A new partnership between Charles Sturt University and the Western NSW Local Health District will provide family-friendly, evidence-based ideas to improve the way children learn to speak.
The resources can be used to guide adults before children in their care can access speech pathology services.
The study, “Waiting for speech pathology: device versus advice?”, was conducted between 2017-2019 and has received a NSW Health Translational Research Grant of $291,000.
The research covered over 150 children and their families in rural NSW and rural Victoria to test out the ideas.
Sharynne McLeod, a professor of speech and language acquisition at Charles Sturt’s School of Teacher Education, said families can make use of ideas found on the website, local libraries, playgroups, early childhood education and care groups to find the best way to engage their children.
These are alternatives families can do aside from reaching out to their local community health centre or pathologists. Professor McLeod is part of the team that conducted the two-year long research in rural Australia.
What the study found
Professor McLeod noted that their study is directly applicable and translatable to clinical settings not just in rural areas and Australia as whole, but also overseas.
“We found that face-to-face speech therapy was best for improving children’s speech and caregiver satisfaction,” Professor McLeod said.
“Similar gains were found for the website, advice and control conditions and the research informs clinicians and caregivers on ideas to support families while waiting.”
However, Professor McLeod added that it is never too early for parents to seek out a speech pathologist if they are concerned about the progress of their child’s speech and language skills.