“It's not everyday that parents get a chance to talk like this”: Exploring parents' perceptions and expectations of speech-language pathology services for children with intellectual disability

Abstract

Tailoring the delivery of disability services to the preferences and requirements of service users allows for more effective partnerships. The aim of this research was to explore parents' perceptions and the expectations of their child's speech-language pathology (SLP) within an intellectual disability service. Parents of school-aged children with intellectual disability who received a SLP service in Ireland participated in the research: 17 parents participated in focus groups and 103 parents answered questionnaires. The core themes from the focus groups, which subsequently informed the questionnaire design, were: experience of the SLP service, communication difficulties, expectations of the SLP service, and future developments. The key questionnaire results indicated that parents viewed their SLP as the “expert” and viewed school-based and clinic-based services differently. Parents were more likely to believe that their child would always need therapy if they received a school-based service. Whereas, parents were more likely to think that their child's speech was improving as they got older and were more likely to be aware of therapy activities if therapy was clinic-based. The findings have implications for the delivery of SLP services suggesting that clarification of parents' roles and expectations are required.

Keywords:

• Social model
• medical model
• mixed method design

Acknowledgements

This research was completed in fulfilment of an MSc in Advanced Practice in Speech and Language Therapy, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland. The author would like to thank Ms. Aileen Patterson and the HSE in Ireland for their support and to all the parents for their participation in the research.