Reflections on being an oral history insider: subjectivity, intersubjectivity and speech therapy

Speech therapy in the UK is a relatively small profession with a unified professional body being established in 1945. The first members of this body had careers influenced by major social environmental and social policy changes in the second half of the twentieth century, but their voices have largely been unheard. This article is based on an oral history study carried out with speech therapists who qualified after the Second World War. It explores the opportunities and challenges involved in being a speech therapy insider collecting these oral histories. It argues that, despite, or possibly because of, my constant self-questioning throughout the process, my insider status was more of a benefit than a disadvantage in constructing the resulting oral history

Education for practice : the development of competence in speech and language therapy students.

Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN048797 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

EU collaboration in speech and language therapy education : the NetQues project

As the number of countries joining the European Union (EU) has grown over recent decades, so also has the accompanying European legislation to encourage cross border mobility and recognition of professional qualifications. This has led to a need to be able to assess and compare professions and their education across the EU and beyond. Historically, in response to the challenge of addressing the needs of persons with difficulties with communication, the profession has developed differently across European countries influenced by linguistic, cultural and socio-political diversity and a range of approaches to medicine, health and education. The NetQues project was set up to establish agreements on areas of commonality in speech and language therapy (pathology) education across the EU and also to look at any differences. The article looks briefly at the history and diversity of the profession in Europe and describes how 65 partners from 31 countries across Europe recruited into a multilateral academic and professional network achieved the project’s goal to delineate the agreed common core competences which are both essential and desirable for a newly qualified speech-language practitioner to work safely and effectively. Employing ethnographic and survey research following EU Tuning principles seeking points of reference, convergence and common understanding, core elements of coherent professional education “fit for purpose” across Europe are identified and agreed EU Benchmark statements of core competences required are documented. Notably while differences and diversity present challenges, all countries involved in the project aspire to develop competent and caring professionals, able to practice safely and effectively with relevant up-to-date knowledge and skills upon admission to a clearly identifiable unique profession

Review of speech and language therapy, phsyiotherapy and occupational therapy for children, and speech and language therapy for adults with learning disabilities and autistic spectrum disorder.

This report outlines the work of the Review of Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy for children and Speech and Language Therapy for adults with learning disabilities in Scotland, commissioned by the Scottish Executive in 2002. The review was carried out by researchers from Queen Margaret University College, guided by a steering group made up of representatives from the Scottish Executive Education Department and the Scottish Executive Health Department as well as advisors from a number of stakeholder groups.caslpub2215pu

Supporting communication for parents with intellectual impairments: communication facilitation in social work led parenting meetings

Accessible summary • Parents who have a learning disability have to go to meetings with professionals such as social workers and lawyers. • Professionals do not always use easy words • If someone helps professionals and parents to listen to each other, it is easier to understand what they are saying • Listening and understanding is important for parents in meetings Summary People with intellectual impairments are recognised as having communication difficulties and even people with mild intellectual impairments can be challenged by complex language and limited literacy. The focus of this paper is parents who have learning disabilities, outlining a novel approach to support them in stressful case conference situations. Parents with intellectual impairments are frequently the subject of multiple interventions, case conferences and legal proceedings which challenge their communicative capacity. Case conferences often involve professionals with little or no experience of learning disability, including social workers and lawyers. The language in these case conferences can have complex sentence structure, low frequency legal vocabulary and difficult concepts, which are challenging for learning disabled parents to follow. The Communication Facilitator role is a recently developed approach to supporting parents in case conferences, aimed at enabling LD parents to understand and contribute to the proceedings. This paper reports the motivation and practical issues in developing the role, and the use of Communication Facilitator in child protection meetings where there are high stakes for not understanding, resulting in the potential removal of children from the parental home

Speech and language therapy services to multilingual children in Scotland and England: A comparison of three cities.

This study investigates current speech and language therapy services for multilingual children in three cities in the UK, and examines whether an equitable service is provided to multilingual children in these cities. Through a combination of questionnaires, Census data, and school population data, information was gathered about number and ratio of monolingual and multilingual children in the population, number and ratio of monolingual and multilingual children on therapy caseloads, languages spoken by the multilingual children and therapists, number and ratio of therapists working in languages other than English, availability of multilingual therapy assistants and interpreters, language(s) in which therapy is offered, training/education provided to therapists, and practising therapists' views on service provision to multilingual children. Results show that currently only one of the three cities is providing a fully equitable service for multilingual children and that there are varying levels of support which partly reflect the perceived need in each area. Conclusions drawn include the need for a change in how data on linguistic diversity in society is collected and disseminated so that informed decisions can influence the future of quality services to minority groups.casl4pub2144pub

Whose right? - Who's right?

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Are we meeting the challenge? An evaluation of SLT services for bilingual children in 3 centres of population.

This study investigates the current speech and language therapy (SLT) service to bilingual children within three cities in the United Kingdom (UK), i.e. two in Scotland (S1 and S2) and one in England (E1), and specifically addresses whether speech and language therapists (SLTs) believe that their service meets the professional guidelines of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT). Through a combination of interviews, postal questionnaires, and Census data, information was gathered about the SLT paediatric service provision in each of these cities. For each of the three centres we established: (i) the % of monolingual and bilingual children in the population, (ii) the % of bilingual and monolingual children on the SLT caseload, (iii) the languages spoken by the bilingual children on the caseload, and (iv) whether SLTs in these cities believe that their service is currently meeting the RCSLT guidelines.caslEthnologue: Languages of the World (14th Edition, 2002), at www.ethnologue.com. Hall, D. (1995). Assessing the needs of bilingual pupils: Living in two languages. London. David Fulton Publishers Limited. Mackey, W.F. (1968). The description of bilingualism. In J.A. Fishman (Ed.) Readings in the sociology of language. The Hague: Mouton, pp. 554-584. Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (1996). Communicating Quality2: Professional Standards for Speech and Language Therapists London: Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists. Winter, K. (1999). Speech and language therapy provision for bilingual children: aspects of the current service. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders 34 (1), 85-98. Young, T. & Westernoff, F. (1999). Reflections of Speech and Language Pathologists and Audiologists on Practices in a Multicultural, Multilingual Society. Journal of Speech- Language Pathology and Audiology, 23 (1), 24-30.pub2210pu

Speech and Language Therapy Services for Bilingual Children in England and Scotland: A Tale of Three Cities.

Somerville, MAIt is generally accepted that the majority of the world's population speaks more than one language and that the monolingual situation is rather uncommon (e.g. Aitchison, 1994). Winter (1999) suggests that there is no reason to assume that the prevalence of speech and language difficulties in the bilingual population should be any different to that in the monolingual population. It is thus inevitable that managers are faced with having to provide appropriate speech and language therapy services for bilingual and multilingual clients in order to ensure an equitable service to all clients. This is, however, a rather challenging task. In order to assess the need for such a service, to plan what resources are required and the best way to deliver that service, managers will need to be aware of the bilingual population they are serving. Such socio-demographic information is however not available as an easily retrievable statistic and it is difficult for managers to plan a service when faced with a paucity of data on the linguistic communities present within their area of remit. The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT, the United Kingdom's professional body for speech and language therapists) has acknowledged the need to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services by documenting guidelines for therapists in its handbook of professional standards (RCSLT, 1996). These guidelines advise that speech and language assessment should be carried out in both (all) languages spoken by a bilingual or multilingual client and also highlight the importance of offering speech and language therapy in the client's chosen language. In practice, however, it may be difficult for the speech and language therapy service to achieve these guidelines. Young and Westernoff (1999) identified several challenges professionals are faced with when working with clients from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, ranging from culture, language, and training, to professional matters. These challenges are often perceived to be barriers to providing an efficacious service to these clients. This study investigates the current speech and language therapy service to bilingual children within three major centres of population in Britain and specifically addresses whether the speech and language therapists working in these areas believe that their service is currently capable of meeting the RCSLT guidelines. Through a combination of interviews and postal questionnaires, information was gathered about the speech and language therapy paediatric service provision in each of these centres, with particular emphasis to some of the challenges that may affect service provision, such as language, training and policy. Further data was gathered by studying Census data and data gleaned from Local Education Authorities (LEA). The study is part of a wider study which aims to get a more in depth view of how RCSLT guidelines are being addressed, how accessible the service is, what support services are in place, and how services can be improved. In this paper, however, we will only report on the first phase of this study, as described above. In our study we use the term bilingual to refer to individuals who use two or more languages in any of its modalities, speaking, writing, reading and writing (Mackey, 1968) and do not distinguish between bilingualism, multilingualism, or biculturalism and multiculturalism, unless specifically stated otherwise.caslpub2160pu

Strength in compromise.

This article describes Mark (age 26) who has severe dysarthria following a head injury. He accepted AAC (SpeechViewer) as a short-term measure, but was keen to use technology (the electropalatograph) he saw promoted in the media to improve his oral skills. His speech and language therapists feel that this will not help him. The ethical issues involved in the case are discussed and illustrated by the use of Seedhouse's ethical grid. These include the levels of practicality, the general level of outcome to be achieved, the level of duties expected, and the principles behind health work. Issues which impact on Mark's expectations of the speech and language therapy service and which remain unresolved are the gaps in NHS provision for young head injured individuals as their circumstances change, and the tendency of the media to overstate the benefits of new approaches to disability.caslpub2449pubAutum