Browsing by Author "Jayasena, B."

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2

Development and Standardization of Dichotic Speech Tests in Sinhala
(Staff Development Center, University of Kelaniya, 2015) Jayasena, B.
Dichotic speech tests involve simultaneous presentation of auditory stimuli to both ears, with the stimulus presented to each ear being different. The stimuli utilized in dichotic speech tasks include digits, nonsense syllables, spondee words and sentences. Listeners may be required to repeat information being presented to both ears (binaural integration) or repeat the auditory message presented to one ear while ignoring the message presented to the other ear (binaural separation). Binaural integration and binaural separation are auditory processes that holds great importance in everyday listening conditions, especially for understanding spoken messages in noisy environments. These two processes are found to be dysfunctional in individuals having difficulties in processing auditory information in the central nervous system, namely Central Auditory Processing Disorders (CAPD).Most often, CAPD coexist with learning disabilities and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. CAPD are multiple in nature and often require a collection of tests to assess the dysfunctional auditory processes. In Sri Lanka, children with CAPD are most often missed or misdiagnosed as having peripheral hearing loss due to the scarcity of standardized assessment tools. The proposed study is aimed at developing a Dichotic Digit Test, a Dichotic Nonsense Syllable Test and a Synthetic Sentence Identification test with Contralateral Competing Message (SSI-CCM) to diagnose binaural integration and binaural separation deficits. It also aims at establishing norms for the above tests for children between 7- 12 years of age. The study will be beneficial to clinical audiologists in terms of access to valid and reliable assessment tools that would effectively diagnose those with deficits in auditory performance with competing acoustic signals. It will also help teachers, speech language therapists and other involved professionals in designing appropriate deficit-specific management strategies for affected individuals.
A survey on current knowledge and practices of teleaudiology among audiology professionals in Sri Lanka
(Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2021) Geeganage, V.; Jayasena, B.
Introduction: With the advancement of technology and resources, telehealth is becoming a prominent method of providing audiology services across the world. Teleaudiology services in Sri Lanka are evolving and still is an under addressed area of local literature compared to other telehealth applications in medical sector. Objectives: To describe the current knowledge and practices of teleaudiology and factors affecting planning and implementation of teleaudiology in Sri Lanka. Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted among 104 (n=104) audiology professionals employed in public and private setups across the country using an online self-administered questionnaire. Results: The study yielded a response rate of 83.87% and majority (75.0%) of the participants were female. Age distribution of participants was between 25 and 45 years. Majority (79.8%) reported awareness on teleaudiology while 32.7% of them utilised it. Initiation of teleaudiology was influenced by COVID-19 pandemic. Reported uses of teleaudiology were predominantly counselling, education, hearing aid related rehabilitation, and prevention as individual or group sessions, utilising hybrid telehealth model. More than 75.0% of the services were centralised within Western province in private centres. Despite practices, several challenges were reported as influencing teleaudiology, including lack of facilities as major challenge while reporting several benefits. Conclusions: The findings of the study indicate the availability of teleaudiology in Sri Lanka however it is restricted to certain geographic areas and to certain services. This study sheds lights on current teleaudiology practices with an emphasis on factors affecting, which will assist in improving services further.