Browsing by master's degree program "Logopedian maisteriohjelma"

Aims. Past research has shown that hearing impaired adolescents are at a higher risk of experiencing psychosocial difficulties than their hearing peers. The research into the factors related to the psychosocial well-being of hearing-impaired adolescents has not yet come to an unambiguous conclusion. There are indications that the wellbeing of hard-of-hearing youths would be related to their communicative abilities and the functioning of their hearing among other things. This study examines self-perceived psychosocial difficulties and strengths of adolescents with hearing impairment and factors associated with these difficulties and strengths. These results also are being compared to results of psychosocial well-being obtained from Finnish adolescents. Methods. 12 11-17-year-old youths with hearing impairment filled in the Finnish version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-Fin) and a background questionnaire. Adolescents with other sensory deficits or disabilities were excluded from this study. Statistical analysis was performed to search for associations between psychosocial well-being and its related factors. Results and conclusions. The participants experienced more psychosocial difficulties than their Finnish peers. Emotional symptoms and peer problems were emphasized in the reports of participants. They also experienced more strengths in psychosocial well-being compared to their peers. In this study girls experienced more difficulties than boys. Participants experienced fewer difficulties in psychosocial wellbeing when their communicative abilities were good. These results can be used to improve and develop rehabilitation of hearing-impaired children and youths.

Background and the aims of the study. Previous studies show that adult immigrants face chal-lenges especially in producing diphthongs and differences in Finnish speech sound lengths. However, to date there has been no evaluation method to assess immigrant’s pronunciation in Finnish. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the Phonology test is applicable for assessing adult immigrant’s pronunciation of Finnish. This applicability was assessed by examining what the results of the Phonology test revealed about research subject’s pronun-ciation, how these results differed from the ones of a sentence test, which was developed for this study in particular, how well they recognised the words in the Phonology test. In addition, how and for whom the test could be applicable in future were also studied. Research subjects and methods. The study was carried out as a comperative multi-case stu-dy in which the data was examined both quantitatively and qualitatively. The data was obtai-ned as a part of a PhD dissertation at The University of the Arts Helsinki examining the effects of choir singing in adult immigrant’s Finnish language learning. The research data consisted of ten adult immigrant’s recordings and research forms of the Phonology test and sentence test. The data were statistically analysed with SPSS-program using a dependent sample t-test and the Pearson correlation coefficient. Results and conclusions. All research subjects received rather good scores in the Phonology test and there was not any significant deviation. The results of the Phonology test and the sentence test were quite similar in terms of the mean difference in speech sound length. The pronounciation challenges appeared in the Phonology test were also found in the sentence test and vice versa. The subjects were able to produce short speech sounds distincly shorter than long speech sounds in almost every word in the sentence test. Principally, the subjects recognised the words in the Phonology test well. Based on these results, the Phonology test was moderately applicable to assess adult immigrants’ pronunciation of Finnish.

Semantic fluency task is often used as part of an assesment to investigate children’s lexical development. Semantic fluency task measures the ability to generate words within a certain category and within a restricted amount of time. In previous studies, children’s semantic fluency skills have increased as the child grows. In addition, word retrieval strategies have been found to enhance word recall in the semantic fluency task with school-aged children and adults. However, there is only little knowledge regarding the use of word retrieval strategies in the semantic fluency task with preschool aged children. So far, in previous studies word retrieval strategies in the task have not been investigated with children under the age of 4. The aim of this study was to examine whether there are differences in 2 to 5 year old children’s performance in the semantic fluency task and whether children’s gender or their parent’s socioeconomic status had an impact on their performance. In addition, the children’s ability of using word retrieval strategies were explored and the relation between the use of word retrieval strategies and the number of correct words were evaluated. The study sample included 79 children. Children completed two semantic fluency tasks guided by their parents in an online questionnaire. During the tasks, the children generated words belonging to the semantic category of animals and clothes within a minute. The performance was evaluated on the basis of the number of correct words, errors and error types. Word retrieval strategies were studied by examining clusters, semantic subcategories and switches between subcategories. The results of this study showed that age had a strong relation to performance on fluency tasks as measured with a number of correct words, clusters, semantic subcategories and switches. The new result was that even 2 year old children could generate correct words for the task and utilize word retrieval strategies in the tasks. The children’s gender or parents’ socioeconomic status had no effect on performance in the semantic fluency tasks. Number of clusters, semantic subcategories and switches had a positive relation to the number of correct words which indicated that successful word retrieval required use of fluency strategies even with preschool aged children. However, due to the lack of previous research data, more research regarding children’s word retrieval strategies is necessary. This study is the first in which the children’s word fluency task was guided by their parents. Clinical practice and further studies could benefit from these results that such a research design would appear to be suitable for assessing children’s semantic fluency.

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.

Autism spectrum is neurodevelopmental characteristic, the central feature of which is an abnormality in interaction of the person with other people and their environment. Mild autism spectrum is not associated with a significant delay in linguistic–cognitive development. Mild autism spectrum is often detected later than a more severe autism spectrum, or it may not be detected at all, which can weaken the well-being of both families and individuals on the autism spectrum. Delaying intervention can weaken intervention results and require more health-care resources than early intervention. In Finland, speech therapists perform a developmental assessment in which the increased probability of autism spectrum disorder is identified. However, there are no official recommendations for detecting mild autism spectrum, so there may be differences in practices. In this study, detection practices for mild autism spectrum in speech therapy are ascertained. The research was carried out as a survey, which was fully answered by 20 and partially (at least six answers) by ten speech therapists. In particular, the survey investigated the structure and resources of the service system, the availability and use of high-quality screening methods and the clinical competence and the experiences of speech therapists. The data were analysed by creating graphs, cross-tabulation and assessing percentages. The answers to the open questions were tabulated and themes were searched for in the answers using colour coding and tabulation. Detection of mild autism spectrum takes place in different medical units. Most typically, children under school age were taken to the speech therapist's assessment with a referral from the counseling center, but often in mild autism spectrum, early detection was not even attempted. Speech therapists make an extensive overall assessment using various of methods. The use of standardized autism spectrum screening methods was quite low. The clinical symptoms were stressed the most in the conclusions of assessment. Differences were observed between both service structures and professionals. Of the individual factors, age, other possible disorders, language and cultural background, and the severity of the autism spectrum affect the detection process. The speech therapists felt that they had received information about the special features of detecting mild autism spectrum to varying degrees. The themes of the speech therapists' experiences were multidisciplinary, practical methods of operation and observations, and diagnostic challenges. Efforts should be made to unify the practices of speech therapists, and the goal should be early detection of mild autism spectrum. More attention should be paid to the mild autism spectrum in girls. However, the extensive assessment of development by speech therapists contributes to the detection of key rehabilitation needs.

Tutkielmassa tarkasteltiin ja vertailtiin tyypillisesti kehittyneiden moni- ja yksikielisten 11-vuotiaiden lasten kuultujen kertomusten ymmärtämiseen tarvittavia taitoja. Kertomuksilla viitataan tässä tutkielmassa suullisesti tuotettuihin lyhyisiin kuvitteellisiin tarinoihin. Monikielisen kehityksen ja siihen liittyvien haasteiden erottaminen kielen kehityksen häiriöistä voi olla haastavaa, sillä usein monikielisten lasten kielen kehitystä arvioidaan yksikielisten lasten mukaan normitettujen arviointityökalujen avulla. Olisi kuitenkin tärkeää kerätä lisää tietoa monikielisten lasten ja nuorten tyypillisestä toisen kielen kehityksestä, jotta voidaan tunnistaa siitä poikkeavat ilmenemismuodot paremmin. Erityisesti monikielisten kouluikäisten lasten ja nuorten kielen kehityksestä on vähän tietoa. Kuultujen kertomusten ymmärtämiseen vaaditaan ymmärtävän kielen ja kielellis-kognitiivisia taitoja sekä se on tärkeä edellytys oppimiselle. Lisäksi tutkielmassa tarkasteltiin sukupuolen ja altistumisiän sekä tutkittavien vanhempien koulutustaustan, työtilanteen ja suomen kielen taitotason vaikutusta kuultujen kertomusten ymmärtämisen taitoihin. Tutkimukseen osallistui 12 monikielistä lasta ja 21 yksikielistä verrokkia. Kuultujen kertomusten ymmärtämisen taitoja mitattiin Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (5. painos) -testin kertomusten ymmärtäminen -osatestin avulla. Tutkittavien taustatietoja kerättiin vanhempien täyttämän taustatietolomakkeen avulla. Tuloksia analysoitiin kuvailevalla tilastoanalyysillä Microsoft Excel ja IBM SPSS Statistics 28 -ohjelmien avulla. Monikieliset tutkittavat suoriutuivat kertomusten ymmärtäminen -osatestissä kokonaispisteissä ja lähes kaikissa osa-alueiden pisteissä tilastollisesti merkitsevästi heikommin kuin yksikieliset tutkittavat. Tutkittavien sukupuolella, altistumisiällä tai heidän vanhempiensa koulutustaustalla tai työtilanteella ei ollut tilastollisesti merkitsevää vaikutusta testissä suoriutumiseen. Tutkimuksessa tehdyt löydökset ovat tärkeitä huomioida monikielisten lasten kielellisiä taitoja arvioitaessa, sillä monikielisten lasten heikommat kielelliset taidot toisessa kielessä yksikielisiin ikäverrokkeihin verrattuna eivät välttämättä johdu heidän kielellisistä haasteistaan vaan ne saattavat liittyä tyypilliseen monikieliseen kehitykseen. Kun tunnetaan monikielisten lasten kertomusten ymmärtämisen taidot ja mahdolliset haasteet yksikielisiin ikäverrokkeihin verrattuna, voidaan tukea heidän kertomusten ymmärtämistään ja oppimistaan esimerkiksi kouluympäristössä.

Aim of the study. The aim of this thesis was to examine the self-repairs and their development in 4–5 years old children, who were learning finnish as their second language. It was also meant to find out, if the development of self-repairs was somehow different due to a linguistic small group intervention and along that, possibly enchanced language learning. Earlier research about the multilingual children's self-repair's development has been quite few, but the theme is interesting because of the known connections of self-repairs and the abilities of linguistic processing, for example (Zuniga & Simard, 2019). The previous studies have shown that the self-repairs of speech are usually targeted at such things that the child is lingually aquiring at that agepoint (Laakso, 2006). It is also known that higher levels of lingual knowledge are connected to more complex self-repairs (Dumont, 2010). Methods. There were 20 multilingual 4–5-year-old children, from the PAULA-project of the universities of Helsinki and Turku, who were chosen to the sample of this thesis. Half of them took part in a linguistic small group intervention during the one-year follow-up. This thesis' qualitative material included videotapes from the playsessions of child and research assistant. The videotapes were annotated using ELAN-software and every self-repair of the children was classified by the maker of self-repair initiation, the type of self-repair initiator and it's position and the self-repair's target. Statistics were made based on the classified self-repairs, and a quantitative analysis was carried out by observing statistical characteristics and using a repeated measures ANOVA. Results and conclusions. Results of the repeated measures ANOVA were not statistically significant, but some medium to strong effect sizes were noticed. At the level of the whole group (N = 20) there was a decrease in the number of self-repairs that begun without any clear initiator, which might denote that the abilities of using different initiators of self-repair are evolved in multilingual children at the age of four to five years. Also, the amounts of syntactic and morphological repairs were increased, which may in turn indicate that the syntactic and morphological parts of language become the core of linguistic development of multilingual children at that age. About the effects of the intervention was, for their part, noted that the usage of self-repair's initiator combinations and phonological repairs was increased in the intervention group. When assessing the reliability of the results, it should be rememberd that the statistical significance was not reached and that the sample was small.

Other-initations of repair are turns where speaker express to the interlocutor that there was some problem with receiving the previous turn. Problems can for example be related to hearing or understanding the previous turn. Other-initations of repair are used for maintaining the intersubjectivity of the conversation i.e. mutual understanding between the participants. By studying the other-initations of repairs by multilingual children information can be obtained for example about language development and conversations skills of multilingual children. The purpose of this thesis was to study the other-initations of repair used by 5-year old multilingual children. The study aimed to find out what type of other-inititations of repair multilingual children use, what kind of problems children were dealing with by other-initiation of repair and in what situations the other-initations or repair are used. The study was also comparing the other- initations of repair by children in play and evaluation situations. 6 multilingual 5-year old children were selected for the sample from the participants of the PAULA project of Univercities of Helsinki and Turku. The language background of all subjects was Russian. Material consisted of videos about play and evaluation situations between children and logopedics students. The other-initations of repair by children were annotated from the videos with ELAN program and classified by using a ready-made template. A total of 27 other-initations of repair were found and analysed qualitatively using conversation analysis. The study found that the most common type of other-initations of repair by 5-year old multilingual children was open repair initations with a total of 14 of all the found other-initations of repairs. The second most common type of other-initation of repair was candidate understandings with a total of 13. The study revealed that children used bodily repair initations in particular. Repetition of the previous turn also emerged as a common type of other-initation of repair. Multilingual children used the other-initations of repairs more in the evaluation situations than in play situations. The other-initations of repair used by children were found to be particularly focused on situations where the child was expected to respond or act in response to the adult's turn. The children often brought up the whole previous turn with their other-initations of repair.

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.

Tiivistelmä - Referat – Abstract Objectives. Previous research has shown that different types of speech and language impediments are very common amongst young offenders. These difficulties can affect different linguistic subskills, such as speaking, understanding, reading and writing. They are often undiagnosed and can be confused with other afflictions, for example, behavioural problems. Difficulties can affect education and can weaken an offender’s ability to cope in different situations during the judicial process and prison sentences. In previous international studies, speech and language difficulties have been apparent both using objective measurements and also according to the offenders’ own opinions of their capabilities. In Finland, this is the first study of its kind. The objective of this study was to investigate Finnish-speaking young adult offenders’ own perspectives of their language and literacy skills. In addition, the aim was to investigate how possible language and literacy difficulties have had an effect on them in different situations, and whether these young adult offenders are willing to improve their skills. This study also investigated whether they are interested in receiving external support, such as speech and language therapy Methods. This was an empirical, qualitative research project, and the data was collected using semi-structured interviews. In total, ten Finnish-speaking young adult (male) offenders aged between 18 and 29 from two prisons in Finland participated in this study. Findings and conclusions. Young adult offenders mostly assessed their own language and literacy skills to be average, though they also mentioned different problems affecting their speech, understanding, reading and writing skills. Such difficulties had an impact on their interactions with different authorities, but also their abilities to cope within the judicial process and any prison sentence. They felt that their lawyers had provided important help in linguistically challenging situations. Most of the participants were keen to develop their language and literacy skills with external support. The results show that it is important to recognise offenders with language and literacy difficulties in the Finnish legal system, and to train authorities and staff working with them to recognise these difficulties more effectively. This could be a task for a speech-language therapist (SLT) or a special legal interpreter with the guidance of an SLT. Recognising language and literacy difficulties and supporting offenders who struggle with them can help to create a non-discriminatory judicial process, improving offenders’ commitment to rehabilitative activities and promoting their integration in society.