محمد صادق جنابی

The Severity of Stuttering Instrument-fourth edition (SSI-4) form can be used to assess the severity of stuttering. In this study, in order to increase students’ competence and objectively assess their clinical skills, the validity and reliability of the DOPS test in assessing the clinical skills of speech therapy students in using the SSI-4 form were assessed.

This study was a non-interventional descriptive study conducted in the School of Rehabilitation Sciences. Nineteen students were selected by the census method. An evaluation checklist related to the DOPS method was prepared. After obtaining the consent and training of students and examiners on the implementation of the DOPS assessment method, the student’s work was observed by the examiners and rated, and then the student’s strengths and weaknesses were given feedback.

The results showed that the questions are related to the measured subject and have high face validity. The content validity index was more than 0.9, and the content validity ratio was more than 0.6. The results confirmed the test's reliability and indicated the optimal internal structure of the test and its structural validity. 

According to this study, the use of the DOPS test to objectively assess the clinical skills of speech therapy students in the assessment of stuttering is appropriate and according to the results, DOPS has appropriate validity and reliability and this test can be used clinically.

One of the common disorders in Speech Language Pathology (SLP) is speech sound disorder. To increase students’ competence and objectively evaluate their clinical skills, we used the Direct Observation of Procedural Skills (DOPS) test in a clinical setting and examined its validity and reliability

This research is a non-interventional descriptive study. Twenty students who participated in this study were selected by the census method. Traditional treatment approach skill for speech sound disorder was selected. Then an evaluation checklist of DOPS was prepared. After obtaining the consent of students and professors, they entered the study. Two professors observed the work of all student during the procedure on a real patient. Results were recorded in a checklist, and feedback was given to the students about their strengths and weaknesses.

The content validity index of the DOPS test was more than 0.8, and its content validity ratio was more than 0.62. The correlation coefficients of questions indicate the optimal internal structure of the test and its structural validity. The results showed that the test questions were related to the predetermined subject. Results confirmed high face validity. The obtained Cronbach α coefficient (0.865) confirmed DOPS reliability. There was a significant inter-rater correlation coefficient (0.901) between evaluators (P<0.001).

According to the study, the use of DOPS for objective assessment of clinical skill has validity and reliability. This test can be used to evaluate the clinical work of SLP students, provide feedback, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and improve them.

Semantics is one of the most important aspects of language acquisition the development of which maybe deviated in severe and profound hearing-impaired. The more words Deaf learned, the better they can communicate with their audience and understand the correct meaning of spoken and written messages of others. This study reports on the development of a lexical-semantic test and investigates its validity and reliability in adults with severe to profound hearing loss.

For the development of the test, a list of high frequency words including 120 words appropriate for literate adults was gathered. Then each word was placed in a sentence context for the purpose of contextualization. Afterwards, some choices were selected according to Haladyna rules. Content validity was assessed according to experts’ ratings and finally 44 questions remained. The test was administered to 35 participants (19 females and 16 males) with severe to profound hearing loss with school diploma, upper diploma and Bachelor of Science, while a group of 35 participants with normal hearing was considered as the control group.

The overall average of content validity ratio and index were obtained respectively +1 and 0.923. Cronbach's alpha value was equal to 0.918. In correlation between test-retest scores, there was a positive significant correlation between the scores (r=0.893, p<0.001). Hearing impaired girls’ mean score in comparison with boys’ was significantly higher (p<0.001). There were significant differences in the different educational levels (p= 0.032).

The test enjoyed high reliability and validity indices. The mean score of the girls was more than that of the boys. The higher the level of education of hearing impaired persons, the higher their performance on the lexical-semantic test.

Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) are a group of professional voice users which their main professional tool is their voice. With respect to the dependence of their professional continuity and quality of life to their optimal voice, the research aim selected as study of frequency of vocal complaints and its relation with risk factors.

Risk factors and vocal complaints' data of 71 employed SLPs (14 men and 57 women) with at least 3 years of clinical experience gathered with two questionnaires. Face and content validity of the Questionnaires was confirmed with item effect and Lawshe methods, respectively. Reliability confirmed with internal consistency method. Participants divided into two groups with and without vocal complaints, by having at least one complaint or not, respectively. Descriptive and logistic regression was used by SPSS21.

Frequency of vocal complaints was 73.2%, and most frequent was hoarseness (52.1%). Most frequent risk factors were psychological problems (60%), talking a lot (59.6%), and digestive problems (34.6%). Frequency of digestive problems were significantly more in vocal complaint group (P=0.014). History of digestive problems was a predictor of vocal complaint (P = 0.048, OR = 8.5).

SLPs experience a lot of psychological and digestive problems and also talking a lot. Presence of digestive problems can increase the probability of vocal complaint. Compatibility of these findings with findings of some other researches shows the necessity of more attention to these factors

Vocal changes are one of the most common consequences of thyroid surgery. These changes can be due to neurological or other factors. With respect to vocal changes after surgery, and the need for determination of details of the vocal problems and related consequences in the patients’ life after thyroidectomy, the aim of this study was determination of some acoustic parameters of their voice after thyroidectomy and the status of subscales of Voice Handicap Index (VHI).

This study is a cross-sectional descriptive analytic and non-interventional. One voice of 32 thyroidectomized patients (23 women and 9 men) with 20-60 years of age analyzed acoustically and they completed VHI questionnaire.

Statistical comparison of mean scores of VHI in two groups of patients with and without vocal problem showed that mean score and standard deviation of total scores of VHI, and the scores of functional, emotional, and physical subscales in patients with voice problems are more than the other group, and the differences were significant (P=0.000). Comparison of acoustic parameters in the two groups of patients showed that F0, jitter, shimmer, and HNR were different, but the differences were not significant. According to our results, amplitude perturbations and harmonic to noise ratio was high in both groups of thyroidectomized patients.

According to the findings of this research, we can conclude that F0, jitter, shimmer, and HNR of voice may be not enough for determination of voice problems, but other acoustic measures, self-perceptual, or self-reported evaluation tools such as VHI maybe more efficient in determination of thyroidectomized patients’ voice problems.

People with more lexical semantic abilities can be more achieved in communicating with others, and in understanding the spoken or written words or sentences of others. The aim of this study was determination and comparison of lexical semantic ability in hearing and hearing impaired adults from mild to profound levels of hearing loss.

This study is a cross-sectional descriptive analytic and non-interventional study. Lexical semantic ability of 20 normal and 73 hearing impaired (16 mild, 17 moderate, 20 severe, and 20 profound hearing impaired) evaluated by the lexical semantic test. Normal adults were 7 males and 13 females, and hearing impaired adults were 23 males and 50 females. The participant’s age range was 18-58 years old. The lexical semantic test has 44 MCQs in its two alternate forms. Descriptive statistics, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, U Mann Whitney test, and Kruskal-Wallis test were used for description and analysis of the data.

Statistical comparison of mean scores in two groups of hearing, and hearing impaired showed that mean scores of hearing group was significantly more. Scores of hearing, mild, moderate, and severe groups decreased respectively, but the scores of profound group was slightly more than severe group. The differences between scores of these groups were significant.

According to the findings of this research, we can conclude that hearing impairment can have adverse effects on lexical semantic ability of adult persons. The other important finding of this study was that the more the hearing impairment, the more its adverse effect on lexical semantic ability.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the phonological processing and sentence comprehension in children with CIs and compare them with normal hearing (NH) children. It is also an attempt to study the relation between phonological processing and sentence comprehension in children with CIs.

Twenty children with CIs  and twenty NH children between the ages 4 to 6 years were evaluated with the Non-Word Repetition (NWR) task ; Persian Syntax Comprehension Test (PSCT); Persian version of Test of Language Development, Primary, 3rd (TOLD-P: 3); nonverbal part of the Wechsler Pre-school and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) test; and Vineland adaptive-behavior scale. 

These results implied that children with CIs may experience difficulties in phonological processing and sentence comprehension. In children with CIs, with increasing their experience in processing of sound, sentence comprehension skills improved. 

The findings of the present study demonstrated that there is a relationship between the NWR and sentence comprehension. Therefore, paying more attention to the intervention of phonological processing may help children with CIs in sentence comprehension.

Formant structure is an important feature of vowels in any language. The formant structure of any vowel can be a function of gender. This study investigated the formant structure of six Persian vowels used in the speech of Turkish speakers aged 18-28 years old.
This is a descriptive-analytic cross-sectional study. A total of 30 male (N=15) and female (N= 15) 18-28 year old participants were recruited from among Turkish speaking students studying at Iranian University of Medical Sciences. The fundamental frequency and three first formants of each of six Persian vowels were recorded by Praat software. Independent samples-t test and Mann U Whitney were used to analyze the data.
Among male participants, the lowest fundamental frequency was related to /æ/ vowel with a mean of 120 Hz, the highest being /i/ vowel with a mean of 128 Hz. The lowest first formant was related to /i/ vowel with a mean of 280 Hz, the highest being /æ/ vowel with mean of 693 Hz. The highest second formant was related to /o/ vowel with a mean of 931 Hz, the lowest being /i/ vowel with mean of 2135 Hz. The lowest third formant was related to /æ/ vowel with mean of 2554 Hz, the highest being /i/ vowel with mean of 2927 Hz. Among the female participants, the lowest fundamental frequency was related to /æ/ vowel with mean of 219 Hz, the highest being /i/ vowel with mean of 249 Hz. The lowest first formant was related to /i/ vowel with mean of 348 Hz, the highest being /æ/ vowel with mean of 943 Hz. The lowest second formant was related to /u/ vowel with mean of 771 Hz, the highest being /i/ vowel with mean of 2686 Hz. The lowest third formant was related to /æ/ vowel with mean of 2815 Hz, the highest being /i/ vowel with mean of 3303 Hz. All the differences between male and female participants were significant except for the first and third formant in /u/ vowel, second formant in /o/ vowel and third formant in /a/ vowel (p It can be concluded gender is not only a factor for a differences of fundamental frequency, but it also can account for differences in vowel space of Persian vowels in the speech Turkish male and female speakers. It seems that the significant greater amount of fundamental frequency of all of vowels in females can be the result of smaller dimensions of larynx, and smaller length and mass of vocal tract, though part of this difference may be a function of other factors such as language or dialect. The significant greater amount of first formant of female participants shows the higher position of tongue in females during production of the vowels. Reduction in second formant with more posterior vowels shows the smaller distance between the narrowest place of articulators and larynx. Vowel space in female participants was greater than that in males, obviously in front vowels. Therefore, it seems necessary to replicate this study in some other languages or dialects for closer study of gender's effect and other factors such as language or dialect.

Aphasia is common symptom after acute stroke with a prevalence in earlier studies between 21 - 38%. In Iran; unfortunately no investigation has been reported on the prevalence of aphasia. So the main aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of aphasia after stroke at hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of medical sciences (TUMS). This study is a cross-sectional design and has been done on 30 patients with brain injury who admitted to TUMS hospitals during three months. The Mississippi Aphasia Screening Test (MAST) was used to screening aphasia patients. The descriptive results indicated, from 22 patients with CVA five cases (22.7%) were aphasic. Mean age of aphasic patients (69.6 years) was more than non-aphasic patients (49.24 years) and of five aphasic patients, three cases (60%) were male and two of them (40%) were female. Also, regarding background diseases, four of five (80%) aphasic patients had history of high blood pressure and diabetes. Results of this study was consistent with prevalence of aphasia in last studies. Also results of this study confirmed other studies based on that etiology of lesion, age, and high blood pressure and diabetes history of the patients plays an important role in prevalence of aphasia.

Multiple Sclerosis is a disease of the central nervous system. This disease is rarely accompanied by abnormalities of PNS. A common complaint is a decrease in verbal fluency. Therefore, verbal fluency assessment is necessary for analysis of these patients’ ability to produce language content. Current researches show that participants with MS are substantially but similarly impaired on test of verbal fluency. The main aim in undertaking the present study is to determine the pattern of�verbal fluency deficit in RRMS patients who speak Persian�in comparison with matched healthy controls. The verbal fluency performance of 30 Persian-speaker patients with multiple sclerosis was compared with that of 30 age-, sex-, and education-matched controls, and the results were analyzed by Independent T-test. Twenty four (80%) of patients were female and six (20%) of them were male, with the mean age of 31.35 years. Consistent with previous investigations, the RRMS patients produced fewer words. It can be concluded that verbal fluency deficits in MS follows a unique pattern which is associated with substantial levels of impairment on measures of semantic and phonemic fluency.

The internal evaluation which is done by the members of the different departments is the best way to judge about quality of education and to identify its strong and weak areas. With regard to the important role of evaluation in the quality of education, the aim of this study is conducting an internal evaluation of the department of speech therapy in order to optimize the educational quality of the different parts of the department. This descriptive-cross sectional study was done to evaluate some variables such as educational goals, optimal leading of the department instrumental and physical equipments, clinical educational environment, and student measures about educational style and teaching quality of practical and theoretical courses of scientific members of the department. To collect data, questionnaires and checklists were provided by the faculty members of the department of speech therapy. These instruments were given to the faculty members (to evaluate themselves) and the students (sophomore and senior students of speech therapy to evaluate the theoretical courses and the junior and senior students were asked to evaluate the clinical courses). After collecting each instrument, results were categorized according to Gourman Scoring Scale. According to Gourman scores, means were obtained from internal evaluation of speech therapy as in follow: Professional – theoretical lessons were in more than satisfied ranking, clinical courses were in good ranking, educational and physical equipments (evaluated by scientific members and students) were in unsatisfied ranking and evaluation of head of group and scientific members were in satisfied ranking. Generally, results showed speech therapy group was in satisfied category. Obviously, to reach an ideal level, we should make some changes, for example, encouraging and strengthening weak areas and maintaining strong areas.

Evaluation of nasalance is one of the important factors of instrumental evaluation of voice in persons susceptible to resonance disorder. There are different factors which can affect nasalance score. One of the most important factors is phonetic context of words and the other is sentences. We studied some effects of this important factor on nasalance score in normal Farsi speakers. This study is a cross-sectional and descriptive-analytic study of nasalance scores of words in 62 male and 60 female normal and Farsi speakers aged 18-27 years old. Subjects were selected from students of rehabilitation college which hadn’t any auditory, articulatory, fluency, and resonance problem. They hadn’t cold, or any other disease which could affect their voice. Twelve printed words (6 words with and 6 words without nasal consonants) were read by each of subjects, and nasalance of them were calculated by Nasal View, and then, the gathered data were analysed. Mean Nasalance scores of words without nasal consonants in ascending order are for words /dâd/, /bâl/, /dærd/, /bur/, /did/, and /bil/ SDs are nearly follow this order. Mean Nasalance scores of words with nasal consonants in ascending order are for words /mâl/, /nærd/, /dân/, /mur/, /mil/, and /din/ SDs are nearly follow this order. Maximum nasalance score in nasal words is for /din/, and minimum is for /mâl/. Maximum nasalance score in nonnasal words is for /bil/, and minimum is for /dâd/. Mean nasalance scores of males and females are compared with each other. Findings of this study prepared useful information about nasalance score in adult Farsi speakers wich can be a good start for access to standardized data for different aspects of voice. In addition, it shows that mean nasalance score of words can be significantly changed with these factors: different vowels, presence or absence of nasal consonants, and gender. This study shows the necessity of investigating about the effect of different phonetic contexts, manner and placement of articulation too.

Articulation disorders due to the problems that create in communication with others, is a great obstacle in individual’s development and may cause difficulties. Generally, 5% of school age children have articulation disorders and should be referred to the speech therapy clinics. In this research, prevalence of articulation disorders was studied in Semnan primary school children to evaluate the range of problem. In this cross-sectional study done among the primary school, 5 boy schools and five girl schools with 3013 pupils, were examined by speech therapists. Among them, those with articulation disorders were separated and the supplementary evaluations were performed on them in clinics. To analyze the data, Ratio test, Chi-square and correlation coefficient were used. Findings showed that 8.7% (95% CI: 7.7-9.7%) of the cases, suffering the articulation disorders; 8% of them having lisp, chiefly, in [s] and [z] sounds. Meanwhile, articulation disorders in males were higher than in females significantly (P=0.002). Also there did not exist any signifricant relation between the kind of articulation disorder and age (P=0.55), between the severity of articulation disorder and gender (P=0.397), and also between the articulation disorder and age. Considering the high rate of lisp in the elementary school children, it is suggested that the parents and school officials should pay the special attention to these problems and try to refer them to the speech therapy clinics.

Hearing is one of the most important sensory abilities through which man can hear the people’s speech after birth, and then gradually acquires the ability of understanding and expressing them. If hearing damage occurs, specially from the beginning of the birth and or before speech acquisition, with respect to the severity of damage, one will have delay in speech and language. Morphology and syntax are two important aspects of language which are usually affected in the hearing impaired students. In this study, some morphologic and syntactic indicators in speech of hearing impaired students and some non-language features were studied too. This is a descriptive study research. Sampling has been non-randomly done on the whole 29 hearing loss students without any IQ problems at the age of 10-16 in the deaf primary school with hearing loss more than 65 decibels in the Best Binaural Average Scale in Birjand. Students’file in school, picture description, and supplementary questions were tools which were used. All the cases’utterances during the test were recorded by a tape recorder and then were written on the paper. Then all the indicators were analysed. Findings containing the following descriptive information, mean of MLU of cases was 3.7 morphemes and 2.4 words. Among 1051 utterances, 17.4% of utterances were correct which among them 57.3% were sentences and 42.7% were also non-sentences. Only 24% of verbs had been inflected correctly and the rest (76%) had some problems. 66% of cases used total communication method,10% sign method, and the rest(24%) used lip-reading and oral methods. 13.8% of all cases used hearing aid continuously, 44.8% barely and 41.4% did not use hearing aid at all. Meanwhile, 24.1% of cases had at least one hearing loss person in their family. Findings showed that mean of MLU among these people is very low;.However they used verb a lot in their speech,but they had a lot of problems in agreement of verb with subject and tense.