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Speech-language pathologists test videoconferencing for speech and hearing assessments

Rick Garrick - April, 2008

Three speech-language pathologists have been looking into the use of videoconferencing to test children for speech and hearing problems in remote northern Ontario First Nation communities.

“We’re looking at videoconferencing as a technology to provide access to services in terms of assessment and intervention for children living in remote communities,” says Alice Eriks-Brophy, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Department of Speech-Language Pathology, noting that she has a particular interest in First Nations youth. “We thought it would be a good idea to try it in remote First Nation communities.”

Eriks-Brophy recently visited Lac Seul First Nation for the second of three planned community visits to gather information for the research project, which is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services and assisted through significant technical, equipment and resource support from K-Net. Keewaywin First Nation was visited in Nov. 2006.

“At the end, we want to have 20 to 25 children assessed in a variety of communities,” Eriks-Brophy says, explaining that they have looked at children ranging in age from four-and-a-half up to 13 to date. “We’ve been proactive in trying to get a lot of the younger children assessed.”

The speech-language pathologists, Eriks-Brophy, Deborah Anderson, Director of Anderson Speech Consultants in Burlington, and Tina Nelson, Children’s Rehabilitation Centre Algoma in Sault Ste. Marie, have been getting good results in terms of reliability of equipment during their assessments so far, although they have noticed some small issues with certain speech sounds. Eriks-Brophy has been assisting with the tests with the children in the community while the other two conduct the assessments over videoconference equipment from their offices in Sault Ste. Marie and Burlington. Once the tests are completed, Eriks-Brophy compares the scoring to identify any differences that might need to be addressed to make this form of distant assessment as effective as traditional face-to-face sessions.

“The person sitting with the child might hear something different from the person listening over the system,” Eriks-Brophy says. “Did you hear an ‘S’ there. I heard as ‘S,’ did you hear an ‘S.’”

K-Net videoconference coordinator Lyle Johnson adds that the speech pathology testing is “an exciting use of the technology.”

“The whole goal is to see if it is feasible to have people working with the speech pathologists to do the testing,” Johnson says.

While Eriks-Brophy has found the equipment to be well suited to the assessments, she says the tests themselves have are not always so well suited to First Nations children.

“We ask them to make a sentence based on a picture,” she says. “But there is a problem when the child is not familiar with situations in a picture and this is being used to make judgements about their language abilities.”

Eriks-Brophy feels that there is a huge potential in the use of videoconferencing technology to conduct the speech-language pathology tests in the community, but they need to access further funding to continue their research into developing a community-based program.

“There is a huge potential in northern Ontario,” Anderson adds. “You have the infrastructure of the equipment in place — it’s very unusual.”

“We have the equipment and the knowledge.

“What we need is the funding.”

Eriks-Brophy adds that the communities also need the people resources on site to support the testing while the speech pathologists watch and listen using the videoconference equipment from their offices.

“The K-Net team has been working very hard to make sure the equipment and support is available,” she says. “If we had people on site, it would be a very valuable program.”

K-Net Coordinator Brian Beaton stresses that access to quality speech pathology services is essential for schools and teachers to provide young children, especially in their early years, with the support and programs that will ensure a successful learning experience throughout their lives.

“Too often young children in remote First Nation communities who have speech or hearing issues go undetected and this situation just escalates and leads to frustrations and learning problems in later years,” Beaton says.

Anderson adds that many First Nations children have problems with ear infections that can affect their learning.

“In the last community, 100 per cent of the parents were bringing in their children to have their hearing tested,” Anderson says.

“We’ve identified children in the community who could use services,” Eriks-Brophy says. “It’s quite disturbing realizing that there are children who could be benefitting but are not able to because they can't access the services. These children deserve the same kind of health care as any other children in Canada.”