International journal of language & communication disorders
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Int J Lang Commun Disord · Mar 2006
Parents' and professionals' perceptions of Quality of Life in children with speech and language difficulty.
The true impact of speech and language difficulties (SaLD) on children's lives and the effectiveness of intervention is unknown. Within other fields of paediatric healthcare, clinicians and policy-makers are increasingly emphasizing the utility of Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) studies and measures. SaLT has a variety of measures to assess and treat children's 'quantity' of life, but also requires measures that allow it to measure and even target their Quality of Life. ⋯ These are encouraging results, indicating that children with SaLD experience HRQoL issues associated with their communication impairments. The results support the suggestion that speech and language therapists should ensure that their assessments and interventions account for both a child's impairment and also factors related to well-being reflected in the themes presented here. However, this was also a small-scale study and consequently further research of this type, with a larger and more varied population, is necessary so that HRQoL issues for all clinical sub-groups of children with SaLD can be explored.