From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] Multimerge Discussion

I suggest we merge this with the other SLP and SP pages that are already thinking about merging. A redirect from speech therapy would be very important, though. --Slp1 22:51, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Agree. Looks like there's quite a bit of overlap/redundancy between all three articles. The only question is which one is the most appropriate title to which the others should redirect? Would appreciate input from those in the field.

-Rj101 00:06, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Well I am in the field, but this "appropriate title" thing may be a minefield. In countries of the English speaking world the profession is called by many different variations of a theme:

Australia: Speech pathology

Canada: speech-language pathology

Ireland: Speech and Language Therapy

New Zealand: Speech-Language Therapy

South Africa: Speech Language Therapy

United Kingdom: Speech and Language Therapy

United States: speech-language pathology

My suggestion (as someone who has worked in various countries under various titles) would be to go with something like Speech and Language Pathology, so that no country "wins" hands down! --Slp1 12:20, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Sounds good. Perhaps a week or so for consensus/suggestions/objections (see below) and then time for the change? I'm hoping you (or one of your colleagues) are willing to make the major content merges/edits as this is your area of expertise. I'm happy to offer whatever services you need that I can.

-RJ1001 22:58, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merging Proposal

PROPOSED:

1. Merge Speech therapy, Speech-Language Pathology, Speech pathology, and Phoniatrics into one article.
2. The new article be entitled "Speech and Language Pathology" as a "nation-neutral" solution (see above discussion). All national variations would then be redirects to this new article.

[edit] Discussion

I support the merging since all of the articles mentioned are not much more than stubs. Later, when there is (hopefully) more material the finer details might again be split, but for now, merging is the best alternative. As for the naming of the new article I don't have any strong opinions. I believe the term phoniatrics is used at least in the scandinavian countries in respective form of each of their own languages. Personally, I like the term, but Wikipedia is hardly the place to promote such a change in terminology. So, all in all, I support the proposal of merging. --Tbackstr 15:20, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm an SLP working in the US, and this merger proposal makes the most sense to me. I've never heard the term "phoniatrics" (even though I read widely in Speech Pathology and Speech Science), so I don't think it is familiar to many people. -- RToes 20:21, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

I agree that we should merge the pages under the title "speech and language pathology."

---

I agree that it should be merged too. It;s confusing as it stands.