News Archive

Pressing need for funded research into speech and language services – University of Reading

Response from Professor Susan Edwards and Dr Tom Loucas, Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading to the Bercow Review

The first review in seven years into the provision of speech and language services for children with communication problems has been welcomed by the University of Reading's Clinical Language Sciences department.

The Bercow Review contains many accounts of parents' struggles and recognises the need of these children, the skills of speech and language therapists and the limits of the service offered.

Key areas of the review highlighted by Professor Susan Edwards and Dr Tom Loucas and the need for funding research into the effectiveness of identification and intervention of children with communication problems; and access to, and the availability of services to, a group of people whose problems are often 'hidden'.

Professor Susan Edwards, Head of the Department of Clinical Language Sciences at the University of Reading, said: "We very much welcome the Bercow Review. It highlights just how widespread problems in speech language and communication are and how these difficulties are all too often hidden and not identified early enough.

"We agree with the report that there is a lack of speech and language therapists. This is in part an issue of training enough speech and language therapists. At the University of Reading, we have been able to increase the number of places on our speech and language therapy programme, but this is not the case for other universities which have had training places cut. The government will need to address this resourcing issue if the needs of children with speech and language difficulties are to be met effectively.

"The government needs to take a national view of providing Speech Language Therapists (SLTs). At present, SHAs commission numbers of SLT students according to their perceived local need. So in some areas a University may recruit over 100 students and in another only 30. Although hundreds of students qualify each year, not all find jobs because jobs on the lowers grades are blocked by well qualified therapists who are failing to progress up the career ladder.

"Health professional education is the role of Higher Education Institutions and their contribution as a partner in the provision of consistent, high quality, evidence-based services to children with speech / language communication (SCLN) needs to be recognised.

"At the University of Reading's Clinical Language Sciences department, we are frequently contacted by parents who are frustrated by the lack of or limited service provided by the NHS. Parents find it very difficult to obtain help or to obtain help in sufficient quantity to make a difference. Where help exists, low staffing levels and high demand often results in the service being spread very thinly and as a result, sometimes ineffectively."

The Review also stresses the importance of early identification of children with speech, language and communication needs and proposes screening all for when they enter school.

Dr Tom Loucas, Lecturer in speech and language pathology at the University of Reading, said: "School entry is certainly a time when problems can be picked up, but identifying difficulties at this point may be too late. Teachers assume that children come into school with basic competence in spoken language. The school curriculum is based on this assumption. So wherever possible, we need to identify children before they enter school and intervene at that point.

"There is little evidence that universal screening of preschool children is effective, but surveillance can work. In the past health visitors seeing all children at around two-years of age would refer children they were concerned about to a speech and language therapist. It is a problem that this service is no longer available and we do not know how many young children with speech, language and communication needs are being missed. We need to evaluate how effective other approaches to surveillance are.

The report also acknowledges the need for more research; in particular, cost-benefit analysis of services for children and young people with SLCN. Professor Edwards said: "To best understand service level benefits, research across a broader range of areas of practice is needed, such as: the effectiveness of different approaches to early identification and diagnosis; the long-term benefits of early intervention; the relationship between amount of intervention and the response to it; the effectiveness of consultative models of intervention in school-aged children."

Staff at the University of Reading are contributing to this evidence-base. Dr Tom Loucas and Mrs Allison Biddle are working with Speech Language Therapy services across South Central NHS to help them audit how they assess preschool children and Professor Edwards is currently updating a widely used assessment of children's language.

"I hope the Bercow Review will highlight the need for high-quality research to provide the evidence needed to support clinical practice and recognise and support the essential role of education institutions, like the University of Reading, in providing research and training for Speech Language Therapists and other professionals," says Prof Edwards.

ENDS

Further information and interviews with and Professor Susan Edwards and Dr Tom Loucas through the University of Reading press office on 0118 378 7388

Notes to editors:

John Bercow MP has produced the Bercow Review, an independent review

supported by officials from the Department for Children, Schools and

Families and the Department of Health. This is the first major review in

seven years for people with speech, language and communication needs.

www.dfes.gov.uk/bercowreview

University of Reading - Department of Clinical Language Sciences

The Department of Clinical Language Sciences provides high-quality

education for students wishing to enter the speech and language therapy

profession and for students entering research training in language

sciences. The department researches and teaches in the area of typical

and atypical speech and language acquisition and in acquired speech and

language disorders. Research in the Department of Clinical Language

Sciences covers studies in speech and language in typically developing

children with English as a first or second language, and in children and

adults with a variety of disorders including aphasia, autism, dyslexia,

specific language impairment (SLI), stammering, Williams syndrome, and

language disorders in children with hearing or visual impairments.

Besides off-line methods, we also use on-line experiments to investigate

the underlying mental processes involved in language comprehension and production.