STUTTERING THERAPY WITH BRITISH-ASIAN CHILDREN .1. A SURVEY OF SERVICE DELIVERY IN THE UNITED-KINGDOM

The results of a UK survey of speech and language therapy services off ered to Asian children and adolescents who stutter are set in the cont ext of current therapy approaches favoured in the UK. Eighty-seven spe ech and language therapists from the major centres of Asian population in the UK completed a postal questionnaire. This yielded data on: ser vice delivery to stuttering children in general; the site and nature o f the Asian populations served; therapists' own cultural backgrounds; steps taken by therapists to increase their skill in this area; interp reter services available; changes made to usual working practices aime d at accommodating the cultural needs of Asian clients. The results re vealed a service mostly provided by non-specialist therapists, who tre ated small numbers of both stuttering and Asian clients. Therapists we re serving clients from up to four different cultural and linguistic b ackgrounds yet access to interpreter services was poor. Therapists wer e on the whole poorly trained and equipped to treat Asian clients. A r ange of changes to working practices are described but no cohesive app roach was apparent. The issues involved in appropriate and accessible service delivery are discussed.