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Watch the researchers present their poster

Previous research shows Children and Young People (CYP) with SLCN are at risk of poor

mental health (1).

Less is known about certain types of SLCN and mental health difficulties, such as, Developmental Language Disorder.

There is a large gap in the evidence base for diagnostic and intervention-based studies for CYP who experience difficulties in both.

Aim or purpose

Questions

What difficulties do CYP with SLCN and mental health needs present with?

How do clinicians experience assessing and delivering therapies to CYP with SLCN and mental health difficulties?

What treatments are thought to be clinically useful for CYP with SLCN and mental health difficulties?

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think that鈥檚 typical for mental health practitioners (to consider language difficulties)鈥� Mental health professional

Participants

8 SLTs
6 mental health pros
14 participants

鈥�.. we鈥檙e often funded by different streams and funded by different people, we work in different health trusts quite often, and that actually has massive implications鈥� Mental health professional

Design and methodology

Reflexive Thematic Analysis (2) was chosen as answered Research Questions.

This approach facilitated an exploration of clinician experiences, observation and knowledge.

Method placed emphasis on the researchers subjectivity; Female SLT, hypnotherapist, NIHR Fellow.

Semi-structured interviews lasted for one hour on Microsoft Teams. Video-audio data was collected. Interviews were recorded and transcribed.

Results and findings

Analysis

Familiarisation of data
Generating initial codes (line-by-line)
Searching for themes
Reviewing themes
Defining and naming themes
Online team coding
Refining themes

Results

Boundaries around professional relationships:
Variation of SLT and MH services
Limited MDT working

Knowledge of SLCN and mental health:
Visibility
Barriers to accessing talking therapies

Being misunderstood/being labelled naughty

Blended interventions
Working with the environment
Support for communication

Conclusions and implications

1. This population is not well understood by professional leading to CYP being undiagnosed or misdiagnosed
2. Organisational boundaries between SLT and mental health which was perceived to contribute to a lack of understanding of this population
3. Traditional talking therapies thought to be potentially ineffective and inaccessible for CYP with SLCN and mental health difficulties
4. Interventions used in SLT and psychotherapy were perceived as clinically useful if combined
5. Play Therapy as a potentially useful psychotherapy for this population

Future

This study has important implications for the efficacy of treatments provided to this population and to the services currently treating this group of children and young people.

Larger scale PhD project examining Developmental Language Disorder and accessibility to psychological therapies.

References

Beitchman, J. H., Wilson, B., Johnson, C. J., Atkinson, L., Young, A., Adlaf, E. et al., (2001), Fourteen-year follow-up of speech/language-impaired and control children: psychiatric outcome. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40, 75鈥�82.

Braun, V. and Clarke, V., (2020). One size fits all? What counts as quality practice (reflexive) thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Psychology, DOI: 10.1080/14780887.2020.1769238.

Cohen, N. J., Farnia, F., & Im-Bolter, N. (2013). Higher order language competence and adolescent mental health. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 54(7), 733鈥�744. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12060