American Journal of Speech-language Pathology

PURPOSE: Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are an important tool both in clinical practice and research involving patients with swallowing disorders. There are several challenges to be overcome and methodological details to be adequately reported to ensure rigor and transparency in studies utilizing PROMs in dysphagia research. For this reason, the Framework for RigOr aNd Transparency In REseaRch on Swallowing (FRONTIERS), a critical appraisal tool developed to ensure rigor and transparency in dysphagia research, has devoted a domain to PROMs...

PURPOSE: In the field of dysphagia research, there is a need to establish a framework for the critical appraisal of methodological reporting. A working group was formed to develop a tool to aid in such critical appraisal across various domains of dysphagia research (called the FRONTIERS [Framework for RigOr aNd Transparency In REseaRch on Swallowing] Framework). The goal of the current paper is to present and describe one domain of this tool: noninstrumental assessment and screening tools...

PURPOSE: Acquired reading deficits, or alexia, affect a significant proportion of individuals with aphasia. We sought to improve treatment for alexia by targeting specific cognitive information-processing components critical to reading (i.e., phonology or semantics). METHOD: To target either phonological or semantic processing, we administered two anomia treatments, phonomotor treatment (PMT) and semantic feature analysis, modified to include a focus on reading throughout the therapy...

PURPOSE: Communication with nonspeaking patients is a critical challenge of person-centered care. This scoping review aimed to map the literature on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) interventions for nonspeaking mechanically ventilated and tracheostomy patients in critical and acute care settings. METHOD: Electronic database, ancestry, and forward citation searches were conducted using eligibility criteria established a priori. Data were extracted, synthesized, and summarized according to scoping review methodology...

PURPOSE: Handwriting and typing have different cognitive and motor demands; however, questions remain as to whether performance in people with aphasia varies based on modality. This study compares written discourse production across handwritten and onscreen typed modalities for a large sample of people with aphasia. We also aimed to explore potential variables that predict the number of written words generated by participants and determine if modality differences emerge when these variables are included as predictors...

PURPOSE: Supporting psychological well-being in persons with aphasia (PWA) can improve social and health outcomes; however, PWA and their care partners (CPs) are often not receiving mental health support. Previous research explores this from the perspective of health care professionals. AIMS: The aim of this study was to examine knowledge, beliefs, and experiences related to mental health services directly from PWA and CPs. METHOD: The study included 11 PWA and 11 CPs...

PURPOSE: Treatment fatigue is a complex, multidimensional, multicausal, and subjective phenomenon that is not yet well explored and understood in the area of speech therapy. The purpose of this study was to investigate speech-related treatment fatigue and speech treatment dropout in parents and children with a cleft (lip and) palate receiving or having received speech treatment for cleft-related articulation disorders. METHOD: Thirteen participants were included in this study ( n = seven parents with a median age of 40 years and n = six children with a median age of 10 years)...

PURPOSE: Although individuals with aphasia commonly exhibit challenges in executive functioning (EF) and spoken discourse, there is limited research exploring connections between these abilities within this specific population. Therefore, this study investigated the relationship between verbal and nonverbal EF and narrative productions in aphasia using a multilevel linguistic approach. METHOD: Participants included 22 persons with aphasia (PWA) and 24 age- and education-matched, neurologically healthy controls (NHC)...

PURPOSE: Caregivers play a critical role in their children's development and serve as their primary communication partners. Family interactions provide the most naturally occurring opportunities for children with complex communication needs to learn language in the context of family routines. A growing body of research suggests that caregivers can effectively support their children's use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems when provided with appropriate training and coaching through caregiver-implemented interventions (CIIs)...

PURPOSE: The perception of a clinical condition or disorder can vary across patients from different cultural-linguistic backgrounds. There is insufficient evidence to inspect this potential impact on the perception of vocal fatigue (VF) as a common condition perceived by patients with voice disorders. In order to more comprehensively explore this phenomenon, a systematic review was carried out to investigate the differences in perceived VF in a variety of cultural-linguistic contexts, based on a standard self-assessment instrument-the Vocal Fatigue Index (VFI), as translated in different languages...

PURPOSE: A diagnosis of dysphagia and/or depression after stroke can impact the physical, psychological, and social welfare of stroke survivors. Although poststroke depression (PSD) and poststroke dysphagia are known to occur concurrently, there is a paucity of research that has specifically investigated their association. Therefore, we aimed to study the relationship between PSD and poststroke dysphagia during acute inpatient hospitalization and within 90 days after discharge. Furthermore, we aimed to evaluate the odds and hazard of being diagnosed with depression after stroke and estimate the time to depression diagnosis from the initial stroke diagnosis in patients with and without a diagnosis of dysphagia...

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the occurrence and impact of fatigue, fogginess, and sleep complaints on functioning at 3, 6, 10, and 16 months after childhood traumatic brain injury (TBI). METHOD: Eighty-eight caregivers completed online surveys regarding their children with TBI, with 17 participants included at the final time point. Measures included questions related to demographic and injury characteristics, executive functioning, social relations, health-related quality of life, and fatigue, fogginess, and sleep complaints...

PURPOSE: This study aimed to examine the prevalence of cognitive-communication deficits in adult cancer survivors who reported experiencing cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI). The study also aimed to determine how these problems impact their ability to engage socially and find satisfaction in their social roles. METHOD: This study employed a cross-sectional survey to collect data from adult cancer survivors. The survey included questions on demographic characteristics, self-perceived cognitive-communication abilities, social engagement, and satisfaction with social participation...

PURPOSE: Measuring real-world communication participation of individuals with aphasia is complicated. Historically, this has been estimated through subjective participant or proxy self-report. To address potential inaccuracies, objective measures such as "talk time" have been proposed. Although promising, technological barriers to collecting and quantifying everyday conversations have been documented (e.g., background noise interference, differentiating recorded speakers, and operating Bluetooth applications)...

PURPOSE: Picture stimuli are essential materials for language research and clinical practice. Here, we generated a modern, full-color set of 310 illustrations representing a carefully designed, culturally sensitive list of imageable nouns. We normed the images in a diverse sample of healthy adults, so the images can be used in various populations, including older adults. METHOD: We recruited a diverse online sample of 200 adults ages 19-76 years. Participants typed a name for each picture and reported how familiar they were with the item (familiarity) and how well the illustration matched their mental image of the item (image agreement)...

PURPOSE: Effective communication between nonspeaking patients and providers is critical for the quality of care in intensive care units (ICUs). This study aims to evaluate perspectives of health care providers and nonspeaking patients on effective communication and communication barriers in the ICU. METHOD: Qualitative and quantitative survey methodologies were employed to evaluate providers' and patients' perspectives on effective communication. Rating scales were utilized to measure patients' frustration levels and communication effectiveness...

PURPOSE: Decades of research have shown video modeling to be an effective tool for teaching and supporting a variety of skills in autistic children. More recently, video modeling has emerged as an effective support for autistic adults, with much of the literature focused on vocational success through support of language skills. The purpose of this tutorial is to provide speech-language pathologists, autistic adults, and other team members with evidence-based guidelines for use of video modeling to support success with social communication across settings...

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to describe the speech production, speech perception, vocabulary, and word learning abilities of lexically precocious 4-year-old children with phonological impairment, in an effort to better understand the underlying nature of phonological impairment in children. METHOD: Using a case series approach, we identified four children with phonological impairment and precocious vocabulary abilities. Each child completed routine speech production and vocabulary assessments, as well as experimental speech perception and word learning tasks...

PURPOSE: Interactive songs are a common shared activity for many families and within early childhood classrooms. These activities have the potential to be rich sources of vocabulary input for children with and without language impairments. However, little information is known about the how caregivers currently provide input for different types of vocabulary during these activities. The purpose of this research note is to provide preliminary information on how caregivers provide input related to verbs within an interactive song activity...

PURPOSE: The Western Aphasia Battery is widely used to assess people with aphasia (PWA). Sequential Commands (SC) is one of the most challenging subtests for PWA. However, test items confound linguistic factors that make sentences difficult for PWA. The current study systematically manipulated semantic plausibility and word order in sentences like those in SC to examine how these factors affect comprehension deficits in aphasia. METHOD: Fifty Korean speakers (25 PWA and 25 controls) completed a sentence-picture matching task that manipulated word order (canonical vs...