLT are suggested.
Background: Receptive language impairment (RLI) is one of the most significant indicators of nega... more Background: Receptive language impairment (RLI) is one of the most significant indicators of negative sequelae for children with speech and language disorders. Despite this, relatively little is known about the most effective treatments for these children in the ...
This study concerns the decisions and expertise of speech and language therapists (sits) working ... more This study concerns the decisions and expertise of speech and language therapists (sits) working with preschool children, in particular, the selection and prioritisation of newly referred youngsters for therapy. The literature review covers three aspects: the difficulties of identifying communication disorders in preschool children; the nature of speech & language therapy knowledge; the nature of the selection and prioritisation task. These three aspects provide the theoretical foundations of the study and gave rise to the selection of a multimethod and predominantly qualitative methodology. Using a series of knowledge elicitation tasks, the selection and prioritisation decision was explored. A small group of expert slts participated in semistructured interviews, case history analyses, focus group discussions and card sorting exercises. The results are summarised under three headings: the child, the process and the expertise. The study identifies areas considered significant in the ...
Uploads