Systematic review of speech and language therapy outcomes for children who are in Out of Home Care (OOHC)

Abstract

Purpose: To perform a systematic review of the research relating to the outcomes of speech-language pathology (SLP) intervention for children who have suffered maltreatment and are in Out Of Home Care.

Method: A search was performed of 10 electronic databases to identify studies which addressed two research questions. Structured review procedures were used to select and evaluate research studies.

Results: No studies met the review criteria, although some informal articles provided insight into potential ways to support children who had suffered maltreatment.

Conclusions: While there is a growing body of evidence that identifies an increasing number of children who have suffered maltreatment and are at high risk of communication impairment, there is a significant gap in the SLP research literature relating to the investigation of the outcomes of communication intervention for this cohort.

Keywords:

• Child maltreatment
• Out of Home Care