The Indian ethnic group remains underrepresented despite the continued advancement in the field of speech and language therapy (SLT) in Malaysia. This study aims to investigate the perception of Malaysian Indian Pre-university students towards a career in the health sciences and specifically for the SLT profession. This was a cross-sectional study that employed convinience sampling method to recruit participants. A total of 110 Indian pre-university students from urban cities of Kuala Lumpur and Johor were recruited. The findings showed majority of the respondents (>90%) placed importance on a career that provided “high salary,” “job stability,” and “career’s social standing in the community.” Almost all respondents recognize the medical, pharmacy and nursing profesion compared to only <3% who were familiar with the occupational therapy, audiology and SLT profession. Respondents perceived the SLT profession as “suited for females,” “interesting” and provided “opportunities to meet people.” None of the respondents perceived SLT as a profession that “suited for males,” “high salary” and “a scientic course.” Only 5% of respondents would consider a career in SLT. Findings from this study can be used to increase awareness and to change inaccurate perceptions regarding health science profession especially SLT amongst the Indian ethnicity.
Language Therapy ; Speech Therapy

No abstract available.
Eructation* ; Speech Therapy*

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the improvement of speech perception in Chinese-native cochlear implant (CI) children using frequency modulated system (FM system). METHOD: The mandarin speech perception (MSP) system was used to evaluate 11 cases with severe and profound hearing loss who were fitted cochlear implants. Listeners were asked to repeat MSP words presented in quiet and several different signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions and percent correct word repetition was determined. Performance was evaluated under FM system and without FM (CI only). In addition, the listeners' subjective performance changes in the experiment were also observed. RESULT: (1) There was significant main effect of the device condition (with FM and no-FM) (F = 72.938, P < 0.01), a significant main effect of signal level (F = 230.715, P < 0.01), a significant interaction effect between the signal level and the device condition (F = 40.893, P < 0.01). (2) Listeners answered the question in a louder voice, showed more confidence, when using with FM system. CONCLUSION FM system could improve the speech reception in a complex environment for Chinese-native CI children.
Child ; Cochlear Implantation ; Cochlear Implants ; Humans ; Noise ; Signal-To-Noise Ratio ; Speech ; Speech Perception ; Speech Therapy

Tongue tie, often referred to as 'Ankyloglossia', is a congenital condition, recognized by an unusually thickened, tightened, or shortened lingual frenulum, which limits movement of the tongue in activities connected with feeding and which has an adverse impact on both dental health and speech. A common definition and objective measurements have been rare because the tongue is a complete soft tissue structure without non- mobile landmarks. From March of 1996 to November of 2001, preoperative and postoperative speech evaluation, post-speech therapy were performed in twelve patients. Each low picture consonants test was observed in tongue-tie patients. Overall picture consonants test was improved after frenuloplasty and postoperative speech therapy. Preoperative value of liquids and fricatives were lower than the other alveolar phonemes(p<0.05) and it was improved after frenuloplasty(p<0.05) and postoperative speech therapy(p<0.05). Frenuloplasty itself can improve the articulation of liquids and fricatives on short follow-up. But Frenuloplasty and postoperative speech therapy can be more improvement of the alveolar phonemes.
Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Speech Therapy* ; Tongue

PURPOSE: Authors evaluated results of palatoplasty by speech analysis in bilateral, unilateral complete, and unilateral incomplete and submucous cleft palate patients. METHODS: The speech outcomes were studied in 15 bilateral, 28 unilateral complete, and 46 unilateral incomplete and submucous cleft palate patients who underwent push-back palatoplasties from January 1998 to July 2004. The patients were divided into 2 groups as 3 to 6, 7 to 10-year-old and compared with 20 normal children(control groups were divided into 10 children on each side). Nasal emission test, hypernasality test, and articulation test were done by speech evaluation table which was composed of 39 different words. RESULTS: In all speech evaluation tests, the group of bilateral cleft palate patients got the worst score. And 7 to 10-year-old groups got better score when compared to the same type cleft palate. CONCLUSION: Bilateral cleft palate patients have many more speech problems than other patients. In cleft palate patients, the speech problem was improved with ages, postoperatively. And the speech therapy can improve the operative outcomes.
Child ; Cleft Palate ; Humans ; Speech Therapy

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Many research papers showed that the most common articulation disorder in tongue-tie children was the error of alveolar sound. We performed speech therapy on alveolar sound after lingual frenulotomy to prove that the speech therapy after lingual frenulotomy improves the articulation of alveolar sound and that this effect is maintained. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We collected 28 children who never had speech therapy but could afford to have the speech therapy. The accuracy rate of consonant sound was calculated using a picture consonant test 2 weeks following the lingual frenulotomy. The speech therapy, called the phonetic placement and paired-stimulus technique, was performed 18 times for 3 months. This therapy decreased incidence rate of error. RESULTS: The incidence rate of alveolar sound error, which was calculated before speech therapy, was about 65%. And the incidence rate of alveolar sound error after speech therapy was 5-10%, which proved the effect of speech therapy. We divided alveolar sounds into target sounds and non-target sounds. And we performed speech therapy only on target sounds so the appearance rate of alveolar sound error decreased and the incidence rate of non-target sounds also decreased. We performed speech therapy after 2 weeks and the effect was maintained. CONCLUSION: The incidence rate of alveolar sound error decreased by using speech therapy and the effect was maintained. So the speech therapy must be performed after lingual frenulotomy.
Articulation Disorders ; Child ; Humans ; Incidence ; Speech Therapy*

Language Development ; Speech Therapy ; Verbal Learning ; Child

speech therapy - for the submucosal type cleft palate patient usually becomes late. Some patients visited our hospital due to speech disorder nevertheless normal intraoral appearance. After precise intraoral examination, we found out submucosal cleft palate. We evaluated the speech before and after surgery of these patients. In this study, we want to find the objective characteristics of submucosal type cleft palate patients, comparing with the normal and the complete cleft palate patients. Experimental groups were 10 submucosal type cleft palate patients and 10 complete cleft palate patients who got the operation in our hospital. And, the controls were 10 normal person. The sentence patterns using in this study were simple 5 vowels. Using CSL program we evaluated the Formant, Bandwidth. We analized the spectral characteristics of speech signals of 3 groups, before and after the operation. In most cases, the formant scores were higher in experimental groups (complete cleft palate group and submucosal type cleft palate group) than controls. There were small differences when speeching /a/, /i/, /e/ between experimental groups and control groups, large differences when speeching /o/, /u/. After surgery the formant scores were decreased in experimental groups (complete cleft palate group and submucosal type cleft palate group). In bandwidth scores, there were no significant differences between experimental groups and controls.]]>
Cleft Palate ; Humans ; Palatal Muscles ; Speech Therapy

OBJECTIVE: To systematically evaluate the clinical efficacy of acupuncture for dysarthria, and to explore the rules of acupoints selection for dysarthria. METHODS: The clinical randomized control trial literature regarding acupuncture for dysarthria published before January of 2018 were searched in databases, including CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, CBM, PubMed, Ebsco, Science Direct and Cochrane Library. The information of included studies was extract and the quality was assessed. The Meta analysis was performed by using RevMan 5.3 software. The frequency of acupoints was calculated by using Excel software to analyzed the rules of acupoints selection. RESULTS: Totally 21 papers were included, involving 1651 patients. The pooled effects of clinical efficacy: heterogeneity test =0.74, =0%, =6.36, 95% CI: 4.55, 8.88, =10.84 (<0.01), indicating the efficacy in the treatment group was significantly higher than that in the control group. The pooled effects of the symptom score in Frenchay scale: heterogeneity test =0.56, =0%, =3.20, 95% CI: 1.38, 5.02, =3.45 (<0.01), indicating the efficacy in the treatment group was significantly higher than that in the control group. The acupoints with frequency of more than 5 times were Fengchi (GB 20), Yuye (EX-HN 13), Jinjin (EX-HN 12), Lianquan (CV 23), Baihui (GV 20), tongue-three needles and Yamen (GV15). The meridians with frequency of more than 5 times were the extra channels, governor vessel, gallbladder channel, conception vessel and stomach channel. CONCLUSION The clinical efficacy of acupuncture combined with speech training/regular treatment is significantly superior to that of control group (speech training, medication, regular treatment); acupuncture is safe and effective for dysarthria; the majority of selected acupoint is local acupoints around tongue, throat and neck, as well as extra points and empirical points. However, high-quality randomized controlled trials with large sample sizes are still needed to provide further evidence.
Acupuncture Therapy ; Dysarthria ; therapy ; Humans ; Meridians ; Speech Therapy

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of tongue and nape acupuncture combined with rehabilitation training group of dysarthria on speech function in post-stroke dysarthria patients, and to explore the treatment of dysarthria. METHODS: Eighty patients with dysarthria were randomly divided into an observation group (40 cases) and a control group (40 cases). The patients in the two groups were treated with conventional treatment. The patients in the control group were treated with the acupuncture combined with rehabilitation training group of dysarthria; the patients in the observation group were treated with the control group treatment and tongue acupuncture, once a day, 6 days per week for 2 weeks. The patients were evaluated with general dysarthria scale and dysarthria checklist of Chinese Rehabilitation Study Center before and after 2-week treatment. RESULTS: After treatment, the total score and each item score of general dysarthria scale were reduced (all <0.05); all the score in the observation group was lower than those in the control group (all <0.05), except the score of jaw which had no significant difference between the two groups. After treatment, the dysarthria checklist of Chinese Rehabilitation Study Center in the observation group was superior to that in the control group (<0.05). The total effective rate was 85.0% (34/40) in the observation group, which was higher than 67.5% (27/40) in the control group (<0.05). CONCLUSION Tongue acupuncture, nape acupuncture and rehabilitation training group of dysarthria could effectively improve the speech function of post-stroke dysarthria patients.
Acupuncture Therapy ; Dysarthria ; therapy ; Humans ; Speech ; Stroke ; Tongue ; Treatment Outcome