Lines of Communication

Research Visit - Queen Margaret University College

Dr Janet Beck - Senior Lecturer
Dr James Scobbie - Senior Research Fellow
Dr Sara Wood -Honorary Research Fellow

As with my previous research visits, the trip to Edinburgh was to provide valuable material for the project and leave me with a head full of information.

Three days of fascinating experiences with a team of people who are doing innovative and important research in a department that also educates the speech therapists of tomorrow.

Ultrasound is most usually associated with obstetric use,

but at Queen Margaret University College this technique has been adapted to give a visual image of the tongue during speech. This is not only interesting in scientific terms (a research project was in progress during my visit that was looking at the movement of the tongue when speaking an 'R' in Dutch) but also has very real application for speech therapists when, for example, treating a patient with a cleft palate. Not only does the technique provide a moving sequence of the tongue but also a simultaneous audio recoding of the subject's speech.

The subject wears a rather unattractive helmet that braces the head against any loose movement. A probe is fixed under the chin and this records the image of the tongue.

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