The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of melodic based communication therapy (MBCT) to traditional speech and language therapy for eliciting speech in nonverbal children with autism. Participants were 12 nonverbal children with autism ages 5 through 7 randomly assigned to either treatment group. Both groups made significant progress after treatment. The MBCT group progressed significantly in number of verbal attempts after weeks 1 through 4 and number of correct words after weeks 1 and 3, while the traditional group progressed significantly after weeks 4 and 5. No significant differences in number of verbal attempts or number of correct words were noted between groups following treatment. A significant number of new words were heard in the home environment for the MBCT group (p = .04). Participants in the MBCT group had more imitative attempts (p = .03). MBCT appears to be a valid form of intervention for children with autism.
Purpose:
The shortage of speech-language pathologists in the workforce in the United States has prompted investigation into possible causes and solutions, one of which is investigation of the productivity impact of the one-to-one student-to-instructor ratio in clinical education in medical settings. This study compared productivity percentages before and during the student placement to determine the impact of clinical education on productivity.
Method:
This study used a descriptive retrospective cohort within-subjects design, comparing the mean productivity of 95 clinical educators before and during a student rotation.
Results:
The results indicated that the mean productivity of the speech-language pathology clinical educator was significantly negatively impacted during the student rotation, and this negative impact lasted through Week 7 of the rotation. Discussion addressed possible reasons for this reduction in productivity.
Conclusions:
This information supports the long-held belief within the field that 1:1 clinical education of a student clinician negatively impacts the clinical educators' productivity. Additional research is needed to further explore (a) the impact of clinical education on productivity in medical settings and (b) modifications to graduate clinician training preparation for medical settings to reduce this productivity impact.
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