Browsing by study line "ingen studieinriktning"

Tausta ja tavoitteet. Sujuvalla afasialla tarkoitetaan kielenoppimisiän jälkeen syntynyttä kielellistä häiriötä, jossa henkilö tuottaa tyypillisesti hyvin artikuloitua, mutta sisällöllisesti merkityksetöntä puhetta. Suomenkielistä tutkimusta sujuvassa afasiassa esiintyvistä itsekorjauksista eli omaan puheeseen kohdistuvista korjauksista on vain vähän. Tutkimuksen perusteella sujuvan afasian saaneet henkilöt tuottavat samanlaisia itsekorjauksen aloituksia kuin terveet henkilöt, lisäksi sujuvan afasian saaneiden henkilöiden on havaittu tuottavan enemmän itsekorjauksen aloituksia verrattuna varsinaisiin itsekorjauksiin. Tässä tutkielmassa tarkoituksena on tutkia, millaisia itsekorjauksia ja itsekorjauksen aloituksia sujuvan afasian saaneet henkilöt ja terveet keskustelukumppanit tuottavat arkikeskustelussa. Tutkielmassa selvitetään, kuinka pitkiä korjausjaksoja sujuvan afasian saaneet henkilöt ja terveet keskustelukumppanit tuottavat ja kuinka itsekorjaukset ja niiden aloitukset jakautuvat ryhmien kesken. Lisäksi selvitetään, millaisia itsekorjauksen aloituksia ryhmissä käytetään. Menetelmät. Tutkimuksen aineisto koostuu kolmen sujuvan afasian saaneen henkilön ja heidän keskustelukumppaniensa käymistä arkikeskusteluista. Aineisto on saatu puhujien välistä yhteisymmärrystä epätyypillisessä vuorovaikutuksessa tutkivasta COMPAIR-hankkeesta. Tutkimusmenetelmänä käytettiin keskustelunanalyysiä. Tulokset ja pohdinta. Sujuvan afasian saaneiden henkilöiden tuottamien korjausjaksojen keskimääräinen pituus oli lyhyempi kuin terveillä keskustelukumppaneilla, mikä on päinvastainen tulos kuin aiemmassa tutkimuksessa. Itsekorjauksen aloitusten ja varsinaisten itsekorjausten jakaumien osalta havaittiin, että sujuvan afasian saaneet osallistujat tuottivat enemmän itsekorjauksen aloituksia kuin varsinaisia itsekorjauksia, mikä tukee aiheesta aiemmin tehdyn tutkimuksen tuloksia. Terveet keskustelukumppanit tuottivat puolestaan itsekorjauksen aloituksia ja itsekorjauksia yhtä paljon. Itsekorjauksen aloitustavoista tyypillisin oli molemmissa ryhmissä ilmauksen katkaiseminen, myös tämä tulos tukee aiemmissa tutkimuksissa saatuja tuloksia. Tässä tutkielmassa saatujen tulosten perusteella voidaan päätellä, että afasian saaneet henkilöt usein aloittavat itsekorjauksen, mutta terveet henkilöt suorittavat korjauksen loppuun tai korjaus jäi kesken. Tuloksia voidaan hyödyntää kliinisessä työssä jakamalla tietoa siitä, kuinka sujuva afasia vaikuttaa oman puheen korjaamiseen ja sitä kautta keskusteluun osallistumiseen. Aim of the study. Fluent aphasia is an acquired language disorder. A person with fluent aphasia usually produces fluent sentences that are nevertheless meaningless. There are only few Finnish studies regarding self-repair and self-initiated repair in fluent aphasia. The studies show that people with fluent aphasia produce self-repair initiations that are similar to those produced by non-aphasic people. Additionally, it has been observed that people with fluent aphasia produce more initiations of self-repair than actual self-repairs. The aim of this thesis is to study what kind of self-repair initiations people with fluent aphasia and non-aphasic people produce in mundane conversation. The study focuses on length of the repair sequences produced by group of aphasic people and non-aphasic people. Also, distribution of used self-repair initiations are studied. Methods. Participants of the study are three people with fluent aphasia and their non-aphasic close relatives. The data that consist of mundane conversation is received from COMPAIR-project that examines mutual understanding in untypical interaction. The research method used in this study is conversation analysis. Results and discussion. People with fluent aphasia produced repair sequences that were on average shorter than repair sequences produced by non-aphasic people. This discovery is not in line with previous research findings. People with fluent aphasia produced more initiations if self-repair than actual self-repairs, that supports previous research findings. Then again it was detected that non-aphasic people produced initiations of self-repair and actual repairs almost equal in number. The most common type of self-repair initiation was cut-off in both groups, the result is consistent with previous findings. The conclusion that emerges from this thesis is that people with aphasia initiate self-repair but their non-aphasic interlocutors often complete their self-repair or self-repair remains unfinished. The findings can be utilized in clinical settings by sharing information about ways that fluent aphasia can affect self-repair initiation and self-repair and hence participation in a conversation.

Objectives The human-pet attachment can substantially impact the life of the human and the pet. A few studies suggest that human personality and unwanted behaviour of dogs are related to pet attachment, but the relationship between pet personality and the attachment has not yet been studied. The aim of this study was to elucidate the links from human, dog (Canis familiaris), and cat (Felis silvestris catus) personalities and unwanted pet behaviour to the attachment. Methods The online survey data, from the OnePersonality project, captured responses of 2 724 pet owners (92,1% women) to the Short Five questionnaire, the Pet Attachment Questionnaire and the dog and cat personality and behaviour questionnaires. I utilised a series of linear and generalized linear mixed-effect models to examine the associations. Results Neuroticism was associated with attachment anxiety to dogs and cats. Dog owners scoring lower on extraversion and conscientiousness and owners of less human-social and more perseverant dogs were more anxiously attached. Cat’s human aggression, fearfulness and low human sociability associated with attachment anxiety and excessive grooming and lower human sociability with attachment avoidance. Less conscientious, extraverted, and agreeable dog owners and owners of more insecure, energetic, aggressive, less training focused, and less human social dogs were more avoidantly attached. Nine out of ten dog’s unwanted behaviour traits were related to avoidant attachment. Conclusions Both human and pet traits contribute to the owner-perceived attachment. Owner’s personality may have a bigger role in anxious attachment, while the dog’s individuality may be more related to attachment avoidance.

Arvion mukaan vuonna 2008 jopa joka kahdeksas kaikista Helsingin kaupungin suunterveydenhuollon vastaanottokäynneistä oli päivystysluonteisia. Tästä huolimatta päivystystilanteiden toimintamalleihin ei kuitenkaan ole omaa Käypä hoito -suositusta. Päivystystaitojen hallinta on hammaslääkärille erityisen tärkeätä, sillä päivystystilanteet ovat yleensä ennalta arvaamattomia ja vaativat kliinikolta nopeaa päätöksentekokykyä. Katsauksessa arvioin ja analysoin aiemman kirjallisuuden perusteella päivystyksellisissä tilanteissa yleisten kariologisten vammojen diagnostiikkaa ja hoitoa. Lähdeaineiston olen hakenut Pubmedista ja Google Scholarista hakusanoilla "dental emergency" ja "pain", lisäksi olen käyttänyt aineistona myös kariologian ja endodonttian oppikirjoja, luentoja ja tieteellisiä aikakausilehtiä. Katsauksen avainsanat ovat hammassärky ja karies. Katsaus tarkastelee karieksen esiintyvyyttä Suomessa ja hammassärkypäivystykseen hakeutumisen syitä sekä päivystyspotilaan tutkimista. Käsittelen myös karieksen etiologiaa, diagnostiikkaa ja syvän karieksen hoitoa vitaaleissa hampaissa. Jätän tässä työssä huomioitta muut tärkeät päivystyksellisesti tärkeät vaivat, kuten pulpiitin ja lohkeamien etiologian, diagnostiikan ja hoidon, ja keskityn erityisesti syvän karieksen hoitoon, joka on myöskin hyvin tärkeä päivystyksellinen vaiva. Pyrin antamaan yhteenvedon kariologisten ensiaputoimenpiteiden tuoreista hoitokäytännöistä ja niiden merkityksestä vitaaleissa hampaissa. Pohdinnassa arvioin löytämäni kirjallisuuden merkitystä ja analysoin sen vaikutusta kariologisten ensiaputoimenpiteiden parantamiseen. Yhteenvetona tämä katsaus tarjoaa kertausta ja mahdollisuuden syventää omaa osaamista vitaalien hampaiden kariologisten ongelmien diagnostiikkaan ja hoidon ymmärtämiseen ja kehittämiseen.

Objective: Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a neurological disorder which affects motor function. According to studies with children DCD is related to volumes of the parts of the cerebrum which affect motor function. This study examines whether these structural changes in cerebrum can be detected in adults. Methods: The present study is a part of a longitudinal study which started in the 1970s in Helsinki. The present sample consists of those approximately 40-year-olds who took Test of Motor Impairment (TOMI) test when they were about 9 years old and who also participated in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study when they were about 40 years old. Based on TOMI test participants were split into two groups: those who probably have developmental coordination disorder and those who probably do not have it. Groups’ association with the volumes of cerebral areas that affect motor functions were examined with multivariate analyses of variance, one-way analyses of variance and Welch’s tests. The volumes of the examined parts of the brain were calculated from participants’ MRI data using FreeSurfer software, and the volumes were standardized according to gender before any analysis were made. Results and conclusion: The group had a statistically significant effect on the gross volumes of the brain areas and on the volumes of brain areas on the dominant hand side (areas which primarily affect movement of the nondominant side of the body) but not on the volumes of the brain areas on the nondominant hand side (areas which primarily affect movement of the dominant side of the body). In the group of those who probably have developmental coordination disorder the volume of the primary somatosensory cortex on the dominant hand side, volumes of the basal ganglia on the dominant and nondominant hand side and the volume of the backside of the corpus callosum were smaller than in the control group. The results suggest that about 40 years old adults who probably have developmental coordination disorder according to TOMI test have smaller volumes in parts of the cerebrum which affect motor function than adults who do not have the disorder.

Aims. There is an increasing number of multilingual children in the workloads of Finnish speech language pathologists. Yet there is little research on the typical and untypical language development of multilingual children. PAULA small group intervention has been developed to support the language development of multilingual children in a daycare setting. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the small group language intervention affects the Finnish language development of multilingual children and how background factors, such as the exposure to the Finnish language, affect the development of the study and control groups. Method. Subjects included 60 typically developing multilingual children, 34 in the study group and 26 in the control group. Subjects were 4 years old at the beginning of the study and the assessment was repeated 3 times within a year. Finnish language was measured with a vocabulary score calculated from Fonologiatesti (Kunnari, Savinainen-Makkonen & Saaristo-Helin 2012) and with a form filled out by the daycare staff. The data was analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics 26. The difference between the study and control groups was analyzed with repeated measures ANOVA, Friedman test, and Mann–Whitney U test. The effect of background factors on the vocabulary scores was analyzed with linear regression, and the effect of background factors on the assessment by the daycare staff was analyzed with Spearman’s correlation coefficient and Kruskal–Wallis test. In addition, the background factors affecting the vocabulary score at the start of the study were analyzed with linear regression. Results and conclusion. The vocabulary scores of the intervention group improved more during the intervention compared to the control group, but the effect wasn’t observed in the follow-up measurement. PAULA small group intervention can support the lexical development of multilingual children, but more research is needed to confirm the findings. Being in the study group was positively associated with the change in vocabulary scores while the months spent in a Finnish language daycare were negatively associated. The months spent in daycare and the exposure to Finnish were positively associated with the vocabulary score at the beginning of the study. The children who at the beginning of the study had spent longer in daycare and had more exposure to Finnish are likely to have bigger vocabularies at the start and therefore improve less during the intervention. The children who had the least exposure to Finnish improved the most during the intervention. There was no statistically significant difference between the groups in the daycare assessments. In the study group exposure to Finnish was positively associated with the change in the daycare assessments. In the control group, no background factors had a significant connection to the daycare assessments.

Aphasia is a linguistic-cognitive disorder that impedes the understanding and production of speech and is often accompanied by disorders in non-linguistic cognitive functioning, such as working memory (WM). WM has a key role in supporting on-going linguistic processing. Earlier research shows that the impairments caused by aphasia can be alleviated with speech therapy but it is still unclear which amount of therapy is most effective, at which stage of the illness and with which intensity. Some research suggests that greater amount of therapy within a shorter time span yields greater outcome. However, research findings on the matter are difficult to synthesize as the definition of ‘intensity’ varies across studies. Language Enrichment Therapy (LET) is a systemic and developmental therapy programme for aphasia rehabilitation. LET aims to restore linguistic-cognitive functioning. LET also enables rehabilitation of working memory with “brain-jogging”. As there is hardly any prior research on the LET system, the aim of this thesis is to investigate its effectiveness as an intensive aphasia therapy programme and the role of working memory in rehabilitation and, further, to identify possible background factors predicting rehabilitation outcome. The data for this thesis was collected for a research project between 1987 and 2010. The data consists of 24 persons with aphasia (PWA) who suffered a first-time stroke and whose time post-onset at baseline was 2 to 8 months. Linguistic functioning was assessed six times within the research frame with Tsvetkova’s Speech Dynamics Test, Western Aphasia Battery and the Token test. The data was analysed statistically using Friedman’s test to analyse the change in understanding and producing speech, linear regression to analyse possible factors predicting outcome and linear correlation to analyse the connection between working memory and rehabilitation outcome. The findings show that intensive rehabilitation with the LET system improves the understanding and production of speech with PWA. LET is the most effective in ameliorating speech understanding for those PWA with greater impairment and lesser time post-onset. No factors predicting the outcome of speech production were found which might be due to the developmental nature of the LET system in which rehabilitation of understanding always precedes that of production. WM had no predictive value for rehabilitation outcome. These findings must be interpreted with caution but can still be used for clinical decision making.

Tavoitteet. Tämän pro-gradu tutkielman tarkoituksena oli luoda katsaus siihen, millaisia kuntoutusasetelmia- ja harjoitteita on käytetty sosiaalisen kognition kuntoutuksessa virtuaalitodellisuudessa ja voiko virtuaalitodellisuus tuoda lisäarvoa kuntoutukseen. Tavoitteena oli selvittää virtuaalitodellisuudessa tehtävien kuntoutusharjoitteiden vaikuttavuutta sosiaaliseen kognitioon henkilöillä, joilla on autismikirjon häiriö ja kuinka vaikuttavuutta on mitattu. Lisäksi pyrittiin selvittämään yleistyvätkö nämä tulokset interventioiden ulkopuolelle. Menetelmät. Tutkimus toteutettiin integroivana kirjallisuuskatsauksena, jonka aineisto on koostettu tieteellisistä artikkeleista. Artikkelit ovat valikoituneet hakulausekkeen perusteella. Hakulausekkeeni ovat: (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 immersive OR im-mersion OR 3d OR head-worn OR “head worn”) AND (autism* OR autism spectrum disorder* OR high functioning au-tism* OR HFA* OR Asperger* OR pervasive disorder*) AND (intervention* OR rehab* OR rehabilitation* OR therap*) AND (“social gaze” OR “social cognition” OR communic* OR social* OR gaze*) Tulokset ja johtopäätökset. Aineiston perusteella voidaan todeta, että virtuaalitodellisuudella voidaan menestyksekkäästi toteuttaa sosiaalisen kognition kuntoutusta henkilöillä, joilla on autismikirjon häiriö, tietyin reunaehdoin. Aineiston perusteella kuntoutuksessa saavutettiin paras vaikuttavuus, kun kuntoutusharjoitteena oli suora vuorovaikutusharjoitus, kun otoksena kuntoutettavia, joilla mitattu ÄO oli >70. Lisäksi nähtiin kuntoutuksen tulosten yleistymistä niissä tutkimuksissa, joissa kontrolli oli järjestetty. Virtuaalitodellisuudella voidaan tuoda lisäarvoa kuntoutukseen, sillä laitteet voidaan viedä kuntoutujan arkeen ja näin mahdollisesti taata kuntoutuksen systemaattisuus ja riittävä intensiteetti sekä säästää terapiaresursseja.

Objective: Previous experimental and cross-sectional studies have found that paranormal thinking increases under stressful situations and is associated with retrospectively reported early and recent stress-prone life events. It has been suggested that paranormal thinking might act as a means to increase one’s sense of controllability and understandability of life events when being under burden. To date, no study has investigated the associations between exhaustion and paranormal thinking. Therefore, the present study aimed to 1) examine the cross-sectional associations between exhaustion and paranormal thinking, 2) examine whether exhaustion predicts the development of paranormal thinking over an 11-year follow-up, and 3) investigate whether different developmental trajectories of exhaustion are differently associated with paranormal thinking. Methods: The participants (n = 906–2092) came from The Young Finns Study, which is a Finnish population-based on-going follow-up study consisting of six age cohorts (born between 1962 and 1977). Paranormal thinking was assessed in 2001 and 2012 with The Spiritual Acceptance vs. Rational Materialism questionnaire. Exhaustion was assessed in 2001, 2007 and 2012 with The Maastricht Vital Exhaustion questionnaire. The participants were 24-50-year-olds during the measurement years. The cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between exhaustion and paranormal thinking were examined using linear regression analyses. The analyses were adjusted for participants’ gender and age, and participants’ and their parents’ socioeconomic status. The associations of different developmental trajectories of vital exhaustion (i.e., consistently high, consistently low, increasing, or decreasing exhaustion over the 11-year follow-up) with paranormal thinking were examined using analyses of variance. Results and conclusion: The results of this study showed that high exhaustion was cross-sectionally associated with higher levels of paranormal thinking. Further, high vital exhaustion predicted higher development of paranormal thinking over the 11-year follow-up. Additionally, participants with consistently high exhaustion over the 11-year follow-up had higher levels of paranormal thinking, when compared to those without exhaustion or those with increasing levels of exhaustion over the 11-year follow-up. The findings provide novel evidence on the associations between exhaustion and paranormal thinking that had not been investigated before. Future research could examine whether paranormal thinking could act as a psychological coping strategy among exhausted individuals.

Objectives. It is important to identify the factors behind stress at work, because stress can impair health and job performance. Based on previous studies, there may be a wide range of factors behind stress such as job demands, interpretation of situations and job autonomy. The aim of this study was to examine the associations between cognitive demands, autonomy and stress in teaching. Methods. The data was gathered by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health’s Brain Work Survey. Participants (n = 424) worked in a teaching organization. The survey assessed the prevalence of cognitive demands at a weekly level, as well as the perceived load and perceived inspiring cognitive demands. Autonomy was assessed by exploring the opportunities participants have for influencing factors relevant to the performance of their work. The perceived stress was assessed on a numerical scale from zero to ten. Hierarchical regression analysis was used for the statistical analysis of the data. Results and conclusions. Cognitive demands and autonomy were associated with stress. Higher amount of instruction problems and perceived cognitive load were associated to higher perceived stress. The more autonomy there was at work, the less stress was experienced. However, the explanation rate of autonomy was closely related to cognitive demands. The results can be utilized in developing work as favourable for health and performance as possible.

Tiivistelmä - Referat - Abstract Objectives. There is evidence on deficits in production and/or perception of word stress or its acoustic correlates in hearing impaired children. Previous research has shown that there might be beneficial effects of music and singing to perception of word stress or its acoustic correlates in hearing impaired children. Because good perception of word stress is linked to good language abilities, better perception of word stress may support language development in hearing-impaired children. Seemingly, there is no previous research on the development of production of word stress during music intervention in hearing impaired children. There is also a lack of studies comparing hearing impaired children with cochlear implants (CI) and hearing-impaired children with hearing aids (HA) in their development of production and perception of word stress. The aim of this study was to examine how music intervention and singing at home are linked to the production and perception of word stress or its acoustic correlates in hearing-impaired children with bilateral cochlear implants (CI) and/or hearing aids (HA). This pilot study is a part of MULAPAPU research project which aims to study the effects of music and singing to perception and production of language in children aged from 0 to 7 years. Methods. The participating children (n=16) with bilateral CIs and/or HAs were aged from 2 to 7 years. They were grouped based on their hearing devices (children with bilateral CI and children with bilateral HAs or unilateral CI and contralateral HA). Other groups were made based on their signing at home (singers and non-singers). Non-word repetition-task invented in MULAPAPU research project was used to test the production of word stress. The perception of word stress and its acoustic correlates (pitch, intensity, duration) were assessed with previously used non-word /tata/-task. The children were tested before music intervention (T1) and after music intervention (T2). Results and conclusions. Only children with CIs improved in their production of word stress during music intervention. Overall, age was linked to the production of word stress but not the perception of word stress. Closer analysis showed a significant link between age and the development of production of word stress in hearing impaired children with HAs. Higher age was also linked to better development of perception of duration in children with CIs, and poorer development of perception of word stress in children with HAs. There were no significant differences between singers and non-singers in development of the production or the perception of word stress. However, more singers than non-singers improved their performance during music intervention. It seems that singing, and music intervention could be a valuable asset on rehabilitation of hearing-impaired children.