{"id":667,"date":"2026-08-04T12:50:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T11:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/?page_id=667"},"modified":"2026-10-29T11:28:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T11:28:15","slug":"project-overview","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/","title":{"rendered":"MISLToe_SSD Overview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns alignfull is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Why is MISLToe_SSD important?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Children with <strong>speech sound disorder (SSD) find it difficult making some of their speech sounds clearly<\/strong>, which can make it <strong>hard for family and friends to understand them<\/strong>. In some cases, there is a clear reason for why this happens, such as a cleft palate, cerebral palsy, or hearing loss. However, in most cases, we are not quite sure why it happens. If it is not treated early, <strong>SSD could have a lasting impact on their education, job prospects and mental well-being<\/strong>.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Speech Sound Disorder (SSD) affects around 3-4% of children <\/em><br><em>between the ages 4 and 8.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><br><strong>Early intervention<\/strong>, where a <strong>child receives therapy at an early stage<\/strong> for their SSD, <strong>can really make a difference<\/strong> for a child\u2019s life. However, most of what we know about speech and language therapy comes from research studies, where resources may be ideal and unlimited. <br><em>In practice, speech and language therapy services for children with SSD can be quite different across the UK because these clinics often do not have enough resources to carry out therapies exactly the way that research does.<\/em> <br><br>This <strong>makes it difficult to gather data from clinics across the UK to figure out which therapies and methods <strong>work best<\/strong> for children that are accessing speech and language therapy services in real life.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-cover is-light\" style=\"min-height:987px;aspect-ratio:unset;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"434\" class=\"wp-block-cover__image-background wp-image-476 size-large\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2026\/06\/AdobeStock_2041787605-5-1024x434.jpeg\" style=\"object-position:17% 43%\" data-object-fit=\"cover\" data-object-position=\"17% 43%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2026\/06\/AdobeStock_2041787605-5-1024x434.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2026\/06\/AdobeStock_2041787605-5-300x127.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2026\/06\/AdobeStock_2041787605-5-768x326.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2026\/06\/AdobeStock_2041787605-5-1536x652.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2026\/06\/AdobeStock_2041787605-5-2048x869.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><span aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-cover__background has-background-dim\" style=\"background-color:#c0b1a6\"><\/span><div class=\"wp-block-cover__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-cover-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-large-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns alignfull is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-cover\"><span aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-cover__background has-palette-color-3-background-color has-background-dim-100 has-background-dim\"><\/span><div class=\"wp-block-cover__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-cover-is-layout-constrained\">\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center has-white-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-1\">How does <br>MISLToe_SSD help?<\/h1>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><br><strong>MISLToe_SSD<\/strong> aims to address the above issue by <strong>finding out which therapies work best in real-word clinical settings<\/strong> for children with different types of SSD by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Establishing a shared process between Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) <\/strong>across participating NHS services <strong>in collecting regular clinical information about children with SSD<\/strong> before and after therapy<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Combining the information<\/strong> <strong>collected<\/strong> from these participating NHS services<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Using the combined information to <strong>identify which therapy methods work best for children with different types of SSDs in real-world SLT services<\/strong><br><br><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:127px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The MISLToe_SSD project is a collaboration between&nbsp;<strong>Cardiff Metropolitan University,<\/strong><br><strong>Bristol Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit at Bristol Foundation Trust,<\/strong><br><strong>Newcastle University, the University of Strathclyde,<\/strong> <strong>University of the West of<br>England, the University of Bristol, and Afasic<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">For more information, please contact us at <a href=\"mailto:bft.misltoe.southmead@nhs.net\">bft.misltoe.southmead@nhs.net<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns alignfull are-vertically-aligned-top is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-top has-palette-color-6-background-color has-background is-layout-flow wp-container-core-column-is-layout-663b1194 wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40)\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--20);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--20)\">This project is sponsored and funded by the following institutions<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30)\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2316\" height=\"245\" src=\"https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2026\/08\/Picture2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-903\" srcset=\"https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2026\/08\/Picture2.png 2316w, https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2026\/08\/Picture2-300x32.png 300w, https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2026\/08\/Picture2-1024x108.png 1024w, https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2026\/08\/Picture2-768x81.png 768w, https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2026\/08\/Picture2-1536x162.png 1536w, https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2026\/08\/Picture2-2048x217.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2316px) 100vw, 2316px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why is MISLToe_SSD important? Children with speech sound disorder (SSD) find it difficult making some of their speech sounds clearly, which can make it hard for family and friends to understand them. In some cases, there is a clear reason for why this happens, such as a cleft palate, cerebral palsy, or hearing loss. However, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-667","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1325,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/667\/revisions\/1325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.cardiffmet.ac.uk\/MISLToeSSD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}