Posted 13 June, 2026
Post-Doctoral Researcher Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences/Clinical Therapies
University Vacancies Ireland
Cork, Cork, Ireland
Temporary
Reference: 153232420
This position will have a role as operational manager (as part of a team) of the Happy Talk national randomised controlled trial, led by Dr Pauline Frizelle, at UCC.
The work builds on a small-scale single blind effectiveness trial of 'Happy Talk', a community embedded, targeted selective SLT programme that simultaneously engages with parents and early childhood educators. The pilot trial showed large effects (.6SD) on understanding and moderate effects (.46SD) on a composite language measure, for children from areas of social disadvantage (5). In addition, 'Happy Talk' was deemed to be feasible and acceptable to parents and staff and cost- effective (6), making it a suitable programme to be delivered at scale. The proposed study aims to a) evaluate an at scale randomized control trial of 'Happy Talk' compared to usual care; b) complete a pre-trial process evaluation to inform intervention implementation - examining factors which promote parental engagement and partnership between SLTs and educators and incorporating these into SLT training and future rollouts of the programme; c) to complete a concurrent process evaluation from a realist perspective to examine how the mechanisms underpinning Happy Talk are influenced by the implementation context and therefore what would need to be considered for successful implementation across varied settings; d) establish barriers and enablers for clinicians in helping conduct trials and e) complete an economic evaluation in which the costs and benefits of 'Happy Talk' are compared to standard pre/school care.
Application Instructions
Applications must be submitted online via the University College Cork vacancy portal https://ore.ucc.ie/ Queries relating to the online application process should be referred to [email protected] quoting the job-title.
Document
Candidate Brief_543.pdf 2.77 MB
Apply
The work builds on a small-scale single blind effectiveness trial of 'Happy Talk', a community embedded, targeted selective SLT programme that simultaneously engages with parents and early childhood educators. The pilot trial showed large effects (.6SD) on understanding and moderate effects (.46SD) on a composite language measure, for children from areas of social disadvantage (5). In addition, 'Happy Talk' was deemed to be feasible and acceptable to parents and staff and cost- effective (6), making it a suitable programme to be delivered at scale. The proposed study aims to a) evaluate an at scale randomized control trial of 'Happy Talk' compared to usual care; b) complete a pre-trial process evaluation to inform intervention implementation - examining factors which promote parental engagement and partnership between SLTs and educators and incorporating these into SLT training and future rollouts of the programme; c) to complete a concurrent process evaluation from a realist perspective to examine how the mechanisms underpinning Happy Talk are influenced by the implementation context and therefore what would need to be considered for successful implementation across varied settings; d) establish barriers and enablers for clinicians in helping conduct trials and e) complete an economic evaluation in which the costs and benefits of 'Happy Talk' are compared to standard pre/school care.
Application Instructions
Applications must be submitted online via the University College Cork vacancy portal https://ore.ucc.ie/ Queries relating to the online application process should be referred to [email protected] quoting the job-title.
Document
Candidate Brief_543.pdf 2.77 MB
Apply
