scholarly journals 264 Incorporating Neurolinguistics and the Role of Speech and Language Therapy in a Specialist Memory Service

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (Supplement_3) ◽  
pp. iii17-iii65
Author(s):  
Lisa Sheridan ◽  
Cathy McHale ◽  
Joshi Dookhy ◽  
Tara Coughlan ◽  
Desmond O'Neill ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Language Therapy ◽  
Unique Role ◽  
Speech And Language Therapy ◽  
Amnestic Mci ◽  
Language Difficulties ◽  
Communication Difficulties ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) is recognised as having a unique role in contributing to the overall neuropsychological assessment of people living with dementia and cognitive impairment. The role of the SLT within a memory clinic has become more widely understood. It is now recognised that speech and language characteristics are reported to be amongst the most reliable behavioural markers for distinguishing amongst different dementia subtypes, and specific analysis of a language production and delivery facilitates timely and more accurate diagnosis. Methods Patients with a language predominant presentation or those with subjective complaints of speech/language difficulties were referred for SLT assessment through the tertiary memory assessment and support service from January 2018 – March 2019. Assessment of speech and language skills, and overall cognitive communications skills were reviewed, and this information was used to aid with differential diagnosis and contribute to the person’s overall cognitive profile. The SLT attends weekly memory service interdisciplinary consensus diagnosis conference. Data was collected on these patients to observe the profiles of those patients referred to SLT. Results 22 patients were seen for full SLT assessment during this period, 13 women, 9 men; mean age 69.5 (range 48- 80). Diagnoses include: AD (32%), FTD behavioural variant (14%), Primary Progressive Aphasia (14%), Non-amnestic MCI (18%), Amnestic MCI (14%), Other neurological disorder (8%). 68% of these patients required ongoing SLT intervention for their cognitive communication difficulties following diagnosis. Conclusion SLTs fulfil an integral role in supporting both the diagnostic and post-diagnostic care pathways of people living with dementia and cognitive impairment attending memory services. SLTs have a unique role and skillset in identifying the specific nature of language difficulties for a person with dementia or cognitive impairment and in reducing the impact of the communication difficulties for the person and for their family members.

scholarly journals M11 The impact of respiratory speech and language therapy on patients’ cough related symptoms

Thorax ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 71 (Suppl 3) ◽  
pp. A263.1-A263
Author(s):  
J Haines ◽  
C Slinger ◽  
A Vyas ◽  
S Chua ◽  
SJ Fowler
Keyword(s):  
Speech And Language ◽  
Language Therapy ◽  
Speech And Language Therapy ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals Role of speech and language therapy in managing dysphagia and dysphonia in lung cancer

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. e227629
Author(s):  
Ceri Childs ◽  
Sally K Archer
Keyword(s):  
Lung Cancer ◽  
Vocal Cord Palsy ◽  
Voice Rehabilitation ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Language Therapy ◽  
Silent Aspiration ◽  
Speech And Language Therapy ◽  
Specialist Services

A 75-year-old person was referred to speech and language therapy for voice rehabilitation following diagnosis of unilateral vocal cord palsy, secondary to relapsed non-small-cell lung cancer. On assessment, the patient presented with moderate–severe dysphonia. In addition, they presented with moderate pharyngeal stage dysphagia with risk of silent aspiration, which was successfully managed using a simple head turn strategy. This presentation is not atypical for patients who have disease in the upper chest or mediastinum and an increase in awareness and anticipation of such symptoms, with timely referral to appropriate specialist services, could help prevent complications associated with dysphagia, such as aspiration pneumonia and worse quality of life.

scholarly journals tDCS over the motor cortex improves lexical retrieval of action words in poststroke aphasia

2018 ◽  
Vol 119 (2) ◽  
pp. 621-630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meret Branscheidt ◽  
Julia Hoppe ◽  
Pienie Zwitserlood ◽  
Gianpiero Liuzzi
Keyword(s):  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Lexical Retrieval ◽  
Semantic Concept ◽  
Motor Cortex Stimulation ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Language Therapy ◽  
Speech And Language Therapy

One-third of stroke survivors worldwide suffer from aphasia. Speech and language therapy (SLT) is considered effective in treating aphasia, but because of time constraints, improvements are often limited. Noninvasive brain stimulation is a promising adjuvant strategy to facilitate SLT. However, stroke might render “classical” language regions ineffective as stimulation sites. Recent work showed the effectiveness of motor cortex stimulation together with intensive naming therapy to improve outcomes in aphasia (Meinzer et al. 2016). Although that study highlights the involvement of the motor cortex, the functional aspects by which it influences language remain unclear. In the present study, we focus on the role of motor cortex in language, investigating its functional involvement in access to specific lexico-semantic (object vs. action relatedness) information in poststroke aphasia. To this end, we tested effects of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to the left motor cortex on lexical retrieval in 16 patients with poststroke aphasia in a sham-controlled, double-blind study design. Critical stimuli were action and object words, and pseudowords. Participants performed a lexical decision task, deciding whether stimuli were words or pseudowords. Anodal tDCS improved accuracy in lexical decision, especially for words with action-related content and for pseudowords with an “action-like” ending ( t15 = 2.65, P = 0.036), but not for words with object-related content and pseudowords with “object-like” characteristics. We show as a proof-of-principle that the motor cortex may play a specific role in access to lexico-semantic content. Thus motor-cortex stimulation may strengthen content-specific word-to-semantic concept associations during language treatment in poststroke aphasia. NEW & NOTEWORTHY The role of motor cortex (MC) in language processing has been debated in both health and disease. Recent work has suggested that MC stimulation together with speech and language therapy enhances outcomes in aphasia. We show that MC stimulation has a differential effect on object- and action-word processing in poststroke aphasia. We propose that MC stimulation may specifically strengthen word-to-semantic concept association in aphasia. Our results potentially provide a way to tailor therapies for language rehabilitation.

scholarly journals Retention in rural speech and language therapy: The impact of rural tertiary education in Australia

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Michelle Smith-Tamaray ◽  
Sarah Verdon ◽  
Laura Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Rural Practice ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Language Therapy ◽  
Speech And Language Therapy ◽  
Recruitment And Retention ◽  
The Impact

BACKGROUND: Recruitment and retention of skilled health workers into rural areas is a major challenge to achieving equity in health between rural and urban populations. OBJECTIVE: This study explored the impact of rurally-based tertiary education in promoting the recruitment and retention of speech and language therapists (SLTs) in non-metropolitan areas and intention to remain in the profession. METHODS: Participants in this cohort study were 133 graduates from a rurally-based speech and language therapy course in Australia who completed the course between 1998 and 2018. Data were collected via an online survey. Data were analysed using inferential statistics, ArcGIS mapping software and content analysis in NVivo. RESULTS: 65.0% of the graduates practiced in rural or remote areas with just 21.1% practicing in major cities. Most participants’ ideal work location was in a rural area. Benefits of rural practice included seeing a mixed caseload, living near family, work/life balance and loving their location. Challenges of rural practice included limited opportunities for specialist caseloads and career progression. In total, 93.2% of the rural graduates intended to remain in the speech and language therapy profession for the next 5 years. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that SLTs who are trained in rural areas with a focus on servicing rural populations are highly likely to enter and remain in rural practice, consistent with the rural pipeline model.

scholarly journals The role of the speech and language therapist in psychiatry

1996 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 524-526
Author(s):  
N. J. Muir
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Language Therapy ◽  
Speech And Language Therapy ◽  
Language Therapist ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Golden Jubilee ◽  
Communication Impairments ◽  
Cognitive Neuropsychological

Speech and language therapy is a small profession. It only reached its golden jubilee year in 1995 and misleadingly, remains for many highly associated with the elocution training in which the profession had its genesis. In the last few years the greatest developments have been in the area of cognitive neuropsychological and functional (pragmatic) models for the assessment and management of language and communication. It is the premise of this article that speech and language therapists are likely to prove flexible and valuable members of the multidisciplinary team, with the ability to contribute a further dimension to care planning – that of specific clinical input to the wide range of language, speech and communication impairments associated with the major mental illnesses (Gravell & France, 1991).

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