Experiencing the role of PBL tutor.

Abstract The tutor is important for student learning in the PBL group. The students expect the tutor to monitor and steer the group process and to support the learning process, helping students to become aware of their own learning. This study aimed at investigating the PBL tutor's role. Five PBL tutors at the Speech/Language Pathology program were interviewed regarding their view of the tutors' role and what support they need. The analysis of the transcribed interviews focused on finding patterns and variation regarding tutor-activity at different stages in the PBL work and in their views of their progress as tutors. The results indicate that being a tutor is a balancing act and that the tutor need continuous support and input from different sources. Tutors should be encouraged to reflect on their own reactions and interventions and to be explicit and confident in their thoughts about PBL

How Do Teachers With Self-Reported Voice Problems Differ From Their Peers With Self-Reported Voice Health?

OBJECTIVES: This randomized case-control study compares teachers with self-reported voice problems to age-, gender-, and school-matched colleagues with self-reported voice health. The self-assessed voice function is related to factors known to influence the voice: laryngeal findings, voice quality, personality, psychosocial and coping aspects, searching for causative factors of voice problems in teachers. METHODS: Subjects and controls, recruited from a teacher group in an earlier questionnaire study, underwent examinations of the larynx by high-speed imaging and kymograms; voice recordings; voice range profile; audiometry; self-assessment of voice handicap and voice function; teaching and environmental aspects; personality; coping; burnout, and work-related issues. The laryngeal and voice recordings were assessed by experienced phoniatricians and speech pathologists. RESULTS: The subjects with self-assessed voice problems differed from their peers with self-assessed voice health by significantly longer recovery time from voice problems and scored higher on all subscales of the Voice Handicap Index-Throat. CONCLUSIONS: The results show that the cause of voice dysfunction in this group of teachers with self-reported voice problems is not found in the vocal apparatus or within the individual. The individual's perception of a voice problem seems to be based on a combination of the number of symptoms and of how often the symptoms occur, along with the recovery time. The results also underline the importance of using self-assessed reports of voice dysfunction

How the blind audience receive and experience audio descriptions of visual events – a project presentation

We present a three-year multidisciplinary research project that started in 2019 and is funded by FORTE (Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare). The theoretical aim of the project is to gain a better understanding of the principles that underlie successful communication between the sighted and the blind via audio description (AD). The aim of a series of experiments is to identify similarities and differences in how the sighted and the blind understand, segment and experience visual, spatial as well as temporal properties of an event. The applied goal is to increase the quality of AD and to support the training of audio de-scribers and AD practices, and ultimately facilitate the understanding and accessibility of visual information for the visually impaired

On the interaction of speakers' voice quality, ambient noise and task complexity with children's listening comprehension and cognition.

Suboptimal listening conditions interfere with listeners' on-line comprehension. A degraded source signal, noise that interferes with sound transmission, and/or listeners' cognitive or linguistic limitations are examples of adverse listening conditions. Few studies have explored the interaction of these factors in pediatric populations. Yet, they represent an increasing challenge in educational settings. We will in the following report on our research and address the effect of adverse listening conditions pertaining to speakers' voices, background noise, and children's cognitive capacity on listening comprehension. Results from our studies clearly indicate that children risk underachieving both in formal assessments and in noisy class-rooms when an examiner or teacher speaks with a hoarse (dysphonic) voice. This seems particularly true when task complexity is low or when a child is approaching her/his limits of mastering a comprehension task

Event boundary perception among the visually impaired in audio described films

Audio description (AD) serves a critical role in making film narratives accessible to visually impaired audiences, aiming to enhance their viewing experience and comprehension. One method to assess the comprehension of film narratives, is through an event segmentation task, wherein participants delineate the narrative unfolding into distinct meaningful events. In the present study, both sighted and visually impaired participants engaged in such tasks. Sighted participants watched a Swedish film, while visually impaired participants experienced the same film with two AD versions—one explicitly expressing key event boundaries and another containing more implicitly conveyed ones. Our findings indicate that visually impaired participants perceived event boundaries similarly to sighted participants, suggesting that AD effectively conveys the event structure. However, in the AD version with implicit expressions, event boundaries were less likely to be recognized. These results shed light on event segmentation dynamics in films, emphasizing the importance of how event boundaries are presented in AD. This has significant implications for improving the cinematic experience for visually impaired viewers, emphasizing the need for clear, explicit information about event boundaries within AD

The Restriction on the Charge to Capital in London and North Western Railway

Classroom acoustics not always take the speaker's comfort into consideration. The purpose of the presented papers was to investigate voice use, vocal behavior and prevalence of voice problems in Swedish teaching staff. Ratings of features in the work-environment on voice use were explored in n = 487 teachers. Based on their answers the respondents were split into two groups: teachers with self-assessed voice problems and voice-healthy teachers. Teachers with voice problems and were matched to a voice-healthy colleague from the same school and were investigated and compared for clinical findings and for vocal behavior. Acoustic properties of their teaching environments were measured. Teachers with voice-problems were more affected by any loading factor in the work-environment and were more aware of the room acoustics. Differences between the groups were found during field-measurements, while there were no differences in the findings from the clinical examinations of the larynx and voice. Voice problems seem to emerge in the interplay with and use of the classroom acoustics

Teachers’ voice use in teaching environment. Aspects on speakers’ comfort

AbstractTeachers have high occupational voice demands. The voice load of teachers is both environmental and individual. Little is known about the teachers’ own view of the contribution from the environment and about the teachers’ voice use at their work-place. Aim: The purpose was to investigate the voice use and prevalence of voice problems in teachers and to explore their ratings of vocally loading aspects of their working environment. Method: A questionnaire-survey in 467 teachers aiming to explore the prevalence of voice problems in teaching staff identified teachers with voice problems and vocally healthy colleagues separated in two groups, teachers with self-assessed voice problems and vocally healthy teachers. Teachers with voice problems were further, matched to a voice healthy colleague from the same school. The pairs were investigated and compared for clinical findings and for vocal behavior in the teaching environment and aspects of the classroom environment were also measured. Results: Teachers with voice problems were more affected by any loading factor in the work-environment and were more perceptive of the room acoustics. Differences between the groups were found during field-measurements of the voice, while there were no differences in the findings from the clinical examinations of larynx and voice. Conclusion: Teachers suffering from voice problems react stronger to loading factors in the teaching environment. It is in the interplay between the individual and the work environment that voice problems emerge

Influence of Respiratory Tract Infections on Vocabulary Growth in Relation to Child's Sex: The STEPS Study

Common health issues have been less examined in studies of early language development, particularly in relation to the child's sex. Respiratory tract infections, often complicated by acute otitis media, are common in children during the first years of life, when early vocabulary development takes place. The present study, conducted in Finland, aimed to investigate whether possible associations between recurrent respiratory tract infections, background factors, and vocabulary growth differ in boys and girls aged 13 to 24 months. The participants (N = 462, 248 boys and 214 girls) were followed for respiratory tract infections and acute otitis media from 0 to 23 months of age. The parents completed daily symptom diaries of respiratory symptoms, physician visits, and diagnoses. The expressive vocabulary was measured with parental reports. We found that recurrent respiratory tract infections were not associated with slower vocabulary development in boys or girls. In fact, boys with recurrent respiratory tract infections had more vocabulary growth during the second year than boys who were less sick. We found that vocabulary growth was associated differently with respiratory tract infections and background factors as a function of the child's sex. The vocabulary growth of boys seems to be more influenced by environmental factors than that of girls.</p