Research
Research in the School
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
Further information on Research Projects can be viewed on the Research Projects page.
Forms
- Request for postgraduate research design support (DOC 42KB)- HCS Staff and higher degree students only.
Postgraduate Seminar Series
- The School of Human Communication Sciences conducts a series of monthly Graduate Research Seminars. The purpose of these seminars is for Masters candidates to discuss their work with other postgraduate students and relevant University staff in an informal setting. Students are expected to attend six Graduate Seminars each year...
Research Colloquia Series
- Staff are warmly welcomed to our colloquia series.
Current research
Past Research
- 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
- Attitudes towards and preferences for working with people with complex communication needs
- Effectiveness of laryngeal surgery for modification of voice in male to female transsexuals
- Communication skills in male to female transsexuals
- 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
- Frontal lobe function and ageing
- Temporal and spatial characteristics of speech and movement in young children with dyspraxia
- Analysis of factors contributing to determining school readiness.
- The comparative efficacy of traditional didactic and problem-based learning (PBL)
- 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
- Treatment for motor speech disorders
- 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
- 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 - Comparative efficacy of treatments for noun and verb production inpairments in aphasia
- An Australian national strategy and curriculum for pharmacy preceptor education and support
- 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
- Investigation of current speech pathology assessment practices for bilingual children