Yvonne Wren
I am a speech and language therapist and carried out my initial training at the University of Manchester. I have worked as a clinician for over ten years for North Mersey Community Trust and United Bristol NHS Trust, working with both adult and child clients in both hospitals and schools.
In 1997, I worked with Sue Roulstone, Jill Parkhouse and Brian Hall to develop a school based speech and language therapy service known as WiSaLT (Withywood Speech and Language Therapy). Simultaneously, I completed a Masters of Education, specialising in psychology at the University of Bristol Graduate School of Education.
In 1999, I moved to the Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit and worked on the 'Hear IT - Sound IT' project: an investigation into the use of computers in phonology therapy. During this project I carried out my PhD under the direction of Professor Sue Roulstone and Dr Chris Jarrold. I completed this in 2005
In 2003, I began work on a project to develop and evaluate a computerised assessment of children's speech sound difficulties. This work was supported by a grant from the Health Technology Devices programme of the Department of Health and was carried out in partnership with the educational software company, Granada Learning. This has resulted in the development of the Phoneme Factory series of products to assist teachers and speech and language therapists in working with children with speech difficulties in school.
Since 2006, I have worked on a project funded by the Medical Research Council to investigate the origins, outcomes and impact or persisting phonological impairment. This is in collaboration with the ALSPAC project (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children) using data from a large cohort study of 14000 children.
Research interests
- Childrens phonological development and impairment
- Assessment of children's speech
- Use of software in phonology therapy
- Education/school based therapy provision