Child Development and Child Health

Abstract

a tenable solution to the problem. The six hours provided did not necessarily reflect the choice of the speech and language therapists in the study but rather a constraint imposed on them by the "package of care" model of service delivery. The data suggest that such a simplistic model is not helpful and that the practitioners and their managers should be able to offer a more flexible package of interventions. This is likely to require a reorganisation of speech and language therapy services, but this is the point of practising evidence based medicine: when you fill the evidence gap you need to act. James Law reader Gina Conti-Ramsden professor of child language and learning School of Education, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL 1 Drillien C, Drummond M. Developmental screening and the child with special needs. London: Heinemann, 1983. 2 Reid J, Millar S, Tait L, Donaldson ML, Dean EC, Thomason GOB, et al. The role of speech and language therapists in the education of pupils with special educational needs. et al. Fourteen-year follow-up of children with and without speech/ language impairments: speech/language stability and outcomes. J Speech Lang Hear Res 1999;42:744-60. 5 Stothard SE, Snowling MJ, Bishop DVM, Chipchase BB, Kaplan CA. Language-impaired preschoolers: a follow-up into adolescence. J Speech Lang Hear Res 1998;41:407-18. 6 Clegg J, Hollis C, Rutter M. Life sentence: what happens to children with developmental language disorders in later life? Bull R Coll Speech Lang Therapists 1999;571:16-8. 7 HoweMJA.IQ in question: the truth about intelligence. London: Sage, 1997. 8 Campbell FA, Ramey CT. Effects of early intervention on intellectual and academic achievement: a follow-up study of children from low-income families. Child Dev 1994;65:684-98. 9 Glogowska M, Roulstone S, Enderby P, Peters TJ. Randomised controlled trial of community based speech and language therapy for preschool children.