Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of Australian speech-language pathologists regarding health promotion and prevention for children’s speech, language, and communication needs: A cross-sectional survey

A public health approach has the potential to address inequities in speech, language, and communication needs and prevent and reduce the impact of these needs in the population. However, little is known about speech-language pathologists’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding a public health approach, including health promotion and prevention. The aim of this study was to investigate the self-rated knowledge, attitudes, and practices of Australian clinicians regarding health promotion and prevention for children’s speech, language, and communication needs. A cross-sectional online survey of 96 Australian speech-language pathologists was conducted. Inferential statistics were used to investigate associations between clinicians’ self-rated knowledge, training, attitudes, practices, and demographics. The majority of participants had positive attitudes towards health promotion and reported high self-rated knowledge of health promotion. More recently trained speech-language pathologists reported learning about health promotion in their university professional training. Different levels of self-rated knowledge, attitudes, practices, and barriers to practice were associated with workplace type (e.g. private practice, state health department). Australian speech-language pathologists are supportive of health promotion and prevention for children’s speech, language, and communication needs. Further research into the organisational aspects and educational needs related to health promotion and prevention of these needs are recommended.