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Short term scientific mission at NUI Galway
My name is Sirpa Tarvainen and I am Ph.D. candidate at the University of Helsinki. My dissertation is about oral language comprehension interventions in children and adolescents with language disorders or difficulties. During my research I have realized the need for a tool which would measure the effect of an intervention from a child’s perspective. There are clinical tests and researcher designed probes which are used to evaluate the change in children’s skills during an intervention. It remains, however, unclear whether the changes detected with these means have any significance in the lives of the children. So far there are no tools used in oral language comprehension intervention literature to evaluate children’s experiences on the effects of an intervention.
The goal of my short term scientific mission (STSM) was to develop the plans further on executing research about evaluating the clinical significance of an intervention from the child’s perspective. I had met Dr Rena Lyons from the NUI Galway at the COST Action IS1406 events. She has vast and thorough knowledge on taking children’s perspective into account as well as sharp methodological insights. To my fortune, Dr Lyons agreed to host me and arranged an informative and enjoyable week in June 2018 in Galway, Ireland.
The week consisted of meeting time with Dr Lyons and me, independent work time and meetings with other professionals in the field. The work time between Lyons and myself was spent discussing relevant research literature, the current plan, as well as possible problems and solutions. During the week special focus was kept on taking children’s perspective into account and on methodological issues. The independent work time was spend reading the recommended literature and working on the research plan. During the week, meetings were scheduled with other academics - Dr Clare Carroll and Dr Geraldine Leader. Dr Carroll is a speech and language therapist who shared her knowledge about taking children’s perspective into account by using participatory research. Dr Leader is a psychologist specialized in single case experimental design. With Dr Leader the research design was discussed and possible problem areas targeted and questions discussed.
As a part of the STSM week, I also gave a five hour lecture as a continual professional development event for Irish speech and language therapists doing clinical work on the results of the first part of my dissertation: oral language comprehension interventions for children and adolescents. This was done to enhance implementation of the results of my research.
The week gave me a huge amount of knowledge which I am taking into practice. The advice I got was invaluable. I am grateful that the contact and collaboration with Dr Lyons continues.
My sincerest thanks to Dr Rena Lyons and the Cost Action for making the short term scientific mission possible!
Last modified: Wed, 02 Oct 2019 11:31:57 BST