Research Assistant, Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, School of Clinical Therapies

0.8 FTE, 45 months, fixed-term, Part-Time post

Position Summary

This position is to work as a Research Assistant (as a member of a team) on the Happy Talk national randomised controlled trial, led by Dr Pauline Frizelle, at UCC. This is a HRB funded position.

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.

Post Duration: 45 months

Salary: €30,025 - €39,908 p.a. (IUA Salary Scale), pro rata 0.8 FTE

Project Title: Implementing a targeted selective speech, language, and communication intervention at scale - the case of Happy Talk

For an information package including further details of the post see https://ore.ucc.ie/.

Informal enquiries can be made in confidence to: Dr Pauline Frizelle, Senior Lecturer, Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences Tel: + 353 (0) 87 8057394; Email: [email protected]

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 and project name.

Candidates should apply, in confidence, before 12 noon (Irish Local Time) on Friday,  23rd February 2024

No late applications will be accepted.

Please note that an appointment to posts advertised will be dependent on University approval, together with the terms of the employment control framework for the higher education sector.

UCC is committed to creating and fully embracing an inclusive environment where diversity is celebrated.  As a University we strive to create a workplace that reflects the diversity of our student population where people from a wide variety of backgrounds learn from one another, share ideas, and work collaboratively. UCC is committed to being an employer that recognises the value of diversity amongst its staff.  We encourage applicants to consult our policies at https://www.ucc.ie/en/edi/policies/ and initiatives at https://www.ucc.ie/en/edi/implementation/ and we welcome applications from everyone, including those who are underrepresented in the protected characteristics set out in our Equal Opportunities & Diversity Policy.

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES EMPLOYER