Browsing by Author "Bakmeewewa, D.A."

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A comparison of errors in languages spoken by Sinhala- English bilinguals with Post-Stroke Aphasia
(Book of Abstracts, Annual Research Symposium 2015, 2014) Dharmarathna, N.I.; Bakmeewewa, D.A.
Bilinguals are defined as those who use two languages in daily communication. Aphasia as an acquired language disorder virtually affects all languages of the bilingual speaker, often in varying degrees. The Clinical picture of the bilingual aphasic is of great interest to researchers, as the bilingual population of the world continues to increase. As a multi- ethnic country, bilingualism continues to grow in Sri Lanka. The knowledge of multiple languages has led to the functional elaboration of all languages known especially in Sinhala-English bilinguals. Yet, there is a severe dearth on bilingual aphasic literature in the Sri Lankan Speech & Language Therapy context.
A Comparison of Errors in Languages Spoken by Sinhala- English Bilinguals with Post-Stroke Aphasia
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Dharmarathna, P.N.I.; Bakmeewewa, D.A.
Bilinguals are defined as those who use two languages in daily communication. Aphasia as an acquired language disorder affectsvirtually all languages of the bilingual speaker, often in varying degrees. The clinical picture of the bilingual aphasic is of great interest to researchers, as the bilingual population of the world continues to increase. As a multi- ethnic country, bilingualism continues to grow in Sri Lanka. The knowledge of multiple languages has led to the functional elaboration of all languages known especially in Sinhala-English bilinguals. Yet, there is a severe dearth on bilingual aphasic literature in the Sri Lankan Speech & Language Therapy context. The descriptive cross-sectional study analyzed the language errors in twelve (n=12) Sinhala- English bilinguals with post stroke aphasia in order to determine the more preserved language. It also discussed the determination of language preference of the participants for Speech & Language Therapy (SLT). A language assessment was administered to elicit the required language samples in Sinhala and English including four major linguistic components; discourse/spontaneous speech, confrontational naming, repetition and translation. The test stimuli were adapted from Western Aphasia Battery (Kertesz, 1982) for English and Pre-AphSL (2012) for Sinhala. The data used to compare and analyze the errors across the two languages. The study results revealed a significant effect of age at onset on word finding difficulties. Neologisms, paraphasias, circumlocutions and perseverations were observed in both the languages. Other variables indicated notable trends, yet failed to demonstrate statistical significance. The study provides a foundation for studies on bilingual aphasia within the Sri Lankan context. Understanding differences in language performances is vital for Speech and Language Therapists for designing intervention programs. It is recommended that, future studies should focus on an ‘in-depth’, longitudinal analysis of language errors in Sinhala-English bilingual clients with aphasia.
An evaluation of tele therapy services during the COVID-19 pandemic at a university-clinic in Sri Lanka; a preliminary study
(University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2022) Parththeepan, V.; Bakmeewewa, D.A.
Background: Tele therapy is really the delivery of a large variety of therapeutic interventions through the use of telecommunications technology to connect clinicians and clients. Tele therapy typically employs webcams, audio headsets, and videoconferencing software to enable synchronous interaction among clinicians and clients. The primary outcome of this study was describing a tele therapy program at a university clinic and an evaluation of patient satisfaction of speech and language therapy services. The study also aimed to document challenges faced by patients and their families in accessing SLT tele services at Ayati. Methods: The study methodology employed both quantitative and qualitative methods. Due to health-related restrictions in face-to-face direct meetings because of government regulations related to Covid 19, data were collected through self-administered online questionnaires and translated to Tamil and Sinhala. A purposive sampling technique was used to select participants. The data were collected in three languages (English, Sinhala, Tamil). The study included 100 participants who had registered for continuous paediatric or adult SLT services via tele therapy at the Ayati centre or had participated in at least one session of tele therapy and could complete a questionnaire with or without the assistance of a proxy. The quantitative data were analyzed with the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software, while the qualitative data were analyzed with the Ritchie Spencer (1994) framework analysis. Results: During the COVID -19 outbreak in Sri Lanka, the major purpose of this study was to assess the quality of teletherapy services and patient satisfaction at a university-based clinic. The overall satisfaction with teletherapy was positive, with a high level of satisfaction in using telehealth to get speech and language teletherapy services, a majority (n=82) noting to use telehealth services for SLT in the future. However, teletherapy patients confront difficulties such as insufficient internet connectivity, which was reported. Conclusion: Future research may focus on the specific issues described here in order to truly comprehend how to solve them. Future research could include physician experiences to better understand the current state of telehealth services for Speech and Language Therapy.