Face-to-face and Telespeech Therapy Services for Children during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review.

Objectives: There has been increased interest in using telepractice in clinical services during COVID-19. Using telepractice is little known in speech and language therapy. However, the parents and speech therapists were satisfied with this method. Therefore, this scoping review aims to compare tele speech therapy and face-to-face speech therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic and determine the efficacy of available telepractices in speech therapy. Materials & Methods: This scoping review was according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guideline. The authors systematically searched Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus databases with specific eligibility criteria. The eligibility criteria were studies published from 1 January 2020 to 10 May 2023 from a peer-reviewed journal and written in English. In addition, the articles were about speech therapy in children during COVID-19. Results: Fifteen articles were included in this scoping review. Results showed that approximately all speech therapists used tele practice during the pandemic. Parents and students are satisfied with this method but have problems with it. On the other hand, some parents and SLPs preferred tele practice accompanied by face-to-face intervention. Furthermore, few studies determined the efficacy of tele practice with clear structural methods in specific populations. Conclusion: Although tele speech therapy is acceptable for providing speech and language therapy services to children with swallowing and communication disorder, speech-language therapists should increase their information and technology to achieve successful results. Moreover, parents must play an essential role in telepractice services to facilitate effective communication between clinicians and families.

Validity and reliability of the Persian version of greenspan social-emotional growth chart.

Background: The estimated prevalence of mental health disorders in children and adolescents is between 10% and 20%. Furthermore, a quarter of very premature infants exhibit socioemotional delays in infancy and childhood. The objective of this study was to determine the validity and reliability of Greenspan social-emotional growth chart (GSEGC) in Persian children aged 1-42 months. Materials and Methods: After translation procedures, the face validity, content validity, construct validity, test-retest reliability, and internal consistency of the GSEGC questionnaire were evaluated. The quality of translating items was obtained using the suggestions of the research group. The face validity of the GSEGC was performed by interviewing with 10 mothers in the target group. To evaluate content validity quantitatively, content validity ratio (CVR) and content validity index (CVI) were used after reviewing the face and content validity and pilot study, 264 parents of children aged 1-42 months completed the GSEGC questionnaire to assess the construct validity and internal consistency. In order to determine the test-retest reliability, after 2 weeks, 18 parents completed the questionnaire again. Results: Eleven questions were changed according to the interviews (questions 1-6, 9-11, and 15-16). The lowest CVR was related to items 30 and 20 (0.636), and other items had an acceptable CVR. The lowest CVI value was related to item 1 of clarity and simplicity (0.818), and other items had an acceptable CVI. Intra-class correlation coefficient was 0.988 for all items of questionnaire. Furthermore, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.952 for all items. In factor analysis, two factors were extracted from the items in questionnaire. Conclusion: The Persian version of GSEGC questionnaire has acceptable face, content and, constructs validity, test-retest reliability and high internal consistency in the target population. Therefore, the Persian version of the GSEGC can be used as a tool to assess 1-42 months sensory processing and socio-emotional development.

A Web-Based Caring Training for Caregivers of Children with Cerebral Palsy: Development and Evaluation.

OBJECTIVES: Caregivers of children with cerebral palsy (CP) have to spend a long time to take care of their children. We aimed to develop a user-friendly web-based intervention for training parents of children with CP and evaluate the process of development using modified CeHRes roadmap. MATERIALS & METHODS: The study was conducted from September 2016 to September 2017 in Tehran, Iran. We did it in four main steps including determining the needs of users, content development, design, operational development and evaluation. RESULTS: The website for caregiver training provided nine general topics and had the possibility that the caregivers could determine their educational priorities. Moreover, the users could share their experiences with other users and could ask questions from an expert. Ten caregivers completed a usability questionnaire after four weeks of use. The average score of 70.5 out of 100 was shown among caregivers. The average score of all statements was above three on a Likert scale between 1 and 5. CONCLUSION: The website has the possibilities including registering caregivers of children with CP, the possibility to confirm registration with an SMS and the possibility to determine the caregiver educational priorities. It has the usability for training caregivers of children with CP.

Psychometric properties of the persian version of cerebral palsy quality of life questionnaire for children.

OBJECTIVE: Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common cause of chronic disability that restricts participation in daily life for children. Thereby, it is comprised of quality of life. Quality of life (QOL) measures have been a vital part of health outcome appraisals for individuals with CP and to obtain empirical evidence for the effectiveness of a range of interventions. The CP QOL-Child is a condition-specific QOL questionnaire designed for children with CP to assess well-being rather than ill-being. MATERIALS & METHODS: Forward and backward translations of the CP QOL-Child were performed for: (1) the primary caregiver form (for parents of children with CP aged 4-12 years); and (2) the child self-report form (for children with cerebral palsy aged 9-12 years). Psychometric properties assessment included reliability, internal consistency, and item discrimination, construct validity with Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) and Manual Ability Classification System (MACS) was done. SPSS was used to analyze the results of this study. RESULTS: A sample of 200 primary caregivers forchildren with CP (mean = 7.7 years) and 40 children (mean = 10.2 years) completed. Internal consistency ranged from 0.61-0.87 for the primary caregivers form, and 0.64-0.86 for the child self-report form. Reliability ranged from 0.47-0.84. Item discrimination analysis revealed that a majority of the items (80%) have high discriminating power. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated a distinguishable domain structure as in the original English version. Moderate associations were found between lower QOL and more severe motor disability(GMFCS; r = .18-.32; p < .05 and MACS; r= .13 - .40; p < .05). The highest correlation between the primary caregiver and child forms on QOL was in the domain of functioning and consistent with the English version. CONCLUSION: Content validity, item discriminant validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability of the Persian version of the CP QOL- Child were all acceptable. Further study of concurrent validity of this version is needed.

Symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder in a sample of Iranian patients.

BACKGROUND: Characteristic features of the obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) occur with remarkable consistency in different cultural settings. The content of symptoms, however, seems to vary across cultures. AIMS: To examine the content of symptoms in a sample of OCD patients from Iran. METHODS: In a sample of 135 patients recruited from three treatment settings the prevalence of symptoms with different contents were ranked and compared across genders. RESULTS: Doubts and indecisiveness were the most common obsessions and washing the most common compulsion for the whole sample. Fears of impurity and contamination, obsessive thoughts about self-impurity and washing compulsions were more common in women, whereas blasphemous thoughts and orderliness compulsions were more common in men. CONCLUSIONS: With minor differences, the pattern of symptoms with various contents in this sample was similar to that in Western settings.