Josée Lagacé

Health Services for Linguistic Minorities in a Bilingual Setting: Challenges for Bilingual Professionals

We explore in this qualitative research the challenges faced by bilingual health and social services professionals in a Canadian bilingual setting, as well as the strategies used to overcome them. Eight focus groups were conducted with a total of 43 bilingual Francophone professionals who offered services in French in 21 health and social service organizations in eastern Ontario, Canada. We highlight linguistic issues affecting a minority Francophone clientele, the shortage of services in French, and organizational issues within these agencies. The solutions that the professionals adopt for better serving the clients and overcoming these challenges focus on adapting services from linguistic angles. In the long term, such an enhanced approach can affect staff well-being. Ensuring access to services for linguistic minority populations and the active offer of same should not rest solely on the shoulders of such professionals, but rather on organizational strategies.

Speech perception in noise: Exploring the effect of linguistic context in children with and without auditory processing disorder

Abstract Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate whether the speech perception problems in noise of children with auditory processing disorder (APD) stem from an auditory or a higher order dysfunction. Design: A repeated measures design comparing the sentence key word recognition scores of children with APD and a control group was used. Four sentence lists from the Test de phrases dans le bruit (TPB) were presented with a babble masker at four different signal-to-noise ratios. The TPB is a Canadian French adaptation of the speech perception in noise test. Study Sample: Ten participants between 9–12 years with APD participated in this study, as well as ten age- and gender-matched children with no sign of APD. Results: Group analyses revealed that children with APD had poorer overall sentence key word recognition scores than the control group. Analysis of the difference scores between the high and low predictability sentences indicated that the benefit derived from linguistic context is similar between the groups. However, individual patterns of results revealed different profiles within the APD group. Conclusion: Further study using a larger sample is warranted to deepen our understanding of the nature of APD and identify characteristic profiles to enable better tailoring of therapeutic programs. Sumario Objetivo: El objetivo de este estudio fue investigar cuándo los problemas de percepción del habla en ruido, en niños con trastornos del procesamiento auditivo (APD), son producto de una disfunción auditiva o de niveles superiores. Diseño: Repetición de mediciones para comparar las puntuaciones de reconocimiento de palabras clave en una oración, entre niños con APD y los de un grupo control. Estudio: Se presentaron cuatro listas de oraciones del Test de Phrases dans le Bruit (TPB – Prueba de frases en ruido-) en presencia de balbuceo enmascarante, a cuatro diferentes relaciones señal/ruido. El TPB es una adaptación al Francés del Canadá, de la prueba de Percepción del Habla en Ruido. Muestra: Participaron en este estudio diez niños con APD entre 9-12 años y 10 niños sin signos de APD, pareados por edad y sexo. Resultados: El análisis de grupos reveló que los niños con APD tienen puntuaciones generales más pobres en el reconocimiento de palabras clave en oraciones, que los del grupo control. El análisis de las diferencias entre las puntuaciones de las oraciones de mayor o menor predictabilidad, indicaron que el beneficio que se deriva del contexto lingüístico es similar entre los dos grupos. Sin embargo, los patrones de resultados individuales, revelan diferentes perfiles en el grupo de niños con APD. Conclusiones: Se justifican estudios adicionales usando una muestra más amplia, para profundizar nuestro conocimiento sobre la naturaleza de los APD y para identificar perfiles característicos que nos permitan la mejor individualización de programas terapéuticos.