Reading marks 50 years of speech and language therapy

This year marks 50 years since Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) was first established at the University of Reading — a milestone that highlights decades of world-class research, teaching and clinical practice that have transformed lives in the UK and around the world.

From its beginnings in 1975 as a pioneering BA in Linguistics and Language Pathology with just five students, SLT at Reading has grown into a nationally leading programme that today recruits around 40 undergraduates annually.

We were the first UK university to launch a taught postgraduate SLT degree in the 1990s, a programme that continues to flourish today, training speech and language therapists who work across the UK and internationally. Our four-year integrated MSci (Hons) in Speech and Language Therapy has been ranked first in the UK in the Complete University Guide 2026.

This anniversary year will be marked by three major events in September:

• Child Language Symposium (8–10 September 2025) — Hosted at the University of Reading, this international conference will welcome leading researchers to discuss the latest in child language research, coinciding with both the 50th anniversary of SLT and the 60th anniversary of Linguistics at Reading.
• Celebrating 50 years of Speech and Language Therapy at Reading (10 September 2025) — A special celebration with talks and reflections from current staff, students, alumni and service users, alongside interactive activities.
• Professor David Crystal “in conversation” (10 September 2025) — Part of the celebrations for 60 years of Linguistics at Reading, this event will see renowned linguist Professor David Crystal return to the University to reflect on his career and time at Reading.

Life-changing research and clinical impact

At the heart of SLT at Reading is our unique speech and language therapy clinic, which continues to provide treatment to hundreds of children and adults in the local community while underpinning clinical teaching and research.

The clinic has received glowing feedback from families, with one parent reflecting: “I brought a little girl to you who didn’t speak. Thirteen months later, she is able to interact and communicate her needs and desires. Please know that the work you do is life-changing.” The BBC recently showcased the clinic’s work supporting children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the decades, our researchers have made significant contributions to speech and language assessment and intervention. Our innovations include widely used diagnostic tools such as the Reynell Developmental Language Scales (1997, updated 2011) and specialist interventions like the Social Communication and Interaction Pre-School Supports programme, developed for autistic children and those awaiting autism assessment by Sara Fincham-Majumdar and Dr Tom Loucas.

Professor Theo Marinis was part of a large European project that had a major impact on the study of language assessment among second language learners. He led the development of Sentence Repetition tasks assisting in the identification of language impairment in multilingual children across a large range of languages.

Furthermore, thousands of people have accessed our CPD course for teachers, parents and clinicians on supporting multilingual children’s language development, produced by Professor Ludovica Serratrice and colleagues.

Our global impact also stretches to multilingualism, aphasia, dementia, Rett syndrome and Down syndrome, with landmark work such as Dr Gill Townend’s international guidelines for Rett syndrome care, Dr Arpita Bose’s multilingual aphasia research across five languages and Professor Vesna Stojanovik and Dr Emma Pagnamenta’s pioneering work on early communication interventions for children with Down syndrome.

In 2024, Dr Vishnu Nair and Dr Emma Pagnamenta partnered with local professionals in the Caribbean Island of St Vincent and the Grenadines to deliver SLT training. The team co-delivered targeted workshops which strengthened national SLT infrastructure, trained over 200 individuals and led to new service developments that are improving support for people with communication disabilities.

Today, we continue to push boundaries in areas such as neurodevelopmental language disorders, fluency disorders,  autism , dysphagia and speech sound disorders. As we look ahead, our ambition remains clear: to create new knowledge, translate research into real-world impact and train the next generation of speech and language therapists to meet evolving global needs while promoting sustainability.