Child maltreatment, mental health and oral language competence: Inviting speech-language pathology to the prevention table

Abstract

Child maltreatment (neglect and abuse of various forms) is a serious global issue. Although Australia and New Zealand are both affluent, first world countries, child protection statistics indicate that much ground is yet to be covered with respect to ensuring that children are reared in environments that are safe and developmentally nourishing. Both neglect and abuse are associated with serious, pervasive and long-term sequelae for a range of neuropsychological functions, including expressive and receptive language abilities. In spite of its considerable body of knowledge regarding the nature and sequence of language development from infancy through to adulthood and across the lifespan, speech-language pathology (SLP) as a profession has failed to position itself as an agent of prevention where child safety is concerned. Language competence is acquired in the relational milieu of early infant-caregiver attachment, and cannot be separated out from mental health across the lifespan. Most significant mental health problems have their onset early in life, as do developmental language problems. Positioning SLP at the prevention table will require graduates of SLP programs to speak and understand the discourse of public health policy-making, advocacy, and resource-allocation, so that graduates can occupy positions of influence in government. At the current time, however, most undergraduate programs emphasize SLP as a 1:1 service-delivery profession, at the expense of important roles this profession could play in relation to prevention of language and mental health problems at a population level.