Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Canterbury, 2007. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 243-263). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--Eastern Illinois University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-70).

As the management of dementia is a significant public health concern, efforts to increase access to effective treatments to a greater number of residents with dementia in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) are warranted. The treatment addressed in this study, non-electronic external memory aids, is an evidence-based practice that has been found to increase positive communicative interactions and decrease negative behavioral problems of residents with dementia in SNFs. Although use of memory aids is recommended, there are significant barriers such as lack of time and resources that inhibit the use of effective treatments in typical clinical settings. To address such barriers to evidence-based practice (EBP) implementation, the Promoting Action on Research in Health Services (PARIHS) framework is available. The PARIHS framework accounts for elements outside of the clinician knowledge base that may impact EBP delivery such as perceptions of the specific EBP and the specific context in which the EBP will be delivered. Organizational variables such as culture, leadership priorities, and resource availability are considered. Although the PARIHS framework has been used to successfully study and support EBP uptake in other areas of health care such as nursing, this framework has not to date been used in the field of Speech-Language Pathology, the clinician group of interest in this study. This study utilized a transformative, mixed-methods design within the PARIHS framework to investigate potential impacts of Speech-Language Pathologists' (SLPs) and Facility Rehabilitation Directors' (FRDs) perceptions of the evidence and organizational context on the use of non-electronic external memory aids in SNFs. The project explored differences between FRDs' and SLPs' perceptions of such variables, as well as the relationship between those variables and the SLPs' reported percentage of use of non-electronic external memory aids. Qualitative methods through semi-structured interviewing of SLPs further provided contextualized and detailed data regarding facilitators and barriers to the use of memory aids in SNFs. Results of the study indicated that there were statistically significant differences between SLP and FRD groups in terms of perceptions of the organizational context in the SNF, with the FRDs viewing the organizational context more favorably. There were no significant quantitative differences between SLPs and FRDs in terms of perception of the evidence for the practice of non-electronic external memory aids. Both groups demonstrated relatively favorable perceptions of the practice (3.8 on a 5-point scale with 5 being strongly favorable). Each additional point regarding favorable perceptions of SLPs in terms of the evidence for non-electronic external memory aids were associated with a 24% increase in percentage of use of the practice. Perceptions of the organizational context in the SNF were not significantly associated with higher percentages of SLP use of the practice; however, issues of organizational context were heavily present in the qualitative data. Analysis of the interview data yielded a total of 318 codes and 191/318 (60%) of those codes addressed issues of organizational context. Qualitatively, the most common codes related to issues of lack of necessary staff to both implement and sustain the use of non-electronic external memory aids. Further, lack of physical materials and time to create memory aids was also a frequently reported barrier in the interview data. There was not mention of local performance data or systems for which to evaluate performance in relationship to non-electronic external memory aid usage in the interview data. Results of this study may contribute to the acceleration of a successful, systematic uptake of non-electronic external memory aids for residents with dementia in SNFs by considering SLPs' perceptions of evidence and by engaging the end organizational context. This project may also serve as a model to contribute to the successful implementation of other EBP for patients with cognitive-communicative impairments.

Purpose: The purposes of the present study consisted of primary, secondary, and tertiary purposes: 1) to determine what factors that can be addressed in speech therapy are the most important for female-to-male (FtM) transgender individuals in passing as their true gender, 2) to determine what factors may contribute to these individuals seeking speech therapy services and to the importance that they assign to speech therapy as part of the transition process, and 3) to determine awareness of this population in regards to the availability and scope of speech therapy services relative to transitioning or passing as their true gender. Method: A 38-item survey was developed to address these research questions and a link to the online survey was distributed via email to various listservs, organizations, and personal contacts to assist in the electronic distribution of the survey link. The responses of the final participant pool of 63 respondents were evaluated. Results: Overall, the participants ranked voice characteristics as the most important for passing followed by nonverbal communication and social language use. These broad categories rankings are generally supported by the existing literature. Within category rankings revealed rankings that are in accord with the existing literature, others that oppose the existing literature, and others that have not been explored in the literature. The following factors stood out as possibly contributing to how important FtMs find speech therapy as facilitating their ability to live as their true gender: desire to pass, satisfaction with hormone related pitch changes, current overall presentation, and whether speech/language contribute to instances of not passing. Factors that appear to possibly contribute to how likely FtMs are to have sought speech therapy include: satisfaction with hormone related pitch changes, voice prior to transition, and if aspects of speech and language contribute to instances of not passing. Overall, FtMs have little awareness regarding speech therapy as part of the transition process, particularly for FtMs. / text

The purpose of the present study was to explore whether the phonological encoding difficulties that have been demonstrated in children who stutter persist in adults whose stuttering persists. This hypothesis was investigated by comparing the phonological working memory of adults who stutter (AWS) and adults who do not stutter (AWNS) using non-word repetition and phoneme elision tasks. Twenty-four adults (age range = 17;9 to 46;11 mean age = 28;2): 12 AWS and 12 AWNS matched on gender and age participated in this study. A total of 48 non-words consisting of an equal number (N = 12 per syllable length category) of two-syllable, three-syllable, four-syllable and seven-syllable non-words were selected for use in the non-word repetition and phoneme elision tasks. In the non-word repetition task, results showed a significant interaction between fluency group and syllable length for the 7-syllable length category only, indicating that AWS require a significantly higher mean number of attempts than AWNS. Results of the phoneme elision task revealed a significant main effect for syllable length with both groups demonstrating a significant reduction in accuracy as the non-words increased in length, but there was no significant interaction between fluency group and syllable class length. Potential implications of these findings are presented along with recommendations for future research. / text

Tinkamas specialybės pasirinkimas – tai pagrindas valstybės ir visuomenės gerovei. Kokybiškai su entuziazmu savo darbą dirbantis specialistas garbingai atstovauja savo profesiją. Neretai specialybės pasirinkimą nulemia ne vien pašaukimas, išankstinio tikslo turėjimas, bet ir atsitiktinai bei nuo tam tikrų aplinkybių priklausomi veiksniai. Nors logopedo specialybė dar palyginti jauna, bet jau niekas neįsivaizduoja šiandieninės ugdymo įstaigos be logopedo. Tai lemia vis didėjantis vaikų, turinčių kalbos ir kalbėjimo sutrikimų, skaičius. Logopedų ir logopedijos studijų studentų nuomonė apie daugumą šios profesijos ypatumų dar nėra pakankamai ištirta, todėl tai aktuali šiuolaikinė problema. Magistro darbo tikslas yra išsiaiškinti, kaip logopedai ir studentai vertina specialiosios pedagogikos (logopedijos) studijų programą ir atskleisti logopedų praktikos reikšmingumą studijų metu. Logopedijos studijų vertinimo tyrime dalyvavo Šiaulių, Kuršėnų, Radviliškio, Telšių, Plungės miestuose ir rajonuose dirbantys logopedai ir Šiaulių universiteto Socialinės gerovės ir negalės studijų fakulteto, specialiosios pedagogikos (logopedijos) studijų programos III – IV kursų studentai. Iš viso išplatinta 250 anketų. Tinkamai užpildyti grįžo 199. Buvo atlikta turinio (content) analizė. Anketinės apklausos metu buvo tirtos reikalingiausios logopedų kompetencijos ir gebėjimai, ugdytini studijų metais. Logopedų ir studentų buvo prašoma įsivertinti savo gebėjimus. Taip pat buvo tiriama visų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / A Proper selection of speciality is a basis for the welfare of the state and society. Qualitatively and with enthusiasm working specialist honestly represents his/her profession. Rather often the selection of the profession is determined not only by the calling and having of preconceived future goal but on occasional factors dependent on certain circumstances, as well. Though the speciality of a speech therapist is relatively young, probably no one can imagine today’s educational institution without a speech therapist. This factor is determined by increasing number of children with speech and communication disorders. The opinion of speech therapists and the students of speech therapy studies on the majority of professional peculiarities are not yet fully investigated, therefore this remains a relevant contemporary problem. The aim of the Master’s thesis is to find out how the speech therapists and the students evaluate Special Education (speech therapy) study programme and to reveal the significance of the practical training of speech therapists during the studies. The speech therapist working in Šiauliai, Kuršėnai, Radviliškis, Telšiai and Plungė towns and districts as well as the third and fourth year students of special pedagogy (speech therapy) study programme of the Faculty of Social Welfare and Disability Studies, Šiauliai University, participated in the evaluation of the study programme of speech therapy. A total of 250 questionnaires were distributed. 199 properly... [to full text]

Voice transformation refers to a class of techniques that modify the voice characteristics either to conceal the identity or to mimic the voice characteristics of another speaker. Its applications include automatic dialogue replacement and voice generation for people with voice disorders. The diversity in applications makes evaluation of voice transformation a challenging task. The objective of this research is to propose a framework to evaluate intentional voice transformation techniques. Our proposed framework is based on two fundamental qualities: intelligibility and speaker similarity. Intelligibility refers to the clarity of the speech content after voice transformation and speaker similarity measures how well the modified output disguises the source speaker. We measure intelligibility with word error rates and speaker similarity with likelihood of identifying the correct speaker. The novelty of our approach is, we consider whether similarly transformed training data are available to the recognizer. We have demonstrated that this factor plays a significant role in intelligibility and speaker similarity for both human testers and automated recognizers. We thoroughly test two classes of voice transformation techniques: pitch distortion and voice conversion, using our proposed framework. We apply our results for patients with voice hypertension using video self-modeling and preliminary results are presented.

This study surveyed school-based speech language pathologists regarding their expectations for children returning to school after suffering a traumatic brain injury. Limited literature exists discussing the coordination procedures that should occur between hospital and school personnel. The survey was developed based on the existing literature and was sent to school-based speech language pathologists in the state of Indiana. A total of 38% of the surveys were completed and returned. Results of the surveys found that many of the coordination procedures in the literature were not consistently being followed. Participants who reported having experience with this population in the schools seemed more aware of the procedures that should be followed, based on their answers to the survey questions. It can be concluded, based on the results of the surveys, that increased knowledge and experience of school personnel about the effects, implications, and needs of students with traumatic brain injury would benefit children returning to the school environment after sustaining this type of injury. / Department of Speech Pathology & Audiology

No description available.

Thesis (M.(Augmentative and Alternative Communication)), Universiteit van Pretoria, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references.