The World Wide Web and Speech and Language Therapy: Opportunities & Potential

Article type: Discussion

Authors: Logan-Phelan, Theresa

Affiliations: Centre For Learning Technology, Trinity College, Dublin

Abstract: Speech and language therapy (SLT) services arc increasingly in demand. Obviously, the infrastructure to attract new therapists and provide them with continuous education, and their clients with accessible services has not changed at the same pace. The evolution of the World Wide Web (WWW)has provided us with a host of technological communicative tools, which allow people to connect and communicate with each other like never before. Despite distance, location and time, with a computer connected to the web we can all have access to these standardized communications tools. There is some preliminary evidence, reviewed in this paper, that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), and in particular, the web, could offer the tools to bridge those gaps. This paper reviews a number of web resources such as information websites, on-line communities, web-based education for SLTs, preventive and therapy programmes which represent current practice in the use of the web in SLT in Ireland. The objective is to present some of the ways the web is currently used in supporting SLT and open up discussion for exploring new opportunities and potential for the integration of the World Wide Web to the profession.

Keywords: speech & language therapy, e-learning, information technology, world wide web

DOI: 10.3233/ACS-2004-14109

Journal: Journal of Clinical Speech and Language Studies, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 117-126, 2004