Lexikala analyser av muntlig, tangentbordsskriven och dikterad text producerad av barn med stavningssvårigheter

För barn med stavningssvårigheter är skriftspråkande en stor utmaning och behovet att hitta nya redskap för att understödja deras skriftspråksutveckling är därför stort. Att skriva med taligenkänning, diktering, skulle kunna underlätta skrivprocessen eftersom dikteringsverktyget reducerar kraven på skribenten att stava själv, och detta skulle därmed kunna frigöra kognitiva resurser till annan textbearbetning. Att diktera text innebär emellertid inte med nödvändighet en enklare textproduktion; dels behöver texten följa skriftspråksnormer trots att den produceras muntligt, dels behöver skribenten hitta strategier för att hantera tillfällen när verktyget inte uppfattar talet korrekt. I föreliggande studie undersöks text producerad av barn med stavningssvårigheter. Lexikala egenskaper, textlängd och stavfel studeras i muntlig, skriven och dikterad text. Analyserna visar att de dikterade texterna innehåller färre stavfel än de skrivna samt att både skriven och dikterad text har högre lexikal densitet och högre andel långa ord jämfört med muntlig text. Detta antyder att deltagarna klarar att diktera texter med skriftspråkliga egenskaper. Däremot skiljde sig dikterad text varken från muntlig eller skriven text gällande textlängd eller lexikal diversitet. Vår slutsats är att dikteringsverktyg kan användas för att underlätta skrivprocessen för barn med stavningssvårigheter, men det behövs vidare forskning som studerar hur olika undergrupper producerar text med dikteringsverktyg.For children with reading and writing difficulties, writing, in general, and spelling, in particular, is a significant challenge. Writing with speech recognition (dictation) can facilitate the writing process since the dictation tool removes the need to spell, freeing resources for other processes. Dictating, however, may not always provide a solution, since written text should follow the conventions of written language, even when produced orally. In addition, writers need strategies if the tool does not recognize the spoken words. In the present study, children with spelling difficulties produced keyboard-written and dictated texts, and an oral account. The analyses showed that dictated texts, as expected, contained fewer spelling errors than keyboard-written texts, and that both of these had a higher lexical density than the oral accounts. This suggests that students are able to dictate using written language conventions. However, the dictated texts did not differ from the oral and keyboard-written texts in terms of length of text and proportion of long words. Our conclusion is that the dictation tool can be used to facilitate the children’s writing process, but further research is needed to see if training in the use of the tool would bring more substantial benefits

Exploring transcription processes when children with and without reading and writing difficulties produce written text using speech recognition

The aim of this study was to investigate composition and error-correction processes, and their relationship with production rate, in children, age 10-12, with and without reading and writing difficulties using speech-to-text (STT) to write expository texts in Swedish. Measures of individual abilities: working memory, spelling ability and decoding ability, and the ability to interact with the STT tool under optimal conditions (STT success rate) were collected. For both those with and without difficulties, neither working memory, nor spelling or decoding ability predicted burst length nor accuracy. Only a child’s STT success rate did predict accuracy during text composition. Further, none of the individual abilities predicted choice of error-correction modality (keyboard or STT) or error correction functionality. This indicates that the children’s behavior were independent of these abilities. Furthermore, production rate was significantly predicted by both burst length and accuracy, and by working memory, but not by error-correction behaviour, nor by spelling or decoding ability. This indicates that composing text using STT is a cognitively complex process placing heavy demands on working memory. Dictating more than one word at a time and combining STT and keyboard use were identified as two useful strategies that can be taught in STT instruction

General practitioners' experiences of Phosphatidylethanol in treatment of hypertension : A qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Hazardous alcohol use increases the risk of hypertension but is underdetected in primary health care patients. Use of the biomarker phosphatidylethanol (PEth), which reflects the last two to three weeks of alcohol consumption, is increasing in Swedish primary health care, but studies from that context are scarce or missing. AIM: Explore general practitioners' (GPs') experiences of using PEth to identify hazardous alcohol use in the context of managing hypertension. DESIGN & SETTING: A qualitative study of GPs (n=12) experienced in using PEth in hypertension management who were recruited at Swedish primary health care centres in 2021. METHOD: The GPs participated in five focus groups interviews. A questioning route was used. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed with inductive qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: The overall theme I don't hesitate anymore reflects the disappearance of GPs' fear that the PEth result might upset the patient, as this rarely occurred and that the positive effects of PEth predominated in the findings. The theme is underpinned by four sub-themes: serving as an eyeopener, improving the dialogue, using with care, and learning by doing. CONCLUSION: PEth is a useful tool that changed GPs' routines for addressing alcohol and identifying hazardous alcohol use in patients with hypertension managed in primary health care. The GPs advocated adopting PEth as a routine test in the treatment of hypertension. However, PEth needs to be used with care to maximise benefit and minimise harm