The clinical practice of speech and language therapists with preschool‐age children with syntactic impairment

What is already known on the subject Children with autism spectrym disorder (ASD) and children with developmental language disorder (DLD) experience language disorders, which in turn may have an impact on their socialisation and behaviour, namely when they have syntactic impairment. It is proven that these children benefit from speech and language therapy. Several studies analyse the effectiveness of assessment and intervention procedures in speech and language therapy, defining evidence-based best practices. Thus, there is a lot of research into how SLTs should conduct assessment and intervention. There is, however, little research about SLTs clinical practices. What this paper adds to existing knowledge This study paints a broad picture of the clinical practice of SLTs in Portugal, bringing insights specifically into their syntactic domain assessment and intervention practices with preschool-age children. This study also serves to identify the perceived needs of SLTs regarding the syntactic domain, related to academia, complementary training and day-to-day practice in the assessment and intervention of these children. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? There are some studies of the assessment and intervention clinical practices of SLTs as well as methods, programs and approaches for syntactic impairment clinical practice with preschool-age children with ASD and children with DLD. However, most of the studies are for the English language. Through this study, it was understood that SLTs in Portugal have a low level of confidence in assessing and intervening with this population. SLTs have identified the need for additional training and theoretical knowledge which can contribute to the adaptation of current academic curricula and broaden the complementary training opportunities.