Dr Sarah Spencer
BMedSci, PhD, SFHEA, certRCSLT, HCPC
Human Communication Sciences, School of Allied Health Professions, Nursing and Midwifery
Senior Lecturer
+44 114 222 2411
Full contact details
Human Communication Sciences, School of Allied Health Professions, Nursing and Midwifery
Room 208
362 Mushroom Lane
Sheffield
S10 2TS
- Profile
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I research children and young people’s language skills (their talking and understanding of spoken language) and how it fits within their educational and social contexts and life experiences.
My clinical and academic work addresses educational inequality and injustice related to language, social class, and special educational needs. I am also interested in how we support children and young people with both their spoken language and literacy skills to maximise their participation in everyday life.
For 20 years, I have been a Speech and Language Therapist, registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and a certified member of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists. I work with children and young people of all ages, but I have most expertise and experience of working with older children and teenagers. I am keen to develop partnerships with mainstream secondary schools in Sheffield and the local area. I can offer speech and language therapy assessment, advice and interventions working with individual children, classrooms, teacher training or whole school approaches.
Please email if you are a family or school who is interested to hear more.
- Qualifications
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BMedSci in Speech and Language Therapy
PhD in Speech and Language Therapy
- Research interests
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A central theme in my work is addressing inequality in both education and speech and language service provision. My research is about
- Adolescent language differences such as speech sound disorder, Developmental Language Disorder
- How schools can include and support children with language and literacy differences effectively
- Speech and language therapy interventions for traditionally underserved communities
- Social class and children’s language
My research is multidisciplinary, and I enjoy collaborating with colleagues from Education, Sociolinguistics and Psychology. I have expertise in a range of qualitative and quantitative research designs and am particularly interested in co-producing research with non-academic partners.
- Publications
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Journal articles
- Increasing teachers' use of communication-supporting strategies: findings from an exploratory study using the Communication Supporting Classroom Observation Tool (CSCOT) in primary schools in Brunei. Support for Learning, 37(2), 180-208.
- “It just sounds proper common”: Exploring the social meanings expressed by nonstandard grammar. Linguistics and Education, 63. View this article in WRRO
- Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) in young people leaving care in England : a study profiling the language, literacy and communication abilities of young people transitioning from care to independence. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(8). View this article in WRRO
- Speech-language pathology service provision in English Youth offending institutions. Findings from a survey.. Journal of clinical practice in speech-language pathology, 21(1), 11-17. View this article in WRRO
- Specialist provision for language disorder: Staff and service user views of a preschool language unit. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 35(2), 93-111.
- A school-commissioned model of speech and language therapy. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 34(2), 141-153. View this article in WRRO
- Increasing adolescents' depth of understanding of cross‐curriculum words: an intervention study. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 52(5), 652-668. View this article in WRRO
- Research as working class resistance: lessons learned fromGetting by. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 25(3), 481-486.
- Phase 2 of CATALISE: a multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study of problems with language development: Terminology. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. View this article in WRRO
- Contribution of spoken language and socio-economic background to adolescents’ educational achievement at age 16 years. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 52(2), 184-196. View this article in WRRO
- CATALISE: A Multinational and Multidisciplinary Delphi Consensus Study. Identifying Language Impairments in Children. PLOS ONE, 11(7), e0158753-e0158753. View this article in WRRO
- Capturing communication supporting classrooms: The development of a tool and feasibility study. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 31(3), 271-286.
- Measuring quality of life in children with speech and language difficulties: a systematic review of existing approaches. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 50(4), 416-435. View this article in WRRO
- Language Disorders from Infancy Through Adolescence: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing and Communicating 4th edn Edited by RheaPaul and Courtenay F.Norbury (St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Mosby, 2012) [Pp. 756] ISBN 978-0-323-07184-0. £75.99. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 48(6), 738-739.
- Language, social class and education: Listening to adolescents' perceptions. Language and Education, 27(2), 129-143.
- Language and disadvantage: a comparison of the language abilities of adolescents from two different socioeconomic areas.. Int J Lang Commun Disord, 47(3), 274-284.
- 'I don't come out with big words like other people': Interviewing adolescents as part of communication profiling. CHILD LANG TEACH THE, 26(2), 144-162.
- Decoloniality and healthcare higher education: Critical conversations. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders.
- Regimes of Motherhood: Social class, the word gap, and the optimisation of mothers' talk. Sociological Review. View this article in WRRO
Chapters
Conference proceedings papers
- Delivering speech and language therapy services to young people in custody. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, Vol. 63(7) (pp 701-701). Glasgow, Scotland, 6 August 2019 - 9 August 2019. View this article in WRRO
Reports
- Developing a communication supporting classrooms observation tool.
- Increasing teachers' use of communication-supporting strategies: findings from an exploratory study using the Communication Supporting Classroom Observation Tool (CSCOT) in primary schools in Brunei. Support for Learning, 37(2), 180-208.
- Research group
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Current PhD students:
- Sam Calladine, developing and refining a therapy approach for very young children with speech difficulties associated with cleft palate (with Hilary Gardiner and Ray Wilkinson).
- Rachel Bear, using Conversation Analysis to investigate the feedback strategies parents use in phonological therapy (with Hilary Gardiner and Ray Wilkinson).
- Mary Hartshorne, evaluating the impact of an intervention to support communication skills in secondary schools (with Judy Clegg).
- Kim Turner, investigating the profiles of language abilities of young offenders in a custodial setting (with Judy Clegg).
- Indri Hapsari, identifying the prevalence of speech and language difficulties in preschool children in Jakarta, Indonesia (with Judy Clegg).
I also supervised the following students to completion of their studies:
- Rachael Black, using participative research methods to research the experiences of parents of people with profound and multiple learning disabilities (with Judy Clegg).
- Rafizah Badar, developing and evaluating the use of the Communication Supportive Classrooms in Brunei (with Judy Clegg).
- Jo Rees, looking at the impact of cleft interventions using Therapy Outcome Measures (with Pam Enderby and Nasrin Nasr).
- Grants
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I am currently preparing research funding applications related to neurodiversity and language; equity in paediatric SLT provision; children and young people’s own perspectives on developmental language disorder.
My projects include:
- Communication Supporting Classrooms
- Supporting academic vocabulary development in secondary schools
- Supporting Adolescents with Language Disorders
- Delivering the Language Enriching Activity Programme with Speech and Language therapy students across Sheffield in partnership with Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust (LEAP)
- Delivering online support for children and young people with speech, language, and communication needs.
- Teaching activities
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- HCS117 (Apprenticeship Module) Children’s speech, language, communication and literacy;
- HCS1004; HCS6308; HCS6302 Children’s speech, language, communication and literacy;
- HCS2021 Professional Practice 2 (module lead and paediatric placement lead)
- HCS1011 Professional Practice 1 (paediatric placement lead and taught content around working with children)
- HCS61001-HCS6308 Professional Practice 1 (taught content around working with children)
- HCS2023-HCS6304 Developmental Differences (lectures on language and social contexts; Developmental Language Disorders; Adolescent Language Differences)
- HCS6416-HCS3010 Key Clinical Topics 2 (lecture on Developmental Language Disorder interventions)
- Decolonising / de-imperialisation and teaching on speech and language therapy programmes
- Undergraduate and post graduate dissertation supervision.
- PhD supervision. I am currently interested in working with new PhD students on projects related to paediatric speech and language therapy.
- Professional activities and memberships
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- Associate editor, International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders.
- Professional member of Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and Health and Care Professions Council.
- Member: RCSLT Clinical Interest Group for Older Children and Young Adults; International Association for the Study of Child Language (IASCL); British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL).
- Manuscript reviewer for national and international journals such as Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools; PLOS one; Child Language Teaching and Therapy, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties and the International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders. Grant reviewer for ESRC and Nuffield Foundation.
- Editorial consultant, International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.
Clinical interest and expertise
I am a specialist speech and language therapist, with a clinical interest in persisting and complex speech and language difficulties, particularly in older children and adolescents. I also have a clinical expertise in the multiple associations between language and behaviour and social outcomes. I have worked in a range of settings in the NHS and for the national children’s communication charity ICAN as a professional adviser. I was also part of The Communication Trust’s training for the youth justice sector, working in partnership with Dyslexia Action, ICAN and youth offending teams across England.
I work as a speech and language therapist with children and young people with speech, language and communication difficulties within the department of Human Communication Sciences and as part of my honorary contract with Sheffield NHS speech and language therapy services.