Browsing by master's degree program "Master 's Programme in Logopedics"

Children’s language skills can be evaluated by formal testing, parent report or assessing spontaneous speech in recorded language samples. This study focused on measures of lexical diversity determined from children’s spontaneous speech. These measures are one way to assess children’s lexical skills. However, there is only little research on the relation between the most recent lexical diversity measures and validated measures of lexical skills. The first aim of this study was to find out if there is a relation between the lexical diversity assessed from spontaneous speech of preschool children and lexical skills assessed by validated methods. The second aim was to examine if the measures of lexical diversity predict the lexical skills of a child assessed by validated measures and if so, which of the measures is the best predictor of a child’s lexical skills. The data of the study was collected in LEINIKKI research project. The participants (N = 68) were 2;6–4;0-year-old, healthy, Finnish-speaking children. The spontaneous speech of the participants was recorded in free play settings, the speech of the children was transcribed and token, type, type-token ratio (TTR) and moving-average type-token ratio (MATTR) values were determined from the first ten minutes of each language sample. These values were used as measures of the children’s lexical diversity. The following validated methods were used to assess the children’s lexical skills: the lexical skills assessing part of the parent report method LEINIKKI and Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence 3rd edition subtests Picture Naming and Receptive Vocabulary. The relation between the lexical diversity measures and the validated measures of lexical skills was examined by Spearman’s correlation. It was also researched if the measures of lexical diversity had the ability to differentiate the children who scored the least in the validated lexical measures. Linear regression models were used in examining whether the measures of lexical diversity predicted the lexical skills assessed by validated methods when the age of the children was considered as a background variable. The token values neither correlated with the children’s lexical skills nor differentiated the least scoring quarter in the validated lexical measures. The type and TTR values correlated significantly (p < 0,05) with two out of three validated measures of lexical skills but were not statistically significant predictors of the children’s lexical skills. The type value did not differentiate the least scoring quarter in the validated lexical measures whereas the TTR value did in two out of three validated lexical measures. The relation of the MATTR value to a child’s lexical skills was the most significant: the MATTR value correlated highly significantly (p < 0,001) with all validated measures of lexical skills, differentiated the least scoring quarter in all three validated lexical measures and was a highly significant (p < 0,001) predictor of lexical skills in all regression models. This study supports the use of the MATTR value instead of the more traditional measures of lexical diversity when assessing the lexical diversity of preschool children. The MATTR value can be used especially in supplementing the view of a child’s lexical skills acquired by other measures. However, more research on the topic is needed.

Background. Aphasia is a linguistic disorder most commonly caused by a stroke. The ability to learn is essential to rehabilitation from aphasia. Verbal short-term memory is seen as one prerequisite for verbal learning and refers to the temporary, limited-capacity storage of linguistic information. It might explain the individual variation in the learning ability of people with aphasia since studies have shown that verbal short-term memory impairments are common in aphasia but may not occur in all individuals. A correlation has also been found between verbal short-term memory and novel word learning ability in chronic aphasia but some of the research findings are contradictory. Verbal short-term memory is little studied in the subacute stage of aphasia. Also, the relationship between verbal short-term memory and novel word learning ability has not been previously studied in subacute aphasia. Aims. The aim of this study was to examine verbal short-term memory in subacute aphasia and compare it with verbal short-term memory in healthy controls. The objective was also to determine whether there is a relationship between verbal short-term memory and novel word learning ability in people with aphasia and healthy subjects. Methods. 10 aphasic individuals were examined 0–3 months post-stroke. The control group consisted of 20 healthy elderly subjects. Verbal short-term memory was measured with a word pointing span task in which participants heard sequences of words and pointed corresponding images in a visual array of items. Novel word learning ability was examined with a computer-based word learning task in which participants’ task was to learn to identify correct nonword-visual referent associations on the basis of online visual feedback. The data was analyzed with statistical methods, as well as at the individual level. Results and conclusions. At the group level, verbal short-term memory capacity of the aphasic subjects was lower than that of the healthy controls, but there was individual variation. Some of the aphasic subjects had impaired verbal short-term memory, some performed at the level of the controls and one subject presented only partially impaired verbal short-term memory, regarding the span for serial order. Both the healthy and the aphasic subjects recalled items better than simultaneously their order. Verbal short-term memory capacity correlated with the severity of aphasia, naming accuracy and language processing skills of the aphasic subjects. Verbal short-term memory was not correlated with novel word learning ability in the aphasic and healthy subjects. Consequently, verbal short-term memory does not predict novel word learning ability, and even weak verbal short-term memory does not impede learning. However, the results suggested some kind of link between verbal short-term memory and novel word learning ability.

Background and Objectives: In today's world, multilingualism is more the rule than the exception. Successively multilingual children from immigrant backgrounds are more likely to be referred to speech therapist diagnostic tests and receive a relatively larger amount of support measures in kindergarten and school. This is often due to insufficient exposure to the target language, in which case age-level language skills are not achieved. Studies show that it is important to support the development of the second language at an early stage, especially with a focus on vocabulary, in order to enable successively multilingual children to have sufficient language skills before entering school. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the development of narrative skills of multilingual children before and after the small group language intervention and compare their development to children who did not participate in such intervention. This thesis is part of the MULTILINGUA research project. Subjects and methods: In this thesis, a research and control group of a total of 41 children eere selected from a larger sample of the Paula-research project. The children who participated in the study were all successively multilingual children with a foreign background whose first language and language spoken at home was other than Finnish, Swedish or Sámi. The children of the research group (n = 21) participated in weekly small group activities in the kindergarten for about six months. The aim of the small group intervention was to support the development of the Finnish language. There were no similar small group intervention in the kindergartens of the control group (n = 19). The development of narrative skills was assessed using the Kissatarina -test. Narrative skills were measured twice every six months. Key Findings and Discussion: The narrative skills of both the research and control groups developed during the six-month follow-up. Looking at both groups, the increase in both the mean length of the expression and the information score of the narrative between the initial and final measurements were statistically significant. When comparing the groups, a statistically significant difference was found only in the positive development of the information score of the narrative. The higher information scores of the final measurement were 24% explained by the background variables group (study) and the sex of the child (girl). The results of the study provided indications that small group intervention supports the development of Finnish-speaking narrative skills of multilingual children. In further research, the results could be analyzed more qualitatively and compared with monolingual children.

Tavoitteet. Kuulovamma voi aiheuttaa sanahaun, toiminnanohjauksen ja sanaston kehittymisen viivettä. Näitä taitoja tarvitaan sanasujuvuustehtävässä ja Nopean sarjallisen nimeämisen (RAN) testissä. Aiemmissa tutkimuksissa musiikkiharjoittelun on huomattu vaikuttavan positiivisesti normaalikuuloisten lasten kielellisiin taitoihin ja toiminnan ohjauksen säätelyyn. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on selvittää, miten alle kouluikäiset, kuulovammaiset lapset suoriutuvat sanasujuvuustehtävästä ja RAN-testistä ennen musiikki-interventiota ja sen jälkeen ja vaikuttaako musiikki-interventio tulosten kehittymiseen. Tutkimus on osa MULAPAPU-tutkimushanketta. Menetelmät. Tähän tutkimukseen osallistui neljätoista 2–6-vuotiasta kuulovammaista lasta, jotka käyttivät molemminpuolisia sisäkorvaistutteita tai kuulokojeita tai toisessa korvassa istutetta ja toisessa kojetta. Tutkimuksen mittausmenetelminä käytettiin RAN-testiä ja sanasujuvuustehtävää. Sanasujuvuustehtävässä tarkasteltiin hyväksyttyjen sanojen lisäksi sanahaunstrategioita sekä klusteri- ja virhetyyppejä. Tutkimusasetelma oli vaihtovuoroinen: osalla lapsista oli odotusperiodi ennen interventiota ja osalla sen jälkeen eli lapset toimivat itse omina verrokkeinaan. Tehtäväsuoriutumista ja intervention aikaista kehitystä tarkasteltiin tilastollisesti taustamuuttujaryhmittäin, joihin tutkittavat jaettiin kuulolaitteiden, sukupuolen ja ikäryhmän mukaan. Musiikki-intervention vaikuttavuutta tarkasteltiin interventioperiodin ja odotusperiodien aikana tuloksissa tapahtuneita muutoksia vertailemalla. Tulokset ja pohdinta. Koko ryhmää tarkasteltaessa tilastollisesti merkitseviä muutoksia intervention aikana tapahtui eniten sanasujuvuustehtävän vaatekategoriassa. Taustamuuttujaryhmistä iällä oli vahva yhteys parempaan suoriutumiseen ja suurempaan kehitykseen. Vanhempien lasten ryhmä kehittyi nuorempia tilastollisesti merkitsevästi enemmän intervention aikana ja sai merkitsevästi parempia tuloksia eläin ja vaatekategoriassa intervention jälkeisellä mittauskerralla. RAN-tehtävässä tilastollisesti merkitseviä muutoksia ei tapahtunut. Odotusperiodeilla tutkittavat eivät kehittyneet tilastollisesti merkitsevästi kummassakaan tehtävässä, mutta interventioperiodilla vanhemmista lapsista koostunut kevään 2020 ryhmä kehittyi vaatekategoriassa usean muuttujan kohdalla tilastollisesti merkitsevästi. Tulosten perusteella musiikkia kannattaa käyttää kuulovammaisten lasten kuntoutuksessa jo ennen kouluikää, sillä se voi vaikuttaa positiivisesti lasten sanahakuun.

Tavoitteet. Kasvavan tutkimusnäytön perusteella ultraäänilaitteen visuaalista palautetta voidaan hyödyntää äännevirhekuntoutuksessa. Ultraäänikuva voi auttaa asiakkaita havaitsemaan kielen sijainnin ja liikkeet äänteen tuoton aikana edistäen äänteen motorisen tuottotavan oppimista. Aiempien utkimuksien mukaan visuaalisesta palautteesta voivat hyötyä erityisesti ne asiakkaat, jotka ovat saaneet aiempaa äännevirhekuntoutusta mutta eivät ole oppineet tavoiteäännettä. Tutkimusta on toistaiseksi tehty vähän muilla kuin englannin kielellä. Tässä tutkimuksessa kehitetään perkeptuaalisen arvioinnin verkkosovellus, jolla voidaan arvioida ultraäänikuntoutuksen vaikutusta [r]-äänteen tuottotapaan. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan perkeptuaalisen arvioinnin yhdenmukaisuutta, sen soveltuvuutta äännevirheiden arviointimenetelmäksi sekä arvioijan kokemuksen vaikutusta arviointituloksiin. Tutkimuksessa arvioidaan myös alustavasti ultraäänilaitteen soveltuvuutta [r]-äännevirhekuntoutukseen. Menetelmät. Tutkimus on monitapaustutkimus, johon osallistui neljä 10–11-vuotiasta poikaa. Kaikilla osallistujilla oli primaari [r]-äännevirhe. Tutkimusaineisto lasten [r]-äänteistä ja niiden varianteista kerättiin interventiossa kolmena ajankohtana: intervention alussa, puolessa välissä ja lopussa. 11 arvioijaa (6 puheterapeuttia ja 5 logopedian opiskelijaa) ja arvioi kuulonvaraisesti 181 sanoista eristettyä äännenäytettä verkkosovelluksella. 12 näytettä arvioitiin kategorisesti ja 169 jatkuvan muuttujan asteikolla. Perkeptuaalisen arvioinnin aineisto analysoitiin tilastollisin menetelmin, ja lasten äänteiden arviointituloksia tarkasteltiin ryhmä- ja yksilötasolla. Tulokset. Arvioijien yhdenmukaisuus (ICC2) oli intervention alun arviointituloksissa 0,83 (p<0,001), intervention puolivälissä 0,89 (p<0,001) ja intervention lopussa 0.92 (p<0,001). [r]-äänteen tuottotavassa oli tilastollisesti merkitsevä ero intervention alun ja lopun mittausten välillä ryhmä ja yksilötasolla (Wilcoxonin järjestettyjen sijalukujen testi, p<0,001). Äänteen tuottotavoissa oli tilastollisesti merkitsevä ero myös intervention alun ja puolivälin sekä puolivälin ja lopun mittausten välillä ryhmä- ja yksilötasolla (p<0,001), paitsi puolivälin ja lopun mittauksien välillä lapsilla 1 (p ≈ 0,78) ja 3 (p ≈ 0,62). Puheterapeuttien ja logopedian opiskelijoiden arviointituloksien välillä oli tilastollisesti merkitsevä ero intervention alun arviointituloksissa (Mann-Whitneyn U-testi, p ≈ 0,0036), mutta eroa ei ollut intervention puolivälin (p ≈ 0,067) eikä lopun arviointituloksissa (p ≈ 0,80). Johtopäätökset. Perkeptuaalisen arvioinnin verkkosovellus vas-janaa käyttämällä osoittautui luotettavaksi menetelmäksi suomen kielen [r]-äännevirhekuntoutuksen vaikutuksen arvioimisessa, sillä arvioijien antamien arviointituloksien yhdenmukaisuus oli hyvää tai erinomaista tasoa. Arviointitulokset vas-janalla kuvastivat [r]-äänteen ja sen varianttien tuottotapaa. Alustavien tuloksien perusteella kaikki neljä lasta vaikuttivat hyötyneen [r]-äännevirheen ultraääni-interventiosta. Perkeptuaalisen arvioinnin tuloksia tulisi verrata jatkossa akustisiin analyyseihin tai ultraäänikuvien kvantitatiivisiin analyyseihin suuremmalla otoskoolla intervention laajemman vaikuttavuuden selvittämiseksi. Perkeptuaalisen arvioinnin verkkosovellus on sellaisenaan valmis jatkotutkimuksessa käytettäväksi.

Speech pathologist is in charge of AAC implementation in Finnish health care. A speech impaired person can also be granted additional support from an AAC teacher as adaptation training. This service supports other means of rehabilitation. There is only little research on the teamwork of speech pathologists and AAC-teachers both internationally and in Finland, but it appears so that the teamwork has been rare but there is motivation for increasing the teamwork. This thesis tries to sort out the experiences of speech pathologists and communication teachers working inside the Helsinki metropolitan area regarding teamwork between the two different professional groups. This thesis focuses on what kind of experiances the professionals have, the factors affecting the teamwork and finding out what kind of teamwork is seen as beneficial for each professional´s own work. The subjects of this thesis were 21 speech pathologists and 12 AAC teachers working inside the Helsinki metropolitan area. The subjects worked as entrepreneurs or in private enterprises, basic health care, special health care or organizations. The working experience of the subjects varied between 1 and over 10 years. The data was gathered by a questionnaire and analyzed with inductive content analysis. The teamwork between speech pathologists and AAC teachers appears to not be common and sometimes there is no teamwork ar all. Both the speech therapists and AAC teachers are however motivated in increasing and developing the teamwork. The most important factors affecting the teamwork are challenges in timing, lack of knowledge and the flow of information. Both professional groups felt sharing information, joint goalmaking, setting a division of labour, joint planning and learning from each other to be beneficial. The challenges that hinder the teamwork cand be lessened by for example adding information and education in the matter.

Varhaisen sanaston koostumus kehittyy sanaston määrällisen kehityksen myötä. Sanaston koostumuksen on havaittu kehittyvän omaksuttavasta kielestä riippumatta pääpiirteittäin samantyyppisesti. Aiemmissa tutkimuksissa on löydetty yhteyksiä varhaisen sanaston kehityksen ja muiden kielellisten taitojen kehityksen välillä. Sanaston koostumuksen kehityksen yhteyttä muihin kielellisiin taitoihin on kuitenkin tutkittu vain vähän. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli tarkastella ilmaistun sanaston koostumuksen kehitystä toisen ikävuoden lopulla sekä sen yhteyksiä ymmärretyn ja ilmaistun kielen kokonaistasoon kaksivuotiaana. Tämän tutkimuksen otos (n = 50) koostui Sanaseula-tutkimushankkeen tutkittavista. Tutkittavat olivat terveitä suomenkielisten perheiden lapsia. Ilmaistun sanaston koostumusta mitattiin 18 ja 24 kuukauden iässä Varhaisen kommunikaation ja kielen kehityksen arviointimenetelmällä. Menetelmästä käytettiin Lapsen kommunikaation kehitys: Sanat, taivutukset ja lauseet -versiota. Ilmaistun sanaston koostumusta tarkasteltiin sanakategorioiden raakapisteiden, word opportunity -pisteiden sekä kokosanamäärästä laskettujen prosentuaalisten osuuksien avulla. Ymmärretyn ja ilmaistun kielen kokonaistasoa mitattiin 24 kuukauden iässä Reynellin kielellisen kehityksen testillä sekä Bayley III -testin kielellisen kehityksen asteikolla. Ilmaistun sanaston koostumuksen sekä ymmärretyn ja ilmaistun kielen kokonaistason välisiä yhteyksiä tutkittiin Spearmanin korrelaatiokertoimien ja lineaaristen regressiomallien avulla. Ilmaistut sanastot koostuivat 18 kuukauden iässä enimmäkseen sosiaalis-pragmaattisista sanoista sekä substantiiveista. Toisen ikävuoden lopulla tutkittavat omaksuivat ilmaistuihin sanastoihinsa erityisesti substantiiveja sekä verbejä. Sosiaalis-pragmaattisten sanojen prosentuaalinen osuus pieneni, kun taas muiden sanakategorioiden prosentuaaliset osuudet kasvoivat toisen ikävuoden lopulla. Ilmaistun sanaston koostumuksen yhteydet ilmaistun kielen kokonaistasoon olivat pääosin vahvempia kuin vastaavat yhteydet ymmärretyn kielen kokonaistasoon. 24 kuukauden iässä mitattu ilmaistun sanaston koostumus korreloi pääosin 18 kuukauden iässä mitattua vahvemmin kahden vuoden iässä mitatun ymmärretyn ja ilmaistun kielen kokonaistason kanssa. Ilmaistun sanaston sanakategorioiden raakapisteet 18 ja 24 kuukauden iässä selittivät yhdessä sukupuolen kanssa ymmärretyn sekä ilmaistun kielen kokonaistasoa kahden vuoden iässä tilastollisesti merkitsevästi. Ilmaistun sanaston koostumus selitti selvästi paremmin ilmaistun kielen kokonaistasoa kuin ymmärretyn kielen kokonaistasoa. Tutkimuksen tulokset tukevat näkemystä, että tyttöjen varhaiset kielelliset taidot ovat keskimäärin poikia paremmat, ja että varhaisessa kielenkehityksessä ilmenee huomattavaa yksilöllistä vaihtelua. Tulokset osoittavat, että varhaisen sanaston koon arvioimisen lisäksi on aiheellista tarkastella myös sanaston koostumusta, sillä näin saadaan tarkempaa tietoa lapsen varhaisista kielellisistä taidoista.

Aims. Speech processing has traditionally been studied with simple paradigms that do not take the variety of natural speech perception situations into consideration. Speech processing in everyday situations becomes more difficult if, for example, the auditory quality of speech is poor, there are other distracting voices in the listening environment or if the semantic context of the conversation is not clear. Nevertheless, humans possess an exceptional capability to selectively attend to a specific speech stream even in suboptimal listening conditions. In a recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, participants followed audiovisual dialogues amongst distracting speech. The dialogues were presented in various experimental conditions including two different levels of semantic predictability. The results gave support to the novel notion that high-level semantic information has an impact already at lower levels of auditory processing. The aim of the present study was to examine whether support for this notion would be demonstrated using a method that has a better temporal resolution than fMRI. I examined the effects and interaction of semantic context and selective attention in the processing of naturalistic speech using the same stimuli as the recent fMRI study but collected neurophysiological data with electroencephalography (EEG) as it has a temporal resolution of milliseconds. Methods. Thirty adults selectively attended to audiovisual two-person dialogues with distracting speech in the background during EEG recordings. Half of the dialogues had a coherent narrative and the other half consisted of mixed lines from unrelated dialogues. The participants answered questions on dialogue content. In addition, the participants carried out a visual control task during which they were instructed to ignore all speech. I analyzed behavioral performance and event-related potentials (ERPs) timed to the beginning of dialogue lines in the two tasks. Results and conclusions. Based on the behavioral results, a coherent semantic context enhanced speech intelligibility. The ERP results suggested that semantic contextual coherence modulated the processes of auditory selective attention at around 180 ms after dialogue line onset. This attentional effect was significant only when the dialogues were attended to, and the semantic context was coherent. Furthermore, the beginnings of lines in incoherent dialogues elicited a P300 effect which could be linked to memory-related operations of contextual updating. Alternative interpretations are discussed. In conclusion, the present study provides both behavioral and neural evidence that semantic contextual information enhances the processes of auditory selective attention in compromised listening conditions. A coherent semantic context seems to facilitate the processing of contextually relevant information through semantic priming already at early stages of auditory attentional processing.

Background. Aphasia is a deficit of language and cognition caused by brain damage. Rehabilitation is based on reactivating and reorganizing the nervous system – or learning things anew. Learning is based on many factors, that would require more thorough examination to best allocate and plan rehabilitation. The impact of reaction speed on the ability to learn novel words has not yet been studied in aphasic patients, although inter- and intraindividual variability in their reaction times clearly exists. Some aphasic patients have also been associated with a behavioral pattern called speed-accuracy trade-off, a pattern where a person balances between acting fast or accurately. This has led to overly cautious or overly hasty responding in some aphasic patients, which potentially could influence the learning ability. Objectives. The purpose of this study is to examine reaction times and response accuracy and their possible relationship in a novel word learning task in aphasic patients and healthy controls. Special interest is placed on the occurrence of speed-accuracy trade-offs, or overly cautious or fast responding related to response accuracy outcome. Additionally, it is being examined if intrapersonal variability in reaction times predicts novel word learning ability. Methods. The participants of this study consist of 10 aphasic patients in subacute stage and 21 healthy age-matched controls. This study was executed as a part of “Opi sanoja” research project, in which novel word learning ability was studied through a computer-based word learning task. The purpose of the task was to learn six pseudo-words associated with a picture. The pictures were shown in pairs, of which the examinee was told to choose the right one according to seen and heard pseudo-word and earlier received feedback. Reaction speed was measured by reaction times recorded by the word learning task. Reaction times were compared with response accuracy in and between the study groups. Results and conclusions. Aligned with previous studies, aphasic patients learned novel words worse than the controls, although great interindividual variability was noted. The reaction times of aphasic patients were significantly slower, but again interindividual variability was large in the group. Reaction speed correlated with novel word learning in the control group, but not significantly in the aphasic group. Intraindividual reaction time variability was notable in both groups, being twice as large in the aphasic group. Broader intraindividual variability correlated with weaker novel word learning ability in the control group. The speed-accuracy trade-off pattern occurred in two aphasic patients: one with overly cautious and one with overly hasty response behavior. According to this study, examining reaction times and possibly speed-accuracy trade-offs with, for example, a specific learning test would help to recognize the patients with maladaptive timing patterns. This would benefit the patient, as optimizing the speed-accuracy trade-offs has been studied to improve item naming, the effect even being transferred to connected speech. The relationship of speed-accuracy trade-offs with novel word learning requires further studying, taking into consideration factors behind reaction times and word learning ability.

Background and Objectives. An individual with complex communication needs mainly communicates otherwise than by means of speech, for example by sign language, writing or a communication device. However, the purpose of the messages may remain unclear to the communication partners. A person may be at risk of being left out in interaction situations. In order to set rehabilitation goals, it is advisable to evaluate communication skills using a variety of methods, and it is therefore justified to look for new kinds of assessment methods. The purpose of this study was to try out two assessment methods from the EMC3 communication assessment and rehabilitation model: sensory assessment and communication assessment. It is known that the EMC3 method has not been widely used in Finland, and there are no international publications available on it. The EMC3 method is based on mapping out interesting sensations and individual responses and, based on them, creating meaningful rehabilitation goals for communication. Method. In this qualitative case study, the EMC3 method was tested on one five-year-old child with autism spectrum disorder. The research material consisted of interviews and comments by two speech therapists, one occupational therapist, and the child's father, as well as the author's observations regarding the method. The interviews were transcribed and the material was analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results. Based on sensory assessment some new sensations of interest to the child were found, as well as surprising things about how the child acted. On the other hand, some of the issues that emerged in the assessment contradicted previous knowledge. The child participating in the study may have been more skilled than the intended target group of the method. On the basis of the assessment, the people involved in the study suggested some goals for communication rehabilitation, but setting goals was also perceived challenging. The assessment gave the child's father new ideas for diversifying communication with his child. The goal to determine the meaning of a particular sense did not seem valid. Instead, information about attractiveness of individual stimuli was provided. The Communication Assessment questionnaire proved useful in collecting basic information about a child's communication skills in different situations. Conclusions. Sensory assessment in combination with the Communication assessment questionnaire may be a useful part of creating the goals of communication rehabilitation for a person who communicates at a prelinguistic level. Individual interests that have emerged in the sensory assessment could be used to create successful interaction situations, and thus to increase the motivation and opportunities for communication in people who communicate in a pre-linguistic way.