eTheses
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This community contains an online collection of PhD theses and selected undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations written by QMU students and researchers.
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Item SLT service provision for individuals with Down's syndrome- a survey of UK therapists(2019-04)with Down’s Syndrome (DS) have a unique behavioural, physical, and cognitive profile that contributes to significant communication needs that persist throughout the lifespan. Despite this, reports suggest that individuals with DS receive limited Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) services. There is an assumption in the literature that the amount of services offered to individuals with DS decreases with age, although individuals with DS can make progress throughout adolescence and adulthood in all areas of communication. There is also an assumption that speech intelligibility is not a priority for therapy for individuals with DS, even though individuals with DS often present with severe speech disorders that have a negative impact on their participation and wellbeing. However, there is no research exploring current service provision in the UK to support these assumptions. The aim of the study was two-fold: 1. To investigate SLT services currently offered to individuals with DS in the UK. 2. To gather opinion on whether SLTs would like to target specific areas of communication and swallowing more frequently and if so current barriers towards this. An electronic questionnaire investigating service delivery was distributed via email and Twitter to SLTs who work with individuals with DS in the UK. The majority of services were offered to young children with DS. 13-16 years olds (yo) were the least serviced age group. Dysphagia was a priority for young children (0-3yo) and adults (13-65+yo). The areas of communication identified as being addressed most frequently, or in need of more services differed according to age, although there was a tendency for language to be prioritised over speech. SLTs reported several reasons why services were restricted, including inadequate time/resources, and the knowledge and capacity of other professionals.Item Assessing Scottish Speech Sound Disorders: An Analysis of Assessment Tools’ Compliance with Good Practice Guidelines for the Transcription of Children’s Speech(2019-04)Background: There is a high prevalence of developmental speech difficulties in the UK, and speech sound disorders (SSDs) often make up a large portion of individual clinical caseloads. Children with SSD are shown to have an increased risk of difficulty in areas such as social integration, literacy and education. Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) play an important role in improving outcomes for children with SSD by providing timely involvement. This relies on a process of efficient, effective assessment and diagnosis which forms a basis for successful therapeutic intervention. Aims: This study aimed to determine whether published speech sound assessments commonly used by paediatric SLTs in Scotland elicit sufficient speech sound data to make an informed diagnosis of SSD. Effectiveness of the assessments was measured by comparison to the Good Practice Guidelines for the Transcription of Children’s Speech issued by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT). Method: Using Scottish Standard English (SSE) as the target accent, the word lists of eight speech sound assessments were analysed according to pre-determined phonetic and phonological criteria as a measure of content validity. In parallel with this analysis, data was collected via a questionnaire which sought to explore current SLTs’ practices regarding the assessment of SSD. Results: None of the eight assessments analysed were able to fulfil all pre-determined criteria for completeness. Respondents to the survey (n=9) indicated that they had used six of these assessments in the past year to assess phonological delays or disorders. They also reported that access to resources was the most common factor which influenced their decision to use a particular speech sound assessment. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that many of the published speech sound assessments currently in use in Scottish clinics do not match good practice guidelines recommended by the RCSLT. SLTs working with paediatric caseloads should be supported to expand their battery of speech sound assessments to ensure that the process of diagnosing SSD is as rigorous and complete as possible.Item Investigating Perceptions of Speech Intelligibility & Communication Effectiveness: views of people with Parkinson’s Disease, their primary caregivers and unfamiliar participants(2019-04)study explored the relationship between speech intelligibility and communication effectiveness as rated by people with Parkinson’s Disease (PWP) and familiar listeners (PCs). Additionally, this study compared the ability of familiar and unfamiliar listeners to decode the speech of PWP. Background: A distinction can be made between research where participants are asked how well they think they understand the speech of others and research testing how well participants correctly identify utterances. While many studies in the past have compared measures of intelligibly in people with PWP to other listener’s perspectives, very few have done so while using the PWP primary caregiver’s (PC) perception of both speech intelligibility and communication effectiveness. In addition, few studies have examined familiar vs. unfamiliar judgements of speech intelligibility in PWP, as well as the correlation between speech intelligibility tasks and self-rating scales. Overall Aims, Questions, and Hypotheses: The current study covers 2 aims, 3 questions and 3 hypotheses in regard to the perceptions of speech intelligibility and communication effectiveness as rated by PWP, their PCs, and unfamiliar listeners. Method and Procedures: Two procedures took places during the current study. Procedure (1) included 20 data collection sessions with a total of 40 participants (20 PWP and one of their PCs). During the session, each participant completed two rating scales (i.e.- the Speech Intelligibility Rating (SIR)1 and Communication Effectiveness Survey (CES)2), and one speech identification task (using a set of 20 Semantically Unpredictable Sentences (SUS)3). Procedure (2) included a smaller group of 4 unfamiliar participants, who listened to a total of 10 audio-recordings each from the PWP’s data collection session. Each recording from a PWP was transcribed by 2 unfamiliar participants for comparison. Results: The key findings were that (a) PWP’s subjective ratings of their own intelligibility are significantly lower than ratings by their PCs, (b) familiar and unfamiliar listeners were equally good at identifying unpredictable sentences spoken by PWP, and (c) there is a good alignment between subjective ratings of everyday intelligibility and the actual intelligibility in PWP. Conclusion: The present research hopes to aid future clinicians in the management of PWP and their PCs’ related speech, language, and communication needs by providing more information on the value of speech intelligibility and communication effectiveness measurements in PWP, as rated by the speaker, familiar listeners, and unfamiliar listeners.Item A Pictorial Guide to Lingual-Palatal-Contact Patterns of /t/, /s/, /ʃ/, and /tʃ/ in Typically Developing Children Aged 3-7 Years Old.(2019-04)(EPG) is used in research/clinical practice to provide information about articulatory movements of the tongue during speech. EPG research focuses on typical adult and impaired adult/child speech productions, with little research/data into typically developing children. During intervention, adult norms are used for comparison with target sounds. Studies indicate children’s motor-speech continues to develop into mid-to-late teens therefore adult norms for comparison may not be suitable. Aims: Identify typical lingual-palatal-contact patterns for the speech sounds /t/, /s/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/ for 3-7 yo. Identify if there are differences in lingual-palatal-contact patterns across age groups. Identify the level of variability of typical lingual-palatal-contact patterns for each age group. Identify if variability in typical lingual-palatal-contact patterns decreases with age. Hypotheses: There will be more variability in lingual-palatal-contact patterns in younger children. Lingual-palatal-contact patterns in younger children will differ qualitatively to older children/adult norms. This study used data from 11 typically developing children (3;08–7;01 yo) and ‘Articulate Assistant’ to produce data on typically developing lingual-palatal-contact patterns for the speech sounds; /t/, /s/, /ʃ/ and /tʃ/. Several indices were investigated; Centre of Gravity, Variability, lingual-palatal-contact pattern, where lingual-palatal-contact occurs over the whole palate/anterior region, maximum constriction, groove width, most anterior row contacted, number of rows with complete closure and duration. Lingual-palatal-contact patterns for all sounds investigated resembled adult norms disproving hypothesis 2. A general trend towards a decrease in variability for all target sounds was found supporting hypothesis 1; suggesting a maturational trend towards the development of accurate/consistent adult-like lingual-palatal-contact. Undifferentiated lingual gestures and double articulations were identified suggesting typically developing children may produce these during the early years as they refine/develop their articulations. It is suggested that to produce/distinguish between /s/ and /ʃ/ groove width is not the most important characteristic; location of constriction may be more important.Item Using Twitter to analyse attitudes towards female breathiness: implications for voice feminization therapy.(2019-05)Objectives: The aims of the study were (a) to explore and analyse attitudes of Twitter users towards breathy voice quality in women, (b) evaluate implications of findings for male-to-female trans women undergoing voice therapy as part of transition, (c) evaluate the use of Twitter as a tool for research into perceptions of voice quality. Methods: The study design was a mixed methods content analysis of tweets. Targeted searches collected a corpus of tweets that contained the word(s) “breathy voice” and/or “breathiness”. 522 tweets were randomly selected to be analysed in two stages. The first stage of coding sorted tweets depending on whether they referred to breathiness in male voice, female voices, or this was unknown. The second stage used inductive coding to identify attitudes of Twitter users towards female breathiness. Results: Of 522 tweets, 43% discussed male breathiness, 35% female breathiness, and the remainder were unknown. Further analysis of 163 tweets about female breathiness found the following associated categories: Sexual = 28%; Annoying = 17%; Artificial 14%; Vocal issues = 13%; Positive reactions = 13%; Immature = 6%; Passive = 5%; Unintelligent = 3%; Natural = 1%. Conclusions: The study supports the use of Twitter analysis to measure attitudes towards breathy voice quality in women. More tweets discussed breathiness in males than females, although this may have been due to prolific tweeting from K-Pop fans concerning male breathiness. The identified themes are similar to those discussed in previous research, with the strongest association being intimacy and “sexiness”. The prevalence of negative connotations surrounding female breathiness is significant. The results of the study may be a useful contribution to the evidence base informing SLTs and trans women about how breathiness is perceived in females, although more research about the significance of breathiness in voice feminization is necessary.Item Long-term effects of Hanen parent programmes: A perspective from Canadian parents(2018-12)The proposed study explores the impact of Hanen parent programmes (HPPs) from an often overlooked angle: parents’ self reflection on their parenting skills acquired from Hanen courses. Parental input is a vital component of a child’s development. To date, parent self reflection remains largely unstudied. The proposed study intends to expand academic knowledge of parental reflection of HPPs over time. The present study will examine parental knowledge, attitudes, and confidence from the HPPs in a Canadian context with longitudinal follow-up. Data will be compared at 1, 6, 12, and 24 months after parents have completed the HPP. The most noteworthy comparison will be between the first and last months, measuring whether there is a lasting effect of HPPs on parents over time. The expected study results are anticipated to lend support to HPPs as initially effective (i.e. large impact with initial 1 month measurements), but become less effective over time (i.e. smaller impact found at 24 months). The study could provide evidence for follow-up Hanen ‘refresher’ courses where parents receive a brief review of their skills acquired from previous classes to continue optimal family interaction. The reported parental knowledge, perceived attitudes, and perceived confidence is expected to decrease over time. Additional potential implications include providing data for academic research exploring the impact that HPPs have on parents over time. It is predicted that parents’ Hanen-acquired skills continue to evolve as their children develop, but this growth of skills could be supported with additional Hanen course knowledge. There are potential clinical implications for practicing speech-language pathologists (SLPs), who are often the professionals referring parents to HPPs. This proposed study would provide empirical support of the impact that HPPs have on parents (and therefore children); this support is welcome in an evidence-based profession like SLP.Item Developmental Language Disorder: From a Health Professionals’ Perspective(2019-04)Language Disorder (LD) is a common yet widely misunderstood diagnosis, affecting access to support and underrepresentation in research. The requirement for clarity surrounding terminology and diagnostic criteria associated with LD led Bishop and colleagues (2016; 2017) to run a Delphi panel in order to reach a common consensus on the matter and raise the public profile of the topic. It was decided that Specific Language Impairment (SLI) will be replaced by Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), to describe individuals who have a LD that is not associated with any biomedical condition. The current study was interested in exploring the awareness and understanding of LD amongst health professionals who have the potential to come across this diagnosis in their practice. A group of Health Visitors (HVs, n = 30) and General Practitioners (GPs, n = 78) from a Health Board in Central Scotland participated in an online questionnaire. Results showed that HVs have a better awareness and understanding of the terms LD, SLI and DLD, in comparison to GPs, with all health professionals being most aware of the term LD and least aware of SLI. Health professionals were not aware of the recent terminology changes around LD and the majority expressed having no preference in terminology between DLD and SLI. Although many health professionals had received training in LD at some point in the past, the majority acknowledged that more training would be beneficial to their practice. Possible explanations and implications are discussed. Altogether, findings from this study suggest a requirement for future research to focus on the provision of good quality training for health professionals, exploring who should deliver it, who should receive it, what the content should cover, and how frequent it should be.Item The Impact of Language Environment on Tone Perception and Production of Cantonese-English Simultaneous Bilinguals in the United Kingdom(2018-11)The present dissertation explored the differences in tone perception and production between Cantonese-English simultaneous bilinguals residing in the UK, and Cantonese monolinguals/ Cantonese-English successive bilinguals from HK, and investigated the relationship between tone perception and production. This study also explored the factors that motivated and hindered successful perception and production. Simultaneous bilinguals in this study were exposed to both Cantonese and English before the age of 3. Previous framework suggested the successful outcome observed in successive bilinguals in perceiving and producing non-native tones. Studies also found that tone and non-tone language speakers demonstrated different tone patterns. Research in this field has yet to explore the tone perception and production patterns of simultaneous bilinguals. Eight female adult speakers from the UK and HK were recruited in this study. Participants completed perception and production tasks that consisted of stimuli including three syllables (/fɐn/, /ji/ and /si/) in six tones. The results were analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The UK participants demonstrated the highest accuracy rate in perceiving tone 33, and the HK participants perceived tone 25, 33 and 21 with a 94.4% accuracy score. Both the UK and HK participants obtained the lowest accuracy in perceiving tone 22. Furthermore, the two groups differed in the F0 pitch height of tone 33 and 22 production, and demonstrated a narrowing of F0 pitch height difference between tone 25 and 23, and tone 21 and 22. It was believed that the ability to perceive tones by the BBC group predicted the ability to produce tones. These results led to conclude that language environment was a contributing factor to the ability to perceive and product tones. Results appeared to be beneficial to the design of curriculum in Cantonese tones targeting the increasing bilingual speakers outside Hong Kong.Item Perceptions and Experiences of the Appropriate Adult in Association with Autistic Self-Advocacy within the Scottish Criminal Justice System: Comparing the Perspectives of Autistic Adults, Investigating Officers and Appropriate Adults(2019-04)Police Scotland’s Standard Operating Procedure (2019) states that when adults with mental disorders (including those with Autistic Spectrum Disorder) take part in investigative interviews, communication support in the form of appropriate adults must be provided. According to current policy, the decision whether an appropriate adult is required belongs to the investigating officer even if the interviewee has confirmed capacity. Neurodiversity and self-advocacy movements, particularly in association with ASD, aim to review and implement the views of the autistic community in policies that directly affect them, shifting the socially constructed perception of ASD from deficit to difference. In light of the proposal to make appropriate adult services statutory in Scotland, this study will use online questionnaires to explore the views of autistic adults, investigating officers and appropriate adults, regarding the support of appropriate adults in investigative interviews with autistic individuals. Emphasizing a procedural justice theory framework for police handling of engagements involving people with a mental health disorder, the study will consider the participants views on: the necessity of appropriate adults, who should undertake this role, who should make the decision for appropriate adults to be present, terminology associated with appropriate and vulnerable adults and finally, will review all participant’s understanding of ASD. Little research has focussed on the opinions of autistic adults within the criminal justice system and so the results will be key in establishing their overlooked viewpoints. This proposal aims to facilitate the work of the Scottish Strategy for Autism (2011) which envisages choice and independence for the autistic community and collaborate to raise acceptance and understanding of ASD not just in the Scottish criminal justice system but throughout society.Item A systematic literature review and proposal examining the effectiveness of parent-mediated intervention in emergent literacy and its implications for socially disadvantaged Aboriginal preschool children(2018-11)Developing secure literacy skills in early childhood has positive impacts on future outcomes and successes in a child’s life (Wilson et al. 2016; City of Edinburgh Literacy Strategy 2012). Children from areas of socio-economic disadvantage (SD), particularly those belonging to ethnic minority groups, are at an increased risk of falling behind in literacy development and of acquiring speech, language, and communication impairments or delays (Wilson et al. 2016). Parents and carers are the first people in children’s lives who can aid in fostering these language and literacy skills (Sloat et al. 2014; Sheridan et al. 2011). However, multiple factors in SD ethnic minority families may hinder a parent’s ability to provide the support that their child needs to succeed in literacy development (Caesar and Nelson 2014). Structured parent-mediated intervention programmes that take these factors into account may reduce the risk of speech, language, and communication needs and future literacy difficulties. This systematic literature review and proposed study aims to evaluate the impacts of parent-mediated intervention programmes on SD ethnic minority preschool children’s outcomes in literacy and how these findings may benefit these at-risk populations. In Canada, over 50% of Aboriginal peoples live below the poverty line, with 70% of the Aboriginal population under the age of 5 at risk of poor literacy development (Gualti 2013). There is a notable lack of research on Canadian Aboriginal populations, which are at high risk of speech, language and communication impairments and poor literacy skills (Ball 2008a). This proposed study will investigate the effects of a modified parent-mediated literacy intervention on preschool-aged Aboriginal children in Canada, using the Moe the Mouse® programme as the platform of delivery.