Dr Lindsay Pennington, NIHR Career Development Fellow,

Principal Research Associate, Newcastle University, UK

• Speech and language therapist• Communication skills of

children with cerebral palsy (CP)– Effects of motor disorder on

communication development

– Can we predict the severity of speech disorder in CP?

– Can therapy improve children's communication?

– What causes the difficulties some children with CP have with developing literacy?

Early career• Clinician• MSc• Research Associate, GOSH• Development of training

programme to promote use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)

families

SLTs

GOS Neurodisability

team

education staff

PhD

• Nursing and Allied Health PhD Fellowship, Department of Health• Impact of speech intelligibility on parent-child interaction

– Speech and motor disorder:

Parent-child interaction restricted,

Children can use more skills

given opportunity– Motor disorder:

Restricted development of

communication

• Expansion of network: clinicians

Newcastle, Sheffield, Liverpool • Publications, presentations

Back on track?

• EBP teaching to health professionals• No work done on implementation of research by

SLTs• PI on NW Regional NHS project grant• Collaboration with Chris Burton, Hazel Roddam

(UCLAN), Ian Russell and Christine Godfrey (York)• Experience of leading cluster trial, managing

researchers

Clinical research??

BursarySystematic review

Collaborations with SLT

researchers in Manchester

Collaborations with SLT and

AAC researchers internationally

Move to Department of Speech,

Newcastle University

Collaborators: HSR, SLT, Child Health

Post Doc

PI on project grants from

medical research charities

Post DocPhase II study: parent training

– Does parent – child interaction change after training?

• Parents• Children

– Is training useful and acceptable to parents?– Therapists’ views on provision of training in NHS

Phase II study: parent training

– Does parent – child interaction change after training?

• Parents • Children

– Is training useful and acceptable to parents?

– Therapists’ views on provision of training in NHS

• Effective, long term change, useful, valued by families

• Expensive, difficult to arrange

– RCT in NHS is not feasible

Post DocPhase II study of dysarthria intervention

Could dysarthria therapy work for children?

• Does intelligibility increase after intervention?

• Does voice quality change?

• Is the treatment acceptable?

• Is a pragmatic trial feasible?

Post DocPhase II study of dysarthria intervention

Could dysarthria therapy work for children?

• Does intelligibility increase after intervention? 15%

• Does voice quality change? Pitch and volume

steadier

• Is the treatment acceptable? Yes

• Is a pragmatic trial feasible? Yes

Career Development Fellowship

• Lead research three streams of research:

– Epidemiology:

• Prediction of speech disorder severity at 5 yrs

– Dysarthria intervention:

• 2nd Phase II study, younger children

• 3rd Phase II study, intervention provided by SLTA

• Pragmatic trial

– Literacy

• Effects of type of speech disorder

• Effects of cortical visual disturbance

• Training in leadership• Develop new collaborations• Funding to attend conferences: raising profile • Time to plan strategy for coming years

S.L.T’s

RA

Paeds

Families

School Staff

Neuro Dis Team

P.H.D

Sheffield

Newcastle

L’pool

S.L.T’s

Post Doc N.E

Paeds

N.E

P.T’s

Trials Experts

NE + York

Adelaide

N.E

Epidemiologists

N.E

Psychologist

N.E S.L.Ts

C.D.F

E.A.C.D

Colorado

Wisconsin

Adelaide

Melbourne

Barcelona

CanChild

McMasterN.E Epidemiologists

N.E.

Psychologists

N.E Neurologists

York

Gothenburg

Michigan