This post hoc study investigated coverbal gesture patterns in two persons with chronic Wernicke's aphasia. They had both received therapy focusing on multimodal communication therapy, and their pre- and post-therapy verbal and gestural skills in face-to-face conversational interaction with their speech therapist were analysed by administering a…

Several studies have reported improved naming using the semantic feature analysis (SFA) approach in individuals with aphasia. Whether the SFA can be modified and still produce naming improvements in aphasia is unknown. The present study was designed to address this question by using a modified version of the SFA approach. Three, rather than the…

Background: Web based speech training for dysarthric speakers, such as E-learning based Speech Therapy (EST), puts considerable demands on auditory discrimination abilities. Aims: To discuss the development and the evaluation of an auditory discrimination test (ADT) for the assessment of auditory speech discrimination skills in Dutch adult…

Voice practitioners require an objective index of dysphonia severity as a means to reliably track treatment outcomes. To ensure ecological validity however, such a measure should survey both sustained vowels and continuous speech. In an earlier study, a multivariate acoustic model referred to as the Acoustic Voice Quality Index (AVQI), consisting…

Previous research has not explored the Five Factor Model of personality among adults who stutter. Therefore, the present study investigated the five personality domains of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, as measured by the NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), in a sample of 93 adults seeking speech…

Parents of 210 preschool children (age 2-5.7) and their clinicians were asked to describe their expectations for therapy and the changes they observed following treatment. Based on content analysis of the parents' and clinicians' responses, it was apparent that the comments aligned with the World Health Organization's (WHO) International…

In a preliminary study, we documented significant changes in formant transitions associated with successful manual circumlaryngeal treatment (MCT) of muscle tension dysphonia (MTD), suggesting improvement in speech articulation. The present study explores further the effects of MTD on vowel articulation by means of additional vowel acoustic…

The purpose of this factorial study was to establish normative data for the Italian version of the Communication Attitude Test (CAT) in order to determine whether or not the speech-associated attitude reported by Italian children who stutter (CWS) differs significantly from that of their nonstuttering peers (CWNS). Toward this end, the Italian CAT…

The primary purpose of this study was to examine whether a group of university students would report role entrapment of people who stutter (PWS) in the form of occupational stereotyping. The study also examined whether severity of stuttering (mild or severe) and level of therapy involvement (choosing or not choosing to attend therapy) affected the…

Little evidence-based research has been published within the field of communication disorders on the role of dogs as catalysts for human communication. This single participant study, a point of entry into this realm of research, explores the effects of a therapy dog on the communication skills of a patient with aphasia receiving intensive speech…

This investigation was conducted to study whether warming up decreases myotonia (muscle stiffness) during speech production or causes adverse effects due to fatigue or exhaustion caused by intensive speech activity in patients with adult onset myotonic dystrophy. Thirty patients with adult onset myotonic dystrophy (MD) and ten healthy controls…

Participants of stuttering treatment programs provide an opportunity to evaluate persons who stutter as they demonstrate varying levels of fluency. Identifying physiologic correlates of altered fluency levels may lead to insights about mechanisms of speech disfluency. This study examined respiratory, orofacial kinematic and acoustic measures in 35…

Knowledge of variables that predict treatment time is of benefit in deciding when to start treatment for early stuttering. To date, the only variable clearly related to treatment time with the Lidcombe Program is pre-treatment stuttering frequency. Previous studies have shown that children whose stuttering is more severe take longer to complete…

Background: The speech and language therapy profession is required to provide services to increasingly multilingual caseloads. Much international research has focused on the challenges of speech and language therapists' (SLTs) practice with multilingual children. Aims: To draw on the experience and knowledge of experts in the field to: (1)…

Background: Little evidence exists for the effectiveness of therapy for children with receptive language difficulties, particularly those whose difficulties are severe and persistent. Aims: To establish the effectiveness of explicit speech and language therapy with visual support for secondary school-aged children with language impairments…