Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Communication Disorders And Indigenous Australians : A Synthesis And Critique Of The Available Literature, Jasmyn Hall

Theses : Honours

Purpose: To synthesise and critique the available diverse literature related to communication disorders experienced by Indigenous Australians. This is in order to provide health professionals with a resource guide for evidence based decision making. The review has a specific focus on prevalence, assessment and effective treatment of communication disorders and explores these across the lifespan.

Method: A three phase systematic search process was adopted. A number of key databases, speech pathology journals and grey literature sources were searched to obtain articles relevant to the research aims. Two researchers independently rated articles for inclusion as well as methodological quality using the …

The Use Of The Communication Checklist - Adult (Cc-A) For Assessing The Communication Abilities Of Individuals Post Traumatic Brain Injury, David B. Fitzgerald

Theses : Honours

Background and aims: Standardised and non-standardised assessments are used in speech pathology to evaluate an individual’s communication abilities post traumatic brain injury (TBI; e.g. Turkstra et al., 2005b). However, valid, reliable and norm-referenced standardised assessments that examine functional communication abilities of individuals post TBI outside of the clinical environment are limited. This study sought to investigate the validity of the Communication Checklist - Adults (CC-A; Whitehouse & Bishop, 2009), a caregiver questionnaire that assesses the communication abilities of individuals post TBI.

Method: The project recruited 14 participants post TBI with varying communicative impairment severities. Each participant completed a routine communication …

Women Who Stutter : Experiences Of Developing Self-Management And Quality Of Life, Katherine Milton

Theses : Honours

Background and Purpose: Research suggests that stuttering can impact an individual’s quality of life and how they perceive themselves in interactions with others. As a larger proportion of adults who stutter are men, limited research is available regarding the specific experiences of women who stutter (WWS). Existent literature regarding WWS was mainly published in the 1970s -1980s and may no longer represent current issues. This study aimed to explore the current influences on quality of life, perception of stuttering, self-management strategies, and gender issues experienced by WWS.

Methods and Procedures: This grounded theory study used a convenience sample of eight …

Analysing A New Mobile Bilateral Audiology Test For Children, Luke J. Brook

Theses : Honours

Hearing loss in Australian children, primarily Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, is a growing concern for the Australian public health sector. In certain rural communities up to 90 per cent of children have been found to experience some form of hearing loss. Although hearing loss can be the result of a number of different causes, including congenital influences, the most common cause of hearing loss in Australian children is attributed to a common middle ear infection, otitis media.

To address the issue, numerous solutions have been proposed, tested and implemented, although the problem persists due to geographic, environmental and cultural …

Speech And Language Processes In Children Who Stutter Compared To Those Who Do Not Within An Oral Narrative Task, Sarah Pillar

Theses : Honours

Background and Purpose: Language ability in children who stutter has been linked to the occurrence of stuttering, however, the validity of research supporting this connection has been recently questioned. Previous research, within this area, has been limited by methodological confounds, such as lack of appropriately matched comparison groups, and the use of measures with insufficient sensitivity to potentially examine the subtle differences between children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS). Frequent hesitations or pauses are defining characteristics of the speech of people who stutter. However, little is known about the nature and frequency of the pauses …