Brazil-UK network on Speech Sound Disorder

Speech sound disorder (SSD) is the most common condition referred to speech and language therapy services worldwide. Research on population study data carried out by the UK applicant has shown that 3.8% of 8-year-old children have persistent speech sound disorder and they are more likely to have problems with educational achievement, peer relationships and well-being and have a greater risk of self-harm with suicidal intent than other children of their age. There are over 40 interventions which have been developed for children with speech sound disorder but limited information on which work best. In the UK, we have established a Core Outcome Set (an agreed set of measures to use at the beginning and end of intervention to measure progress in speech) to be used in routine clinical care. This will lead to a large dataset which can then be examined using statistical techniques to determine which intervention works best for different subtypes of speech sound disorder. Researchers from the University of Sao Paulo want to develop an adaptation of this Core Outcome Set. A simple translation is not possible because of the differences in Brazilian Portuguese compared to UK English. This network will facilitate the development of a Brazilian version of the Core Outcome Set and a process which can be used to establish other international versions of the tool. Follow-on research funding will be sought to investigate the data from cross-linguistic versions of the tool to address questions of effectiveness of interventions for children with speech sound disorder.