EST-team preliminary application to conduct Cochrane Review accepted!

Hooray! Recently we received some very exciting news that our title proposal to conduct a Cochrane review has been accepted! The title of our review is 'Behavioural interventions for reducing stuttering in children aged 2-5 years: A systematic review'. 

While five systematic reviews of stuttering interventions have been published to date (Andresws, Guitar & Howie, 1980; Bothe, Davidow, Bramlett & Ingham, 2006; Herder, Howard, Nye & Vanryckeghem, 2006; Ingham & Andrews, 1973; Nye, Vanryckeghem, Schwartz, Herder, Turner & Howard, 2013) no Cochrane or Campbell reviews have ever been published on this topic! We will continue to update you throughout the review process. 

From the EST-team

A big welcome to our newest team member!

The EST project is thrilled to welcome a new member to our research team this month! Associate Professor Melanie Kirmess is a speech-language pathologist based at the University of Oslo, Department of Special Needs Education. She also holds a research position with Sunnaas rehabilitation hospital. Her core research focus is aphasia and other acquired communication disorders however she is currently supervising PhD students across aphasia, fluency and dysphagia focused projects. 

At the Department of Special Needs Education Melanie is responsible for coordinating the professional content and curriculum of the master of speech-language pathology course. Melanie is excited to join the EST-Project and we are most certainly excited about her becoming part of our team as well! Welcome Melanie! 

From the EST-Project team

First meeting with the EST-reference group

On 23 January, we held our first meeting with the EST-reference group to welcome them to the EST-project. Representatives from the following organisations attended: University of Oslo, NTNU, Statped, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Mental Helse Ungdom (Mental Health Youth Norway), University College of Southeast Norway, and Nord University.

The meeting provided an opportunity for reference group members to introduce themselves to one another as well as an opportunity for our research team to provide information about the overall aims and design of the EST-project. The Norwegian Research Council has funded the EST-project for 15 million Norwegian kroner over 5 years from Autumn 2017 to Summer 2022. The main aim of the project is to determine the most efficacious treatment for preschool children who stutter.

The research team provided an overview of the three work packages embedded in the project: (1) meta-analysis of existing stuttering treatments, (2) randomized controlled trial for children who stutter comparing a direct treatment, indirect treatment and control group, and (3) development of national guidelines for treatment based on the findings from the randomized controlled trial.

Following this, a discussion was held exploring the strengths and possible weaknesses of the project. This was a very positive and productive discussion which allowed the team to review key elements of the project plan. The timeline for the project was also reviewed to enable the reference group to understand how they will actively participate in the project.

Student involvement in the EST-project was also discussed. The PhD and post-doctoral candidate advertised positions and potential opportunities for Masters students to become involved in the project were presented.   

Finally, the EST-project blog was discussed with the reference group. At the time of this meeting the blog had not been launched however members of the reference group were encouraged to consider preparing their own posts to be included on the blog throughout the project.

The first meeting with the EST-reference group was highly productive and we are looking forward to meeting with everyone again in September.

From the EST-project research team

Our team is expanding!

At the end of 2017 we advertised for a PhD position within the EST-project. We were inundated with excellent applications which we reviewed and shortlisted. Over the past month we have interviewed these shortlisted applicants and hope to make an announcement on the outcome of these interviews in the near future!

We are currently advertising for a postdoctoral position within our research team as well. For anyone interested in this role, the position description can be accessed here. You will also find instructions for submitting an application here. Applications close on 15th April, 2018. 

From the EST-project team.

Early planning for the EST-project

We are now 6 months into the EST-project and our team has been incredibly busy planning the initial stages of the study! The project leader is Professor Kari-Anne Bottegaard Næss from University of Oslo, Norway. Joining Kari-Anne in the research team is Dr. Elaina Kefalianos from University of Melbourne, Australia, Professor Arne Lervåg, from University of Oslo, Dr. Elisabeth Holm Hansen from University College of Southeast Norway, and Dr. Hilde Hofslundsengen from Western Norway University of Applied Science.

The project will involve collaboration with several key partners including the municipality of Horten, Psychological Institute University of Oslo, Speech and language therapist education of Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and of Nord University. Two interest groups, Mental Helse Ungdom (Mental Health Youth Norway) and Norsk interesseforening for stamming og løpsk tale (Norwegian Interest group for stuttering and cluttering) will also be involved in the EST-project. We are delighted that both of these interest groups are going to be involved, as they will contribute invaluably to dissemination of the results and be important partners to discuss issues with in this multidisciplinary project.

We would also like to take this opportunity to introduce you to our international expert group comprised of world leaders in the field of stuttering, language and literacy disorders: Professor Mark Onslow from Australia, Professor Scott Yaruss from USA, and Professor Charles Hulme from UK.

At the beginning of November, we had a working seminar in Klitgården, Denmark. During this stay we prepared all of the collaboration agreements and sent them to our research partners to be signed. We also commenced work package 1 and began to complete the title registration proposal for the meta-analysis. The aim of the meta-analysis is to identify the most efficacious direct and indirect stuttering treatments available for preschool children. Findings from this meta-analysis will inform the treatments that are trialed in the randomized controlled trial in work package 2.

In January we hosted our first meeting with collaboration partners and interest groups to discuss the timeline for the EST-project and to conduct a SWOT analysis to identify strengths and weaknesses of the project plan.  We will post an update from the meeting shortly!

More soon, from the EST-project team!

 

Kari-Anne and Hilde at Klitgården, Denmark, November 2017