Speech language therapy services for children in Small Island Developing States – the situation in the Maldives

ABSTRACT

Speech-language therapists (SLT) support people with communication difficulties to exercise their right to communicate. Yet, children in Majority world countries face great obstacles to accessing these services. Vulnerable countries within the Majority world, such as Small Island Developing States (SIDS) face complex challenges due to particular environmental, social and economic vulnerabilities. Access to services is unlikely to improve in underserved communities unless service delivery approaches take the context into consideration. This preliminary study used mixed methods to explore environmental, social and economic conditions affecting equitable access to SLT services for children in one SIDS, the Maldives. Forty publicly available online documents were analyzed, and online surveys were conducted with 107 teachers and 73 parents of children with communication difficulties to examine the conditions that affect equitable access to SLT services in the Maldives. This data revealed three major characteristics of the Maldivian context: (1) Barriers related to geography, dispersed population and transport, (2) Inadequacy of current services to meet needs, and (3) Significant need to minimize costs.

KEYWORDS:

• Service delivery
• speech language therapy
• underserved communities
• Majority world countries
• Small Island Developing States
• children

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.