Browsing by master's degree program "Logopedian maisteriohjelma"
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(2021)Assessing children’s early communication skills is important for preventing possible later language difficulties. The Finnish version of Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales, Developmental Profile (FinCSBS) is a screening tool in which parents assess their 6-24 months old child’s development in social communication, understanding and speech. Earlier studies have found connections between early communication skills and later language development. However, these language tests have been limited. The aim of this study was to examine the usability of FinCSBS for assessing 2-year-old children and the possible associations of their early communication skills with receptive and expressive language, naming and the use of inflectional forms at 3,5 years of age. This study sample is part of the validation study of the short form version of the MacArthur Communication Inventories Finnish version (Sanaseula study). Participants (N=50) were typically developed children from monolingual Finnish families. Parents filled out the FinCSBS checklist when their children were 2 years old. The same children were assessed again at 3,5 years of age with different tests (Reynell Developmental Language Scales III, Boston Naming Test and Finnish Morfological Test). Associations between early communications skills and later language skills were studied by using Spearman’s correlation coefficient and logistical regression analysis. The stability of skills was examined by comparing whether there were differencies in later language skills between those who had succeeded poorly, typically or well earlier in FinCSBS. There were no correlations between the total scores of FinCSBS at 2 years of age and language skills year and a half later. However, this study shows a trend that the level of competence is a rather stable quality so that weak early communications skills will manifest later on as weak language skills. In this study, early understanding did correlate with a later ability to use inflectional forms. It is recommended to use FinCSBS with typically developing children earlier than at 2 years of age when the prelinguistic period is ending and most children will get high scores in the assessment.
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(2023)Tässä maisterintutkielmassa tutkitaan tyypillisesti kehittyneiden viisivuotiaiden lasten tekemiä toisen puheeseen kohdistuvia korjausaloitteita. Korjausaloitteilla tarkoitetaan keskustelun vuoroja, joilla puolustetaan intersubjektiivisuutta eli keskustelijoiden keskinäistä ymmärrystä osoittamalla ja nostamalla käsiteltäväksi jokin ongelma edeltäneen vuoron vastaanottamisessa. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on selvittää lasten keskusteluissa kohtaamien ongelmien laatua ja lasten keinoja ongelmien käsittelyyn. Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan myös, onko lasten aloittamissa korjausjaksoissa eroja, kun korjausaloite tehdään leikkivuorovaikutuksessa oman vanhemman kanssa ja silloin, kun korjausaloite esitetään kielellisen arvioinnin yhteydessä puheterapeutille. Tutkielmassa käytettävä aineisto on kerätty osana Lapsen kehittyvä kieli ja vuorovaikutus -tutkimushanketta. Aineisto koostuu noin 9,5 tunnista videoituja vuorovaikutustilanteita kuudelta eri lapselta. Jokaisen lapsen osalta tarkastellaan leikkivuorovaikutusta oman vanhemman kanssa ja kielellistä arviointitilannetta puheterapeutin kanssa. Tutkimuksen menetelmänä on keskustelunanalyysi, jonka periaatteiden mukaisesti tunnistetaan lasten käyttämät korjausaloitteet. Viisivuotiaat lapset käyttivät monipuolisesti erilaisia korjausaloitteita, mutta niiden käytössä oli suurta lapsikohtaista vaihtelua. Korjausaloitteita käytettiin enemmän leikki- kuin arviointitilanteessa. Eniten korjausaloitteita käytettiin intersubjektiivisuutta uhkaavien ongelmien ratkomiseen, mutta korjausaloitteilla voitiin myös esimerkiksi ilmaista erimielisyyttä tai osoittaa aikuisen vuoron kuuleminen ja ymmärtäminen vastaamatta vuoron sisältöön. Intersubjektiivisuutta uhkaavista ongelmista suurin osa liittyi epäselvään viittaussuhteeseen tai sanan merkitykseen. Arviointitilanteissa korostui leikkivuorovaikutukseen verrattuna vuoron laajempaan merkitykseen ja sen jälkeisiin odotuksiin liittyvät ongelmat, kun taas viittaussuhteiden ongelmat olivat arvioinnissa harvinaisia. Leikkitilanteessa jätettiin arviointitilannetta useammin vastaamatta lapsen korjausaloitteeseen. Tämä tutkimuksen tulokset antavat alustavaa tietoa tyypillisesti kehittyneiden viisivuotiaiden käyttämistä korjausaloitteista ja siitä, miten keskusteluissa kohdatut ongelmat vaikuttivat keinoihin, joilla niitä ratkottiin. Tutkimuksesta saa alustavaa tietoa myös eroista puheterapeutille kielellisessä arviointitilanteessa nostettujen ja omalle vanhemmalle leikkivuorovaikutuksessa nostettujen ongelmien ja niiden ratkaisemiseksi käytettyjen keinojen välillä. Jatkotutkimusta suuremmilla aineistomäärillä ja eri ikäisillä lapsiryhmillä tarvitaan, jotta tuloksia voitaisiin yleistää ja myöhemmin hyödyntää kliinisessä työssä.
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(2023)Tämän maisterintutkielman tarkoituksena on selvittää, millaisia toisen puheeseen kohdistuvia korjausaloitteita 5-vuotiaat tyypillisesti kehittyvät lapset tekevät leikki- ja arviointitilanteissa ja millaisia ongelmia korjausaloitteilla käsitellään. Korjausaloitteilla viitataan sellaisiin keskustelun vuoroihin, joilla osoitetaan keskustelukumppanille, että hänen edellisen vuoronsa vastaanottamisessa on ollut jokin ongelma (Haakana ym., 2016). Tyypillisesti kehittyvien suomenkielisten lasten on todettu omaksuvan kielen ja vuorovaikutuksen perusrakenteet jo noin viiden vuoden ikään mennessä (Lieko, 1993). Koska viisivuotiaat tyypillisesti kehittyneet lapset hallitsevat jo kielen perusrakenteet, ei korjausaloitteiden tekeminen tai tekemättä jättäminen voi olla kiinni siitä, ettei lapsi osaisi käyttää esimerkiksi kysymyssanoja. Tästä syystä on erittäin mielekästä tutkia juuri viisivuotiaiden tyypillisesti kehittyvien lasten erilaisissa vuorovaikutustilanteissa tekemiä korjausaloitteita. Tutkielmassa käytettävä aineisto on kerätty alun perin osana Lapsen kehittyvä kieli ja vuorovaikutus -hanketta. Aineisto koostuu yhteensä noin 8 tunnista ja 19 minuutista tutkimukseen osallistuneista lapsista kuvattuja videotallenteita. Videoista noin puolet on kuvattu arviointitilanteista ja puolet leikkitilanteista. Tutkimukseen osallistuneet lapset olivat aineistonkeruuhetkellä iältään 5;0–6;2-vuotiaita lapsia. Heidän puheen- ja kielen kehityksensä oli arvioitu olevan tyypillistä puheterapeuttisten arviointimenetelmien sekä vanhempien haastattelun perusteella. Tutkielman menetelmänä käytettiin keskustelunanalyysia. 5-vuotiaat tyypillisesti kehittyvät lapset tekivät korjausaloitteita sekä leikki- että arviointilanteissa, mutta tutkimukseen osallistuneiden lasten tekemien korjausaloitteiden määrässä ja käytetyissä korjausaloitetyypeissä oli suurta vaihtelua. Lapset käyttivät koko aineistossa eniten ymmärrysehdokkaita ja toiseksi eniten kysymyssanan ja toiston yhdistelmiä. Lapset tekivät korjausaloitteita leikki- ja arviointitilanteissa keskimäärin 3.6 kertaa tunnissa. Korjausaloitteilla käsiteltiin leikkitilanteissa ainoastaan ymmärtämisen ja arviointitilanteissa sekä ymmärtämisen että kuulemisen ongelmia. Tulokset vastaavat osittain aiempaa suomenkielistä tutkimusta aikuisten ja tyypillisesti kehittyvien lasten sekä kaksikielisten lasten käyttämistä korjausaloitteista. Tämä tutkielma esittää suuntaa antavaa tietoa tyypillisesti kehittyvien 5-vuotiaiden lasten toisen puheeseen tekemistä korjausaloitteita. Lisätutkimusta aiheesta kuitenkin tarvitaan edelleen.
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(2021)Objectives. The aim of this study was to describe, in a single and consecutive way, self-repairs of bilingual children in a play situation and to investigate their possible differences between groups. The aim was to increase information on how and what kind of corrections children at different levels of language do, and how the level of language management affects the quality of self-corrections in Finnish. The research questions were what kind of corrections children make, how they start self-repairing and where the repairs are directed. It was also examined whether the groups differed and, if so, how. Methods. A total of 30 were supported, of whom 15 were monolingual and 15 consecutive bilingual children. The L2 language of all children was Finnish and the linguistic development of all the researchers was typical. The study methods were observation and analysis of literates. The data was analyzed both qualitatively and statistically. Elan annotation programme and SPSS statistics programme were used to analyze the data. Results and reflection. Monolingual children produced more self-repairs than bilingual children. Compared to the total number, the share of self-corrections for bilingual children was slightly higher than that of monolingual children. Both monolingual and bilingual children did the most self-repairs by searching for the next word. In the group of monolingual children, the biggest remedy was speech interruptions, while for bilinguals the largest group were different sounds. Self-repairs by both groups most often targeted the sledge hams. The results are partly in line with previous research data. However, previous studies have found that novice bilingual children prefer repetition in their self-repairs. In this study, on the other hand, monolingual children took more initiatives by repeating bilingual control.
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(2024)Eläinsanasujuvuustehtävää käytetään yleisesti kliinisissä neuropsykologisissa ja puhetera-peuttisissa tutkimuksissa lasten kielellisten ja toiminnanohjauksen taitojen arviointiin. Tehtä-vässä mitataan yleensä hyväksytysti tuotettujen sanojen ja virheiden määrää. Käytetyistä kognitiivisista prosesseista saadaan kuitenkin enemmän tietoa, kun tarkastellaan myös sa-nanhakustrategioiden käyttöä eli sitä, miten lapset kykenevät muodostamaan peräkkäin tuotet-tujen samaan semanttiseen alakategoriaan kuuluvien tai äänteellisesti samankaltaisten sano-jen klustereita ja vaihtamaan tehokkaasti alakategoriasta toiseen. Aiemmissa tutkimuksissa yksikielisten lasten klusterointi- ja vaihtoprosesseista semanttisessa sanasujuvuustehtävässä on saatu ristiriitaisia tuloksia, ja monikielisten lasten sananhakustrategioiden käytöstä on saa-tavilla vain vähän tutkimustietoa. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli tutkia sananhakustrategi-oiden käytön suhdetta tuotettujen sanojen kokonaissanamäärään sekä selvittää mahdollisia eroja yksi- ja monikielisten lasten sananhakustrategioiden ja alakategorioiden käytössä eläin-sanasujuvuustehtävässä. Lisäksi tutkittiin, oliko tutkittavien sukupuolella yhteyttä suorituksiin. Tutkittavana oli 26 monikielistä ja 28 yksikielistä 6–8-vuotiasta lasta, jotka olivat suorittaneet eläinsanasujuvuustehtävän osana laajempaa kielellisten taitojen arviointia. Tehtävässä lapsia pyydettiin tuottamaan mahdollisimman monta eläinsanaa yhden minuutin aikana. Kunkin tutkit-tavan tuottamasta sanalistasta laskettiin kokonaissanamäärän lisäksi klustereiden keskimää-räinen koko, klustereiden ja vaihtojen absoluuttinen ja kokonaistuotokseen suhteutettu määrä sekä alakategorioiden määrä. Lisäksi alakategorioita tarkasteltiin laadullisesti. Monikieliset lapset tuottivat tehtävässä huomattavasti vähemmän sanoja ja käyttivät vähem-män erilaisia alakategorioita kuin yksikieliset lapset. Ryhmien välillä ei ollut eroa semanttisten klustereiden keskimääräisessä koossa, mutta monikieliset lapset tuottivat semanttisia kluste-reita selvästi yksikielisiä lapsia vähemmän. Kokonaistuotokseen suhteutettuna vaihtojen mää-rässä ei ryhmien välillä ollut eroa. Molemmissa ryhmissä klustereiden ja vaihtojen määrä kor-reloi positiivisesti kokonaissanamäärän kanssa, mutta klustereiden koolla ei ollut yhteyttä ko-konaissanamäärään. Näin ollen monikielisten lasten yksikielisiä heikompi kokonaissuoritus näyttää liittyvän tuotettujen semanttisten klustereiden vähäisyyteen ja siihen, että heillä on käytössään vähemmän alakategorioita kuin yksikielisillä lapsilla. Sukupuolen ja tehtävässä suoriutumisen välillä ei havaittu merkittävää yhteyttä.
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(2022)Objectives. Narrative production demands coordination of many linguistic and cognitive skills and therefore it is considered as a multifaceted measurement tool in assessing children’s linguistic skills. Narratives can be observed at global and local levels, in other words through macro- and microstructures. Previous studies have shown contradictory results regarding the ability to distinguish children with developmental language disorder (DLD) from typically developing peers by examining the narrative macrostructures. Regarding the issue, there is a limited research data when examining Finnish as a second language. In this thesis the narrative macrostructures are examined in successive bilingual children with typical and atypical language development. The objective of this thesis is to examine qualitatively the macrostructures, especially story grammar and episodic GAO-structures of the narratives and the qualitative features appearing in above mentioned and in overall structures of the narratives. The thesis aims to clarify the differences and similarities between the typically developed children and children with DLD. Methods. The sample of this thesis was collected in 2021 as a part of the MULTILINGUA -research project. The sample consists of narrative assessments of eight successively bilingual 7- year-old children, four with a typical development and four with a suspected language disorder. The assessments were made with the Kissatarina assessment tool developed by Leena Mäkinen (2019). A theory-based approach was used in the analysis of the story grammar and furthermore the narratives were analyzed qualitatively through a data-driven approach. For the analysis of the story grammar, a scoring template was made using Stein and Glenn’s (1979) story grammar model and the information scoring in the Kissatarina. The expressions children used in the macrostructural elements in their narratives were analyzed in the light of the data, focus being on the settings, episodic structures, and the overall structures of the narratives. Results and conclusions. Overall production of the story grammar elements was poorer with children in the DLD-group in comparison to the children with typical development. In addition, the individual variation within the DLD-group was greater. Differences between the groups appeared most evident in the production of the narrative’s initiating events and expressing characters’ internal reactions and emotions, in which the children in the DLD-group showed weaker performance. For the qualitative analysis, typically developed children mainly produced more complex and coherent narratives. In all examined areas the qualitative differences between individuals were evident. The results of this thesis reveal that assessing the macrostructures in narratives might help in differentiating children with DLD from typically developing children.
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(2021)Aims of the study. Actors, singers and other professional voice users are at a high risk of experiencing voice problems during their careers. The biggest reasons for this are heavy vocal load and the voice user’s internal and external factors. Voice professionals’ voice problems are common, even though the awareness of vocal health and the knowledge and the use of voice care are good. This study aims to map self-reported voice problems and the occupation-spesific special features of voice use in adult voice actors working in Finland. The aim of the survey was to find out what kinds of vocal symptoms exist and how they affect the voice actors’ psycho-social well-being. Moreover the prevalence of risk factors and their connection to voice symptoms was searched. Voice actors’ voice care was also mapped. The aim of this study is to create new knowledge of an unresearched occupation. Methods. The research material was collected using an electronic survey. The survey was created for this research. The survey consisted of research-spesific sections and included both validated sections that had been translated to Finnish (Screen11 and Voice Handicap Index) and sections that were created for this research. In the survey there were both open and closed questions. 24 voice actors answered the questionnaire. The analysis of the research material was done with SPSS. In the qualitative analysis the questions were typificated, compiled to statistics and example answers were chosen. The statistic analysis was used to find out the prevalence of certain phenomena. Saphiro-Wilk normality test was conducted and on basis of the results correlations and the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U -test were chosen over parametric tests. These tests aimed to find out the connections of dependent and independent variables. Results and conclusions. The participating voice actors didn’t report having voice problems within the 12 month period under consideration. Thus voice problems didn’t affect the participants’ experince of psycho-social competence. Other questions, however, revealed a prevalence of 79,2% voice problems. There was no connection of risk factors, such as using demanding voice qualities, to vocal symptoms or the psycho-social experince. Voice actors had searched for and had reseived help from professionals, such as phoniatrists and speech therapists. The experiences of the benefits varied. Nearly all given voice care means were in use. Because the research material was limited and the survey would need some adjustment, more research is needed. This research offers some guidelines in the study of voice actors’ voice problems, but on basis of this research conclusions or generalisations of the prevalence of voice problems or risk factors can’t be made.
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(2023)Tiivistelmä - Referat - Abstract Tausta ja tavoitteet. Transnaisten ääni on usein ristiriidassa heidän sukupuoli-identiteettinsä kanssa. Miehekäs ääni aiheuttaa turhautumista ja tyytymättömyyttä omaan ääneen. Puheterapian asiakasryhmänä transnaiset ovat uusi tulokas ja naisellistavasta ääniterapiasta on tehty Suomessa hyvin vähän tutkimusta. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on selvittää, voidaanko ääniterapialla vaikuttaa transnaisten äänen piirteisiin. Tutkittavat äänen piirteet ovat spontaanipuheen perustaajuuden keskiarvot, minimi- ja maksimiarvot sekä vaihteluväli. Tutkimuksella pyrittiin vastaamaan siihen, onko ääniterapialla vaikutusta transnaisten spontaanipuheen keskimääräiseen perustaajuuteen, perustaajuuden vaihteluväliin tai minimi- ja maksimiarvoihin. Lisäksi pyritään selvittämään, onko taustatekijöillä vaikutusta transnaisten perustaajuusarvojen muutoksiin. Menetelmät. Tutkittavat olivat suomenkielisiä transnaisia (n=6), iältään 22¬–50 vuoden väliltä. Tutkittavat saivat interventiona ääniterapiaa (terapiajakson pituus ka 3) yksilökäynteinä. Tutkittavilta äänitettiin spontaanipuhenäytteet ennen ja jälkeen interventiojakson. Lisäksi tutkittavien äänestä kerättiin tietoa taustakyselyllä ja Transwoman Voice Questionnaire -kyselyllä. Tutkittavien äänen piirteitä ennen ja jälkeen analysoitiin Wilcoxonin merkittyjen järjestyslukujen testillä. Lisäksi taustamuuttujien vaikutusta perustaajuusarvojen muutokseen tarkasteltiin korrelaatiokertoimien ja sirontakuvioiden avulla. Tulokset ja pohdinta. Yleisellä tasolla tutkittavien spontaanipuheen keskimääräinen perustaajuus nousi, mutta tilastollisesti merkitsevää tulosta ei löytynyt. Viidellä tutkittavasta kuudesta perustaajuus nousi (tutkittavat 1,4,5,6 ja 7) ja kolmella perustaajuus nousi sukupuolineutraalille alueelle (145-165 Hz) (tutkittavat tutkittavat 4, 6 ja 7). Perustaajuuden vaihteluvälissä tapahtuneet muutokset olivat vaihtelevia, mikä on samassa linjassa aiempien tutkimusten kanssa. Taustatekijöiden vaikutuksista intervention lopputulemaan löytyi muutama tilastollisesti merkitsevä tekijä. Löydetty kohtalaisen voimakas negatiivinen korrelaatio terapian määrän ja puheen perustaajuuden minimiarvon välillä on poikkeava muissa tutkimuksissa löydetyistä yhteyksistä. Tutkittavat saivat tässä tutkimuksessa ääniterapiaa kuitenkin vähimmillään vain yhden kerran, joten luotettavien johtopäätösten tekeminen terapian määrän vaikutuksesta on vaikeaa. Tulokset vahvistavat käsitystä siitä, että naisellistavan ääniterapian tulee olla yksilöllistä ja lisää tutkimusta aiheesta tarvitaan.
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(2019)Tavoitteet. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli tarkastella uudenlaisen afasian kuntoutukseen suunnatun kuorolauluintervention subjektiivisesti koettua hyötyä. Interventio oli osa Helsingin yliopiston Kognitiivisen aivotutkimuksen yksikön Laulun sanoin -hanketta ja se koostui kuorolaulusta, ryhmämuotoisesta MIT (melodinen intonaatioterapia) -kuntoutuksesta sekä laulun harjoittelusta tablettitietokoneella. Interventioon osallistui afasiaa sairastavia henkilöitä sekä heidän läheisiään. Aiemmissa tutkimuksissa on havaittu, että musiikilla ja laululla voi olla kuntoutuksellisia vaikutuksia muun muassa kielellisiin toimintoihin. Afasian kuntoutuksessa on eniten tutkittu MIT-menetelmää, mutta myös uusia musiikkia sisältäviä kuntoutusmuotoja kehitetään aktiivisesti. Subjektiivisesti koettua kuntoutuksesta saatua hyötyä ei ole afasian osalta erityisesti tutkittu, vaikka oman kokemuksen tiedetään vaikuttavan kuntoutuk- sen lopputulokseen. Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan, minkälainen subjektiivinen arvio afaattisilla henkilöillä ja heidän läheisillään oli interventiosta. Lisäksi tarkastellaan, oliko afasian vaikeusasteella, harjoittelumäärällä tai demografisilla tai kliinisillä taustatiedoilla yhteyttä koettuun hyötyyn sekä erosivatko afaattisten henkilöiden ja läheisten kokemukset toisistaan. Menetelmät. Aineiston muodosti osallistujien intervention jälkeen täyttämät kyselylomakkeet subjektiivisista kokemuksista, interventiojakson aikana toteutuneet harjoittelumäärät sekä osallistujien demografiset ja kliiniset taustatiedot. Kyselylomakkeeseen vastasi 23 afaattista henkilöä sekä 11 läheistä. Aineistoa analysoitiin tilastollisesti Friedmanin testillä, Mann–Whitney U-testillä, Spearmanin järjestyskorrelaatioanalyysilla, Wilcoxonin merkittyjen sijalukujen testillä sekä yhden otoksen t-testillä. Avointen kysymysten vastauksia analysoitiin tyypittelemällä vastauksia teemoittain ja laskemalla esiintymisfrekvenssejä. Tulokset ja johtopäätökset. Afaattiset henkilöt kokivat intervention hyödylliseksi ja myös läheiset kokivat, että interventio oli afaattisille henkilöille hyödyllinen. Afaattisten henkilöiden ja läheisten kokemukset intervention hyödyllisyydestä eivät eronneet toisistaan, eikä harjoittelumäärän, kliinisten tai musiikillisten taustatietojen ja koetun hyödyn välillä havaittu tilastollisesti merkitsevää yhteyttä. Erityisesti mielialan kohoaminen, uusiin ihmisiin tutustuminen ja vertaistuen saaminen nousivat esiin kvalitatiivisissa vastauksissa. Näiden tulosten perusteella voidaan ehdottaa, että ryhmämuotoinen kuoro- laulukuntoutus, jossa on MIT:n elementtejä, vaikuttaa positiivisesti afaattisten henkilöiden mielialaan, sekä heidän itse arvioimana että läheisten arvioimana. Interventiosta voi jatkotutkimuksen avulla ke-hittää afasian ryhmämuotoisen laulukuntoutusmuodon.
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(2022)Aim. This thesis investigates other-initiation of repair (OIR) made by people with aphasia (PWA). OIR means the practices used in conversation for requesting a clarification on something in the other speaker ́s turn. Aphasic conversation and repair has been studied a lot. However, there is hardly any studies about the OIR of PWA. Method. The data has been collected and the transcriptions made in a research project Managing the problems of speaking and understanding in conversations of speakers with aphasia. The data of this thesis consists of nine conversations between a PWA and one or two familiar partner(s). The OIR sequences initiated by PWA were collected, and then grouped and analyzed. Results & Conclusions. PWA did produce OIRs but for some reason there was great variation between the participants. The repair sequences were short and the problems were solved effectively. Repeat-formatted OIRs were the most frequent type of OIR and targeting question words the most rare. The problems that the OIRs were targeting were often problems of understanding or hearing of speech. There were a lot of similarities between OIRs produced by PWAs and OIRs of typical Finnish conversation. The results help to establish a better picture of the OIR by PWA and are in line with the prevoius hypothesis about the phenomenon.
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(2020)Background. Aphasia is a linguistic disorder that occurs after language acquisition and is most commonly caused by stroke. Research on novel word acquisition can contribute to the development of aphasia rehabilitation because it helps understand the relearning of words lost due to aphasia. Novel word acquisition has been researched mainly in chronic aphasia, in which learning is possible but shows large individual variation. There is initial evidence that novel word learning is also possible in non-chronic aphasia. Aims. The objective of this thesis is to study recovery and novel word learning in the subacute and chronic stages of aphasia. The thesis will also look into possible connections between learning in subacute aphasia and learning in chronic aphasia. These connections have not been previously explored. Methods. The multiple case study included four aphasic participants who were examined 0–3 months after stroke and again 12 months after stroke. The examination consisted of cognitive-linguistic background tests, questionnaires and a computer-based novel word learning task. In the latter, the participant was tasked with learning the associations between given pseudo-words and images through feedback and repetition. Research data was analyzed case by case. Results and conclusions. Recovery and novel word learning in subacute and chronic aphasia varied among the participants. In both stages, some participants learned new vocabulary and were able to transfer it into their long-term memory. The changes in novel word learning from subacute to chronic aphasia also varied among the subjects. These changes were not systematically connected with the severity of the participants’ aphasia, their baseline learning ability or an alleviation of cognitive-linguistic symptoms. Learning ability in subacute aphasia does therefore not always appear to predict learning ability in chronic aphasia, but novel word learning is possible in both subacute and chronic aphasia. Aphasia recovery shows considerable individual variation.
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(2021)Background and objectives. There is still little research about the screen time of parents, and it is also partly contradictory. Also, there aren’t any previous studies about the relationship between the screen time of the mother and the child’s performance in linguistic tests. Previ-ous studies have shown that the screen time of the mother decreases the interaction be-tween the mother and the child, which could also affect the language development of the child. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the quantity and quality of the screen time of the mother and the linguistic skills (receptive/expressive) of their 3- to 4-year-old child. This thesis was done as part of the LEINIKKI-study. Participants and methods. The participants were 49 (25 girls and 24 boys) 3- to 4-year-old, neurotypical, Finnish-speaking children, and their mothers. The language skills of the chil-dren were examined using the Finnish version of the Reynell Developmental Language Scales III and the LEINIKKI-method. The quantity and the quality of the mother’s screen time were assessed using the screen time questionnaire. The data was analyzed using the Spearman correlation coefficient and the Mann-Whitney U test. Results and conclusions. There was no statistically significant relationship between the quantity of the mother’s screen time and the linguistic skills of the child. However, a statisti-cally significant result concerning the quality of the screen time was found: The children whose mothers had four hours or more of work-related screen time on a weekday managed weaker in the LEINIKKI-method than those whose mothers had less than four hours of work-related screen time. The results of this master’s thesis give us precursory information about the negative relationship between heavy screen time of the mother and the development of the child’s linguistic skills. Future research would be important because of the lack of re-search in this subject matter.
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(2022)Aphasia is a language disorder caused by damage to the brain. People with aphasia can have difficulty in speech comprehension and production as well as reading and writing. There is considerable diversity in the patterns of speech and language impairment among patients with aphasia. Recovery from aphasia is highly variable, but there are three distinguishable phases: the acute, subacute, and chronic phase. Stud-ies have shown that some people with aphasia can learn novel words. Studying novel word learning in people with aphasia helps understand the role of new learning in recovery from aphasia. Previous studies from the chronic phase of aphasia suggest that semantic processing skills and novel word learning are linked. There is some evidence that aphasia severity and short-term verbal memory affect novel word learning ability. The objective of this study is to compare the speech and language skills and the novel word learning ability of people in the early stages of aphasia. The speech and language impairment pattern of the study participants was evaluated with the WAB (Western Aphasia Battery). The subtests Spontaneous speech, Auditory verbal comprehension, Naming and Word finding, Repetition, Reading and Writing were used as the measures for different language abil-ities. Novel word finding was evaluated with a computer-aided novel word learning task. The word learn-ing task included a practice session and two tests. The results from the tests were used as the measure for novel word learning ability. Receptive novel word learning was correlated with comprehension skills. This result strengthens the view that intact semantic processing is important in receptive novel word learning. Writing skills were also cor-related with receptive novel word learning, but reading skills were not. Repetition, naming, and spontane-ous speech were not correlated with receptive novel word learning.
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(2023)Alzheimer’s disease (AD) weakens the concerned person’s ability to repair their own speech. AD has also been shown to affect the use of gestures during speech. This study looks at the actions of persons with AD during self-repair sequences in a group context. and examines the length of the repair sequences, the number of repair initiations and repairs and their distribution among the people taking part in the discussions. The study also investigates how people with AD use manual gestures during self-repair sequences. The connection between word-searching and gestures was also examined. The research method is based on the theoretical frameworks of conversation analysis, multimodal interaction analysis and repair sequence theory. The research material consisted of self-repair sequences and the manual gestures within those sequences recorded from group therapy sessions directed at people diagnosed with dementia. The participants of the study were six females with AD. The video recordings were analyzed using ELAN- computer program. The speech and gestural interaction of the participants was annotated in temporal synchronicity. ELAN was able to provide numeric data, but some of the data was calculated manually. Due to a lack of research on this study’s topic, it was necessary to develop the method to be used in the study. The research data comprises 183 self-repair sequences. 91,8 % of those consisted of a single turn. The mean length of the sequences was 6,2 seconds. Within the self-repair sequences, there were 496 self-initiations and 26 other-initiations. Within the self-repair sequences, 216 self-repairs and 22 other-repairs were detected. Word-search was the most common type of self-repair (37 %). Three out of six subjects produced 92,9 % of the repair-sequences. Half of the self-repair-sequences contained manual gestures. 177 gestures were observed. Three of the subjects produced 96,6% of all the gestures. Two of them produced gestures during 60 % of their repair sequences while producing 87% of all gestures. The subject producing third most gestures did so in about one third of her repair sequences. The most-used gesture type was rhythmic gesture (37,2%). Of all gestures 67,8% were produced during word-searches. The method made it possible to describe, at a general level, the gesture use of persons with AD during repair-sequences containing self-repair. According to the results, there is a lot of individual diversity in the phenomenon. However, the skewness and small number of participants in the study make this assumption uncertain. The results imply that persons with AD use gestures to support their speech. It is possible that more gestures occur during word-searches. Therefore, the use of gestures must be taken into consideration during speech repair. It can also be assumed that persons with moderate stage of AD are able to perceive the problematic parts in their own speech and are able to produce repairs if they are given enough time to process.
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(2022)Aim of the study. In Finland, the number of multilingual children referred to speech and language therapy assessment is relatively higher than monolingual children. However, distinguishing abnormal linguistic development from typical multilingual development is not straightforward due to the lack of multilingual tests and speech therapists. This study aimed to provide information on the morphosyntactic structures of the expressions of typically developing and language- impaired children aged 4–5 years who speak Arabic as their mother tongue and the deviations that occur in them. The aim was also to assess whether the morphosyntactic deviations produced show a transfer effect of Arabic language. The study is significant from the point of view of differential diagnosis. The qualitative information produced makes it possible to reduce the over- and underdiagnosis of developmental language disorder in native Arabic-speaking children who successively acquire Finnish language. Methods. The study examined 18 children aged 4–5 who speak Arabic as their mother tongue and who successively acquire Finnish language from the broader material of the Multilingua-project. Six of the children were suspected of having developmental language disorder. The study material consisted of recorded assessment situations that were transcribed to evaluate the morphosyntactic structures produced. Three different semi-structured play situations and The Cat Story picture sequencing narrative task were included in the analysis for each subject. The morphosyntactic forms and structures produced by the subjects were analyzed using the FIN-LARSP method. In addition, the morphosyntactic deviations in the expressions and the transfer effect of Arabic language were examined from a qualitative point of view. Results and conclusions. There was great variation in the inflectional repertoires of typically developing and language-impaired children. However, the inflectional repertoires of typically developing children proved to be broader than those of language-impaired children in terms of nouns and verbs. The groups differed in the use of adessive case, the accuracy of verb inflection, the regularity of morphosyntactic deviations, and the use of atypical wordings. In addition, expressions of typically developing subjects appeared to have a more versatile effect of Arabic language transfer compared to language-impaired children. The results help Finnish-speaking speech therapists detect morphosyntactic features that may be signs of a language disorder in Arabic-speaking children acquiring Finnish language.
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Autismikirjon lasten vanhempien ohjauksen keinoja puheterapiassa : haasteita ja edistäviä tekijöitä (2020)Objectives. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurobiological developmental disorder that involves challenges in social interaction and restricted/repetitive behaviors. Since generalization and maintenance of acquired skills is essential in the rehabilitation of ASD, it is important to integrate interventions into the home environment by parental guidance. There has been some research on the rehabilitation of children with ASD in Finland, but no research has been conducted on the guidance of parents from the perspective of speech therapist. The purpose of this study is to find out the views of parental guidance from speech therapists who rehabilitate children with ASD. Interviews with speech therapists will clarify the ways in which parents of children with ASD are guided through speech therapy and the challenges and contributing factors in parental guidance. Methods.The research method was a semi-structured interview. Five speech pathologists with experience in the rehabilitation of ASD were interviewed. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. The data was analyzed by content analysis. Results and conclusion. Parental guidance of children with ASD was divided into information sharing, interaction & discussion and direct guidance. The challenges were parental strain, parent attitude and in some cases multiculturalism. Contributing factors appeared in training practices and home conditions. Challenges and benefits were influenced by the individuality of families. Speech therapists hoped for more opportunities to arrange separate parental guidance sessions so that they would be able to discuss deeper about the methods and family situation without the child’s presence. Speech therapists considered parental guidance important in the rehabilitation of children with ASD because, with the guidance of parents it helped to increase skills in everyday life and guaranteed training intensity. As parental strain was identified as a challenge in this study, it would be important to explore how they could be more effectively supported during rehabilitation. In addition, it could be explored whether separate parental guidance sessions should be increased or whether the number of parental guidance sessions has been adapted through the development of new working practices.
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(2021)Aim. Compared to spoken conversations, achieving mutual understanding may be more at risk when one or more participants use aided communication. An aided communicator may take a passive role in conversations and may not have adequate strategies to repair conversational breakdowns when they occur. The aim of this study was to describe how an aided communicator may attempt to solve the problems he encounters in conversations with his speaking communication partners. Aided communicator’s repair strategies, causes of breakdowns and partners’ influence on repair phenomena were studied. This study may help professionals to acknowledge the threats that compromise achieving mutual understanding in aided conversations and recognize some of the strategies in overcoming potential communication disrupts. Method. Within the framework of data driven qualitative analysis this case study examined videotaped conversations, where an 11-year-old boy using communication book communicated with his mom, teacher and peer. The data was originally videotaped as a part of the international research project Becoming an Aided Communicator. Data driven analysis was considered as an appropriate method for studying a topic with limited previous research. Results and conclusion. Almost all of the aided communicator’s repairs were self-initiated self-repairs and the rest were other-initiated self-repairs. The former occurred mostly as responses to the partner’s misinterpretations and operational difficulties while the latter followed requests for clarifications. Aided communicator repaired by repeating or modifying his utterances or by adding new elements to the original utterance. For repairs he utilized nonverbal modalities: gaze, gestures and actions. In some exchanges, he changed modality. Reasons for the misinterpretations and requests for clarifications emerged from the linguistic limitations of the graphic communication system and partner’s difficulty in understanding the aided communicator’s nonverbal communicative acts. Operational challenges seemed to be related to partner’s experience with using communication aids that affected the fluency of communication. Partners’ varying familiarity with aided communication seemed to affect the need to repair and the effectivity of repair. In addition, the shared competence of the dyad influenced achieving mutual understanding. For the best results of support and guidance, speech and language therapists should emphasize finding out the communicator’s individual strategies in repair as well as effective practices to use a communication book. This could be implemented by video-based observations.
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(2022)Background: Aphasia changes one’s communication. The most common symptoms of aphasia include difficulties finding words. When a person acquires aphasia, they often need to learn new ways to communicate to support themselves when their speech is impaired. Gestures are a common way to aid communication in people with aphasia. Purpose: In this Master’s Thesis we look at the use of gaze and hand gestures in people with aphasia during word retrieval. The goal of this study is to find out which types of gesture are used and how the gestures are timed. Methods: This study was completed under the COMPAIR project. COMPAIR is a research program that focuses on atypical communication. The annotation program ELAN and an annotation template used by the COMPAIR project were utilized in this study. The material for this study consisted of everyday conversations between four people with aphasia and people close to them. There was also video material where one of the participants performed on Boston Naming Test. There were four participants in this study. Half (n=2) of them presented with fluent aphasia and the other half (n=2) with non-fluent aphasia. The total duration of the taped conversations was 144 minutes. Results: The participants of this study showed varying amounts and types of gesture. Every participant had a type of gesture that was the most typical for them. Most used gestures were descriptive and pointing gestures, gaze shift during word retrieval and touching own body. Most of the use of gesture happened during the word retrieval phase where the participants attempted to find the missing word and made several initiations to repair their speech. Conclusions: People with aphasia have unique ways of using gestures in their communication and therefore it is not possible to draw definite conclusions of general rules of gesture use in aphasia from a sample size this small. However, all of the participants used some type of gesture in support of their word retrieval so it seems that gaze and hand gestures can an important mean to aid impaired communication.
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(2021)Objectives. Prematurely born (<37 gestational weeks) children are at increased risk for difficulties in language development and literacy skills, including pre-reading skills, reading and writing. Previous studies investigating full-term populations suggest that language skills are strongly correlated with reading acquisition. This connection is not widely studied in preterm sample and the findings of previous investigations have incongruity. The aim of this study is to examine the language development and literacy skills of children born extremely preterm (ELGA, born <28 gestational weeks) and/or with extremely low birth weight (ELBW, birth weight <1000 grams) at seven years of age. This thesis also investigates the possible association between language abilities and literacy skills in the sample of preterm children and a full-term born comparison group (born >37 gestational weeks). This study is part of the multidisciplinary cohort study of prematurely born children called PIPARI (the Development and Functioning of Very Low Birth Weight Infants from Infancy to School Age). Methods. The sample of this Master´s thesis includes 63 ELGA/ELBW children and 107 full-term born children who participated in the PIPARI study and were living in monolingual Finnish-speaking families. The language skills were assessed using the Five to Fifteen parent questionnaire (subdomains Comprehension, Expressive language skills, Verbal Communication) and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised. Pre-reading and reading skills were measured with the Jyväskylä First Steps study test material (phonological awareness, letter knowledge, rapid automized naming, single word reading, single word writing) and with the Five to Fifteen parent questionnaire (subdomains Reading and writing, General learning). Results and conclusion. The language and literacy skills at seven years of age were statistically significantly weaker in children born ELGA/ELBW when compared to the full-term controls. The Five to Fifteen questionnaire subdomain Verbal communication was the only skill that did not differ significantly between the groups. There was a clear and significant association between language and literacy skills with both preterm and full-term groups. In the preterm group the connection between language and literacy skills were stronger and appeared wider among the different language components. The results of this study support the previous findings that preterm children have an elevated risk for difficulties in language and literacy skills. In addition, this study provides further evidence for the associations between language abilities and literacy skills in school age in children born ELGA/ELBW. It is important that preterm children get the appropriate developmental follow-ups and support still at school age.
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(2022)The Finnish version of the CSBS-DP Infant-Toddler Checklist (FinCSBS) is a screening questionnaire for early communication and language of 6–24 month old children filled by their parents. There is not much information available about the validity of the FnCSBS concerning 2-year-olds and in Finland it is primarily advised to be used at an earlier age point. This study aimed to produce more information of the validity of the FinCSBS at 2 years. The study of validity gives information about the usability of a method and can add eagerness to use it for example in child health clinics. This study sample is a part of the validation study of the short form version of the MacArthur Communication Inventories Finnish version (Sanaseula study). The sample included 50 healthy, monolingual Finnish-speaking 2-year-old children. The participants language skills were assessed with two other assessment methods. MacArthur-Bates Communication Inventories -method gave information about the children’s vocabulary size and composition and Bayley-III-test about the receptive and expressive language skills. Validity was assessed by comparing the results of FnCSBS and of other methods with Spearman’s correlation coefficient. Linear regression analysis was used to get information about how much FnCBSC total score and sex explained the variation of vocabulary size and receptive or expressive language skills at 2 years. In addition the language skills of children who had succeeded poorly and typically were compared. A lot of statistically significant, positive and moderately strong connections were found between the FnCSBS and vocabulary size, composition, receptive and expressive language. Especially the total score of the FnCSBS was in connection with the concurrent language skills even though the scores got close to the maximum in this age group, as the prelingual stage is coming to an end. The FnCSBS social composite had more varying and weaker connections to the language skills than the FnCSBS expressive and receptive language. The results showed that the validity of the FnCSBS at 2 years is still fairly good. The FnCSBS can be used at 2 years to recognize children at risk and to get information about the language skills, which helps to target early intervention and to add cost-effective and preventive care.
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