The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects ofparticipation in an integrated intensive stuttering program (IST) on stutteringbehavior, intelligibility and communication attitude, at individual and grouplevels. Five children aged eight to twelve years participated in the study.Stuttering behavior and intelligibility were judged by two independentstudents in speech and language pathology based on a total of eight videorecordings, before, during and after therapy. Communication attitude wasmeasured by the Swedish version of the self-report questionnaireCommunication Attitude Test (CAT-S). At an individual level, the initialstuttering profile and the changes shown during and after the IST varied. Ata group level, a significant decrease in stuttering frequency and asignificantly higher level of intelligibility were found, after as compared tobefore therapy.

Previous studies shows that high-intensity aphasia interventiongives better results than intervention that is less intense. This study evaluateda working model at a hospital in Gothenburg which involve related personsin intervention. The model prescribes daily training in the home. The caseseries design study investigated the effect of intervention on auditorycomprehension, impact on participation and examined how the relatedperson judged that communication was affected. Four participants withsevere aphasia received intervention for 16 weeks, 8 of which includedintensive training at home and at the clinic, while 8 weeks only includedclinical intervention.

?Intensive family therapy?Journal studyAbstractThe Family board in Falun gives since a couple of years priority to intense familytheraphy work with families in need of help/support. Intensive family therapy (IFT) was developed during the 1970s with the purpose of helping families. The theoretical mainlines upon which the IFT ? model is based is the, structural-, strategic- and systemic perspective.

At two nursing homes for people with dementia a qualitative study was performed. The purpose was to investigate the therapy dog?s meaning to people with dementia from their perspective. Two women and five men with dementia were interviewed, everyone being somewhere between 60 and 87 years of age. All but one had previously owned a dog at some point in their lives.

Literature and studies exist on how to create services in the best interest of the client or how these services have an impact on individuals. They are however mainly from a social work professional stand point and rarely from how clients would develop and create the services that can imply a life change for them. Especially when working with children under 18 years old issues of agency and age that can result in the disregard of the Convention on the Right of the Child (UNCRC). The target group of this study is therefore youth between the ages of 15 to 17 years old in three cities across Sweden to allow them to voice their opinion and experience of being in treatment. Resulting from that is the aim of this study ? to investigate how an intensive treatment method like Multisystemic Therapy is described from a client?s point of view.

Today therapy dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) service people more than ever and different categories of work places use therapy dogs to help their caretakers. Many studies have been made on the positive effects in patients when they are given contact with a dog, but very little have been done on how the dog experience its situation and what kind of behaviour a therapy dog shows during its working days. This work was made to investigate the behaviours that educated therapy dogs in Sweden showed when they were in contact with a caretaker and to find out if the dogs showed any signs of stress or some other kind of discomfort. To do this a survey was sent out to 17 educated therapy dog handlers in Sweden that together had 18 educated therapy dogs. The survey contained 39 questions about the daily work of the therapy dogs when they were together with caretakers and some questions about the therapy dogs spare time. A question about what kind of dog breed the therapy dog handlers had were also in the survey to investigate if some breeds were more usual as therapy dogs.

The aim of the study was to illustrate how music therapy can be used in the care of patients with schizophrenia and other psychotic illness.The method used was a literature review. Scientific articles were searched in PubMed, Cinahl, PsycINFO och Scopus databases with an outcome of ten articles, with in total 330 participants, that underwent quality and outcomes analysis.The results showed that music therapy could provide potential improvement in the patients' social functions and that it could also improve negative, some positive and general schizophrenia and psychotic symptoms in some patients. The form of music therapy used was often creative music activities with music therapist, with or without structure, or individually customized. The length of treatment varied widely. It was not possible to draw conclusions about which type of music therapy was best.

This is a qualitative study based on eight interviews, four of which have been probation inspectors and three have been external controllers, or controllers as they say, and one have been an email interview with the headquarters of the correctional treatment. The interviews have been made on probation service offices in southern Sweden.The purpose of this study is to investigate how the professionals in Probation service see their work with intensive supervision with electronic monitoring. We are interested in their work from mainly three aspects, how they look at their control, how they see the intensive supervision with electronic monitoring as collective punishment and how they work with the client's family.In our results it emerges through interviews that probation staff in general find it difficult to work with the Children Convention (CRC) and the law when it comes to intensive supervision with electronic monitoring. They mostly do not believe that intensive supervision with electronic monitoring is a collective punishment for the adults but when it comes to children it becomes a longer discussion with different arguments and thoughts.Our results have found that in comparison to prison, most people seem to find that intensive supervision with electronic monitoring is a decent punishment. Most of the professionals are aware, and think it's important to recognize, that they are in a position of power in relation to the client.In the analysis, we establish an outcome from the interviews into our theories and trying to find a connection between them..

Are we able to help younger students to develop their understanding and their use of the capital letter, dot and question mark by giving them intensive teaching on the subject during a short period, and would the effect be long lasting?I decided to investigate this together with young students in second and third grade and at the same time try to see which grade would benefit most.By using an experimental research design I conducted the investigation in a class with children from both grades where the result was compared with two similar control groups. The investigation lasted during five months, while the students were able to show their knowledge in the subject just before and after a two weeks period of intensive teaching and then again after four months.The result showed that the intensive teaching had an effect that lasted over time and that it was the students in second grade that would benefit most. .

Animal-assisted therapy had its large breakthrough in the 1960-ties when a psychiatrist named Boris Levinson discovered the great advantages of involving animals in the treatment of patients. Therapy with animals involves that animals are used in a systematic way, in a person's process of treatment. The most distinguished companion animal used within this area is the dog, but horses, cats, rabbits, birds, dolphins and the most common farm animals are used in animal-assisted therapy. Most animals that are to be used for this specific purpose need to be trained in order to maintain their physical and mental health, but also to minimize the risks for the people that are involved. Most studies within this research area are focused on the positive effects on the patients and less on the effects on the animals.

Title: A study about conditions for leadership in knowledge-intensive firms.Authors: Cecilia Ekström and Niklas SandbergKeywords: Leadership, knowledge-intensive firm, hierarchies, followers.Background: Leadership is becoming one of our greatest social myths and is considered a total solution for many problems that occur in an organization. The view of leadership is usually from a top-down perspective, which contributes to an often underestimated view of the follower. Just as it is important to understand the leader's view of leadership, it is important to understand how employees view the structure from which the leader derives its legitimacy. The existing conditions in knowledge-intensive firms, such as autonomy, place special demands on the formal leadership.Purpose: The purpose of this study takes an employee perspective, to understand what the conditions are for formal leadership in knowledge-intensive firms.Method: A qualitative research method was used and empirical material was collected through interviews with employees in knowledge-intensive firms. The empirical material was analyzed by the respondents? mental images which were set against the theoretical framework of the thesis.Conclusions: The conditions for formal leadership in knowledge-intensive firms make it advantageous to have a leader with a withdrawn role.

Title: A study about conditions for leadership in knowledge-intensive firms.Authors: Cecilia Ekström and Niklas SandbergKeywords: Leadership, knowledge-intensive firm, hierarchies, followers.Background: Leadership is becoming one of our greatest social myths and is considered a total solution for many problems that occur in an organization. The view of leadership is usually from a top-down perspective, which contributes to an often underestimated view of the follower. Just as it is important to understand the leader's view of leadership, it is important to understand how employees view the structure from which the leader derives its legitimacy. The existing conditions in knowledge-intensive firms, such as autonomy, place special demands on the formal leadership.Purpose: The purpose of this study takes an employee perspective, to understand what the conditions are for formal leadership in knowledge-intensive firms.Method: A qualitative research method was used and empirical material was collected through interviews with employees in knowledge-intensive firms. The empirical material was analyzed by the respondents? mental images which were set against the theoretical framework of the thesis.Conclusions: The conditions for formal leadership in knowledge-intensive firms make it advantageous to have a leader with a withdrawn role.

Historically, the horse has in many ways been important to human beings. Today, Equine Assisted Therapy is a form of treatment in which the horse is used as a tool from the treatment of the client. Supported Equine therapy has a therapeutic purpose and may vary depending on the patient's needs and the professionals work competence. Various studies show that animals have a positive impact on people. The aim of our study was to explore how Equine Assisted Therapy is used within the practical fields of social work in Sweden.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether intensive teaching of reading strategies at an individual level can affect reading comprehension for students in second grade. A quantitative method with quasi-experimental design is used. All students in the experimental class trained on reading comprehension strategies at their particular level five times each. Before and after training a reading comprehension test was made. The reference class did the same test.

Aim: The aim is to create a review that examines different forms of massage therapy and their effects on hypertension.Method: Literature review of 10 scientific articles on the subject of massage and its effects on blood pressure. The literature searches were made with PubMed and Cinahl using the keywords "massage therapy", "effects" and "blood pressure".Results: The articles showed that massage had a positive effect in lowering blood pressure. This could be explained by greater extent of relaxation in the participants investigated and an increased activity of parasympaticus and reduced secretion of stress hormones. The articles do not agree on what form of massage therapy is most effective in lowering blood pressure and it is uncertain for how long the effect can remain.Conclusion: Massage is usually seen as a treatment without scientific basis. There is evidence that suggests that massage therapy is an effective treatment for lowering blood pressure.