Global Utilities

School of Human Communication Sciences

Research

 
General Research Areas

Research and consultancy in the broad field of human communication is a central focus of the School's activities. Honours and postgraduate research students make up an increasing proportion of the students in the School and academic staff have developed international recognition for their investigations of the prevalence, causes, natural history and effective treatments of a wide range of communication and swallowing disorders.

Listed below are some of the general research areas covered by the School.

  • Aphasia treatment efficacy
  • Augmentative communication approaches
  • Clinical education
  • Cognitive-communicative problems following traumatic brain injury
  • Communication and ageing
  • Computers in the treatment of communication disorders
  • Developmental motor speech disorders
  • Evidence based practice in speech pathology
  • Hearing impairment
  • Language disorders: acquired and developmental
  • Outcomes of head and neck surgery
  • Problem based learning
  • Psychosocial adjustment following communication disorders
  • Speech science
  • Speech pathology assessment practices for bilingual children
  • Stuttering
  • Voice and laryngectomy rehabilitation

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Current Research Grants and Projects

Please contact the relevant staff member for further details.

Susan Block

  • An evaluation of a student-delivered Camperdown Program for adults who stutter
  • The long-term outcome of a student-delivered intensive smooth speech program for adolescents who stutter
  • Measurement of speech in young children who stutter
  • Several projects which form part of an NHMRC Program Grant for research into treatment options for people who stutter. In particular, an investigation into strategies to enhance treatment outcome for adults who stutter; an investigation into strategies to enhance fluency maintenance following relapse in adults who stutter; prognostic indicators for stuttering treatment outcome
  • The brain's electrical activity in children who stutter
    Sheena Reilly/Sue Block

Karen Bloomberg

  • Attitudes Towards and Preferences for Working with People with Complex Communication Needs: Impact of a Course in Augmentative and Alternative Communication
    Information Sheet [PDF 6KB]
    Questionnaire
    Karen Bloomberg/Hilary Johnson

Georgia Dacakis

  • Effectiveness of laryngeal surgery for modification of voice in male to female transsexuals
    Georgia Dacakis/Jenni Oates
  • Communication skills in male to female transsexuals
    Georgia Dacakis/Jenni Oates/Jacinta Douglas

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Jacinta Douglas

  • Communication skills in male to female transsexuals
    Georgia Dacakis/Jenni Oates/Jacinta Douglas
  • Long-term psychosocial adjustment and coping following acquired brain damage
  • Communication impairment following traumatic brain injury: assessment and intervention
  • Stroke outcomes
  • Attention deficits associated with aphasia
  • Social handicap and aphasia
  • Aphasia Therapy
  • Right hemisphere communication disorders
  • Communication impairments associated with Alzheimer's disease
  • Communication and ageing
  • Problem Based Learning in education for health professionals
    Jacinta Douglas/Miranda Rose
  • Frontal lobe function and ageing

Bev Joffe

  • Temporal and spatial characteristics of speech and movement in young children with dyspraxia (with Ozanne, Kipka and Wakefield)
  • Analysis of factors contributing to determining school readiness. (with Ozanne, Eadie, Froude, Heine, Merrigan, Santamaria, & Serry)
  • The comparative efficacy of traditional didactic and problem-based learning (PBL) (with Rose, Martens, Douglas, Oates, & McCormack)

  • Speech treatment for children with repaired cleft palate: case studies investigating service delivery (with Reid)

  • Maintenance effects of an intensive music and movement program for children with moderate-to-severe speech disorders

  • Instrumental Phonetics in Speech Pathology (with Kipka)

  • Treatment for motor speech disorders (with Ozanne)

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Hilary Johnson

  • Attitudes Towards and Preferences for Working with People with Complex Communication Needs: Impact of a Course in Augmentative and Alternative Communication
    Information Sheet [PDF 6KB]
    Questionnaire
    Karen Bloomberg/Hilary Johnson

Jenni Oates

  • Maintaining voice excellence in the opera chorus
  • Vocal attrition in school teachers
  • The acoustic features that distinguish projected acting voice from voicing without projection in male Shakespearean actors
  • The contribution of auditory feedback to the production of the singer's formant in male opera singers
  • The voices of people with rheumatoid arthritis: perceptual, and physiological characteristics
  • Effectiveness of laryngeal surgery for modification of voice in male to female transsexuals
    Georgia Dacakis/Jenni Oates
  • Communication skills in male to female transsexuals
    Georgia Dacakis/Jenni Oates/Jacinta Douglas

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Alison Perry

  • An examination of swallowing dysfunction in people who have treatment(s) for head and neck cancer
  • The use of objective measurement tools for assessing dysphagia (swallowing problems) in adults.
    Specifically: (1)The use of surface electrical stimulation (e-stim) as therapy for people with dysphagia (2) Oral pressure measurements in people with dysphagia

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Miranda Rose

  • Comparative efficacy of treatments for noun and verb production inpairments in aphasia
  • An Australian national strategy and curriculum for pharmacy preceptor education and support
  • Problem Based Learning in education for health professionals
    Jacinta Douglas/Miranda Rose
  • Rural National Online Interprofessional Support and Education Strategy
  • Treatment of word retrieval deficits in aphasia: A Phase 1 Investigation with the Veterans Administration Brain Rehabilitation and Research Centre, Florida, USA

Tanya Serry

  • Investigation of current speech pathology assessment practices for bilingual children

 

 

 

 

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Content Approved by: Head of School
Page maintained by: Office Administrator
Last Updated: 8 April, 2009

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