Browsing by master's degree program "Master's Programme in Logopedics"
Now showing items 41-60 of 61
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(2021)Objectives. Preterm infants spend the beginning of their lives in newborn intensive care units (NICU). The sound environment preterm infants experience in NICU differs from the typical one in uterus. It is known that the sound environment in the early stages of life affects in preterm infants language development which is why the research of the early sound environment is important. Language Environment Analysis system (LENA) is an automated tool for recording and analysing language environments. The objective of this study is to evaluate the validity of LENA system in Finnish speaking and NICU environments. LENA system gives automatically values for following variables: male and female words, total of adult words, vocalizations, conversational turns and silence. Values given by LENA system will be compared with human coder estimates. The validity of LENA system has not been studied inclusively in NICU and there is only few studies in Finnish speaking environment. This master's thesis is part of the LangLENA study and some of the data analyzes performed in this work were used as a reliability analysis in an already published article that evaluates the validity of LENA system (Ståhlberg‐Forsén, ym., 2021). Methods. Research material of this master´s thesis consisted of 30 minute recordings from four children. Recordings had been gathered by LENA system in NICU. 30 minute recordings were picked from a longer material by using parental closeness diaries to ensure parents speak in the recordings. Research material was collected in LangLENA research project. Human coder and LENA estimates agreements were compared by calculating intraclass correlation values ICC (3,1) for every variable. Results and conclusions. According to this research it seemed that LENA system provides valid information from total number of adult and male words in Finnish NICU environment but the information on female words, vocalizations, conversational turns and silence is not valid. Due to the small amount of data, the results of the study cannot be generalized. However according to this and former studies it seems that LENA system is a valid method to examinate the amount of adult speak in Finnish environment but not a valid method to examinate the amount of vocalizations, conversational turns and silence in NICU environment.
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(2021)During the past decade Finland has become an increasingly multilingual country, and the need for understanding bilingual development of children has grown. The purpose of this study is to analyze conversational self-repair used by sequential bilinguals. Examining children´s self-repairs provide information of their ability to monitor conversation and the development of their language skills. The aim is to investigate how 4-to-5-year-old children who adopt Finnish as their second language use self-repair to solve problems in speaking and to create mutual understanding. The repairs that are self-initiated or other-initiated by the adults are taken into account. The focus is to investigate how the self-repair is initiated, in which part of the repair sequence the correction takes place, and what is repaired. The data of this study is taken from the PAULA research project, which aims to investigate the impact of small group activities on supporting the language learning of children who acquire Finnish as their second language. The data was recollected in 2018 in a city that is located in southern Finland. The subjects of study (N=7) were between 4;11 and 5;7 years old. They were normally developed sequential bilinguals who participated in the small group sessions that took place in their daycares. The material (1h 49 min) consisted of video recordings of two different types of tasks, a fishing game and grocery store play. The video data was transcribed and analyzed by the means of conversational analysis. The results show that children who adopt Finnish as their second language initiate repairs in many lexical (e.g. repetitions, adding and changing words) and non-lexical ways (e.g. cut-off or non-verbally). Other-initiated repair sequences was pointed out by questions (e.g. what, which, or why), giving semantic or phonological cues and making direct corrections. The results shows that the self-repair was preferred. Most of the children´s self-repairs took place in the same turn with the problem and in the third position. However, some of the repair sequencies formed much more complex patterns. The self-repair was used to correct vocabulary, semantics, and the situation. In addition, nonverbal means became central both in marking the need for repair and using it as a repair. Nonverbal repairs were used for example to replace missing vocabulary, to create common understanding of the situation, or to guide the interpretation of the words and meanings. The results encourage to monitor children’s ability to repair their speech in verbal or nonverbal manner to support the speech and language skills that they are acquiring.
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(2020)Background and aims. Aphasia is a linguistic disorder most commonly caused by stroke. Aphasia manifests itself as difficulties in understanding and producing spoken or written language. Rehabilitation from aphasia requires the ability to learn. Previous studies have shown that individuals with chronic aphasia are able to learn and remember novel vocabulary in varying degrees. In addition, studies have shown that self-repair of speech is interrelated with linguistic recovery. However, the relationship between self-repair of connected speech and novel word acquisition in the non-chronic and chronic stages of aphasia has not previously been studied. The objective of this thesis is to describe the self-repair of connected speech and novel word learning ability in aphasic individuals and to determine whether self-repair and the ability to learn novel words are interrelated in the subacute (0–3 months) and chronic (12 months) stages of aphasia. Participants and methods. Four aphasic individuals were examined 0–3 months and again 12 months post-stroke within the Opi Sanoja research project at the University of Helsinki. Participants completed a computer-assisted learning experiment in which their aim was to learn the associations between novel words and images. Connected speech was collected from participants’ speech samples in a picture narration task, a stroke narrative and a thematic interview. The speech samples were transcribed according to the conventions used in conversation analysis and self-repairs were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively at both points in time. The relationship between self-repair and novel word acquisition was analyzed on a case-by-case basis and a group-level basis using scatter graphs and regression plots. Results and conclusions. Self-repairs of connected speech decreased and changed during the first year after stroke for all participants. The ability to learn novel words varied among the participants, but some participants were able to learn new words in the subacute and chronic stages of aphasia. On a case-by-case basis, no relationship was found between self-repair of connected speech and the ability to learn novel words in the subacute or chronic stages of aphasia. The learning ability in the subacute stage did not appear to predict the amount of self-repairs, nor the length of non-repaired problem sequences in the chronic stage. At the group level, in the subacute stage, there was a weak positive correlation between learning ability and self-correction rates, which turned negative in the chronic stage. There appeared to be a weak negative correlation between the length of non-repaired problem sequences and the ability to learn in the subacute stage, which disappeared in the chronic stage. However, group-level results were unreliable due to small sample size.
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(2021)Aim. Rehabilitation of oral comprehension is important but challenging; there are few effective methods for rehabilitating oral comprehension. Virtual reality may provide effective rehabilitation methods, but research data on the use of virtual reality in speech therapy rehabilitation is scarce and the data have focused on adult aphasia patients and children with autism spectrum. These studies have provided promising evidence for the use of virtual reality in speech therapy, but there is a need for more research on virtual reality so it can be used effectively in speech therapy rehabilitation. The aim of this pilot study is to find out how the developed virtual reality exercise is suitable for oral comprehension rehabilitation and what kind of user experiences typically developed children aged 4–10 have from exercise. Methods. Eight typically developed children aged 4 to 10 years were selected for this pilot study. The material consisted of linguistic-cognitive assessments, the exercise with head mounted display and the data of the exercise, interviews with children and video recordings. The data of the exercise (total result, duration of the exercise, interruptions during the exercise and the angle of the gaze) were analyzed statistically and the interview data both statistically and qualitatively. Results and conclusions. The results show that the exercise performed in virtual reality provides reliable objective information about the relationship between gaze behavior and speech comprehension, and the variables, overall result, duration, interruptions, and angle selected for the study indicate performance in the exercise. The exercise developed based on these results is fit for purpose. The subjects found the exercise and virtual reality training interesting, but the motivation of the exercise still needs to be developed. The results cannot be generalized due to the small sample size, but due to the lack of relevant research data, they provide valuable information on the use of virtual reality in children’s speech therapy rehabilitation and support the view that virtual reality can provide effective rehabilitation methods for speech comprehension in the future.
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(2020)The aim of this study is to examine speech-language therapists’ evaluations after the clients’ responses in naming exercises in order to unpack the actions and structures of evaluations on interaction in the speech-language therapy of children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Especially evaluations during exercises after the client’s response are significant when supporting the client’s learning, even though feedback can be included in many stages of therapy. Previous studies of speech-language therapy interaction have mostly focused on therapy interaction generally, or on feedback in adults’ speech-language therapy, but research on evaluations in children’s speech-language therapy are still very few. At the moment the speech-language therapists’ knowledge of therapy interaction and evaluative actions is mainly empirical. Detailed analysis and knowledge of feedback would benefit speech therapists’ and speech therapy students’ ability to analyse their own evaluative actions, and ability to help parents to improve their interaction skills with their child. The method used in this study was conversation analysis developed by sociologists Harvey Sacks, Emanuel Schegloff and Gail Jefferson. The data consisted of 10 videotapes of DLDs speech-language therapy, filmed by Tuula Tykkyläinen for her doctoral thesis in late 1990s. Naming tasks with third turn feedback from 10 therapy videos were included in this study. Subjects were four speech-language therapists and five children ages 5;0 - 6;0. The naming and feedback sequences were transcribed in detail, and the feedback actions and structures were analysed. The frequencies of feedback structures were counted. With feedback actions speech-language therapists either approved the child’s naming response, or in case of incorrect responses, helped the child to produce correction or produced themselves the correct naming. There were found structural similarities in the feedback turns and ways speech-language therapists facilitate learning and the interaction between the speech-language therapist and the client. The post-expansions of feedback turns were also found to be significant in the rehabilitation of naming along feedback turns. The results mainly confirm previous findings and increase the knowledge on speech-language therapists’ evaluations. The results help observation and conceptualization of evaluative actions especially in the speech-language therapy of children with DLD.
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(2024)Tausta ja tavoitteet. Puhevammaiset henkilöt käyttävät usein kommunikoinnin apuvälineitä arjen kommunikoinnissaan. Nykyiset kommunikoinnin apuvälineet mahdollistavat kommunikoinnin, mutta niiden avulla voi olla haastavaa osallistua arjen vuorovaikutustilanteisiin. Teknologinen kehitys on mahdollistanut uudenlaisten apuvälineteknologioiden kehittämisen. Kehitteillä on esimerkiksi puettavia kommunikoinnin apuvälineitä, niin sanottuja älyvaatteita. Uusien kommunikoinnin apuvälineiden kehittäminen on tarpeen, jotta puhevammaisilla henkilöillä on mahdollisuus kouluttautua, tehdä töitä, muodostaa sosiaalisia suhteita ja osallistua tärkeisiin aktiviteetteihin. Puhevammaisten henkilöiden kommunikointitarpeet ovat viime vuosikymmenten teknologisen kehityksen ja digitalisaation myötä laajentuneet verkkovälitteiseen vuorovaikutukseen. Tämän tutkielman tarkoituksena on lisätä ymmärrystä puhevammaisten nuorten nykyisten kommunikoinnin apuvälineiden käytettävyydestä ja viestintäteknologian käytöstä. Tutkielma avaa myös puhevammaisten nuorten näkemyksiä älyvaatteen käyttömahdollisuuksista kommunikoinnin tukena. Tutkittavat ja menetelmä. Tutkielman aineisto kerättiin järjestämällä ideointityöpaja, johon osallistui kolme puhevammaista nuorta. Ideointityöpaja toteutettiin puolistrukturoituna haastatteluna. Aineisto analysoitiin aineistolähtöisen sisällönanalyysin keinoin, jonka avulla tulokset ryhmiteltiin kolmeen teemaan: kommunikointi nuorten arjessa, nuorten suhde viestintäteknologian käyttöön ja nuorten näkemykset älyvaatteen käyttömahdollisuuksista kommunikoinnin tukena. Tulokset. Ideointityöpajaan osallistuneet puhevammaiset nuoret olivat pääosin tyytyväisiä nykyisiin kommunikoinnin apuvälineisiinsä. Nuorten kokemat rajoitteet apuvälineen käytössä vastasivat aikaisempia tutkimustuloksia aiheesta. Kommunikoinnin apuvälineen käytettävyys erilaisten viestintäsovellusten kanssa, toiminnallisissa harrastuksissa ja vaihtelevissa sääolosuhteissa vaikuttivat heidän osallistumiseensa arjessa. Ideointityöpajaan osallistuneet puhevammaiset nuoret olivat taitavia ja monipuolisia teknologian käyttäjiä. Kiinnostus teknologian mahdollisuuksia ja kehitystä kohtaan vaihteli kuitenkin osallistujien välillä, osallistujista yksi käytti viestintäteknologiaa vähäisemmissä määrin. Teknologian ja viestintäteknologian merkitys näyttäytyi nuorten arjessa erittäin tärkeänä, ja side viestintäteknologiaan arjen mahdollistajana oli voimakas. Älyvaatteen toimintaidea herätti nuorissa jonkin verran varautuneisuutta, nuoret kyseenalaistivat sen tarvetta ja yksi osallistujista ilmaisi huolta esimerkiksi tahattomien liikkeiden aiheuttamista vahinkoviesteistä. Nuoret suhtautuivat toisaalta uteliaasti älyvaatteen käyttömahdollisuuksiin erilaisissa toiminnallisissa harrastuksissa ja mahdollisuuteen ideoida ja olla mukana kehittämässä uusia kommunikoinnin apuvälineitä. Johtopäätökset. Osallistamalla teknisesti taitavia puhevammaisia henkilöitä kommunikoinnin apuvälineiden suunnitteluun on mahdollista kehittää apuvälineitä, jotka tukevat yhä paremmin puhevammaisten henkilöiden moninaisia kommunikointitarpeita. Tulevaisuudessa kommunikoinnin apuvälineiden kehitystyössä tulisi hyödyntää puhevammaisten runsasta kokemustietoa osana moniammatillista kehitystyötä, jotta uudet kehitettävät apuvälineet vastaisivat yhä paremmin puhevammaisten henkilöiden tarpeita, ja jotta apuvälineissä voitaisiin hyödyntää uusimpien teknologioiden mahdollisuuksia ja apuvälineiden hylkäämisaste pienenisi.
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(2024)Aphasia is a language disorder acquired after language learning, usually caused by a cerebrovascular accident or a stroke. The severity and type of aphasia symptoms vary individually. Naming difficulties are one of the most common and long-lasting symptoms of aphasia. Self-corrections of one's own speech are a significant part of successful interaction, and they indicate the ability to monitor speech. Aphasia symptoms may impair the ability to monitor. The aim of this master's thesis is to examine the self-repairs of participants with varying degrees of aphasia in naming tasks. The aim of the thesis is to examine the quantity, quality and success of self-corrections. The aim of the thesis is also to examine the not-corrected errors of research subjects in naming tasks. The thesis was carried out as a multi-case study. Four participants with different degrees of aphasic symptoms were selected from the existing material of the Opi Sanoja research project. The participants were selected based on their aphasia quotient determined by the WAB test. The material consisted of audio recordings of the performance of the participants in the Boston naming test, and the naming section of the research project's word learning assignment during two different research visits. Notations were formed from the data using ELAN software. The number of self-corrections and the self- correction elements used, as well as the uncorrected errors of the subjects were analysed and categorised. The data was analysed at individual level. The self-repair elements used, as well as the number of self-repair initiatives, varied between the study participants. The most commonly used self-correction element in the entire data was the interruption of the expression, most often followed by the repetition or rephrasing of a word or syllable. All subjects made successful self-corrections in the Boston naming test. Successful corrections were corrections that improved the phrase closer to the target word. In the naming section of the word learning task, two out of four participants made successful self-correction initiatives. In this study, the amounts of not-corrected errors of the participants were in the same order in both tasks. The participant with the most severe aphasia made the most not-corrected errors and the participant with the least severe aphasia made the least. Due to the small number of participants (N = 4), the generalizability of the results is weak. However, in this data, regardless of the severity of aphasia, the participants tended to correct their own expression at least when naming familiar objects, in which case the ability to monitor speech is at least partially preserved. The severity of aphasia also seems to be related to the preservation of speech monitoring ability when examining uncorrected errors.
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(2020)Objective. Speech sound errors are the most common speech disorders in children that, without proper treatment, can have far-reaching effects on an individual’s quality of life. Due to limited speech therapy resources, speech sound disorders are often left without adequate treatment. In Finland, efforts have been made to reduce the geographical inequality in the availability of rehabilitation services through various time-independent teletherapy solutions. For example, the mission of Äännekoulu is to help Finnish municipalities prioritize their limited resources and enable every child to have access to speech therapy services, regardless of their place of residence. There are only few studies focusing on the use of teletherapy practicies in the treatment of speech sound disorders in Finnish-speaking children. The aim of this study was to examine whether Äännekoulu’s online therapy is an effective way to rehabilitate children's /r/-errors and to describe possible factors influencing rehabilitation results. Methods. The data used in the study consisted of demographic information and speech therapist’s notes and records on children under 10 years of age (n = 109) who participated in a three-month training period at Äännekoulu’s online therapy aiming to rehabilitate existing /r/-errors in their speech during March 2019 - April 2020. The notes and records were collected from the patient database Diarium. Participation in the study was voluntary. The collected data were categorized and analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test and the chi-square test. Results and conclusions. More than half of the children learned to produce alveolar trill /r/ at least in isolation during a training period at Äännekoulu’s online therapy. On average children learned to produce the tongue trill on the sixth contact with the speech therapist. Most of the children learned to produce tongue trill through the dn dn dn -exercise. There was no significant difference between sexes in learning to produce the alveolar trill. The quality and the type of the speech sound error, age, sex or the children’s skill level in the beginning of the training period did not affect the rehabilitation of /r/-error. The number of contacts with the speech therapist strongly correlated with the results achieved in teletherapy. Äännekoulu’s online therapy seems to be an effective way to treat children’s /r/-errors. Learning to produce the alveolar trill correctly is significantly affected by active collaboration with the speech therapist. Further research is needed to identify the factors influencing the rehabilitation of the /r/-errors. Future research should also concentrate on the at home practice needed to treat speech sound errors in teletherapy.
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(2021)There is a little research of early pre-reading skills, such as rapid naming and letter knowledge. Also the associations between early lexicon and early pre-reading skills have been studied only a little. Earlier studies have shown that lexical development is associated with later language skills, such as development of morphology. Children with typical and small lexicon size at age 2;0 have also differed in other, later language skills. The associations between the composition of the lexicon and other language skills, and pre-reading skills as well, have been studied only a little. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between the size and the composition of the lexicon at age 2;0 and pre-reading skills at age 3;6. The aim of this study was also to investigate whether children with typical and small lexicon size at age 2;0 differ in their early pre-reading skills. The sample included 50 Finnish-speaking children, which were part of sample in Sanaseula Study. In this study, Finnish version of the Communicative Development Inventories, Toddler version was used to study the size and the composition of the lexicon at age 2;0. LUKIVA-method was used to study pre-reading skills at age 3;6. Associations between the size and the composition of the lexicon and pre-reading skills were studied by using Spearmann’s correlation coefficients. Mann-Whitney U-test was used to study whether children with typical and small vocabulary size differ in pre-reading skills. The size and the composition of the lexicon at age 2;0 were not associated with rapid naming and letter knowledge at age 3;6. Children with typical or small vocabulary size at age 2;0 did not differ in pre-reading skills at age 3;6. Thus, small size of the lexicon at age 2;0 does not seem to be a risk factor for very early pre-reading skills in this study. Pre-reading skills are only developing at age 3;6 so that age might be too early to show the associations between lexicon and pre-reading skills. In future studies it would be interesting to study associations between the size and the composition of the lexicon at age 2;0 and later pre-reading skills, such as pre reading skills at age 5;0 and at age 6;0.
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(2024)Tavoitteet. Tässä maisterintutkielmassa tarkastellaan, millaisia sanoihin liittyviä ongelmia 5-vuotiaiden lasten ja heidän aikuisten vuorovaikutuskumppaniensa välisissä keskustelutilanteissa ilmenee ja miten niitä käsitellään. Tutkimuksen kohteena ovat sekä lapsen että aikuisen tekemät itsekorjaukset ja toisen vuoroon kohdistuvat korjausaloitteet yksittäisiin sanoihin liittyen. Erilaisten korjauskäytänteiden avulla pyritään säilyttämään keskustelijoiden välistä yhteistä ymmärrystä. Itsekorjauksilla tarkoitetaan puhujan omaan puheeseen kohdistuvia korjauksia, kun taas toisen puheeseen kohdistuvilla korjausaloitteilla nostetaan esille jotain toisen puhujan puheessa ongelmalliseksi tulkittua. Ilmiötä tarkastellaan kahdessa erilaisessa vuorovaikutustilanteessa, joista toinen on puheterapeuttinen arviotilanne ja toinen äidin ja lapsen välinen leikkitilanne. Lisäksi verrataan, onko sanoihin liittyvien ongelmien esiintymisessä tai käsittelyssä eroa eri vuorovaikutustilanteiden välillä. Menetelmät. Tässä tutkielmassa aineistona oli videoituja vuorovaikutustilanteita neljältä eri lapselta, jokaiselta sekä leikkivuorovaikutustilanteesta että puheterapeuttisesta arviosta. Aineisto on kerätty osana Lapsen kehittyvä kieli ja vuorovaikutus -tutkimushanketta (nyk. COMPAIR). Aineiston analyysi perustuu keskustelunanalyysiin, jonka perusteella aineistosta poimittiin sanoihin liittyvät korjausjaksot. Tulokset ja johtopäätökset. Yksittäisiin sanoihin liittyviä ongelmakohtia nostettiin käsiteltäviksi monista eri syistä. Ongelmia koettiin ja nostettiin käsiteltäviksi enemmän leikkitilanteissa kuin puheterapiatilanteissa. Näitä kohtia käsiteltiin keskustelutilanteissa aikuisen tai lapsen aloittamilla itsekorjauksilla, lapsen tai aikuisen tekemillä toisen vuoron korjausaloitteilla sekä aikuisen tekemillä suorilla korjauksilla. Sanoihin liittyvien korjauskäytänteiden määrässä oli suurta vaihtelua eri lasten vuorovaikutustilanteissa, mikä voi johtua esimerkiksi lapsikohtaisesta vaihtelusta kielellisissä taidoissa tai eri vuorovaikutuskumppaneiden välisistä erilaisista kommunikointityyleistä. Lasten tekemät itsekorjaukset olivat enimmäkseen sanahakuja, joiden lisäksi ilmeni sanan äännerakenteen tuoton haasteisiin liittyviä itsekorjauksia sekä sanan korvaamista toisella sanalla. Aikuiset puolestaan tekivät itsekorjauksia tyypillisimmin korvaamalla sanomansa tai aloittamansa sanan toisella lapselle mahdollisesti helpommin ymmärrettävällä sanalla. Lapset nostivat muutaman kerran aikuisen käyttämän sanan merkityksen ongelmalliseksi keskustelussa. Sen sijaan aikuiset tekivät sanoihin liittyviä toisen puheeseen kohdistuvia korjausaloitteita useimmin liittyen lapsen käyttämän sanan oikeellisuuteen. Vuorovaikutustilanteen yleinen luonne saattoi vaikuttaa sanoihin liittyvien ongelmien ilmaantumiseen sekä niiden käsittelyyn. Tutkimuksen tuloksista saadaan alustavaa tietoa viisivuotiaiden lasten ja heidän aikuisten vuorovaikutuskumppaneidensa tavoista käsitellä erilaisia esiin nousevia sanoihin liittyviä ongelmakohtia erilaisissa vuorovaikutustilanteissa. Sanoihin liittyvien ongelmakohtien selvittely osaavamman vuorovaikutuskumppanin kanssa auttaa lasta uuden sanaston oppimisessa, ja siksi aiheesta on tärkeää saada tutkimustuloksia tyypillisesti kehittyneiden lasten osalta. Ilmiötä on kuitenkin tärkeää tutkia lisää isommilla aineistoilla, jotta tuloksia voidaan yleistää ja myöhemmin hyödyntää puheterapeuttisessa arvioinnissa ja kuntoutuksessa.
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(2024)Tavoitteet. Moniammatillinen yhteistyö on sosiaali- ja terveysalalla merkitykseltään kasvava työskentelytapa. Tässä maisterintutkielmassa tarkastellaan ammattilaisten kokemusta työskentelystä moniammatillisessa yhteistyössä lastenneurologisessa kuntoutuksessa. Tarkoituksena on selvittää minkälaisia arvoja moniammatillisen työryhmän jäsenet liittävät omaan työhönsä. Tutkielma myös selvittää miten moniammatillinen yhteistyö toteutuu lastenneurologisessa kuntoutustyöryhmässä ja mitä moniammatillinen yhteistyö vaatii onnistuakseen. Menetelmät. Tutkimuksen aineisto on nauhoitus ryhmähaastattelusta, jossa kahdeksan moniammatillisen tiimin jäsentä keskustelivat kokemuksestaan moniammatillisessa työryhmässä työskentelystä. Moniammatillisen tiimin jäsenistä haastateltiin puheterapeuttia, fysioterapeuttia, toimintaterapeuttia, AAC-ohjaajaa, ohjaavaa opettajaa, tiimiohjaajaa ja kahta erityisluokanopettajaa. Aineisto analysoitiin aineistolähtöisen temaattisen analyysin keinoin. Tulokset ja johtopäätökset. Temaattisen analyysin pohjalta aineistosta havaittiin neljä yläteemaa ja niitä tukevia alateemoja, joita löydettiin yhteensä kolmetoista. Moniammatillisen työryhmän kuvaamana moniammatillisuus toteutuu arjen työskentelyssä, työntekijöiden jakaessa osaamistaan ja tarjotessaan toisilleen vertaistukea. Myös kuntoutus toteutetaan osana arjen toimintaa. Työryhmän vuorovaikutuksessa korostuu moniammatillisen keskustelun merkitys osana moniammatillista yhteistyötä. Moniammatilliseen yhteistyöhön liittyvään vuorovaikutukseen liitetään myös sääntöjen ja rajanvedon sekä ohjeistamisen merkitys. Ammattilaisilla on eroavia kokemuksia omasta roolista työryhmässä. Työryhmän kokemuksen mukaan moniammatillinen yhteistyö kehittyy ja muuttuu sujuvammaksi ajan kanssa, kun työryhmän jäsenet tutustuvat toisiinsa. Työryhmä kehittyy myös oppimalla toisiltaan jatkuvasti. Moniammatillisen yhteistyön onnistumiseen liittyy sekä yksilön että tiimin kehittyminen. Moniammatillisten työntekijöiden yhdessä työskentely asettaa vaateita sekä yksilölle että organisaatiolle. Tutkimuksen perusteella voidaan havaita, että moniammatillisuus koetaan työryhmässä mieluisana työskentelytapana ja työntekijät liittävät siihen lukuisia hyötyjä. Moniammatillisen työskentelytavan onnistuminen vaatii aikaa ja sopivia ihmisiä sekä oikeita organisaation tarjoamia olosuhteita.
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(2021)Aim. The purpose of this study was to examine cross-language relationships between receptive and expressive vocabulary in first and second language. Previous studies have reported various cross-linguistic relationships ranging from positive correlations to non-significant and negative correlations. In addition, this study investigates how various factors are related to receptive and expressive vocabulary in L1 and L2. Also, the correlations were studied between children’s vocabularies and the questionnaire filled by parents and kindergarten teachers. Method. The receptive and expressive vocabularies were measured in first and second languages. The children who participated (N=21) were between 4 and 6 years old. The participants spoke Arabic or Russian as their first language and had attended Finnish kindergarten. The assessment of first language was performed in co-operation with an interpreter. Parents also assessed children’s linguistic proficiency in L1 and kindergarten teachers in L2 by filling questionnaires. The sample was analysed by using statistical methods including correlation analysis and linear regression. Results and conclusions. While examining the whole group there were no significant correlations between languages. In the Russian speaking group, there was found a significant positive correlation between L1 and L2 in receptive vocabulary. In the Arabic speaking group, the cross-language relationships were negative both in receptive and expressive vocabulary. The expressive vocabulary in L2 was associated to L2-language exposure, length of participation in Finnish kindergarten and father’s education. However, the only statistically significant predicting variable was the amount of L2 exposure. Parental ratings correlated with children’s receptive and expressive vocabulary in L1. In L2, the ratings scored by kindergarten teachers correlated with expressive vocabulary but not with receptive vocabulary. The findings of conflicting associations were similar in previous studies about cross-language relationships in vocabularies. Further research is needed to draw more reliable conclusions
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(2020)Objectives. The aim of this thesis was to obtain information about the development of pointing gesture use among typically developing Finnish speaking children, at the age of 1–3 years. Pointing gesture use was analysed every six months at 1;0, 1;6, 2;0, 2;6 and 3;0 years. The relation between children’s pointing gesture use and vocabulary development at the age 3 and 5 was explored. Relation between the use of pointing gestures and language development has been found in many international studies, but with regard to Finnish, there is only little research on pointing or use of gestural communication in play situations between children and parents. Methods. The data consisted of video recordings of five children and the results of language tests evaluating children’s vocabulary development. The video material was annotated with computer software ELAN. ELAN was used to mark the pointing gestures used by the children and the types of these pointing gestures (declarative/ imperative pointing). Childrens vocabulary development was assessed with Bo Ege test at the age of 3, and with the Boston Naming Test and Type/Token Ratios at the age of 5. Tables, graphs and calculation of percentages and means were used as statistical description of the phenomena. Non-parametric statistical tests were also used: The Friedman test to determine the distribution of pointing gestures used by children in different age points 1;0, 1;6, 2;0, 2;6 and 3;0, and Spearman’s Rank correlation coefficient to explore the re-lation of pointing gestures and vocabulary development. Results and conclusions. All children used pointing gestures, althought there were notable individual differences in the amount of pointings. The greatest increase in the quantity of pointings used was found between the age range 1;0–1;6 years. Children used most pointing gestures at the age of 1;6. All children used considerably more declarative than imperative pointings. The proportion of declarative pointings of the pointing gestures used, increased between the ages 1;0–1;6 and then remained constant until the age of 3;0. No significant correlations were found between pointing gesture use and vocabulary development. However, from this thesis, it appears that children with typical vocabulary development tend to use pointing gestures to a large extent, and of the pointings they use, the proportion of declarative pointing gestures is considerably higher than the imperative ones.
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Tanssikuntoutuksen vaikutus aivovamman saaneiden vuorovaikutukseen itse ja lähi-ihmisten arvioimana (2021)Aims. Long-term rehabilitation of post-traumatic brain injury can be stressful for rehabilitators and is often costly for society. There is a great need for new rehabilitation practices, that are both multimodal and motivating. Dance rehabilitation can be a considerable form of rehabilitation for those with severe brain injury because it can potentially rehabilitate several dimensions simultaneously. There are a variety of changes in the communication skills of people with severe brain injuries that affect an individual’s inner circle and everyday functioning. Identifying these changes is paramount in planning and targeting rehabilitation. Because post-traumatic brain injury is typically associated with incomplete symptom awareness, the assessment of the rehabilitative close others plays an important role. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of dance rehabilitation on the communication of adults with severe brain injury. Although dance has been researched and utilized in neurological rehabilitation to some extent, no research has been conducted on the effect of dance rehabilitation on the communication skills of a person with traumatic brain injury. Methods. The study included 10 adults aged 19 to 45 years with severe brain injuries. Rehabilitators participated in a dance rehabilitation intervention for 2 hours per week for 3 months. In addition, 10 well-known people close to the rehabilitator participated in the study. Subjects (N = 20) assessed the rehabilitator’s communication skills using the La Trobe Communication Questionnaire at the beginning and end of the dance rehabilitation intervention. Responses from rehabilitators and their close others were examined in five different content areas of communication. Analyzes of the research data were performed by statement groups by calculating the mean variables at the beginning and end of the intervention using statistical methods. In addition, the evaluations of the rehabilitator and the close other were compared. Results and conclusions. In this study, there was no statistically significant change in the estimates of rehabilitators and their close others at the beginning and end of the intervention. There was also no statistically significant difference in the assessments of the rehabilitators and their close others. Communication skills of people with brain injuries have not been previously studied in the context of a dance rehabilitation intervention. Further research is needed on both the rehabilitation of communication skills for severe brain injury and the effectiveness of dance rehabilitation.
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(2021)Aims. There are many individual, hereditary and environmental factors affecting children’s language development. However, there are relatively few studies studying background factors related to preschool-aged Finnish children’s language development. The aim of this study is to study the possible effect of background factors to language development of preschool-aged children. Background factors included to this study are gender, familial risk of dyslexia and education of parents. Methods. The data is part of the LEINIKKI study data. The participants (n = 50) were healthy, Finnish-speaking children aged 3;2–4;0. Participants were evaluated with LEINIKKI method, Reynell Developmental Language Scales and LUKIVA method’s subtest for familial dyslexia. Group differences were analyzed for each of the background factors by descriptive statics and Mann-Whitney test. Finally, all the variables were analyzed together with a linear regression model. Results and conclusions. Gender was statistically significantly correlating with language skills. Preschool-aged boys had weaker overall language skills and receptive language skills. In this study, risk for familiar dyslexia or parents’ education wasn’t affecting the language skills of the child. The explanatory power of the linear regression model was weak suggesting that there are also many other additional variables affecting the language development of the children in this age. The results of this study suggest that boys’ language development should be paid attention to. In this study, familial risk for dyslexia didn’t affect to chldren’s language skills. It seems that in Finland, education of parents isn’t as strongly correlated to preschool-aged healthy children’s language development as reported in international research. In addition to the background factors studied in this study, there seems to be also many other background factors that affect children’s language development in preschool age. Further studies on these background factors are needed to gain deeper understanding of children’s language development in preschool age.
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(2021)Objectives. As the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders increases, the number of people with ASD who may benefit from speech therapy methods will also increase. People in the autism spec trum have been found to be interested in technology in many studies, so it could be beneficial and smart to utilize it in the context of rehabilitation. In particular, the utilization of 3D and virtual real ity, as well as the usability of HMD-technology are at the center of many research regarding the potential use of technology in ASD rehabilitation. The aim of this literature review is to determine what kind of technological devices, softwares and the types of tasks performed with them are used in the context of ASD. The aim is also to determine what kind of user experiences with these meth ods and technologies have been reported by people with ASD. Methods. The research method of this dissertation is a literature review. The data was collected from five international databases (ACM digital library, Ovid Medline, Pubmed, Scopus, Web of science) using the search phrase (autism* OR autism spectrum disorder* OR high functioning au tism* OR HFA* OR Asperger* OR pervasive disorder*) AND (intervention* OR rehab* OR reha bilitation* OR therap* OR training) AND (virtual* OR augmented* OR “mixed* vr” OR HMD OR headset OR “head mounted” OR head-mounted* OR helmet OR glasses OR goggles OR ve OR im mersive OR immersion OR 3D OR head-worn OR “head worn”) AND (“computer assisted” OR computer-assisted OR “computer aided” OR computer-aided). In accordance with the selection criteria, 17 original studies were selected for the dissertation, regarding technologies and methods used in ASD rehabilitation. Findings and conclusions. Rehabilitation for ASD utilizes technology assistance from traditional computer and video game -technologies to wearable HMD-devices and virtual reality. The technol ogies used in the studies were mainly computer-implemented virtual software and virtual environ ments. About half of them utilized wearable HMD technology. The methods were mainly focused on various problems of social interaction, such as attention, emotion recognition and cooperation skills. People with ASD reported mostly positive reviews of technology-assisted methods, includ ing the use of wearable devices.
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(2021)Objectives The present study is a Finnish survey of literacy skills and literacy teaching of children and young pupils studying by the activity areas. Teaching by the activity areas is part of special support. Severely disabled pupils and pupils with severe chronic illnesses usually attend area-of-activity teaching as they are unable to follow the subject-specific curriculum. Literacy is an essential skill in everyday life which is why learning of literacy is also justified for students studying by the activity areas. Reading is a complex process that requires mastery of various skills. Previous studies show that the development of literacy in people with disabilities broadly resembles the development of literacy in typically developed peers. However, poor cognitive skills of people with disabilities usually make the process of learning to read more difficult and time consuming. Hence development of literacy skills in people with disabilities requires time, multiple repetitions as well as regular and systematic practice of reading. The aim of the study was to survey whether literacy is taught to pupils studying by the activity areas, what level of literacy skills are usually achieved by these pupils and what teaching methods and materials are used to teach literacy for pupils studying by the activity areas. Methods The study was conducted as part of the INTO project (inclusion and area-specific curriculum) carried out by the universities of Helsinki and Jyväskylä. INTO project studies teaching by the activity areas in Finland. The present study was an interview study. Research material collected and analyzed in the study consisted of interviews of 85 teachers teaching pupils studying by the activity areas. Alltogether 406 pupils were taught by the teachers interviewed in the study. One interview question focused on teaching pupils studying by the activity areas to read. From the conducted interviews, I collected and analyzed all the mentions of and references to reading. Results and Conclusions About half of the pupils studying by the activity areas got reading lessons. Wether pupil had reading lessons depended largely on the pupil's general abilities. For most pupils literacy skills remained on the pre-reading level. A small proportion of pupils had learned to read on word- or sentence-level. Ability to learn to read on sentence-level may suggest that it might be possible, at least in part, to organize the teaching of these pupils according to the subject-specific curriculum. The teachers interviewed in the study mentioned various different methods and materials that they use to teach pupils to read and emphasized experimental approach to teach reading. Analytical and synthetic methods were both commonly used when teaching pupils to read. Further research in litteracy skills and litteracy teaching of children and young pupils studying by activity areas is needed.
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(2021)Varhaisten eleiden ja esinetoimintojen omaksumisajankohdan, kokonaismäärän ja käytön monipuolisuuden on havaittu olevan vahvasti yhteydessä myöhempään sanaston kehitykseen. Siinä missä eleiden kokonaismäärän ja käytön monipuolisuuden yhteyttä myöhempään sanastoon on tutkittu paljon, ei yksittäisten ele- ja sanakategorioiden välisistä yhteyksistä ole vielä kovinkaan paljoa tietoa. Tämän pro gradu-tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää, ovatko yksittäiset varhaiset eletyypit vuoden iässä mitattuna yhteydessä ymmärretyn ja ilmaistun sanaston hallintaan puolentoista vuoden iässä. Aineisto koostui 50 yksikielisestä suomenkielisestä lapsesta (25 poikaa ja 25 tyttöä), jotka osallistuivat Sanaseula-tutkimukseen. Eleiden ja esinetoimintojen hallintaa selvitettiin Varhaisen kommunikaation ja kielen kehityksen arviointimenetelmän 8-16 kuukauden ikäisten arviointiin tarkoitetun Toiminnat ja eleet-osion avulla. Sanaston hallintaa arvioitiin Sanaseula-menetelmän Vauveli-versiolla, joka on tarkoitettu 9-18 kuukauden ikäisten lasten arviointiin. Aineistoa analysoitiin tarkastelemalla varhaisten ele- ja esinetoimintojen ja Sanaseulaan sisällytettyjen ymmärrettyjen ja ilmaistujen sanojen välisiä korrelaatioita. Lisäksi tarkasteltiin ele- ja esinetoimintojen yhteyttä ymmärretyn ja ilmaistun sanaston sanakategorioiden prosentuaalisiin osuuksiin kaikista Sanaseulaan sisällytetyistä sanoista. Kun tarkasteltiin varhaisten eletyyppien ja myöhemmän ymmärretyn sanaston välisiä yhteyksiä, havaittiin deiktisten eleiden hyvän hallinnan vuoden iässä olevan yhteydessä suurempaan ymmärrettyjen verbien prosentuaaliseen osuuteen Sanaseulaan sisällytetyistä sanoista puolentoista vuoden iässä. Lisäksi esinetoimintojen hyvä hallinta vuoden iässä oli yhteydessä suurempiin adjektiivien ja sulkeisen luokan sanojen osuuksiin ymmärretyistä sanoista. Tarkasteltaessa varhaisten eletyyppien ja myöhemmän ilmaistun sanaston välisiä yhteyksiä huomattiin, että ritualisoitujen pyyntöjen runsas käyttö vuoden iässä oli yhteydessä ilmaistujen sosiaalispragmaattisten sanojen, substantiivien ja sulkeisen luokan sanojen hyvään hallintaan puolentoista vuoden iässä. Esinetoimintojen ja ilmaistujen adjektiivien ja sulkeisen luokan sanojen suhteellisten osuuksien välillä havaittiin myös positiivisia yhteyksiä. Varhaisten eleiden omaksuminen näyttäisi olevan yhteydessä ensimmäisinä lapsen sanastoon ilmaantuvien sanojen omaksumiseen. Lisäksi tuloksista voidaan päätellä, että niillä lapsilla, joilla oli vuoden iässä käytössään paljon esinetoimintoja oli muita lapsia suuremmat ymmärretyt ja ilmaistut sanastot puolentoista vuoden iässä. Tässä tutkielmassa esiin nousseet tulokset vahvistavat aiempaa käsitystä siitä, että eleiden käyttö edeltää ja edesauttaa ymmärretyn ja ilmaistun sanaston omaksumista.
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(2021)Aphasia is a linguistic disorder that occurs after language acquisition and can lead to difficulties with expressive and receptive language. Aphasia is most often caused by a stroke. The inability to retrieve words, also known as anomia, is the most common symptom of aphasia and it is most often assessed with object-naming tasks. It is acknowledged that in aphasia learning is fundamental aspect of the recovery process and this has led to increasing interest to study novel word learning ability in aphasia. So far, word learning ability in people with aphasia has been studied mainly in chronic stage. The aim of this study was to examine novel word learning ability in subacute aphasia using recognition and naming task and to investigate the possible connection between recognition and naming ability. Additionally, the possible connection between naming of familiar objects and new objects was investigated. The sample of this study was part of the Opi sanoja research project and included ten adults with subacute aphasia (maximum 3 months post-stroke). Participants completed a learning task on computer and their aim was to learn six pseudoword-picture pairings. The novel word learning ability of the participants was assessed using recognition and confrontation naming task. The tasks were administered on two different occasions one week apart from each other. The ability to name familiar objects was assessed using Boston Naming Test. Participants’ ability to name novel objects wasn’t correlated with their ability to recognize the novel objects. Furthermore, participants’ ability to name familiar objects didn’t correlate with the ability to name novel objects. However, there was considerable inter-individual variability in learning performance. Some of the participants were able to recognize novel objects at the statistically significant level immediately after the learning task and one week later. However, some of the participant’s couldn’t recognize the objects either immediately after the learning task or one week later. At the group level participants’ performance on the novel object naming task was poor and was virtually at floor. However, consideration of individual participant results revealed that one of the participants was able to name some of the novel objects correctly. Based on the results, people in subacute aphasia recognize novel targets better than name them. The results are in line with previous studies that have investigated ability to learn new words in chronic aphasia and support the initial evidence that people with subacute aphasia can learn novel words. The findings of this study also provide preliminary understanding of the ability to name novel objects in subacute aphasia.
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(2021)Parents are young child’s most important communication partners. When parents use rich and diverse language it enhances child’s language development. The aim of this study was to examine if using a different kind of supporting forms (shared book reading, storytelling and singing) by parents enhances typically developed (2;6–3;6 years) children’s receptive vocabulary, receptive language and/or expressive vocabulary. Research data consists of 50 typically developed monolingual Finnish-speaking children, a sub-group of participants of LEINIKKI Study. Parent’s usage of language supporting forms was examined by Supporting children’s language development at home -form. Children’s receptive vocabulary skills were assessed by Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence III (WPPSI-III) subtest of Receptive Vocabulary. Children’s receptive language skills were assessed by the receptive part of the Reynell Developmental Language Scales III. Children’s expressive vocabulary were assessed by WPPSI-III subtest of Picture Naming and LEINIKKI -method’s vocabulary section. The data was analysed statistically. Methods included independent samples t-tests, Mann-Whitney U-tests and linear regression analysis. In this research children, whose parents read books often with child, got statistically significantly higher scores in tests of receptive vocabulary, receptive language, and expressive vocabulary than children, whose parents read books seldom with child. Children, whose parents tell stories often, got statistically significantly higher scores of expressive vocabulary measured by LEINIKKI meth-od’s vocabulary section than children, whose parents tell stories seldom. There were no group differences in language skills between children, whose parents sing often or seldom. Shared book reading and storytelling develops child’s language skills. These research findings can be utilized when encouraged parents to read aloud books and telling stories to the child. It is important to research this topic more with larger data to get more information about connection of parent’s language supporting forms to preschool age child’s language skills.
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