Medical Staffing International - NZSTA Post-Graduate Award

Dean Sutherland, winner of the Medical Staffing International – NZSTA Post Graduate Award, says that his first foray into speech-language therapy was when he was just four years old, a child with minor articulation problems.

Today, he is a father of three and working towards a PhD, correlating speech disorders with eading and writing problems.

“I want to find more efficient ways of teaching children to read by uncovering some of the problems that children with speech difficulties have,” he says. “I hope that some of my findings can be transferred to the general population. Building the ability to transfer academic knowledge into the clinical environment is so I feel very strongly about.

”Dean has progressed from undergraduate, to masters and now PhD level. His main study during his Masters degree involved surveying all speech-language therapists in New Zealand about the provision of services to people with ere communication disorders.

“Outcomes from this study will contribute to developing appropriate assessment tools to identify children with speech disorders who may fail to develop appropriate racy skills,” he says.

Dean explains that children with speech disorders are four to five times more likely to devrsistent reading disorders.

“Research shows that children’s awareness of the speech sound structure within words directly affects their ability to develop literacy skills,” says Dean. “My study focuses on how children with and without speech disorders represent the sounture of words in their mind.

”Dean’s study, which follows three groups of children including those with typical speech development, those with severe ‘specific’ speech disorder, and those with severe speech and physical impairment, addresses the foll research questions:

1. What is the role of phonological representations in the development of word recognition skills in children with anut severe speech impairments?
2. How do phonological representations change in children with speech impairments as they move frchool to school environments?
3. What differences exist between phonological representations held by typically developing children and chilth severe speech impairments?
4. What is the relationship between the level of receptive vocabulary and phonl representation?

Kirsten Thomforde of Medical Staffing International says that both she and the judges were impressed with Dean’s dedication, his outstanding academic record and his thorough approach. “Reading is critical for the independent acquisition of knowledge and Dean’s research will have positive impact for many children,” says Kirsten.

Currently in his first year of PhD studies, Dean is also teaching two courses to BSLT students at the University of Canterbury. He has also provided speech-language therapy services on a part time basis to clients such as Mairehau High School and Autism New Zealand, but now with three children – including twin 15-month old boys, he has temporarily stepped back from the field to focus on his research.

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