A Telehealth Adaptation Of A Treatment For Chronic Stuttering
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$389,400.00
Summary
Stuttering can have devastating effects on psychological development, social adjustment, and the realisation of educational and vocational potential. Best practice treatments for chronic stuttering in adulthood and late adolescence stop or reduce stuttering with a systematic process of speech restructuring. However, speech restructuring treatment for chronic stuttering is specialised and resource intensive. Probably half of Australians with chronic stuttering cannot access such specialised treat ....Stuttering can have devastating effects on psychological development, social adjustment, and the realisation of educational and vocational potential. Best practice treatments for chronic stuttering in adulthood and late adolescence stop or reduce stuttering with a systematic process of speech restructuring. However, speech restructuring treatment for chronic stuttering is specialised and resource intensive. Probably half of Australians with chronic stuttering cannot access such specialised treatment services because of distance and lifestyle factors, and because clinicians do not have the resources to provide the treatment. These problems present a research challenge. The present project aims to meet this challenge by developing an innovative treatment model for adults who stutter based on telehealth. This treatment model will make the treatment accessible to all rural and urban dwelling patients with chronic stuttering, and will make the treatment deliverable by every clinician. The research will have significant impact for many end users.Read moreRead less
The Contribution Of Dopamine To Regulation Of Orofacial, Limb And Trunk Control: System Or Function Specific Effects?
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$493,124.00
Summary
Treatment for Parkinson's disease, including dopamine replacement therapy and deep brain stimulation, fail to produce the same beneficial effects on all movement systems. Whereas limb function is the primary beneficiary of these treatments, other functions such as speech and postural control are less responsive. Critical to the research is the postulate that such differences may have arisen due to the fact that previous studies of dopamine and movement control have investigated distinct motor sy ....Treatment for Parkinson's disease, including dopamine replacement therapy and deep brain stimulation, fail to produce the same beneficial effects on all movement systems. Whereas limb function is the primary beneficiary of these treatments, other functions such as speech and postural control are less responsive. Critical to the research is the postulate that such differences may have arisen due to the fact that previous studies of dopamine and movement control have investigated distinct motor systems via the assessment of distinct movement constructs, making cross system comparisons an impossible task. The proposed research will assess the effect of Parkinson's disease, deep brain stimulation and dopamine on identical muscle functions within the orofacial, trunk and limb muscle systems. To this end, the results generated from this resarch have the potential to reconceptualise working models of brain-muscle relationships. Further the research will provide guidance for future studies that aim to eradicate trade-off effects (e.g. limb function improved but not speech) relating to symptom relief for people with Parkinson's disease.Read moreRead less
What People With Aphasia Want: Towards Person-centred Goal-setting In Aphasia Rehabilitation
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$427,702.00
Summary
Consumers of health services expect their concerns and priorities to form part of their health care. People with aphasia have difficulty communicating their needs and speech pathologists are challenged to plan therapy to meet aphasic clients' needs. Family members of people with aphasia also have unrecognised concerns. The first aim of this study is to determine the goals of people with aphasia and their families and to gain their perspective of whether these goals were addressed in speech thera ....Consumers of health services expect their concerns and priorities to form part of their health care. People with aphasia have difficulty communicating their needs and speech pathologists are challenged to plan therapy to meet aphasic clients' needs. Family members of people with aphasia also have unrecognised concerns. The first aim of this study is to determine the goals of people with aphasia and their families and to gain their perspective of whether these goals were addressed in speech therapy. The study will then seek the perspective of their treating speech pathologists about the goals of therapy and the challenges that speech pathologists face in practising person-centered goal setting. This study will not only provide a framework for aphasia services in Australia but also provide data that will inform professional educational programs about person-centered practice for speech pathologists and other health professionals. It will also contribute to current theories on collaborative goal setting in a rehabilitation context.Read moreRead less
Telerehabilitation: Assessing Acquired Neurogenic Communication Disorders Online.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$172,446.00
Summary
People who suffer brain damage as a result of a stroke, head injury, or a disorder such as Parkinson's disease frequently develop difficulty in either speaking, writing, reading, or understanding the spoken language. As a result, the person's ability to communicate with his or her family and friends, and the community in general is seriously affected. Individuals who experience these speech and language disorders are treated by a speech pathologist who focuses on improving the person's ability t ....People who suffer brain damage as a result of a stroke, head injury, or a disorder such as Parkinson's disease frequently develop difficulty in either speaking, writing, reading, or understanding the spoken language. As a result, the person's ability to communicate with his or her family and friends, and the community in general is seriously affected. Individuals who experience these speech and language disorders are treated by a speech pathologist who focuses on improving the person's ability to communicate. The treatment of these disorders is frequently long-term requiring speech pathology management beyond existing hospital care. For many people with these communication disorders, accessing speech pathology services after their discharge from hospital may be very difficult due to their physical difficulties, the distances they are required to travel, and the limited availability of speech pathologists in their local community. This project aims to overcome these access issues through the development of a telerehabilitation system that will enable speech pathologists to assess people with these speech and language difficulties across the Internet using videoconferencing. It is intended that this research will ultimately enable people with these types of communication difficulties to be assessed and treated within their own home or local community.Read moreRead less
Improving The Communication Of People With Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: A Clinical Trial
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$448,293.00
Summary
Traumatic brain injury is the leading cause of disability in young Australians, and is particularly prevalent in young men. The condition disturbs thinking and problem solving. Ultimately, these problems manifest in impaired verbal communication. Communication problems following traumatic brain injury can make critical relationships-such as father, husband, and employee-impossible to sustain. Those affected are socially inappropriate and uncomfortable to be around, which causes a lifetime of los ....Traumatic brain injury is the leading cause of disability in young Australians, and is particularly prevalent in young men. The condition disturbs thinking and problem solving. Ultimately, these problems manifest in impaired verbal communication. Communication problems following traumatic brain injury can make critical relationships-such as father, husband, and employee-impossible to sustain. Those affected are socially inappropriate and uncomfortable to be around, which causes a lifetime of lost friendships, unemployability, and social isolation. Minimisation of these lifelong effects is of the utmost importance to the health of those affected, and is critical to reducing the economic burden of the condition. Two approaches have been shown to improve the communication of those with traumatic brain injury. Training in social skills is helpful, as is training partners to deal with difficult communication behaviours. However, to date, no research has concurrently studied these two approaches to rehabilitation. Consequently, it is unknown whether best results are achieved with either one of the two methods, or both. The present project uses a clinical trials approach in an innovative evaluation of three methods of treating those with traumatic brain injury compared with a control group. The trial involves the conceptual advances of including cost effectiveness of treatment as an outcome measure, and inclusion of advanced methods to measure the intricacies of verbal communication. The multidisciplinary team of Chief Investigators has international track records in the requisite disciplines for the study of traumatic brain injury and its rehabilitation.Read moreRead less
Neurocognitive substrates of naming facilitation in aphasia. This research directly addresses the national research priority goal of ageing well, ageing productively, by providing foundational knowledge for improved outcomes in the growing population of individuals in Australia with language impairments from age-related disease. Outcomes of the proposed research will include (1) development of a new theory of word production which can improve treatment of language impairment, (2) an enhanced und ....Neurocognitive substrates of naming facilitation in aphasia. This research directly addresses the national research priority goal of ageing well, ageing productively, by providing foundational knowledge for improved outcomes in the growing population of individuals in Australia with language impairments from age-related disease. Outcomes of the proposed research will include (1) development of a new theory of word production which can improve treatment of language impairment, (2) an enhanced understanding of the cognitive and brain mechanisms involved in word production and its treatment after stroke, and (3) postgraduate training in state-of-the-art cognitive neuroimaging and language neuroscience research. Read moreRead less
Children's Changing Speech Error Patterns: Articulating, Listening, and Thinking. When children are learning to talk, they make many errors of pronunciation. Between speech onset and five years of age, their pronunciations change, gradually approaching adult pronunciations of words. Most children share the same error patterns, although 6% have difficulty acquiring intelligible speech, that affects their academic and social development. The investigation will examine factors that contribute to ....Children's Changing Speech Error Patterns: Articulating, Listening, and Thinking. When children are learning to talk, they make many errors of pronunciation. Between speech onset and five years of age, their pronunciations change, gradually approaching adult pronunciations of words. Most children share the same error patterns, although 6% have difficulty acquiring intelligible speech, that affects their academic and social development. The investigation will examine factors that contribute to the acquisition of speech in normally developing and speech-disordered populations: oro-motor skills, auditory and cognitive processing. Experiments will determine the importance of each domain for speech development. The efficacy of a novel intervention programme for children with speech disorders will be evaluated.Read moreRead less