JCPSLP Vol 23, Issue 1 2021

Speech pathology: An agile and responsive profession

Around the journals Andy Smidt

compared to typical classroom practices over 9 weeks. While the intervention group showed significant gains in percentage of consonants correct, their results were similar to the children in the typical classroom group. Nevertheless, during a time of pandemic when direct therapy is not available, this option may have merit. The second program (Waiting for Speech Pathology) involved access to an educational website (https:// wnswlhd.health.nsw.gov.au/our-services/speech- pathology). The website was created for children aged 3–6 yrs who were on a waiting list for speech pathology intervention, and contains information for parents and/ or carers to support speech, language and literacy development. One of several studies from the Sound Start Study (McLeod et al., 2017) compared children waiting for therapy who had access to the website with others on the waiting list who did not have access to the website. The study found no significant differences between groups, indicating the website on its own was insufficient to enable change in speech, language or literacy for these children. The third program described was Apraxia World (http:// www.say66. com). Apraxia World is a video game for children that is customised to provide real-time feedback on speech production (Hair et al., 2018). This review described research that home practice with Apraxia World was positive and that parents were able to deliver an average of 81% of the recommended therapy dosage per 4-week therapy block. The treatment effect was comparable to face-to-face therapy. Parents liked and reported confidence using the program. The kids also liked it, with 50% of them asking to continue the program after the trial ended. McLeod et al.’s (2020) review shows there are many technological service options developed prior to COVID-19, particularly for clients living rurally, that are now useful during a pandemic. Their review summarised that while most indirect treatments where non speech pathologists (parents, educators) deliver intervention have not been effective, Apraxia World has been extremely successful. Overall, this review is an interesting paper for clinicians to read in order to support children with speech sound disorders and their families during the pandemic. Camden, C., & Silva, M. (2021). Pediatric teleheath: Opportunities created by the COVID-19 and suggestions to sustain its use to support families of children with disabilities. Physical & Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics , 41 (1), 1–17. The second paper I’d like to highlight is Camden and Silva’s (2021) paper which provides clinicians with evidence using a number of telehealth strategies to support families of children with a disability. Camden and Silva are both physiotherapists and researchers in the use of telehealth.

McLeod, S., Ballard, K. J., Ahmed, B., McGill, N., & Brown, M. I. (2020). Supporting children with speech sound disorders during COVID-19 restrictions: Technological solutions. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups , 5 (6), 1805–1808. The first paper I’d like to highlight is McLeod et al.’s (2020) review paper about child speech sound disorders (SSD) as part of a special issue in Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups about COVID-19. This paper provides an overview of technological solutions for children who often wait long periods of time prior to SSD intervention. They reviewed some well-designed studies exploring technological programs. The first program (Sound Start) involved using a software program called Phoneme Sound Factory Sorter (PFSS; Wren & Roulstone, 2013). This software provides interactive games customised to the child’s speech sounds. The Sound Start study was a randomised controlled trial—where use of the software delivered by classroom teachers was Science, PsycInfo and Medline using the key terms “COVID”, “speech pathology”, “speech-language pathology”. I also added in the terms “implications”, “profession”, “responsive” and “agile” in line with the theme of this issue (they did not yield more relevant results). I have not included all papers investigating the use of telehealth in this column, but rather took a look at recent articles describing adaptations in services. I found four articles that I would like to share with you. This column is usually devoted to one or two articles, reviewed by people at different points in their career, highlighting recent articles of relevance to the chosen theme of the issue. On this occasion I wanted to look at what is being published right now about the way in which all of our lives are changing as a result of COVID-19, and synthesise these findings in a single overview. A few weeks ago, I went to a photographic exhibition which explored our lives during lockdown. I reaslied that we are living through a time that is going to define us; it will be part of history that school children will learn about. That made me reflect on the bigger implications for us all. How will speech pathology be delivered in the future? How much will social distancing continue to be the norm? How will that influence social relationships particularly for people with communication difficulties? We are on the cusp of this future way of living and the research being published is so new that we can almost view it as being embryonic. I wanted to explore that with you in this piece. I carried out a search across PubMed, Web of

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JCPSLP Volume 23, Number 1 2021

www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au