Developing a Protocol to Teach SLP Graduate Students to Make Difficult Differential Diagnoses of Dysphonias

Thursday, 11:00am to 1:00pm
Seabright
Poster 1
Spasmodic dysphonia (SD) and muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) are two voice disorders that are difficult to distinguish from one another due to subtle perceptual, acoustic, physiological and laryngoscopic signs and similar patient demographics and case histories. However, the differential diagnosis is critical due to distinct differences in treatment and the disorders' impact on the patients' social and professional lives. Speech-language pathology graduate students were asked diagnose stroboscopic videos of SD and MTD first without any information and secondly after viewing a short research-based tutorial about SD and MTD perceptual and stroboscopic signs. Results showed that although there was some significant improvement among some participants, more in-depth training is needed to equip speech-language pathology graduate students with the skills necessary to make a differential diagnosis between the disorders.
Track: 
Adult