Research

** [|Evidence Based Practice] It is important that SLPs integrate their clinical expertise with evidence-based practices in order to ensure high quality care for clients.
 * __ Research __ ****Standards: III-E and III-F

__Types of Evidence__
 * Exploratory: comes from observational and feasibility studies
 * Efficacy: effects of treatment under ideal or controlled conditions, focuses on short term outcomes
 * Effectiveness: usefulness of a treatment under the conditions of everyday practice, focuses on language gains and outcomes such as long term social skills and school readiness

__Levels of Evidence__
 * Class I: evidence that comes from at least one well-designed randomized, controlled clinical trial
 * Best level/ but very few approaches are this way
 * Ex: Hodson approach, Continuous phonation for people who stutter
 * Class II: evidence is from at least one well-designed observational, clinical study with concurrent controls
 * Class III: evidence is provided by expert opinion, case studies, and studies with historical controls
 * Lowest level but most of the treatment we do is based on this type of evidence
 * Have to have Class I evidence for efficacy and effectiveness
 * Can use many case studies to develop efficacy

__Steps to an Evidence-based Approach to Treatment Selection__
 * 1) Formulating the clinical question/ treatment selection
 * 2) Finding relevant evidence
 * 3) Evaluate and synthesizing the evidence (decide level and quality)
 * 4) Integrating evidence with client-specific information and values

__Key Vocabulary__
 * Validity: the extent an instrument (like a test) measures what it is supposed to measure
 * Reliability: the consistency an instrument measures performance on repeated attempts
 * Test-retest reliability: the consistency seen when using the same test to measure performance on different occasions
 * Alternate form reliability: when two forms of a test have consistent scores when given to the same person
 * Interjudge reliability: when two or more observers agree in scoring
 * Intrajudge reliability: when the same person consistently scores an event
 * Independent variable: the variable that is directly manipulated by the individual conducting the experiment, it changes the dependent variable
 * Dependent variable: the variable affected by the independent variable
 * Hawthorne effect: the degree that the individual's knowledge that they are involved in a study contribute to the results

__Types of Research__
 * Ex Post Facto: this is after the fact or retrospective research, it may often be in the form of case studies
 * Survey: looks at the distribution of people's attitudes, opinions and social practices
 * Comparative: investigates the similarities and differences of groups of people
 * Developmental: investigates the changes that occur in people over time as they age
 * Correlational: looks at the relationships and associations between variables

[|More info about research]

__Key Vocabulary Related to Data and Measurement__
 * Range: the difference between the highest and lowest scores
 * Standard deviation: the degree the scores deviate from the average score, larger standard deviation indicate higher variability in scores
 * Central tendency: three scores that are used to indicate an average score; they include mean, median, and mode
 * Mean: the number that results from adding together all of the scores and dividing by the total number of scores
 * Median: the score in the exact middle of the scores
 * Mode: the most frequently occurring score
 * Nominal scale: a scale used to classify observations into categories, ex. always, sometimes, never
 * Ordinal scale: a numerical scale used to classify information into ranks or levels

//References// American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2005). //Evidence-Based Practice in Communication Disorders// [Position Statement]. Available from www.asha.org/policy. Cupples, B. (2007). Lecture Presented in Clinical Methods-SPSI 343. Eastern Michigan University. Gersten, R. (2009). //Types of Research and Their Role in Improvement of Practice.// Retrieved April 15, 2009, from National Center for Learning Disabilities Web site: http://www.ncld.org/content/view/525/ Roseberry-McKibbin, C., Hegde, M. (2006). An Advanced Review of Speech-Language Pathology (2nd Ed). Texas: Pro-Ed.