Critically Appraised Topics

Critically Appraised Papers and Topics

Speech Pathology final year students have created a range of critically appraised papers and topics which have been reviewed by their peers and members of the academic staff. These are up to date when completed but readers should pay attention to the date of completion and if appropriate conduct further literature reviews.

Students follow the four step EBP process to answer a clinical question. Firstly they format a PICO clinical question, next they search and review the evidence, then they evaluate the best available evidence and finally they provide a clinical bottom line which, in the absence of higher evidence can be used to frame practice.

If your clinical question is about treatments for communication or swallowing disorders we recommend you also go to SpeechBITE for the latest research.

Other critically appraised topics can be found on the NSW EBP Network Site

Critically Appraised Topics

Service delivery models

Question: For adult patients who have dysarthria following acquired brain damage (excluding patients with Parkinson’s disease) is therapy delivered via telehealth as effective as face to face therapy at improving intelligibility?
Author(s): Emma Balsaras

Question: For adults with stuttering, are the outcomes of speech restructuring programs via telehealth as effective as the outcomes of speech restructuring programs face to face?
Author(s): Alyssa Gearin

Question: In adolescents and adults who stutter, will group therapy be as effective as individual therapy in reducing stuttering?
Author(s): Vicki Leung

Question: In premature neonates, does non-nutritive sucking (NNS) result in a shorter transition time from tube to bottle feeding when administered before or during tube feeds.
Author(s): Jessica Meadows

Question: For school aged children with specific language impairments, is computer based language therapy as effective, or more effective than individual face-to-face therapy for improving language scores on formal language tests?
Author(s): Natasha Shallita