One of the largest work areas for speech and language pathologists is intervention for children with speech and language disorders. The purpose of the present study was to describe and analyze the clinical management of language impairment in children by studying and comparing medical records and literature from the years 2000 and 2009. The present study is a sequel to two previously published papers by Christina Samuelsson (1997; 1999), in which medical records and literature from the 1920-, 60- and 70?s were studied and a paper by Helén Sämfors (2001), in which the years 1985 and 1995 were studied. The medical records used in the present study came from a medical ward for speech and language pathology at a university hospital in Sweden. The results showed that significantly more children were referred to the clinic for speech and language problems in 2009 than in 2000, and more children were treated for their impairments.

Velopharyngeal insufficiency may affect resonance, articulation and thus how speech is perceived by other listeners. Velopharyngeal insufficiency is frequently found in the cleft palate population due to structural abnormalities of the palate. The pharyngeal flap is the most commonly used operation designed to improve velopharyngeal function. The aim of the present study was to compare speech before and after pharyngeal flap surgery by perceptual evaluation regarding nasality, articulation and deviant speech. The study includes preoperative and postoperative speech samples of 28 patients who underwent pharyngeal flap surgery at the University Hospital in Linköping between 2002 and 2007.

Background: The speech- and language deficit aphasia affects 12 000 persons annually in Sweden. Aphasia is caused by injury in the brain and the most common etiology is stroke. According to the tool for describing and assessing aphasia, A-FROM (Kagan et al., 2008), the four following aspects of aphasia need to be considered: severity of aphasia, participation in life situations, communication and language environment and personal factors. Several different interventions and treatments can be performed in every domain. There is scientific evidence for interventions performed by speech and language pathologists; however, the question is yet being discussed since results are unambiguous.Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to investigate which aphasia interventions performed by speech and language pathologists that are supported by evidence.

The aim of this study is to observe Swedish preschool children in their natural habitat and without any intervention. Four different observations are made and thereafter analyzed. Throughout the whole study the subject of interest is the children's communication in their play. Children can communicate with each other in various ways, for instance with speech and without speech, i.e. with their physical language, aesthetic and multi language.

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.

Vocal Cord Dysfunction (VCD) is characterized by paradoxical vocal cord movement during inspiration or expiration, and generally affects adolescents and predominantly women. Previous studies have shown a large inconsistency concerning terminology, definitions, etiology, assessment, differential diagnosis, co-morbidity and treatment. The purpose of this study was to map knowledge on and management of VCD in Sweden. The study was conducted as a written survey addressed to speech-language pathologists and physicians, and attained an answer percentage of 79 percent. The results showed that several professions were involved in the management of these patients, but no clear pattern of referral could be observed.

There are several different methods of assessment of functional communication in individuals with aphasia. However, these are not very established in Sweden. A number of assessment methods are not translated and adapted to Swedish. The views about what functional communication means are scattered. The purpose of this study was to, with the help of a questionnaire survey, identify how Swedish speech and language therapists assess functional communication, to what extent and what they want that an assessment method should contain to be clinically useful.The study involved 54 clinically active speech and language therapists in the area of aphasia.

In speech and language intervention, the ability to interact is seldom evaluated; rather intervention is evaluated in terms of improved testresults.  If goal-setting in intervention also is based on everyday communicative needs, the relevance of the treatment may be increased and intervention outcome may be implemented in the patient?s natural environment.The present study, as part of a research-project, is based on analyses of interaction and interviews to examine everyday conversations and speech and language intervention. The aim was to explore if there is a relation between everyday communication needs and goal-setting in speech and language intervention for people with aphasia. A further aim was to investigate if there are everyday communicative needs that may form goals for speech and language intervention.Two individuals with aphasia and one individual with both dysarhtria and aphasia participated in the study. Three speech and language pathologists and two relatives also participated in the study.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how young adults withunilateral cleft lip and palate assess their own speech and communication,and to let speech and language pathologists make a perceptual analysis ofthese individuals? speech at the age of 19 years. An additional aim was toexamine the relationship between these two different ways of evaluation.Data was collected through perceptual analysis from audio recordings and byusing a self-report questionnaire based on the ICF-structure (InternationalClassification of Function, disability and health). Altogether, 33 peopleparticipated. One third of the participants had no speech deficiencies.

In this study the speech of adolescents with unilateral cleft lip andpalate (UCLP) and delayed closure of the hard palate was evaluated.Evaluations were made with experienced speech-language pathologists(SLP:s) and lay listeners. The SLP evaluation consisted of typical cleft palatespeech variables and some of them were adapted for lay listeners. Attitudestowards the speech of the adolescents were investigated by asking laylisteners if the speech constituted any hindrance to vocational performance.The SLP:s mainly found nasal escape and velopharyngeal impairment (VPI),although to a small degree and extent. The lay listeners mainly foundresonance deviations and indistinct speech. The latter was associated withhindrance to vocational performance.

A historical study of intervention for aphasia may provide information on how speech and language pathologists work with people with aphasia. Aphasia is seen as an umbrella term for symptoms of language disorders caused by aquired brain injury. The overall aim of the present study was to describe and analyze the development of intervention for aphasia during the periods 1990-1999 and 2000-2010.The study was conducted by analysis of 83 medical records from two hospitals in Sweden during a period of 20 years. These decades were compared to each other and yo current litteraturein search for differences and trends in aphasia intervention.The Results of the present study revealed that intervention mainly focused on recovering the linguistic ability in both the 1990s and 2000s. Intervention and literature focusing on communication seem to increase during the 2000s.

SWITCH- Swedish Intelligibility test for children, is a test thatmeasures intelligibility of children's speech through repetition of singlewords. The test is computer generated and consists of 1000 word listsrandomly selected for each assessment. The purpose of this study was toexamine the equivalence, reliability and validity in the word lists. Word listswere tested on ten children with typical language development (N group)and ten children with speech deviation (T group). The children were audiorecorded when they repeated two lists.

Based on the concept of rhetorical situation, the purpose of this study is to compare and describe the three Socialist leader's May Day speech from the years 1954, 1978 and 2011. The results of the analysis showed that there is a big difference in how the leaders chooses to appeal to the rhetorical audience. Erlander, 1954, never appealed directly to his audience which Palme, 1978, did both initially as repeatedly throughout his speech. Juholt, 2011, has a personal and frequent appeal which is repeated throughout his speech, which is interpreted as a sign of the intimization of the public language. It proved difficult to discuss the Socialist rhetoric as one unified form.

The main purpose with this study was to get an insight in how to best be able to help children with language difficulties, and learn to see those who are in need of extra help and attention.The study is the result of three separate interviews with a speech therapist, a preschool teacher, and a teacher for children with special needs. The other information that my study is built on comes from books.The answers that I got from the interviews questions, have I built my discussions from.Since I only have done three interviews, can´t I do any general conclusions, from my findings.The answers that I got shows that it`s not always the same answers from the speech therapist, preschool teacher and the teacher for children with special needs, are the same. But most of the answers had a similar conclusion. The most important finding in my study, which also the literature agrees with, is that. It´s always important to read out loud to the children.Keywords: language difficulties, exertion, learning to speech and communication..

Based on the concept of rhetorical situation, the purpose of this study is to compare and describe the three Socialist leader's May Day speech from the years 1954, 1978 and 2011. The results of the analysis showed that there is a big difference in how the leaders chooses to appeal to the rhetorical audience. Erlander, 1954, never appealed directly to his audience which Palme, 1978, did both initially as repeatedly throughout his speech. Juholt, 2011, has a personal and frequent appeal which is repeated throughout his speech, which is interpreted as a sign of the intimization of the public language. It proved difficult to discuss the Socialist rhetoric as one unified form.