Prologue: Combining Research and Reason To Make Treatment Decisions

Involvement of parents in intervention for childhood speech sound disorders: a review of the evidence

“…Integral to the conduct of EBP, SLTs are encouraged to implement interventions as described in the published external evidence (Kaderavek and Justice ). Further, ‘the principles of EBP are not necessarily easy to apply to the various disciplines within speech–language pathology because of the limited evidence available to support clinical decision making’ (Kamhi : 255). How do SLTs manage this challenge of faithfully administering intervention in everyday clinical practice?…”

Evidence-Based Practice and Speech-Language Pathology: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

“…A recent issue of Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools (LSHSS) edited by Kahmi [12] provides an illustration of the differing perceptions of evidencebased practice. Some articles emphasized the need for knowledge and implementation of valid research findings.…”

“…Perhaps the most important assumption made for determining best practice in speech-language pathology is that relevant high-quality research exists [12] . The profession is relatively young and has a limited research tradition.…”

“…Some researchers argue that acceptable research evidence should not be restricted to RCTs and systematic reviews [12] . For example, Garrett and Thomas [45] stress that systematic reviews can use qualitative methods as well as statistical measures of treatment effect, and include a wider range of published research.…”

“…They provide a perspective on individual differences in symptomatology and varying response to therapy. Case studies provide clinicians with the opportunity to contribute to the evidence base since perhaps the strongest evidence for clinical decisions arises from carefully documented research with individual clients: trial therapy, diagnostic teaching or dynamic assessment [12] .…”