Early learning nominated supervisors and early childhood educators,
You are invited to take part in a research study which explores attitudes, knowledge and practices in addressing children’s speech, language and communication needs.
You are eligible to participate in this survey if you are an early childhood educator, early childhood teacher or otherwise engaged in actively caring for and educating preschool-aged children in Australia.
To participate, please complete the online survey here, which should take you approximately 10 minutes.
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Background
Communication impairments are any problems children have with speech, language, voice, fluency or social communication.
The delays and disorders can range from simple sound substitution to the inability to understand or use one's native language.
Communication impairments are common in children, and may impact on literacy, academic achievements, employment opportunities and mental health.
Communication impairments are traditionally addressed by speech pathologists, but other professionals (e.g., GPs, early childhood educators, maternal child and family health nurses) may also work with, and have skills to support children and families dealing with a communication impairment.
However to date, little is known about how this occurs.
Understanding current practice, knowledge and attitudes of these professionals towards health promotion and prevention of communication impairments will assist in identifying future potential areas of education and training to target, as well as barriers and enablers to these prevention activities.
The study aims to assist funders, policy makers, and professional associations to determine which professionals are best-placed to provide preventive services for children's speech, language and communication needs, and inform processes to implement preventive interventions.
The study has ethics approval from the University of Newcastle Human Research Ethics Committee (reference: H-2018-0248).
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