The Efficacy of Voice Therapy via Hybrid Group Telepractice Program with Asynchronous Components for Primary School Teachers: A Pilot Study.

PURPOSE: To determine the efficacy of a hybrid group telepractice program in voice therapy for primary school teachers. METHOD: The participants, consisting of 12 teachers with voice disorders (three males and nine females), participated in 11 sessions of the telepractice program, divided into one training session on vocal hygiene, five practice sessions by themselves, and five group practice sessions in 5weeks. Data on the vocal handicap index (VHI) measure was obtained pre- and post-intervention. The voice analysis included fundamental frequency (local), jitter (local), shimmer (local), harmonic-to-noise ratio (local), and maximum phonation time assessed by Praat software. RESULT: The VHI assessment revealed a statistically significant difference (P < 0.05) in the emotional domain. There was no statistically significant difference (P > 0.05) in physical, functional, and total scores. Both males and females had no statistically significant difference (P > 0.05) in mean fundamental frequency. However, there was a statistically significant difference (P < 0.05) in jitter (local), shimmer (local), harmonics-to-noise ratio (local), and the maximum phonation time. CONCLUSION: The group telepractice program in voice therapy for primary school teachers was effective. It could be utilized for voice therapy to prevent voice disorder problems in teachers.

Word Recognition Program for Thai Older People with High Risk of Dementia: A Quasi-Experimental One-Group Study.

INTRODUCTION: Dementia is one of the most common disorders among older people. This condition causes cognitive impairment, which can affect memory, thinking, expressive or comprehension language. It affects work and daily life. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a word recognition program on naming and quality of life in older people with high risk of dementia. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a word recognition program on naming and quality of life in older people with high risk of dementia. METHODS: A one-group, quasi-experimental pretest-posttest study was conducted at Maeka Subdistrict Administrative Organization, Chiang Mai, Thailand, and participants' home setting from December 2021 to March 2022. Participants were 6 Thai elderly persons with a high risk of dementia according to MEST10 cut-off score, including 1 (16.66%) male and 5 (83.34%) females. They were assessed on naming using the WAB test. Additionally, they were assessed on quality of life using the WHOQOL-BREF-THAI. The word recognition program delivered 30 min per day for 5-week duration. The results were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test to compare the effect on the intervention program. RESULTS: The older people with high risk of dementia significantly gained in naming after receiving the word recognition program (MD = -9.00 ± 2.344; 95% CI: -20.00 to -4.00; p = 0.031). However, they did not significantly gain in quality of life after receiving the word recognition program (MD = -4.50 ± 3.393; 95% CI: -10.50 to 1.00; p = 0.418). DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: The current study demonstrates that a 5-week intervention of the word recognition program may be effective in naming to enhance language skills for Thai older people with high risk of dementia.

The Development and Psychometric Properties of the Visuospatial Working Memory Assessment (VWMA) for Children.

The visuospatial working memory plays a crucial role in the occupational performance of children including daily living and academic achievement. Unfortunately, relevant visuospatial working memory tests in the occupational therapy setting are lacking. Therefore, it is of clinical interest to develop new assessment tools in this area. The present study is aimed at summarizing the development of the visuospatial working memory assessment (VWMA) and assessing its psychometric properties. The results revealed that the score of item-objective congruence index (IOC) was 1.0 in overall items of assessment. The Cronbach alpha test confirmed that the internal consistency of VWMA showed good reliability in both types of the assessment, with the total score of computerized tests being .88 and the tabletop tests being .81. The computerized test was found to have excellent test-retest reliability with intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) values ranging from .88 to .99. The tabletop test was found to have a fair to good test-retest reliability with the ICC values ranging from .51 to .63. As regards construct validity, the results revealed that the tasks in the computerized test identified a significant difference between the control group, normal children, and children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) group. The exception to this was the N-back task in which the independent sample t-test of computerized test ranged from 1.61 to 6.23. The results of the tabletop test revealed a significant difference between normal children and the children in the ADHD group over all tasks in which the independent sample t-test ranged from 3.05 to 8.40. In conclusion, good psychometric properties established as regards content validity, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and construct validity provide evidence to support the position that the new VWMA is appropriate for children.