Communication Issues and Young People in the Youth Justice system: The NZ experience and research

Abstract

New Zealand Speech Language Therapists' involvement with young people in contact with the law was minimal or nonexistent until some 6 years ago. Involvement was spurred by the research conducted in the UK and Australia primarily (see Anderson, Hawes & Snow, 2016,for a review), and since that lime there has been a number of research projects into incidences, experiences and assessment, with this population in NZ (e.g. Lount. Purdy & Hand, 2017),along with the development of services and policies and practices within the legal system. This presentation will summarlse the NZ research to date, investigating aspects of vocabulary comprehension in young people, the experiences of those working with the young people on their oral communication issues the efficacy of training programmes for those working with young people, and the opinions of the young people themselves. Everything we do in this area is an innovation, and changes are happenlng very rapidly. This presentation will indicate the issues that are arising and the directions the area is taking in NZ.