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Staff Profile

Professor Helen Stringer

Professor of Childhood Speech Sound Disorder & Behaviour Change/Consultant Speech and Language Therapist

  • Email: helen.stringer@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 5196
  • Address: Room 2.01
    School of ECLS
    King George VI Building
    Newcastle University
    Queen Victoria Road
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
Background

Background

I qualified as a speech and language therapist (SLT) and primary school teacher here at Newcastle University. I worked as a teacher-therapist in a special school and a mainstream language unit for several years, before grabbing my backpack and travelling overseas. During the three years I spent travelling I also worked as an English teacher in Kathmandu, Nepal and as a speech pathologist in Melbourne, Australia. After returning to the UK I worked in the NHS Paediatric Speech and Language Therapy Service in Newcastle, I was manager of the service for about eight years and for three of those years was also Professional Adviser for all Newcastle speech and language therapy services. The focus of my clinical work was as a specialist speech and language therapist in child and adolescent mental health. I completed my PhD while working as a clinician in the NHS. For eighteen years I was a Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) Partner. In this role I assessed overseas applicants to the Speech and Language Therapy Register and sat on Investigating and Disciplinary Panels. In February 2005 I started working at Newcastle University as a part time clinical educator, while continuing to work in the NHS. I now work as a researcher/lecturer and consultant speech & language therapist in Speech and Language Sciences. My particular interest both in teaching and research is promotion of the use and creation of research evidence to support clinical practice in speech and language therapy. Specific areas of research include phonological awareness, speech sound disorder and the use of behaviour change theory and frameworks as tools to evaluate interventions.


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The Speech & Language Sciences Blog is here

Roles and Responsibilities

I am Degree Programme Director for the MSc in Evidence Based Practice in Communication Disorders and MSc Clinical Linguistics and Evidence Based Practice (Research); Treasurer of the North East Speech and Language Therapy Research Network (formerly Northern Research SIG). 

 

Qualifications

PhD in Speech and Language Sciences (Newcastle University, 2004) Thesis Title: Children and Adolescents with Emotional and Behavioural Disorders and Speech and Language Impairment: Incidence, Nature and Intervention

Post Graduate Certificate in Education (Primary Years) (Newcastle University, 1982)

BSc (Hons) Speech (Newcastle University, 1981)


Areas of expertise

Developmental speech disorders

Phonological Awareness

Behaviour change

Implementation of research into practice

Research capacity building in speech & language therapy 


Resources

If you are interested in obtaining a copy of the Newcastle Assessment of Phonological Awareness (NAPA) and the Newcastle Intervention for Phonological Awareness (NAPA), please visit the Newcastle Phonological Awareness website. Other clinical resources, including the Decision Making Tree for Speech Sound Disorder (SSD) and Good Practice Guidance for Transcription and Analysis of Child Speech are available from the Child Speech Disorders Research Network resources page of the Bristol Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit. Resources for developing sustained partnership working between speech and language therapy services and educational settings are freely available on the NNUTS website.

 

Previous Positions

I was previously Head of Speech and Language Sciences Subject Area (from June 2019-September 2021); Course co-ordinator Return to Practice Distance Learning Course (to 2019); Founding Member of the North East SLT Research Collaboration (Speech & Language Sciences, Newcastle University and local NHS SLT Services); Director of Teaching and Learning for ECLS; Director of Newcastle University Children's Speech and Language Therapy Clinic; Director of Impact and Engagement for the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences; Member of the RCSLT Professional Development and Standards Board (2009-2011); Director of Clinical Education, Speech and Language Sciences, Newcastle University (2006-2008); Specialist Speech and Language Therapist (CAMH Practitioner-Researcher) Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust (09/1999 to 08/2007); Health and Care Professions Council Partner (from 04/2002 to 04/2018); Registrant Assessor, Panel member for Health; Conduct and Competency and Investigation Committees; Professional Adviser for Speech and Language Therapy to Newcastle City Health (NHS) Trust (08/1997 to 03/2001); Manager Paediatric Speech and Language Therapy Service Newcastle City Health (NHS) Trust (07/1991 to 03/2000). 

 

Memberships

Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (Fellow); Health and Care Professions Council (Speech and Language Therapy Registrant); Child Speech Disorders Research Network (UK and Ireland); Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (1981 to 2022).

 

Honours and Awards

In 2022 I was nominated for the Newcastle Teaching Excellence Award: Outstanding Contribution to Academic Support by students in SLS.

In 2017 I was nominated for Newcastle Teaching Excellence Award: Outstanding Contribution to Teaching (HASS Faculty) by students in SLS.

In October 2013 I was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists for my outstanding contribution to the profession, particularly in the areas of research capacity building and the promotion of evidence based practice (for more information see: http://tinyurl.com/pwd2exu).

 

External Examiner Positions

City University, London: MSc Speech, Language & Communication Needs in Schools: Advanced Practice (2017-2023)

De Montford University, Leicester: BSc (Hons) Human Communication: Speech and language Therapy (2014-2018)

University College London (2007-2012)




Research

Research Interests

My research interests are diverse, partly related to my clinical work (young children with speech difficulties and children and adolescents with behaviour difficulties) and partly to my interest in how research is created and used as part of the evidence base for speech and language therapy to ensure rapid uptake of research evidence and adoption of new knowledge into routine clinical practice. My research interests include the evaluation of evidence based complex interventions for children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), particularly involving phonology and phonological awareness, underpinned by behaviour change and implementation science theories; communities of practice and digital solutions; utilising behaviour change taxonomies and knowledge mobilisation processes in implementing evidence based practice in cross-organisational contexts. I supervise a variety of undergraduate and postgraduate research projects each year and am happy to discuss possible research projects relating to speech disorders (consistent and inconsistent phonology); phonological awareness and application of behaviour change techniques in any area of SLT, with clinicians and graduates.

I work closely with practicing speech and language therapists to develop projects related to EBP. I made a podcast about evidence based practice with Rhiannon Walton here.


See my profile on Research Gate, Google Scholar and ORCID.  

 

Other Expertise

I am passionate about the use of research in practice, both the creation and its implementation. I work closely with colleagues within Speech and Language Sciences and NHS Organisations in the North East of England on projects to develop and maintain a research ready and research active workforce in speech and language therapy. In 2010 I wrote a series of tutorials on Evidence Based Practice Tools for Speech and Language Therapists, published in the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists' monthly Bulletin and contributed three chapters to Dobinson & Wren’s (2019) Creating Practice Based Evidence. I act as mentor to senior clinicians and to developing researchers in my areas of expertise. 

 

Projects

Principal Investigator: The Northumbria Health Care NHS Foundation Trust-Newcastle University Universal, Targeted & Specialist (NNUTS) Framework. In partnership with Di Nicholson and Dr Kate Hope (Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust), using behaviour change theory to investigate the normalisation of speech and language therapy interventions into educational settings. (2022-)

Principal Investigator: Phonological awareness intervention for autistic children to support language and literacy. This project is in partnership with Hull Education Trust (2022-)

Co- Investigator with Professor Yvonne Wren (PI), Dr Joanne Cleland (Co-I), Dr Sam Harding (Co-I), Dr Sam Burr (Co-I), MISLToe-SSD: Maximising the Impact of Speech and Language Therapy for children with Speech Sound Disorder funded by a Research for Patient Benefit Grant (NIHR) (Bristol Speech & Language Therapy Research Unit). We are in the COMET database here. 

Co-investigator with Professor Cristina McKean (PI), Dr Carolynn Lets (Co-I), Dr Sean Pert (Co-I) LIVELY Project: Language Intervention in the Early Years. Funded by the Heather van der Lely Foundation. The Lively website is here. 

Joint Principal Investigator (with Helen Raffell): MRC Proximity to Development Fund: VEO for training speech & language therapists. Developing tags using the Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy (BCTT) for use with VEO (www.veo-group.com) for SLT pre-and post–registration training. Part of this project also entails the development of new software to stream recordings to the VEO Portal, led by VEO Group (2016-2017).  

Principal Investigator: Improving school readiness of children at risk of speech and language difficulties in areas of low SES in partnership with Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust Children’s Speech & Language Therapy Service. This is an ESRC-IAA funded Impact project, using behaviour change theory to develop a training framework for SLTs and Early Years Practitioners to improve the success of SLT interventions delivered in schools and nurseries (2016-2017).

Principal Investigator: Using the Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy with interventions for developmental speech and language disorders. How we code our interventions to make explicit the techniques we use (2016-).

Principal Investigator: Investigating stability of phonological development in 3-5 year old children. Does targeted phonological awareness intervention influence the trajectory? A secondary analysis of data from KTP project (2016-2019). 

Principle Investigator: Designing Digital Technologies to Support Communities of Evidence Collection and Dissemination in Speech and Language Therapy. A joint project with the Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists (Dominique Loewenthal) and Newcastle University Culture Lab (Professor Patrick Olivier and Dr Madeleine Balaam) and Speech and Language Sciences January –September 2014)

Principle Investigator: A Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Northumberland Church of England Academy (NCEA; Carole Robinson and Melanie Hinson) and Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust (Di Nicholson) to develop a model of partnership working with local NHS Speech and Language Therapy services providing a language rich environment for Nursery Children in NCEA. Kate Jones, the KTP Associate was awarded a Business Leader of the Future award. This project started in January 2011 and was completed in January 2013, awarded Outstanding Grading by Technology Strategy Board on behalf of KTP).

Lead Investigator: Evaluating the impact of phonological awareness intervention on children with literacy/language/behaviour difficulties: A project with Professor James Law (PI) and Ms Alex Wiles, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (2010-2013).

Principle Investigator: An evaluation of the effectiveness of different established and novel interventions for children with developmental speech disorders: a project in collaboration with Ms Di Nicholson, Northumberland Care Trust (2009-2011).

 

Research Roles

As a founding member of the North East SLT Research Collaboration and the North East Speech and Language Therapy Research Network (NESLTRN) I work in partnership with and support speech and language therapists in the North East of England to use evidence in their practice; to apply research methods to evaluate their practice and contribute to the evidence base of our profession. I am the treasurer of the NESLTRN and contribute as a committee member to the annual Research Update Meetings and Symposia.

I am a member of the Communicative Participation Network (2020-), funded by ESRC and IRC, led by Dr Lindsay Pennington (Newcastle University) and Professor Martine Smith (Trinity College Dublin). The focus of this network is on real world communication of children with SLCN in the UK and RoI, with the aim of knowledge exchange and development of impactful research. 

Since 2017 I have been a member of The Child Speech Disorders Research Network; and contributed to publications and projects with other members.

I am a Research Champion for the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

Director of Impact and Engagement (2016-17): supporting colleagues to wrap engagement with stakeholders around research projects to ensure maximum impact; considering meaningful ways we can measure the impact of our research.

Steering group member (2011-2014) SemaFoRe: Semantic feature and repetition therapy in aphasia Research for Patient Benefit NIHR Funded project led by Professor David Howard and Dr Julie Morris.

 

Postgraduate Supervision

I am happy to discuss PhD projects with prospective students via email, particularly relating to speech sound disorders (consistent and inconsistent phonology); phonological awareness and application of behaviour change techniques and BCTT in any area of SLT.

Janey Maxwell: Vocal health in early childhood educators. With Dr Julia Partington and Dr Larry Zazzo (Music).

Johanna Butler: Learning to speak the language: An analysis of the communication used by staff in an independent therapeutic school and its correlation with student responses. With Dr Faye Smith and Dr Vic Knowland.

Jo Baker: Seeing phonological disorders more clearly: Understanding the impact of phonological awareness intervention on the speech sound system of children with consistent phonological disorder with Professor Cristina McKean. NINE-DTP Scholarship.

Laura Chambers: Bridging the Gap Between Language Impairment and Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties in Adolescents: Developing an Effective School Based Intervention to Address the Dual Deficit with Dr Faye Smith. NINE-DTP Scholarship.

Stephanie van Eeden: NIHR Clinical Academic Doctoral Award, Language and auditory processing in children with cleft palate: a description of the disorder and its relationship to speech outcomes with Dr Cristina McKean. NIHR Doctoral Fellowship. (Completed July 2023)

Sarah Barnett: NINE-DTP 1 3 scholarship, The application of the behaviour change technique taxonomy (BCTT) to parent-led language therapy intervention for children with a primary language delay or disorder with Dr Carolyn Letts. NINE-DTP Scholarship. (Completed 2022)

Kate Hope: The Application and Impact of a Public Health Intervention Supported by a Speech and Language Therapist in the Early Years Foundation Stage with Dr Cristina McKean and Professor James Law (Completed 2021)

Anastasia Trebacz: Newcastle University Research Excellence Academy, A Randomised Controlled Trial to Investigate the Efficacy of Building Early Sentences Therapy (BEST) with Dr Cristina McKean and Professor James Law (Completed 2020)

Sahar Al Kaab: The impact of phonological awareness on reading and spelling of bilingual Arabic-English children age 7-9 years, with Dr Maria Mroz (completed in 2018)

Yalda Kazemi Najafabadi: Clinical Assessment of Persian-speaking Children with Language Impairment in Iran: Exploring the Potential of Language Sample Measures, with Professor Thomas Klee, University of Hong Kong (Completed April 2013)

 

External Funding

National Institute for Health Research, Research for Patient Benefit grant (NIHR RfPB) (2022-2023)

The ESRC/IRC network development fund (2020-2022). 

The Heather van der Lely Foundation for The Lively Project (2019-2022)

The MRC Proximity to Discovery Industry Engagement Fund Bridging the Translational Gap for VEO for training speech & language therapists (2016-2017)

The ESRC-IAA Fund for Improving school readiness of children at risk of speech and language difficulties in areas of low SES (2016-2017)

The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists for Designing Digital Technologies to Support Communities of Evidence Collection and Dissemination in Speech and Language Therapy (2014)

The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for the KTP project with Northumberland Church of England Academy (2011-2013)

CLRN (2009)

Bursary from NoReN (Northern Primary Care Research Network) for protected time for writing for publication (2006).

NHS Northern and Yorkshire Region to study ‘The Incidence and Nature of Communication Disorder in Adolescents with Sexually Abusive Behaviour’ (2001)

 


Teaching

Current

Anti-racism and health inequality

Phonological awareness

Behaviour change in speech and language therapy

Postgraduate Teaching

Critical Appraisal 

Scientific writing for publication

Principles of evidence based practice

Phonological Awareness Assessment and Intervention 


Previous 

Undergraduate Teaching

Developmental Speech Difficulties 1 & 2 (Case Based Problem Solving Modules)

Evidence Based Practice

Professional Issues

Clinical Practice

Postgraduate Teaching

Developmental Speech Difficulties 1 & 2 (Case Based Problem Solving Modules)

Evidence Based Practice

Clinical Practice

Advanced assessment of children with speech language and communication needs (SLCN)


I use wikis in my teaching, you can see a podcast about it here. 

Publications