Author Description

KEY BENEFIT: Almost all of the 60,000+ speech-language pathologists and audiologists in the United States now have to be able to document convincingly the positive impact of intervention on their clients if they are to be competitive for "third-party" funding. Most are not familiar with the research methodologies needed to do it in a way that funding agencies are highly likely to regard as being scientific, objective, competent and valid. This book focuses on conducting and consuming clinical research. By not assuming any prior knowledge of statistics, this book teaches how to interpret and critically evaluate the data analyses and conclusions of studies in which statistics are used. It also summarizes the legal and ethical aspects of clinical research. Additionally, the widespread availability of software for computing statistics by issuing a command or two has resulted in a shift in emphasis from knowing how to compute statistics to knowing when to use the various statistics and how to appropriately interpret them. This book reflects this change in emphasis. Written as a professional book for speech-language pathologists and audiologists, it will enable them to document the impacts of intervention on their clients in ways that medical insurance programs and public school administrators are likely to regard as being both "scientific" and valid.