Dr. Chad Nye
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EBP Briefs: An Introduction, Volume 3
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Dr. Chad Nye |
Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) Briefs begins the third year of publication as a tool to assist the practicing speech-language pathologist (SLP) in understanding and applying scientific and clinical evidence to daily professional decisions.
One of my favorite sayings is, “If you continue to do what you have always done, you will continue to get what you’ve got.” The truth of the saying has always struck me as a profound summary of how the scientific and clinical world often interact. I doubt that many of us rush home from work anticipating the arrival of our next professional journal and all the nuggets of clinical information it contains. In fact, some surveys suggest that most professionals read little or none of the published research in their field once they leave the university training environment. And yet, the number of scholarly journals continues to increase and consequently the number of scholarly papers published continues to increase despite the fact that clinicians may not be accessing the research information and applying it to their treatment decision making process.
Why is that? What is it about the research world that doesn’t seem to translate readily to the clinical world and vice versa? Is the research so out of touch with the “real issues” of the clinical setting that SLPs see little or no functional application? Or is it that the practicing SLP is so put off by the structure, rigor, and interpretation of the research literature that any attempt to connect research to clinical practice is viewed at best as difficult and at worst as irrelevant?
EBP can provide the SLP with a different way of thinking about and acting upon scientific evidence in making clinical decisions--the SLP doesn’t have to ‘continue to do what she/he has always done’--which allows for the possibility of achieving a different and more relevant result. EBP is a process that provides for an orderly, systematic, and scientific approach to bridging the science-clinic gap by understanding and applying scientific evidence to the clinical decision making process of the SLP. EBP provides a basis for SLPs to advocate for the appropriate research needed to provide the highest quality service for the clients/students they serve. EBP can serve as a motivating device to connect individuals conducting research and those engaged in clinical practice. It can be the basis for researchers and clinicians to think about and ask relevant research and clinical questions that can be interpreted and applied in a functional manner to practice decisions.
So what does all this have to do with EBP Briefs? The focus for this year’s Volume 3 is to present papers that address the topic of literacy interventions in school-age children. It is no surprise to those working with children that this is an issue of national (and international) importance in the educational systems of our country. Note that in 2001, the United Nations designated 2003-2012 as the United Nations Literacy Decade. In 2006, the Bush administration held The White House Conference on Global Literacy.
This focus on global literacy is more than addressing the linguistic deficits of children from non-English speaking backgrounds. Global literacy addresses the need for the integration of spoken and written language as a tool for effectively communicating, analyzing, synthesizing, and interpreting a variety of all kinds of information in a global society. It is well established that spoken language serves as the basis for the development of written language. Given the connections between spoken and written language, the scope of practice for the SLP providing interventions to children and adolescents with language disorders now includes both language and literacy. Therefore, SLPs may need to know what evidence exists to support the most effective services for children both developmentally and remedially in language and literacy so that they can ultimately function effectively in a larger global society.
The papers to be published in Volume 3 of EBP Briefs this year will include (1) guidelines for evidence applications to decisions in literacy interventions, (2) available evidence for the effective use of phonics, phonemic awareness, and reading comprehension interventions for reading, and (3) evidence-based interventions to improve writing and spelling. The authors of these papers will provide the SLP with a model for evidence collection, data extraction, analysis, synthesis, and interpretation that can be applied to other areas of language and literacy in the school-age population. The conclusions drawn by the authors are intended to provide a basic level of evidence that SLPs will be able to draw upon as they make clinical and programmatic decisions about the delivery of services and interventions to the children they serve.
Dr. Chad Nye
Editor, Volume 3
February 2008