Dr Clare Smith

My role

I am a Clinical Academic Speech and Language Therapist. My area of expertise is neurodevelopmental disorders. I also operationally manage the Community Paediatric Medical Service (CPMS) across Solent East, which covers Portsmouth City, East Hampshire and Fareham and Gosport.

My responsibilities

I am currently developing a programme of research examining what are the early indicators of Developmental Language Disorder. This is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects around 7% of children and has long term negative effects on educational achievement, health and wellbeing. In the long term I hope to develop a profile of risk for Developmental Language Disorder so that we can identify children most at risk and support them at an early stage.

I also support our community paediatricians and the nursing team in CPMS as the service manager. In this role, I have to ensure that we deliver great clinical care that is safe and effective.

My background

I have been a speech and language therapist for 17 years, and have spent 15 years supporting children and families in Portsmouth City. I used to work for a Sure Start Children’s Centre and it was in that role that I developed my interest in early support for Developmental Language Disorder.

I haven’t always been a speech and language therapist. Before my degree at University College London I undertook a number of different roles, including being a recruitment consultant and working in a fashion buying office.

Why I love my job

I love working with children and families and supporting their communication development. I also love asking questions, which is what I get to do as a clinical researcher. Finally, I love helping people to develop. The clinical leadership and management element of my role helps me to support our clinician’s own personal and professional development. I try to demonstrate how much we value our staff.

More about me

I come from the South East and really enjoy going back to London where my family is from and I lived for 6 years. I have two wonderful children who inspire me to keep going. I love music and conduct a local choir in my village. I also really like to go the theatre and go walking or cycling in the countryside.

Current projects/research studies

Social, linguistic and cognitive predictors of Developmental Language Disorder: A Systematic Review

Published work

SMITH, C., WILLIAMS, E. & BRYAN, K. (2016) A systematic scoping review of speech

and language pathologists’ public health practice for early language development. International Journal of

Language and Communication Disorders

SMITH, C. (2015) Healthy Scepticism in Clinical Practice Royal College of Speech and Language Therapy

Bulletin

GIBBARD, D. & SMITH, C (2015) A trans agency approach to enabling access to parent based intervention for

language delay in areas of social disadvantage – a service evaluation. Child Language Teaching and

Therapy January 29, 2015, doi: 10.1177/0265659014567785

SMITH, C. & GIBBARD, D. (2011) Baby talk home visits: Development and initial evaluations of a primary

prevention service. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 27, 68-83.

FAULKNER, A., ROSEN, S. & SMITH, C. (2000) Effects of the salience of pitch and periodicity information on

the intelligibility of four-channel vocoded speech: Implications for cochlear implants. Journal of the Acoustical

Society of America, 108, 1877-1887