Résumé
Today in France, access to speech and language therapy (SLT) services is very complex. Waiting lists are ever-growing, and families waiting for their children to be treated are left helpless and powerless. This may cause parental anxiety and consequently affect the way they look after their children. However, parents are essential to speech therapy care as the parental partnership remains the most effective way of optimising treatment for their child. Therefore, this study aims to review the relevance and need for a workshop named "waiting for speech and language therapy" allowing families to proactively wait for care. We created a study group and offered its services to 12 families in the Nîmes region. We evaluated the impact of this innovative practice on the parents' knowledge, confidence and anxiety levels before, during and after the study via self-reported questionnaires. Despite limitations, the results demonstrate the need and importance of interventions like ours: participants were able to increase their knowledge of child development, confidence levels also grew as well as the parents' ability to adjust. All were then able to incorporate the changes in their daily lives with their children. Our study therefore shows the relevant, motivating and dynamic contribution that our tool brings to parents awaiting speech and language therapy care for their child.