The Gap betweeen Research and Clinical Practice: Towards an Integrated Speech-Language Therapy

Abstract

The gap between research and clinical practice is one of the main challenges in speech-language therapy. There have been many compelling reasons for this gap: lack of information exchange and dialogue between researchers and clinicians; the specific ways in which scientific inquiry has been conducted and scientific knowledge presented; lack of access to scientific journals; and sometimes, lack of interest in this knowledge on the part of clinicians themselves. The way knowledge is produced, and by whom, determines the specific nature of that knowledge, and the appropriateness and value of forms of knowledge must be established and re-established in any context of use, including that of theoretical discussions. Both research and practice are ongoing conversations. The continuous establishment (or not) of evidentiality of specific knowledge and forms of knowledge production should be facets of practice and research. This is a more realistic, and reality-based, way to cast the discussion than is the notion of achieving a fixed canon of evidence on which to base practice.