TY - JOUR
T1 - The human right to communicate and our need to listen
T2 - Learning from people with a history of childhood communication disorder
AU - McCormack, Jane
AU - Baker, Elise
AU - Crowe, Kathryn
N1 - Includes bibliographical references.
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - Purpose: In 2013, the Australian Government Senate formed a committee for inquiry and report into the prevalence of speech, language, and communication disorders and speech pathology services in Australia. Submissions were sought from individuals and organisations. In this paper, submissions made by individuals with a history of childhood communication disorder were examined to explore their life experiences and the impact on their lives when the right to communicate could not be enacted. Method: There were 305 submissions to the Australian Government Senate Committee Inquiry, of which 288 were publically accessible. In this study, the submissions (n = 17) from children or adults with a history of communication disorder (including speech, language and stuttering), who provided personal accounts of their experiences, were analysed using an interpretative phenomenological approach. Result: Four themes emerged relating to: personal identity, life with communication disorder, the importance of help, and how life would be different without a communication disorder. Conclusions: This paper gives voice to children and adults with communication disorder. In listening to these voices, the impact of communication disorder on the right to communicate and on other human rights can be heard, and the need for a response is clear. However, the challenge is to determine how the voices of these individuals, and others like them, can be enabled to exert real influence on practice and policy so communication disorder will no longer be a barrier to attainment of their human rights.
AB - Purpose: In 2013, the Australian Government Senate formed a committee for inquiry and report into the prevalence of speech, language, and communication disorders and speech pathology services in Australia. Submissions were sought from individuals and organisations. In this paper, submissions made by individuals with a history of childhood communication disorder were examined to explore their life experiences and the impact on their lives when the right to communicate could not be enacted. Method: There were 305 submissions to the Australian Government Senate Committee Inquiry, of which 288 were publically accessible. In this study, the submissions (n = 17) from children or adults with a history of communication disorder (including speech, language and stuttering), who provided personal accounts of their experiences, were analysed using an interpretative phenomenological approach. Result: Four themes emerged relating to: personal identity, life with communication disorder, the importance of help, and how life would be different without a communication disorder. Conclusions: This paper gives voice to children and adults with communication disorder. In listening to these voices, the impact of communication disorder on the right to communicate and on other human rights can be heard, and the need for a response is clear. However, the challenge is to determine how the voices of these individuals, and others like them, can be enabled to exert real influence on practice and policy so communication disorder will no longer be a barrier to attainment of their human rights.
KW - Children
KW - Communication disorder
KW - Developmental language disorder
KW - Fluency disorder
KW - Language impairment
KW - Qualitative research
KW - Speech impairment
KW - Speech sound disorder
KW - Speech-language pathology
KW - United Nations
KW - Universal Declaration of Human Rights
KW - Article 19
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85037738255&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85037738255&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/17549507.2018.1397747
DO - 10.1080/17549507.2018.1397747
M3 - Article
C2 - 29160112
AN - SCOPUS:85037738255
VL - 20
SP - 142
EP - 151
JO - International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
JF - International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
SN - 1441-7049
IS - 1
ER -