Browsing by Author "Rathnayake, S.P."

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7

Communicative effectiveness and speech intelligibility among ageing adult population in the Kandy District
(University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2022) Madapathage, M.T.; Rathnayake, S.P.
Background: With typical ageing, specific communication skills change due to the physical changes and cognitive changes, which is one of the most common problems among ageing adults. The communicative changes consist of speech, hearing, language, and voice difficulties that directly influence the effects of functional communication. The result of the present study will help identify how communication and speech skills change and can be used as norms to differentiate age-related vs disease-related defects in assessment and intervention. Objectives: The aim of this study is to describe the communicative effectiveness and speech intelligibility among Sinhala speakers of ageing adult individuals 60 years or above in age in the Sri Lankan (SL) context. Methods: The research study was based on quantitative methods with a descriptive cross-sectional study design via a web-based platform. The study population was 78 ageing adults representing each age category of 60-69, 70-79, and 80≥ years and recruited using the purposive sampling method. Data collection was done based on an interviewer-administered questionnaire with rating scales and self-administered questionnaires. Data analysis was done based on the frequency distribution of study sample and other relevant statistical analysis was using the SPSS free version. Results: There were less communication and speech intelligibility difficulties shown at the age of 60-69 years compared to other age groups. However, at the age of 70-79 years and 80≥ years, there were more declines in the communication and speech intelligibility difficulties. At the age of 60-69 years, 70-79 years, and 80≥ years, the self-reported questionnaire communicative difficulties were highest when compared to clinician reported questionnaire results. In the speech intelligibility, self-reported difficulties were highest when compared to clinician reported difficulties at the age of 60-69 years and 70-79 years, but at the age of 80≥ years, clinician reported speech intelligibility difficulties were more when compared to the self-reported questionnaire results.Conclusion: This present study examined the communicative effectiveness and speech intelligibility among all three age groups (60-69 years, 70-79 years, and 80≥years). There was communicative and speech intelligibility decline observed with ageing. These norms could be used in language assessments to increase the validity of the diagnosis. The present study could become a foundation for future research on ageing and communication in the SL context.
Comparison of Meanings in Discourse among the Sinhala Speaking Aphasic and Non-aphasic Individuals
(University of Kelaniya, 2012) Rathnayake, S.P.; Shadden, B.B.; Chang, T.
Background: Aphasia is an acquired communication disorder that affects the individual’s use of language at all levels including the use of discourse. Aphasia can be diagnosed using clinical language assessment tools. In a language when the syntactic structure is flexible, the language errors could be more evident at discourse level than at sentence level ( Markenzie, 2000). Therefore, aphasia can be identified with discourse analysis in Sinhala, particularly the colloquial variety. Objective: To identify how mental (M), material (MT) ,verbal ( V) and relational ( R) types of meanings are distributed in the discourse of Sinhala-speaking non-aphasic ( NA) and aphasic ( A ) individuals. Methodology: 10 (05 Aphasics and 05 Non-Aphasics) participants were selected using purposive sampling within the age range of 36-78 yrs. Data was obtained via checklists and interviews on narrative, descriptive, conversational and procedural discourse. Each discourse was analyzed according to the meaning types of M, MT,V, and R. Data was analyzed using quantitative and qualitative techniques. Results: Marked differences were observed between aphasia and non-aphasia discourse types. Among 04 meanings types the Material (A- 17.5, NA-54.8) and Relational ( A-10.2,NA-40.2 ) functions were higher in both groups . Although the meaning types of Verbal and Mental functions were less common, with guided questions, all non-aphasics were able to add utterances with guided questions, but non-aphasics were unable to increase their utterances with guided questions. Among 05 participants with aphasia, marked variation was observed in discourse meaning types, as Material ranged from 0 - 5.5, Relational from 0 - 5, Verbal from 0 -.0.5 and Mental meaning from 0 - 0.2. Further, total number of utterances ranged from 01 to 64. Conclusion: Discourse meaning types can be useful in diagnosing aphasia as there is clear variation among aphasia compared to non-aphasia as well as within the group of aphasic individuals.
Developing a word list to assess articulation errors in Sinhala speaking children with Cleft Lip and Palate age 2.5 to 3.0 years
(University of Kelaniya, 2013) Lokubalasuriya, L.B.T.C.; Rathnayake, S.P.
Background: Cleft Lip and Palate (CLP) is a congenital abnormality and 0.79 per 1000 birth prevalence was observed in the Sri Lankan context. CLP affects the individual’s articulation and resonance; early intervention could prevent most of the articulation errors and identification can be done using language assessment. However, in the Sri Lankan context we have no standardized assessments to identify this condition, and developing a tool to identify the CLP articulation errors is a need in the field of Speech and Language Therapy in Sri Lanka. Objectives: 1. To identify test materials and vocabulary for the age range 2.5yrs to 3.0yrs using structured observation design. 2. Develop a word list to assess cleft type errors based on the norms to identify in objective 01 and evaluate the suitability of the identified words among typically developing children age 2.5 to 3.0 years Methodology: 18 typically developing children age 2.5 years to 3.0 years were selected via purposive sampling for objective one and, initially play-based structured observation was used to select the words for the tool and a pre-test was conducted. After modification the tool was administered for the 30 typically developing children age 2.5 years to 3.0 years for objective 02. Results: 95 words were identified as high frequency words from objective one and out of those, 24 high frequency words were selected for the tool. Except sound /s/ in word medial position all other sounds were produced in more than 75% cases, accurately. No male female production difference was observed. Conclusion: Except /s/ in medial position all other sounds could be used to assess children at the age range of 2.5-3.0 years. Recommendation: The tool should be administered among the affected population and validate the results to standardize the tool.
Developing a word list to assess articulation skills in Sinhala speaking children with cleft lip and/ or palate, age range 2.5 years to 3.0 years
(Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2014) Lokubalasuriya, L.B.T.C.; Rathnayake, S.P.
Effectiveness of an educational workshop for improving ICU nurses` knowledge on managing dysphagia in patients with tracheostomy at government hospitals in Sri Lanka
(University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2022) Karunarathna, W.K.L.; Perera, K.D.R.D.; Rathnayake, S.P.
Background: Adult patients with tracheostomy are a medically complex population. Tracheostomy insertion is a common procedure seen in Intensive Care Unit (ICU} settings to manage many critical patients by means of an artificial airway. But the tracheostomy indication is associated with several complications. Therefore, dysphagia is one of the main complications that tracheostomy leads to, where 11% to 93% of patients following tracheostomy have been identified with dysphagia in various studies. The management of dysphagia is a multidisciplinary team approach, and the nurses are one of the health professionals in this team. Therefore, the nurses` knowledge of the management process of dysphagia is important to improve the Quality of Life (QoL) of patients with tracheostomy. Objective/s: The objectives of this study were to describe nurses` knowledge regarding dysphagia management in patients with tracheostomy before and after conducting an educational workshop and to describe the nurses’ perspectives on the effectiveness of the educational workshop. Methods: The pre-post interventional study design compared nurses' knowledge differences after attending an educational workshop on dysphagia management in tracheostomy patients. There were sixty participants (n = 60) included, and they were selected by purposive sampling and the snowballing technique. The data was gathered through an online survey. The educational workshop was planned based on the outcomes of the needs assessment and the nurses` knowledge assessed by providing pre and post-test questionnaires. Paired-sample t-tests were used to identify whether there is a significant improvement in the nurses` knowledge after the educational workshop. Results: The findings showed that the designed online workshop significantly improved nurses’ knowledge of managing dysphagia in tracheostomy patients t (59) =-25.755, p =.000. Further, the perceived effectiveness of the workshop, as reported by nurses, indicated that the workshop is highly effective and helpful in improving their knowledge regarding dysphagia management in patients with tracheostomy. Conclusion/s: The results of the present study showed that the nurses had moderate knowledge regarding dysphagia management in patients with tracheostomy before conducting the educational workshop. However, after conducting the educational workshop, the mean scores of nurses increased to the high knowledge level. Therefore, the study concludes that the educational workshop undertaken is an effective method to improve nurses' knowledge on the management of dysphagia in patients with tracheostomy.
Intestinal and Ectoparasites of Human Health Importance among Stray Dogs in Galle District, Sri Lanka.
(19th Conference on Postgraduate Research, International Postgraduate Research Conference 2018, Faculty of Graduate Studies,University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2018) Rathnayake, S.P.; Sudusinghe, H.P.; Nilaweera, T.H.W.T.; Marasinghe, M.A.P.; Sriyalatha, W.A.; Gunathilaka, P.A.D.H.N.
Human-animal bond is a reciprocally favorable dynamic relationship which is beneficial to the health and well-being of both. Dogs have close contact with humans and play a pivotal role as definitive hosts or reservoirs for different zoonotic parasites, especially in developing countries. There are only few studies have focused on the zoonotic potential of animals in Sri Lanka. Therefore, the objective of the present study was the determine the intestinal and ectoparasites among dog population that may be important for human health. A total of 40 stray dogs captured for an animal welfare clinic conducted in Galle District of Sri Lanka was recruited for the study. Faecal samples were collected per rectal in to separate vials containing 10% formaldehyde. Ectoparasites of selected dogs were collected using a lose comb and stored in alcohol solution. The stool samples were processed by Kato-Katz techniques and intestinal parasitic stages were morphologically identified. For quantitative analysis, the modified McMaster technique was used to estimate eggs per gram of feces. The ectoparasites were characterized referring to morphological features. The results revealed eight intestinal parasites namely; Ancylostomacaninum (Prevalence: 66.75%; Eggs per gram: 362.82), Toxocaracanis (13.51%; 73.41), Enterobiusvermicularis (9.1%; 49.41), Trichurisvulpis (7.0%; 38.12), Physalopterarara (1.56%; 8.47), Paragonimuskellicotti (1.0% 5.65), Uncineriastenocephala (0.78%; 4.24) and Eucoleusaerophilus (0.26%; 1.41). The high prevalence rates of T. canis may cause visceral and ocular larva migrans to humans, which lead to blindness and A. caninum associated with hookworm related cutaneous larva migrans. Humans can be infected with T. vulpis when they accidentally ingest embryonated eggs, through contamination of infected soil, food or fomites even though it has been recorded as a rare infection. P. rara infection can be caused to humans by the accidental ingestion of arthropod hosts such as German cockroaches. In addition, the P. kellicotti, U. stenocephala, E. aerophilus and E. vermicularis may cause some health issues to humans. Even though present study did not indicate the presence of Echinococcusgranulosus which resides in the small bowel of dogs and other canids may lead to cause echinococcosis in humans. Argaspersicus (Prevalence; 34.18%) was the predominant among ectoparasites followed by Ctenocephalidescanis (32.91%) and Ixodesscapularis (32.91%). A. persicus can cause serious allergies on humans. The bites of I. scapularis may lead to cause human babesiosis (Babesiamicroti), human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE); and tick-borne encephalitis (TBE). The presence of C. canis may indicate the transmission potential of Dipylidiumcaninum to humans as an occasional host. Overall, the investigation indicated that stay dogs in Galle District contain a multitude of ectoand endoparasites, thus posing a risk for the human population.
Translation and adaptation of a dysarthria assessment tool to be used in the Sri Lankan clinical context
(University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2022) Perera, W.M.K.; Rathnayake, S.P.
Background: Dysarthria is one of the commonest communication disorders that arise due to neuromuscular damage. Diagnosing dysarthria requires careful assessments. In the absence of a formal dysarthria assessment tool in the Sri Lankan (SL) clinical context, the translated and adapted Sinhala Language Newcastle Dysarthria Assessment Tool (SLN-DAT) was validated using a normative sample. Methods: This research study was conducted in three phases related to 3 objectives using a mixed methodology: (I) Identification of the relevant tool amongst FDA, DP and N-DAT to be adapted and translated to the SL context using views of 20 Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) and 20 undergraduate final year students; (II) Initial translation and adaptation of assessment tool into Sinhala language based on WHO tool translation guidelines; (III) Face, content and concurrent validity of the tool using 10 subject experts and 50 normative samples of five age ranges (20-40,40–60,60–70,70–80 and 80+). Internal consistency and intra-rater agreement for the tool tasks were analysed by the subject specialists and concurrent validity were assessed comparing the scores of Dysarthria Profile (DP) and SLN-DAT tool. Data was analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) statistical software and the thematic analysis was used for the qualitative part of the study. Results: N-DAT was selected as the most voted (SLTs=58% & students=55%), and relevant dysarthria assessment tool to be translated and adapted to the SL context. At the end of phase II, the assessment tool contained all related sections of the original N-DAT in Sinhala, which was adapted to suite to SL context. Overall, the SLN-DAT has the same conceptual meaning, semantics, idiomatic and score equivalences as the original version, yet SLT-DAT had one additional section related to ICF model. Statistical analysis showed higher agreement among graders (missing data 0%), including high internal consistency for tool items (Cronbach’s α = 0.8) including the new sections. Performance of the normative sample exhibited a predicted variation among age and tool performance with negative correlation for articulation r = -.32 (p<0.05), respiration r = -.70 (p<0.01), phonation voice r = -.33 (p<0.05), phonation pitch r = -.40 (p<0.01) and DDK rates r = -.33 (p<0.01). The concurrent validity of the SLN-DAT was very high for all subsystems. Each subsystem had higher ICC values ranging between r = 1.0 – 0.7 (p<0.01). Conclusion: The translated, adapted and validated formal dysarthria assessment tool; Sinhala Language Newcastle Dysarthria Assessment Tool (SLN-DAT) had higher face validity, higher internal consistently with items and satisfactory concurrent validity. Therefore, the SLN-DAT could be recommended to the SL context after it was validated among the dysarthria population, which will enable to identify dysarthria reliability in the Sri Lankan clinical context.