Sue Band

Consultation as a model for providing speech and language therapy in schools: a panacea or one step too far?

In recent years there has been a pressure to introduce an indirect “consultative model” to working with children with speech and language needs. It is favoured by educationists because it avoids the need to take children out of class and embeds any support children received in the curriculum. This paper reports the results of a recent study which indicates that Speech and Language Therapists are concerned about the universal application of this model of service delivery. It introduces and discusses a number of interrelated factors which need to be in place before the consultative model can be successfully introduced.

Facilitating communication between education and health services: the provision for children with speech and language needs

In this article, James Law, Marie Gascoigne and Nina Soloff, of the Department of Language and Communication Science at City University, London; Geoff Lindsay and Sue Band, of the Institute of Education, University of Warwick; and Nick Peacey and Julie Radford, of the Institute of Education, University of London, explore provision for children with speech and language needs. The authors report the outcomes of Government-funded research into the provision of speech and language therapy services and identify 13 key themes which emerge from a review of these findings. They proceed to make a series of important and challenging recommendations, many of which focus on the need for enhanced collaboration at a range of levels.