‘Team Speech Sounds’—How Speech and Language Therapists Work With Parents of Young Children With Speech Sound Disorder: A Focus Group Study

What is already known on the subject Speech sound disorder (SSD) is common in Speech and Language Therapist's (SLT) paediatric caseloads. SSD that persists into school years can have a long-term impact. SLTs believe that working with parents to support home practice is important, but little is known about what practising SLTs do to support parents to deliver effective home practice, how they form positive relationships with parents or how they perceive working with parents. What this paper adds to existing knowledge Our study explored how SLTs work with parents to ensure home practice is delivered with fidelity and what they do to build effective relationships. Our findings suggest that SLTs use strategies which align with behaviour change theory, by building on parents' and their own capability and, by adapting to individual families to maximise opportunities for parents to become effective implementors. Importantly, building relationships with parents not only supports the motivation of parents but also of SLTs. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Our results suggest that relationships between SLTs and parents underpin effective home practice. Developing these relationships takes time and skill. Building relationships with parents and helping them to understand what they need to do and why is likely to have a positive impact on the parents' ability to implement home practice. These relationships may allow SLTs to skill up parents more effectively and support the individualisation of the intervention approach, which is important to both parents and SLTs. SLTs should be cautious however to ensure that the boundary between adherence to the evidence base and effective individualisation to optimise outcomes for the child is maintained.