People with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) are at greater risk for contracting the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) virus and experiencing more severe outcomes that people without IDD. Many people with IDD live and work in congregate settings, which provide an ideal environment for rapid spread and outbreaks. Although sources such as the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued guidelines to inform responses to COVID-19 in communities globally and in the United States, few address the specific needs of people with IDD. In this paper, authors evaluate generally available guidelines and adapt them to the needs of people with IDD, with recommendations on application to congregate settings including group homes.
The background to this study is the coronavirus pandemic and its implications for people with a learning disability in England. The study is a literature-based examination over a twenty-year period of the performance of successive governments in the provision of services for people with a learning disability. The study identifies several areas of concern: (a) the demonstrable lack of government commitment to people with a learning disability;(b) the ill-advised merger of health and social care sectors;(c) problems in the recruitment of sufficient staff for social care;and (d) the potentially deleterious impact of technology on the quality of life of people with a learning disability. The paper concludes by arguing for: (a) the re-instatement of a Ministry for Disability which is responsible solely for services for people with disabilities;(b) the establishment of a separate and appropriately funded national Department of Social Care;(c) a relaxation of immigration controls to permit recruitment of sufficient staff from EU and non-EU countries to the social care sector, and (d) effective systems put in place to monitor the application of technology in the social care sector.
Lawyers occupation demands long hours of vocal loading which subsequently may lead to voice problems. They are often ignorant of their vocal limitations and often fail to identify their early signs of vocal attrition. They go on and remain professionally active for a longer period of time with existing vocal misuse or abusive behaviours and seek medical help after long period of onset of the problem. Aim of the study: The aim of the study was to investigate the self-perception of voice problems among lawyers using Voice Handicap Index (VHI). Methods: A total of N = 60 participants (n = 48 males and n = 12 females) in the age range of 25-60 years were enrolled in the study. Voice Handicap Index questionnaire was used to assess the self perception. Results: The present study findings reflected the impact among the lawyers. In the present study, the impact was only observed for functional and physical subscales unlike the emotional scale. The primary objective of the study was to investigate the impact of voice problems among lawyers. The secondary objectives were to compare the subscales of VHI and to explore the risk factors that can bepresumed to affect their voice. The severity was more in physical as compared to functional subscale. Clearing of throat was observed to be statistically significant among the possible risk factors among the lawyers.
Subjective evaluation using questionnaire has become important and mandatory in order to know overall listening difficulties and benefits from amplification. Many questionnaires have been developed for western population and implemented in day to day clinics. These subjective questionnaires have a limitation in terms of language, culture and they lack in multidimensionality which makes the questionnaire difficult to generalize to Indian population. This leads to the need to have questionnaire which can overcome the variation in regional languages, culture and educational status so that it can be implemented across Indian population. Using pictures in questionnaire will have advantages from patients and clinician’s perspective in terms of less language demand as well as faster means of eliciting responses. Absence of multidimensionality in available questionnaire also raises the need of a questionnaire to have different subtests for different listening environment,
Narratives is a form of discourse, which includes use of a series of sentences to describe an event. In the present study, narrative skills were investigated in 20 children with cerebral palsy (CP) and 20 typically developing (TD) children between 5 to 13 years. Both narrative compre-hension and narrative expression (macro-structural and microstructural analysis) were explored. Narrative macro-structure analysis focused on scores obtained for story content, event, grammar and story. Narrative microstructure analysis included Type-Token Ratio (TTR), Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) and Number of Sentences (NS). The study findings revealed a reduced performance in children with CP in all the measures with statistically significant difference for the tasks of narrative comprehension and TTR. The study indicates the relevance of using narrative analysis along with the standard test protocol for language assessment in children with CP.
Auditory acclimatization is referred to as the improvement in performance over a period of hearing aid use. Most studies on acclimatization have used speech in noise test as the primary measure to explore such effect. The current study is aimed at investigating evidence of the acclim-atization effect using the test of auditory processing like low redundant speech tests which reflect intrinsic changes of the auditory system. The study was carried out in two phases, viz. a baseline and a follow-up assessment phase (after 12 weeks of hearing aid use). Both the assessments comprised of monaural low redundant tests (Quick speech in noise in Kannada, low-pass filtered speech test in Kannada, compressed speech test). All the tests showed a significant improvement after 12 weeks of hearing aid use indicating acclimatization effect, except for the compressed speech test. Improved performance over the initial period of hearing aid use (acclimatization) would probably indicate the potential restoration of neurons which were not previously available. It also indices the ability of reorgani-zation/adaptability in the central auditory system. The current study also revealed the influence of choice of test on acclimatization. Further, time altered speech perception ability remains impaired in hearing impaired individuals irrespective of hearing aid amplification or acclimatization.
Parents play a crucial role in development of communi-cation skills in children. Current study was undertaken to gather parental perceptions with respect to communication problems in preschool children in Indian context. Perception of communication problems among sixty parents of preschool Indian children were explored using a semi structured questionnaire. Knowledge of parents were analyzed across age group, gender and level of education. Results revealed that both the older and younger age groups’ parents had fair level of knowledge towards their children’s normal development with inadequate knowledge on role of speech language pathologists (SLPs) in identification and intervention of communication deficits. Compared to fathers, mothers showed better knowledge regarding their children’s normal communication patterns. Further, the knowledge level enhanced with increased parental education level. Findings indicate that most of the Indian parents are still not cognizant about the roles and services rendered by the speech language pathologists. Ample proficiency in parents about the normal language development but failure to provide early identification and effective rehabilitation could not only lead to parental stress but also create a huge burden to the society. The findings necessitate the need for awareness building about SLPs’ services in Indian context.
Abstract Using a subjective outcome evaluation method, the current study investigated program implementers’ perceptions of the Tier 1 Program of the community-based P.A.T.H.S. Project in Hong Kong. After completion of the program, 599 program implementers completed a valid and reliable scale (i.e. Form B) to give their ratings on program content, their own performance, and perceived program effectiveness. As expected, most program implementers perceived the program in a favorable way by giving very positive ratings on the three aspects measured in Form B. Grade differences on the ratings were observed, with implementers teaching the senior curriculum held more positive views on program effectiveness than did those teaching the junior curriculum. Similar to previous findings, perceived program content and perceived worker performance predicted program effectiveness. Findings of the present study provide further evidence for the success of the Tier 1 Program of the community-based P.A.T.H.S. Project in Hong Kong.
