Stuttering therapy with British-Asian children. I: A survey of service delivery in the United Kingdom.

Abstract

The results of a UK survey of speech and language therapy services offered to Asian children and adolescents who stutter are set in the context of current therapy approaches favoured in the UK. Eighty-seven speech and language therapists from the major centres of Asian population in the UK completed a postal questionnaire. This yielded data on: service delivery to stuttering children in general; the size and nature of the Asian populations served; therapists' own cultural backgrounds; steps taken by therapists to increase their skill in this area; interpreter services available; changes made to usual working practices aimed at accommodating the cultural needs of Asian clients. The results revealed a service mostly provided by non-specialist therapists, who treated small numbers of both stuttering and Asian clients. Therapists were serving clients from up to four different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, yet access to interpreter services was poor. Therapists were on the whole poorly trained and equipped to treat Asian clients. A range of changes to working practices are described, but no cohesive approach was apparent. The issues involved in appropriate and accessible service delivery are discussed.