A systematic scoping review of speech and language therapists’ public health practice for early language development

Background: There have been calls for speech and language therapists (SLTs) to work within a public-health framework to support language development. Innovative practice is reported, but the range of services remains unknown. Furthermore, the potential impact of public health practice in speech and language therapy on early child development is also currently unknown. A new method in SLT research, systematic scoping reviews enable greater breadth of focus than traditional systematic reviews when identifying innovative practice. Aim: To report scope and critically appraise evidence of family-focused health-promotion practice for early language development in this area. Methods & Procedures: Using the Cochrane Public Health Group scoping review framework, data from reports of health-promotion practice with families of children aged 0-3 years were extracted and critically appraised on service delivery, information, reach and evaluation. Main contribution: Group-based service delivery was the most popular form of service delivery. There were limited reports on the information given in services and on their reach. Questionnaires were the most popular reported evaluation method. Quality of evaluations was poor due to lack of replicability and experimental control in the studies reported. Conclusions & Implications: This method of systematic review has highlighted the scope of health-promotion practice in speech and language therapy and also demonstrated the lack of evidence for its effectiveness on child language development. It is argued that systematic scoping reviews are valuable for scoping innovative practice in areas where either there is a lack of robust evidence or there is a high level of heterogeneity in practice or evaluation. To support clinician appraisal of available evidence, recommendations are given for development of questionnaire appraisal and for categorization of evidence levels on summary databases.