Journal Reviews
Bespoke is best for children with communication difficulties
Children with communication difficulties can benefit from augmentative alternative communication (AAC) aids to support them in daily interaction, as well as in developing milestones. One of the most difficult aspects of choosing a device is not only meeting the child’s...
Humour to improve clinician - patient interactions
This study examined the role of humour employed by the speech language graduate student during their one-on-one therapy sessions with people with aphasia (PWA). The students used humour to soften the errors made by the clients; to equalise interactional power;...
Tell me like it is: advice for relatives of people with aphasia
More than a quarter of people who have a stroke present with aphasia immediately post-stroke (approx. 30%) and of these, around 60% experience chronic communication difficulties. Provision of information is seen as one of the top 10 best practice recommendations...
Do you really like me? Is it, Is it therapy?
Therapeutic alliance describes what happens in the interactions and relationships between the client and the therapist. There is evidence from mental health literature that a therapeutic alliance can have a significant impact on outcomes. A negative alliance can lead to...
Home alone with aphasia
Relationships and social networks are known to impact outcome following a stroke. Studies have shown that group-housed animals who have had a stroke show greater neurological recovery than those who are isolated. Similarly, adults who are socially isolated following a...
Can you hear the speech disorder?
Dysarthria is often the first or most pronounced feature of a Parkinson’s disease (PD) presentation, yet may be difficult to discern from normal ageing changes that impact voice and speech. Thus, it is important to be able to differentiate in...
Management of frontal sinus fractures
Frontal sinus fractures are uncommon (associated with around 5-15% of facial fractures). The authors divide frontal sinus fractures into isolated anterior table fractures, fractures involving the frontal sinus outflow tract and posterior table fractures, discuss some of the recent relevant...
Assessing post-extubation dysphagia on the intensive care unit
The incidence of post-extubation dysphagia (PED) is reported to be about 12% in the general ICU population and around 18% in patients admitted to ICU as emergencies. PED was found to be an independent predictor of 28-day and 90-day mortality....
The hippo and the nose
Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) leads to histological changes including thickening of the basilar membrane and epithelial proliferation. Molecular mechanisms underlying these changes are still not fully clear. A signalling pathway called the hippo with Yes‐associated protein (YAP) as...
How to train adults with single-sided deafness and cochlear implants
Cochlear implantation (CI) in patients with single-sided deafness (SSD) has been carried out in Perth, Australia from 2008. It poses challenges to clinicians and patients who are trying to tune in the poorer ear while still having a normally hearing...
Macrolinguistic assessment in early Alzheimer’s disease
Deficits in language production like word finding difficulty, and lexical-sematic impairment have been documented early in the course of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). According to the authors, the current language assessment methods used in AD patients do not account for macrolinguistic...
Socially appropriate part 1: assessing people with TBI
Social communication disorders are one of the most common and yet most under-addressed sequelae of a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Yet speech and language therapists report a lack of assessment tools and a lack of time to fully assess these...
