2022-05-03, Reymond, Claire, Widmer Beierlein, Sandra, Müller, Christine, Kuntner, Katrin Petra, Falcón García, Noelia, Grumbinaite, Indre, Hemm-Ode, Simone, Degen, Markus, Parrillo, Fabrizio, Karlin, Stefan, Park, Sung Hea, Blechschmidt, Anja, Reutimann, Ricarda

Background: Picture naming is a common tool in aphasia diagnosis and therapy. However, opin-ions differ as to which type of image (e.g., photographs, drawings) is most suitable for naming tasks and whether there is a difference on naming correctness and latencies based on image type. Moreover, recent studies have mainly analysed colour photographs and black-and-white line drawings leaving out image types like graphic representations that apply image features that can facilitate naming such as colour, controlled size, or texture. Aims: To shed more light on ap-propriate image types for persons with aphasia, we created graphic representations depicting nouns and verbs and compared them to photographic stimuli in a naming task including persons with aphasia (PWA) and a control group (CG). Methods & Procedures: 33 PWA and 33 age matched persons (CG) participated in the study. Naming correctness and latencies were meas-ured in two different conditions: concepts depicted as coloured photographs vs. as graphic rep-resentations. 128 pictures of linguistically controlled German-language concepts (64 nouns, 64 verbs) had to be named. The designed graphic stimuli were developed by professional designers based on photographs. The photographs were selected from stock image databases according to a defined image concept. This image concept was based on empirical findings regarding im-age features that facilitate naming (e.g., colour, texture, shading) and was applied to the selec-tion of the photographs as well as to the creation of the graphic representations. The images were presented in pseudo-randomized sequences on a tablet and all reactions of the participants were videotaped. The data from the main study was analysed using generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) and linear mixed models (LMM).

2022, Kuntner, Katrin Petra, Widmer Beierlein, Sandra, Elsener, Claudia, Dittmann-Aubert, Fanny, Hauser, Norina, Moriz, Matthias, Wegele, Maria, Winkler, Manon, Harvey, Morgaine, Falcón García, Noelia, Altermatt, Sven, Müller, Christine, Degen, Markus, Reymond, Claire, Hemm-Ode, Simone, Blechschmidt, Anja

Im Zuge der evidenzbasierten Praxis sind im Bereich der Logopädie/Sprachtherapie neben der Praxisexper - tise wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse in die Therapie zu integrieren. Dafür wird mehr fachspezifische Forschung benötigt, die auf Unterstützung der Praxis angewiesen ist. Das Ziel des Artikels ist es, die für Logopädie-For - schung notwendige intradisziplinäre Kooperation von logopädischen Forscherinnen und Forschern sowie Prak- tikerinnen und Praktikern anhand des interdisziplinären Aphasieprojektes «E-Inclusion» der Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz (FHNW) zu beleuchten. Dazu wird das Aphasieprojekt vorgestellt, welches vier Ziele verfolgte: (1) Auswirkungen von Dialekt und Hochdeutsch sowie (2) von Fotografien und Illustrationen auf die Bildbenenn- leistung bei u. a. Personen mit Aphasie zu untersuchen, (3) mithilfe akustisch-objektiver Sprachsignalanalysen Leistungsveränderungen der Aphasie zu ermitteln und (4) aus diesen Erkenntnissen eine Prototypen-Appli- kation zu entwickeln. Nach der Projektvorstellung gewähren logopädische Praktikerinnen und Praktiker aus Partnerinstitutionen sowie das logopädische Forschungsteam Einblick in die intradisziplinäre Kooperation. Ins- besondere die Rekrutierung der Studienteilnehmenden erforderte eine enge Zusammenarbeit. Als Resultat des Artikels zeigt sich, dass die Kooperation auch unter erschwerten Bedingungen wie zunehmender Zeitdruck im klinisch-therapeutischen Setting für beide Seiten erfolgreich, bedeutsam und bereichernd war. Daraus abgelei- tete Erkenntnisse für kooperative Projekte werden im Fazit dieses Artikels formuliert. Zukünftig können so Logo- pädinnen und Logopäden aus Forschung und Praxis, wie auch Betroffene, von der inter- und intradisziplinären Kooperation im Bereich der Logopädie bzw. in Folgeprojekten des «E-Inclusion»-Forschungsteams profitieren.

2021-10, Widmer Beierlein, Sandra, Kuntner, Katrin Petra, Hemm-Ode, Simone, Reymond, Claire, Falcón García, Noelia, Park, Sung Hea, Jochmann, Angela, Elsener, Claudia, Winkler, Manon, Blechschmidt, Anja

2020-11, Altermatt, Sven, Kuntner, Katrin Petra, Rickert, Eliane, Wyss, Sandra, Degen, Markus, Reymond, Claire, Widmer Beierlein, Sandra, Blechschmidt, Anja, Hemm-Ode, Simone, Jarm, Tomaz, Mahnič-Kalamiza, Samo, Cvetkoska, Aleksandra, Miklavcic, Damijan

2022-04, Blechschmidt, Anja, Widmer Beierlein, Sandra, Park, Sung Hea, Winkler, Manon, Falcón García, Noelia, Kuntner, Katrin Petra

In German speaking Switzerland the language situation is characterized by the use of Swiss and High German (SG and HG) each of them with a clear and distinct context of use. This has often been referred to as diglossia (Haas 2004; Ferguson 1959). SG is always the first choice for Swiss speakers in informal situations, regardless of their social status and education (Christen, Ender & Kehrein 2020). On the contrary, HG is used in formal circumstances of schools or parliamentary speeches (Rash 2002). Therefore, SG is considered the first language because it is spoken in the families. HG, on the other hand, is often spoken regularly with the children from the time they enter kindergarten (EDK 2013; Christen, Glaser & Friedli 2011). The diglossia leaves it open whether the situation is monolingual or bilingual from a psycholinguistic perspective. Various studies assume at least bilingual-like conditions in speaking (Till et al. 2017; Vorwerg, Suntharam & Morand 2019). Studies on speech processing or comprehension of dialects and standard varieties are still a rarity at present. Picture naming for dialect and High German in Switzerland have not yet been investigated. The image naming paradigm has among others been used to study naming reactions of bilinguals. It is known that monolinguals name images faster and with less errors than bilinguals (Sullivan, Poarch & Bialystok 2018; Gollan et al. 2005). However, it has not yet been investigated which variety is more dominant in Swiss bivarietal speakers who are highly proficient in both language varieties. Picture naming tasks can give information about lexical retrieval of words especially in people with aphasia (Herbert et al. 2008). This prestudy examines the naming of images in SG and HG among healthy Swiss bivarietal speakers in order to clarify the following research questions: (1) Is there a significant difference in naming latencies between SG and HG and (2) Is there a difference in error rates for SG compared to HG. For this purpose, 123 healthy adults with first language Swiss German named 136 pictures each, half of them on SG and the other on HG. The words in both varieties consisted of two syllables, were bimorphic and controlled for word frequency, word class, animacy and transitivity, respectively. The images were presented on a tablet and the naming responses were recorded. Afterwards, all utterances were transcribed. Naming latencies were collected from correctly named items. An item was considered correct if the word and variety were correct. Naming latencies were measured manually using Praat. The data analysis has not yet been completed, but will be available at the time of the conference. The results of this study should help to understand the nature of bivarietal language processing in picture naming and improve language rehabilitation for people with aphasia in dialect speaking areas. The data will be compared in a further study with Swiss people with aphasia to obtain a better understanding of speech processing in healthy and speech impaired bivarietal speakers.

2021-11, Park, Sung Hea, Altermatt, Sven, Widmer Beierlein, Sandra, Blechschmidt, Anja, Reymond, Claire, Degen, Markus, Rickert, Eliane, Wyss, Sandra, Kuntner, Katrin Petra, Hemm-Ode, Simone

2021-09, Widmer Beierlein, Sandra, Kuntner, Katrin Petra, Falcón García, Noelia, Hemm-Ode, Simone, Reymond, Claire, Park, Sung Hea, Elsener, Claudia, Winkler, Manon, Blechschmidt, Anja

2022-04, Widmer Beierlein, Sandra, Vorwerg, Constanze

Switzerland is one of the main national centers of the pluricentric German language, along with Austria and Germany. Swiss German-speaking people use the the national variety of Standard or High German (HG) in addition to the “national dialect”, Swiss German (SG). A special feature of German-speaking Switzerland is the coexistence of SG and HG, each variety being restricted to its own context of use and without an intermediate variety comparable with “Umgangssprache” (colloquial language). This can be described as diglossia (Haas 2004; Ferguson 1959). HG is used in formal situations, e.g. at school, examinations or for sermons in the church (Oberholzer 2018; Rash 2002). SG, on the other hand, is always preferred for oral communication among Swiss people, regardless of education and social status - unlike other local dialects in Europe (Hove 2017; Christen et al. 2010). It has a very high prestige among Swiss-German speakers (Berthele 2004). Although the clear separation of dialect and High German leads to code switching (CS), this is a relatively rare phenomenon (Kropf 1986; Christen et al. 2010). CS is, however, often found in institutional communication, which involves the use of HG. One example of institutional communication is aphasia diagnostics. Aphasia is an acquired language disorder that can affect all linguistic levels (Huber, Poeck & Springer 2013). During testing, it is up to the speech therapist to give instructions, to carry out the test correctly and make a diagnosis. In Switzerland, tests for aphasia are usually performed using tests from Germany that have been standardized for High German (spoken and written) in Germany and do not take into account dialects (Widmer Beierlein & Vorwerg 2015). Data from two single-case analyses (Widmer Beierlein & Vorwerg 2017) and interviews with the therapists (Widmer Beierlein & Vorwerg 2020) suggest that dialect is the unmarked variety used for personal communication, such as small talk at the beginning of the session, and that speech therapists switch to HG only for (parts of) the test itself. The research presented aimed at establishing whether this is indeed the case: Is HG used significantly more often in testing itself compared to other discourse functions in a linguistic assessment (e.g., instructions, greeting, conversation, etc.)? We analyzed 11 aphasia assessments with two Swiss-dialect-speaking participants each with respect to the distribution of the varieties, broken down by participants (therapist and patient) and discourse functions. The aphasia assessment situations were videotaped and the dialog segments have been coded with respect to variety and discourse. We will consider which discourse functions favor the use of SG and/or HG in the aphasia assessment. This is relevant in order to create a more transparent starting point with regard to the choice of varieties in aphasia diagnostics in Switzerland. Especially in the research of language disorders, varieties have rather been neglected so far, which leads to a very heterogeneous and individual approach in a setting supposed to be standardized, with language even being the subject of testing.

2021-11, Rickert, Eliane, Wyss, Sandra , Altermatt, Sven, Degen, Markus, Widmer Beierlein, Sandra, Reymond, Claire, Hemm-Ode, Simone

2021, Widmer Beierlein, Sandra, Reymond, Claire, Kuntner, Katrin Petra, Blechschmidt, Anja, Degen, Markus, Müller, Christine, Falcón García, Noelia, Altermatt, Sven, Elsener, Claudia, Karlin, Stefan, Park, Sung Hea, Reutimann, Ricarda, Parrillo, Fabrizio, Bucheli, Sandra, Grumbinaite, Indre, Jochmann, Angela, Harvey, Morgaine, Lee, Jingyu, Loew, Joelle, Meier, Lena, Poffet, Laurent, Renner, Michael, Schiltknecht, Sarah, Shah, Ashesh, Schneider, Gerold, Strub, Alisa, Trachsel, Karen, Winkler, Manon, Wyss, Sandra, Hemm-Ode, Simone

«E-Inclusion» ist ein interdisziplinäres, schweizerisches Aphasie-Forschungsprojekt mit dem Ziel einen App-Prototypen für die Benenntherapie zu entwickeln. Dazu wurden wissenschaftliche Fragestellungen zu den drei Themengebieten «Bildart», «Sprachvarietät » und «neue Technologien» in zwei Hauptstudien und fünf ergänzenden Studien untersucht. In der Hauptstudie 1 wurde bei niederfrequenten Nomen und Verben in einer Benennstudie mit Menschen mit einer Aphasie und einer Kontrollgruppe getestet, ob die Bildart (Fotografie vs. Illustration) und die Sprachvarietät (Dialekt vs. Hochdeutsch) die Benennleistung beeinflussen. In der Hauptstudie 2 wurde die mündliche Benennreaktion auf Nomen aus dem AAT (Aachener Aphasie Test) von Menschen mit Aphasie auf Wortebene gemessen, um Veränderungen beispielsweise in der Benennlatenz objektiv aufgrund akustischer Parameter messbar zu machen. Die ergänzenden Studien dienten der Überprüfung des Materials in Bezug auf das schriftliche und mündliche «Name Agreement». Ausserdem wurden Daten zu sog. subjektiven Frequenzen erhoben, um beispielsweise logopädisches Therapie- und Diagnostikmaterial in der Schweiz besser psycholinguistisch kontrollieren zu können. Eine weitere Studie widmete sich der Einschätzung von Sprachkenntnissen im Dialekt und Hochdeutschen sowie dem Gebrauch der Varietäten in verschiedenen Kontexten und Modalitäten. Die Ergebnisse dieser Studien wurden in einer Prototypen-App zusammengeführt.