The emerging evidence base for therapy for children with language impairment, and its implications for logopedists

Citation

McCartney E (2013) The emerging evidence base for therapy for children with language impairment, and its implications for logopedists. Logopedie, pp. 28-32. https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/46350/

Abstract
This paper reflects on the current state of the evidence base relating to therapy interventions for language-impaired children. It accepts that logopedists should provide evidence for the effectiveness of their practices, and are eager to do so in order to enhance services for children. It reviews the ways that intervention effectiveness is measured, with some examples from personal research studies. It identifies two recent databases giving information relevant to logopedists: speechBITE™, and the ‘What Works’ data base that resulted from the Better Communication Research Programme in England. The paper notes that, while the number of relevant studies is increasing, and positive effects of therapy are shown, there are few interventions as yet that show convincing evidence of effectiveness. The problem is largely that appropriate research studies have not been conducted, and such studies are not easy to undertake given small therapy services, the variety of children on individual therapists’ case loads, and a lack of research funding. The paper concludes that a commitment to collect and evaluate evidence has been helpful to the development of logopedic professionals internationally, but that the current paucity of evidence on effective treatments may impact upon funders’ willingness to pay for logopedic services, affecting all practitioners. The need for closer integration between higher education institutions and clinical services in order to trial therapy approaches, and the overwhelming need for research funding, are stressed. The importance of practising logopedists acting as researchers, collecting data and measuring outcomes, as exemplified by the case studies in this special edition of Logopedie, is also emphasised.

Keywords
Children; language impairment; language intervention; clinical trials; evidence based medicine

Journal
Logopedie