Do 'minority' groups have special needs? Speech therapy and the Chasidic Jewish community in north London

The paper addresses the issue of whether a paediatric speech therapy service can offer an adequately sensitive service to a specific community, notably the Chasidic Jewish community of north London. Fifteen parents of Jewish children were compared with 20 parents of non-Jewish children attending the same speech therapy clinic. A questionnaire was administered to both groups. The results indicate that the groups differed in the extent to which they required therapy in their own language, the Jewish group being less concerned than the non-Jewish group. The groups did not differ in the extent to which they would object to therapists on the grounds of sex or religion. When a test of significance was used, a number of differences were identified in relation to specific responses. The results are discussed in terms of the need for a culturally sensitized service.