|
The article "Survey Gathers CSD Data from 22 Countries" (Sept. 4, 2007) provides a glimpse into how CSD services are delivered internationally and the response rate to the survey is commendable. However, the article, perhaps for reasons of brevity, seems misleading because of the information that is omitted. For example, what portion of those who responded to the survey is from the United States? A disproportionate response rate from the United States would give us a skewed impression of how CSD services are delivered internationally. In addition, it is not clear to what extent the sample of people who were invited to respond reflects the normal distribution of people delivering CSD services in any given country. As a result, the information about the knowledge base and clinical skills needed may have been skewed by the sample.
Lastly, if a majority of the respondents "...work in a college/university, followed by a nonresidential health care facility..." to what extent does that sample tell us about CSD service delivery worldwide? Was information from school-based speech-language pathologists sought internationally? Do they make up as large a portion of SLPs elsewhere as they do in the United States?
I applaud the efforts of the team working on this international data, but it concerns me that someone might cite these figures without providing adequate caution about their limited validity.
Bill McGann
Vancouver, Washington
wmcgann@egreen.wednet.edu
|