International Postgraduate Research Conference (IPRC)

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Author: search.filters.author.Hettiarachchi, S.

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    Developing and Pilot- Testing A Post - Stroke Dysphagia Screening Protocol for Speech and Language Therapists in the Sri Lankan Context
    (19th Conference on Postgraduate Research, International Postgraduate Research Conference 2018, Faculty of Graduate Studies,University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2018) Elilnangai, T.; Hettiarachchi, S.; Pillay, M.
    Background-Accurate and timely evaluation of swallowing is necessary to determine how to safely administer medications, maintain adequate nutrition and hydration in a person with dysphagia. Unfortunately, dysphagia is a life threatening medical condition and the leading cause of death due to aspiration pneumonia and airway obstruction. Therefore, this population requires timely completion and documentation of the initial swallow screen by a speech and language therapist. Notwithstanding its value, there are limitations and challenges to implementing a dysphagia screening tool from a developed country context to a developing country context. The requirement for a reliable, clinically applicable and valid screening tool for dysphagia is essential which considers the context, system rule regulation and resources of the current settings. This study sought to develop and test a dysphagia screening tool to be used by speech and language therapists who are undertaking dysphagia management in different settings in the local context. Methodology-The post – stroke dysphagia screening tool was developed based on the Massey Bedside Swallowing screen (Massey, 2002) with the help of an experts’ panel on dysphagia. The study was a quantitative, non – experimental, descriptive cross – sectional design with a prospective component. Convenient sampling was used to recruit 35 post – stroke patients within 7 days of onset, from selected government hospitals in Sri Lanka. The post – stroke dysphagia screening tool consists of 6 sections and was administered by speech and language therapists. The current study established inter – rater, test – retest reliability and content validity of the swallowing screen. The content validity was established by a panel of expert speech and language therapists from the local and international context via 5-point Likert scale. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to determine reliability agreement. Results-The post – stroke dysphagia screening tool was shown to be reliable in detecting dysphagia amongst stroke patients. The expert panel of speech and language therapists who assessed content validity, strongly agreed with every statement in the questionnaire, strongly agreed that the content was accurate and consistent with current research, swallowing screen was formatted in an organized manner and also the information obtained from the swallowing screen would be useful in determining swallowing function. Thirty - five post-stroke patients were tested on and 10 SLTs participated in this study. Due to lack of availability of the instrumental evaluation, Cervical auscultation was used as a goal standard test. The procedure will only take 7-10 minutes. The inter-rater and test- retest reliability of the dysphagia swallowing screen, as calculated in this study, was relatively high. In both tests the p-value was <0.001. The Pearson correlation coefficient was 1.000. The p-value less than .05 shows that there was a strong correlation between the test – retest and inter – rater reliability agreement of the developed post – stroke dysphagia screening tool. Discussion and Conclusion- This was a first step in developing and establishing a contextually appropriate dysphagia screening tool that is reliable and helpful to speech and language therapists to identifying post – stroke patients at risk of dysphagia within government hospitals in Sri Lanka. The developed post—stroke dysphagia screen was found to be accurate and easy to administer to post – stroke clients in the hospital setting. It would be help speech and language therapists, especially those newly qualified to identify the difficulty early and for follow – up.
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    Traditions of Living Histories: Modular Communal Contexts as Learning Labs for Design Education
    (Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2015) Liyanage, P.P.; Hettiarachchi, S.
    Design education requires the transferring of knowledge of a wide variety of subjects from fields of science to the arts while developing a sense for empathy with society and design thinking. In the foundation level of the Bachelor of Design degree at the Department of Integrated Design at the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, the potential of locally existing contexts is used as the primary resource for learning. Empathising with society begins with self-realization. Knowing the traditions that has created the manner of present societies that we are a part of, is of essential importance in this process. The practice of ―Gammadu Shanthikarma‖ due to its historical roots and its lively existence in the current society provides an ideal ground for students to grasp social patterns of converting belief systems into material and non-material components of culture. The research done under the grant SRC/ST/2015/05 provided by the Senate Research Committee of the University of Moratuwa explored the research question of; how and in what ways can traditional practices in communities be used to understand social patterns in the foundation level of design education? Empirical data was primarily gathered through participatory observations. Gathered data was triangulated against the success of student realization of curricular content. While on-site, students used various methods of measuring and recording, a final exhibition inclusive of documentation was used for assessing.
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    Language matters: an analysis of the language of disability within selected political speeches of the elections of 2015 in Sri Lanka
    (Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2015) Hettiarachchi, S.; Ranaweera, M.; Walisundara, D.; Daskon-Attanayake, L.
    Introduction: Arguably, language has the power to formulate, promote, uphold or deter stereotypes. Politically, this year was significant in its representation of persons with disabilities within the electoral system. Within this historic context, there were references made to persons with disabilities with the political speeches by politicians of the main political parties. Aim:To evaluate the representation of persons with disabilities within selected political speeches of the past year in newspapers and on television. Methods: A representative sample of speeches from the main political parties were reviewed with reference to the representation of persons with disabilities. A conceptual and linguistics analysis was undertaken. Results:The results indicate the use of references to persons with disabilities to evoke humour, in derogatory terms and to propagate negative stereotypes r as objects of pity.