Background: Speech and language therapists (SLTs) share a collective goal of ensuring that adults with cognitive-communication disorders (CCD) due to acquired brain injuries (ABI) attain their highest possible level of participation and satisfaction in family, community, social, work and academic communications through evidence-based…

Background: Evidence-based practice involves the synthesis of multiple forms of evidence to inform clinical decision-making and treatment evaluation. Practice- and patient-based evidence are two forms of evidence that are under-represented in the stuttering literature. The collection of such knowledge is essential to support the design and…

Background: Evidence should guide decisions in aphasia practice across the continuum of stroke care; however, evidence-practice gaps persist. This is particularly pertinent in the acute setting where 30% of people with stroke will have aphasia, and speech pathologists experience many challenges implementing evidence-based practice. This has…

Background: While evidence-based practice is widely endorsed by researchers, clinicians and professional bodies as a guiding framework for the provision of quality care to clients, the reliance on efficacy evidence may overshadow the benefits of other knowledge forms in supporting intervention design and evaluation. Due consideration needs to be…

Background: Cognitive communication disorder (CCD) following traumatic brain injury (TBI) is well documented and these communication problems impede successful re-integration into community living. While there is growing evidence for intervention to both detect and treat the impact of these deficits across the rehabilitation continuum, there are…

Background: Functional Communication Disorders (FCDs) are one specific presentation of Functional Neurological Disorder (FND). FND is characterised by neurological symptoms, such as sensory and motor symptoms, which are not explained by neurological disease. Speech and language therapists (SLTs) have expertise in managing communication disorders,…

Background: The publication of phase 2 of the CATALISE project in 2017 clarified terminology for children with developmental language disorder (DLD) or delay but unintentionally muddied the water for children with unintelligible speech. A diagnostic label of DLD (phonology) indicates poor prognosis and phonological disorder that persists into…

Background: As cost and access barriers to ultrasound technology have decreased, interest in using ultrasound visual biofeedback (U-VBF) as a tool for remediating speech sound disorders (SSD) has increased. A growing body of research has investigated U-VBF in intervention for developmental SSD; however, diversity in study design, participant…

Background: Many healthcare and educational services providers have undergone a rapid transition from a face-to-face to a tele-practice mode of service delivery in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak. This, in turn, has led to a need to understand better the evidence underpinning such moves. Based on a review of existing reviews, this paper…

Background: The communication skills of older adults living in care homes is an underexplored topic. Ageing can lead to reduced communication ability and activity; and in the care home environment there may also be fewer communication opportunities. This situation is likely to negatively impact well-being. Previous reviews have found evidence of…

Background & Aims: Even though evidence for the use of linguistic-phonological intervention approaches in children with a cleft (lip and) palate (CP±L) is still limited, these approaches are being used by speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to treat active or compensatory cleft speech disorders in clinical practice. It is, however, unknown to…

Background: Compensatory cleft speech disorders can severely impact speech understandability and speech acceptability. Speech intervention is necessary to eliminate these disorders. There is, however, currently no consensus on the most effective speech therapy approach to eliminate the different subtypes of compensatory cleft speech disorders.…

Background: The emergence of language in the early years is a major developmental accomplishment that underpins learning, enables social interaction and, later, is an indicator of well-being. Learning language is an effortless process for most, but can be challenging for others. There is a need to act early. First, because there are several…

Background: Bridging the research-practice gap in autism communication services is an identified priority for improving services. Limited research has investigated the views of practitioners regarding this research-practice gap. Investigation of the barriers experienced and facilitators used in clinical practice may assist to identify scalable and…

Background: Paediatric speech and language therapist (SLT) roles often involve planning individualized intervention for specific children, working collaboratively with families and education staff, providing advice, training and coaching and raising awareness. A tiered approach to service delivery is currently recommended whereby services become…