Speech Therapy (Rehabilitation Therapy) in Foreign Accent Syndrome in a Turkish Patient: A Case Report

: One of the consequences of a stroke in human is a foreign accentual syndrome, which is often caused by trauma or stroke. One of the most important injuries in this syndrome is a disruption in prosodic units. The present report is about a 47-year-old woman with a brain tumor who speaks with a different accent than hers. Acoustic analyses were performed using the Praat software version 6.0.35. This paper indicates consistency with most of the damage reports in prosodic units, including stress, rhythm, pause, and speed of speech. Significant changes occurred in the prosodic units of the patient under study within 12 weeks. In addition to the decrease in the number of pauses and speech duration of the patient, pitch variations, increased coordination, and precision in articulation, also an increase in the expression of the number of words was observed during the patient’s speech. Due to the rarity of foreign accent syndrome, further research in this area is important for speech and language pathologists in terms of differential diagnosis and speech therapy.

Barriers of Implementing Evidence-Based Practice Perceived by Iranian Speech and Language Pathologists: A Qualitative Study

Background: Identifying and removing the barriers faced by speech and language pathologists (SLPs) for implementing evidence-based practice (EBP) can facilitate its administration among Iranian SLPs. Objectives: The present study was conducted to explore the barriers to implementing EBP among Iranian SLPs. Methods: A total of 14 SLPs were recruited using a purposive sampling technique. Semi-structured interviews were conducted for data collection. The interviews continued until data saturation was reached. Data were recorded and transcribed verbatim, and qualitative content analysis was used for data analysis. Results: Data analysis yielded three themes, including individual factors, organizational (workplace) factors, and extra organizational factors, and 13 subthemes. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that Iranian SLPs are faced with several barriers to using EBP in clinical practice, which may be related to both the SLPs themselves and their surroundings. These barriers should be considered by policymakers, administrators, teachers, and rehabilitation team members to facilitate the implementation of EBP by SLPs.

P.092 Successful implementation of a supported conversation program on an acute stroke unit

Background: Aphasia is a life alerting deficit that affects up to 40% of people living with stroke. Barriers to communication ultimately impacts the care aphasic patients receive, as well as functional recovery. The Canadian Stroke Best Practice Recommendations suggest early and frequent language interventions to improve patients with aphasia quality of life, mood, and social outcomes. Methods: A supported conversation (SC) program (colloquially named The Aphasia Club) was implemented on the Acute Stroke Unit (ASU). The program included aphasia awareness and assessment training, as well as creation of an aphasia tool kit and discipline specific aphasia-friendly resources. Staff were encouraged to complete a 1-hour independent course on SC through the Aphasia Institute. Speech and language pathologists (SLP) offered an additional 30-minute in-person teaching session with interdisciplinary practice professionals. Following SLP assessment, personalized communication profiles were created for patients with aphasia to help staff understand the most useful strategies for communication. Results: More then 50 interprofessional staff members took SC training. Staff reported increased levels of knowledge and confidence when communicating with aphasic patients. Conclusions: A supported communication program was successfully implemented on an ASU. Planning appropriate communication interventions can assist interdisciplinary professionals in their ability to support patients through their stroke journey.

An AAC tablet application for children with language impairment

People with communication impairment need an alternative communication channel to complete daily activities. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems can help provide a communication medium to support such users. The involvement of speech and language pathologists (SLPs) who work in rehabilitation centers can help develop better solutions. This paper presents the development of an AAC tablet application that uses pictures on the screen and voice feedback to help children with language impairment improve the efficiency in their communication. The proposed solution maps the sentences commonly used by children into appealing symbols. The children can use these symbols instead of constructing sentences from scratch, as done by most of the previously proposed solutions in the literature. The application was evaluated by SLPs on six children with language impairment. This research presents a design methodology when providing such a solution for touch screen devices for people with language impairment. A set of accessibility guidelines is proposed for AAC computer-based solutions, which can help researchers and practitioners. The obtained results prove that the proposed system improves the children’s stimulation to communicate and decreases communication time. Such a solution can assist therapists as a resource to improve their patients’ communication.

Unanalyzable Utterances in Language Sample Analysis Based on the P-LARSP: Preliminary Data of Typical Children Aged 18 - 60 Months

Background: The Persian language assessment, remediation, and screening procedure (P-LARSP) is the first formal approach to the analysis of language samples. Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the unanalyzable utterances and mean length of utterances (MLUs: morpheme/analyzable text units) based on the first two sections of the P-LARSP. Methods: Experienced speech and language pathologists (SLPs) collected and analyzed the 10-minute language samples from 96 typical children aged 18 - 60 months within the context of free play. The unanalyzable units included unintelligible utterances, symbolic noise, deviant, incomplete, ambiguous, and stereotyped units, repetition, and structurally abnormal text units. Results: No significant differences were observed between the age groups in terms of the total number of the text units (P > 0.05) and unanalyzable text units (P = 0.08). Analyzable text units (P = 0.008) and MLUs (P = 0.004) were significant across the age groups. In addition, each category of the unanalyzable text units had a specific pattern, and the percentage of the incomplete utterances increased significantly from 18 to 60 months of age (P = 0.002). Conclusions: By applying the first two sections of the P-LARSP, we could sieve the analyzable from the unanalyzable text units and demonstrate the increasing trend of MLUs across the age groups. Increased incomplete utterances with age should be considered by SLPs during intervention and evaluation.

Speech & Language Pathologists Interpretation of Pure Tone Audiometrical Test

Background: Facilitation of hearing impaired is important because a large amount of hearing impaired whose are still awaited for speech and language therapy. Persons With Disabilities (PWDS) statistics in Pakistan recently released the results of prevalence of Hearing impairment in Pakistan. The data indicates that deaf /mute population is n=380548 in number. This shows a large amount of Pakistani population facing the problem of speech and hearing. The current study was conducted to establish speech and language pathologists are being able to interpret the Pure Tone Audiometrical tests and to facilitate them with speech therapy. Objective: To evaluate how much well interpretation speech therapist can do in clinical setup. Methodology: The study was a quantitative survey based. The survey study was selected to analyze the knowledge of SLPs regarding the interpretation of pure tone audiometrical tests. Data was collected form 43 speech and language pathologist/therapists from Lahore, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi/Islamabad who were working with the hearing impairment. All the SLPs were qualified clinicians who were working in school and private clinic settings. The participants were MS degree in SLP and diploma in SLT holder was included in the study. But those whose experiences were less than year excluded from this study. A pre designed self-made questionnaire was designed which includes 20 items. Each question was valid to assess the knowledge regarding pure tone audiometrical test. Data was analyzed through SPSS. The result shows that speech and language pathologists were aware about the interpretation of audiometrical test and developing speech of hearing impaired persons. Conclusion: The study showed that SLP’s were having mild to moderate level interpretation skills which must be enhanced to upgrade the professional practice and better clinical practice in management of hearing issues.