Guest post: A research stay in Sogndal

As most members of the EST-project are having some well earned time of this summer, the EST blog will take a short break. As a last post before the holidays, we have asked Ria Bernard to be a guest on the blog! The PhD- student normally situated at the UCL have been working together with EST group member Hilde this spring. In this blog entrance she writes about her research and research stay. Thank you for sharing, Ria!

I first met Dr Hilde Hofslundsengen during her visit to University College London (UCL) in the autumn term 2018, when she was visiting my supervisor, Professor Courtenay Norbury’s, lab. Only a few months into my PhD, it was exciting to hear about the fantastic work Hilde was doing with the EST Project team and her passion for stuttering research.

My PhD is looking at whether there is an association between anxiety & depression and stuttering in children and young people. It is very much set in the context of preventative healthcare in terms of firstly identifying whether children who stammer are more likely to present with anxiety/depression relative to their non-stammering peers, and potentially identifying risk factors that could guide effective early intervention to offset later adverse mental health conditions in this population.

The first project in my PhD involves completing a systematic review of the literature that has explored anxiety and depression in young people who stammer. You can imagine how delighted I was when Hilde, with all her experiences within the EST project and beyond, agreed to co-author the review – and even more thrilled when she invited me to visit her at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences to work on the review together!

In late May 2019, I arrived in the spectacular town of Sogndal. It was incredible to be surrounded by such breath-taking scenery while undertaking our research - and quite a change from the hustle and bustle of London. I was overwhelmed by everyone’s friendliness at the university and their ability to lapse effortlessly between Norwegian and English (amongst other languages!) over lunch in the staff canteen.

Following an initial literature search, we now settled down to the task of screening over 

13,000 articles. While overwhelming in the beginning, our persistence paid off and we managed to get down to just under 500 articles for the full text screening. With a week and a half to go, we worked hard to get through the second stage of the review process, each of us screening all 481 articles with a day to spare before I had to return to London. Exceeding the personal goals we had set for my four-week visit, I was very proud to be returning to UCL with 21 articles for the third coding stage of the review.

Alongside all the work on the review, I also managed to explore the stunning nature that Sogndal – and Norway – has to offer. From making the most of the long light evenings with mountain walks overlooking the Fjords to visiting Jostedalsbreen Glacier, nature offered a mesmerising solace from our computer screens. 

Hilde, making every effort to include me in the team, invited me to Bergen where I had an opportunity to be a tourist for a day, and to accompany her research team on their writing retreat in the most picturesque surroundings. Hilde’s colleagues were equally welcoming – inviting me to the cinema and to sample the cultural delights of the summer market in Lærdal. While we didn’t make it to Oslo, I was very pleased to meet Linn and Åse over a virtual coffee on Skype!

The last four weeks in Norway have been unforgettable and I want to say a big thank you to Hilde and her family for making me so incredibly welcome and giving me the chance to visit. Needless to say that having the opportunity to work side-by-side and systematically sift through decades of research literature had huge benefits not only for our project but also for me as a researcher learning from Hilde’s wealth of experience.

I hope one day I’ll have an opportunity to return!

Ria Bernard, UCL PhD student

My research is funded by ESRC UBEL DTP and Action for Stammering Children Charity