Teachers' screening estimations of speech-language impairments in primary school children in Nepal

Knowledge of the Voice in the Teachers' Population and their Ability to Refer Children with Voice Disorders to a Speech-Language Pathologist

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this study were to investigate (1) the knowledge of primary school teachers regarding voice and voice disorders, (2) the primary school teacher's ability to identify and refer a dysphonic child to a speech-language pathologist (SLP), and (3) potential contributing factors that might affect this ability.

METHOD AND MATERIALS

Thirty-one primary school teachers (30 women, one man) with a mean age of 33 years (range: 22-57 years; SD: 11.1 years) were included in this study. They filled out an online questionnaire, gathering demographic information, estimations of their knowledge regarding voice and voice disorders, and their ability to refer a dysphonic child to an SLP. Furthermore, they completed an online quiz (maximum score: 9) with basic questions about the voice, vocal health and voice disorders.

RESULTS

Most teachers (58.1%) rated their knowledge as basic, 16.1% as adequate and 25.8% as good. One out of four teachers (25.8%) received voice-related information during their education. A substantial part (38.7%) gathered information through other channels, such as voice therapy. Almost all participants (90%) reported to have no or little experience with dysphonic children. Half of them (51.6%) felt unsure about their ability to refer a dysphonic child to an SLP, and 54.8% were willing to attend extra voice workshops. A significant association was found between the estimated knowledge regarding voice (disorders) and attendance of voice therapy (P = 0.020). More than half of the teachers who attended voice therapy (57.1%) estimated their voice-related knowledge as good, compared to only 16.7% of the teachers who did not attend voice therapy. Moreover, a significant association was found between the years of teaching experience and the quiz total score (P = 0.040). The majority of the teachers with the least teaching experience (57.1%) achieved a score between 4 and 6, whereas the teachers with more experience achieved a score between 7 and 9.

CONCLUSION

This study suggests that the voice-related knowledge of primary school teachers is limited. Consequently, teachers do not feel confident in referring a dysphonic child to an SLP. As teachers can be important sources in indirect assessment of pediatric dysphonia, they need to be well informed and extensively trained in using voice screening protocols. Interdisciplinary cooperation between SLPs and teachers should be optimized to provide the best available care and improve the children's quality of life.

Developmental Stuttering Screening Instrument: development and content validation

ABSTRACT Purpose: to develop a screening instrument to identify the risk of developmental stuttering in preschoolers. Methods: the procedures were divided into two stages: The first one (theoretical), consisted of the literature review and the construction of the items that make up the instrument; the second stage (content validation), consisted of the analysis of the instrument by a judging committee formed by 10 speech-language-hearing therapists who work in the field of fluency. The data analysis was based on the calculation of the item content validity index (I-CVI) and the total number of answers (T-CVI). Also, an item reliability analysis was conducted with Cronbach’s alpha. Results: the Developmental Stuttering Screening Instrument (DSSI) encompassed 24 items distributed into four key categories. The I-CVI and T-CVI revealed a high agreement between the judges. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients indicated a high internal consistency between the judges’ answers in 19 of the 24 items. The qualitative analysis pointed to the need for new adjustments. All the analyses contributed to the construction of the second version of the instrument. Conclusion: the proposed instrument showed content-based validity evidence that made it possible, up to the present moment, to adjust it to its construct. It is suggested that the validation process continue, employing new accuracy measures.

Detección de las dificultades lingüísticas expresivas en la edad escolar

Los problemas lingüísticos menos severos son detectados a menudo en la edad escolar por los docentes, quienes presentan sobrecarga laboral. Estas dificultades se asocian con consecuencias negativas en el desarrollo curricular posterior. El principal objetivo de este trabajo es investigar si es posible ofrecer a los profesores un screening breve para detectar problemas de lenguaje (a nivel comprensivo y expresivo). Se llevaron a cabo dos estudios exploratorios de muestreo de cadena en los que participaron un total de 96 niños de entre 3 y 9 años (M = 6.03; DE = 1.42) y 16 docentes de entre 30 y 56 años (M = 41.25; DE = 7.22). En el estudio 1, se examinó la precisión del juicio de los docentes sobre la detección de dificultades en el lenguaje expresivo y comprensivo. Los resultados mostraron una mayor precisión de los docentes sobre las dificultades de expresión. Tras analizar los datos de forma inferencial y correlacional, se seleccionaron los ítems con mejores propiedades psicométricas para reducir la escala original utilizada.  En el estudio 2, se procedió a la validación de la reducción de la escala y, en línea con el estudio previo, los resultados mostraron que la escala breve tenía unas buenas propiedades psicométricas (alpha de Cronbach = 0.96). Se desarrolló y validó una versión breve de una escala de observación que puede ser utilizada como prueba de screening para detectar dificultades expresivas de forma efectiva y rápida.

The power of stories: Facilitating social communication in children with limited language abilities

Children with limited language expression and comprehension abilities are at risk for academic failure, particularly in literacy acquisition. In addition, these children often have poor social outcomes, including difficulty forming friendships, social exclusion, withdrawal, and victimization. The academic and social difficulties that these children experience are associated with their poor language processing skills, limited conversational ability, and weak social and emotional knowledge. A social communication approach utilizing children’s literature is suggested as one approach to address these three areas simultaneously. This approach involves sharing books with a strong story structure, rich social and emotional content, and engaging illustrations. Flexible scripts are created to guide interventionists to elicit the production of complex sentence structures, highlight conversational cooperation, and facilitate emotion understanding. To provide continuity of instruction, these bibliotherapeutic procedures can be implemented by special service providers in intervention sessions as well as by teachers in general classroom activities.