Dr Wendy Cohen

Senior Knowledge Exchange Fellow

Speech and Language Therapy

Personal statement

I have been working at Strathclyde since 2005. Before then I held posts in the NHS and Academia as a Speech and Language Therapist and Research Fellow.

I am an experienced clinical academic with a demonstrated history of working in both NHS and the higher education settings. I teach courses in Developmental Language Disorders and Voice Disorders and Research Ethics. I am a passionate supporter of Allied Health Professionals who make a difference every day - and in particular support colleagues in the Health Professions continually demonstrate innovation and impact in their daily activities.

As Vice Chair of a NHS Ethics Committee, I work closely with members of the public, and staff from NHS, academia and industry to ensure that medical research is robust and ethically sound.

As Head of the Graduate School / Associate Dean (PGR) in Humanities and Social Sciences I provide support to PGR students and their supervisors within and across the Faculty from scholarship application processes through to thesis development and graduation.

Expertise

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Area of Expertise

Speech disorders in children and adolescents
Voice disorders in children and adolescents
Communication disability in those with an associated genetic condition
Clinical Education and Professional Development

Qualifications

I currently hold several areas of responsibility within the University and externally:

University responsibilities:

Head of the Graduate School
Associate Dean PGR
School of Psychological Sciences and Health Ethics Committee
University Quality Assurance Contact for Health and Care Professions Council
Professional Lead in Speech and Language Therapy (2016 - 2021)
Mentor STEP SFHEA Support Network (2017)
University Personal Development Planning Network (until 2016)
Responsible for leading negotiation of PPA for 8/10 health boards as listed above on behalf of SLT and NCPO programmes (until 2016)
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Board of Study member (2013 - 2016)

External and Professional responsibilities

Member of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (9502)
Registered member of the Health and Care Professions Council (SL02551)
Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PR119602)
Health and Care Professions Council Fitness to Practice Panel Member (2022 - current)
RCSLT Committee of Representatives of Education in Speech and Language Therapy (CREST) (2016 - 2021)
Secretary to CREST (2017 - 2018)
Chair of CREST (2018 - 2021)
Maxwell Bequest Committee (NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde) (2017 - 2022)
West of Scotland NHS Research Ethics Committee Member/ Vice Chair (WESROC4) (2017 - current)

Publications

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Publications

Translation and validation of the intelligibility in context scale into Sinhala for adolescents in Sri Lanka with cleft lip and palate

Mirihagalla Kankanamalage Inoka, Cleland Joanne, Cohen Wendy

Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics Vol 37, pp. 398-414 (2023)

https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2022.2120417

An investigation into quality of life of adolescents with repaired Ccleft Lip and Palate living in Sri Lanka

Mirihagalla Inoka, Cohen Wendy, Cleland Joanne

International Cleft Congress (2022)

Validation of the Sinhalese version of the intelligibility in context scale

Mirihagalla Kankanamalage Inoka Udayangani Sirimanna, Cohen Wendy, Cleland Joanne

18th Biennial Conference of the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association (2021)

Differential diagnosis of RRP and VFN in the paediatric voice clinic using audio data: outcomes of a feasibility study exploring the use of Deep Learning as an adjunct in diagnosis and monitoring

Cohen Wendy, Di Caterina Gaetano, Soraghan John, McGregor Wynne David

Cutting Edge Laryngology 2019 (2019)

Supporting student teachers – trying to prevent a problem before it arises

Cohen Wendy, Andrews Carolyn

Cutting Edge Laryngology 2019 (2019)

Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of health-related quality of life assessment (COHIP-Child Oral Health Impact Profile) for adolescents with cleft lip and palate in Sri Lanka

Mirihagalla Kankanamalage Inoka Udayangani Sirimanna, Cohen Wendy, Cleland Joanne

The 59th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Teratology Society and the 13th World Congress of the International Cleft Lip and Palate Foundation – CLEFT 2019, Nagoya, Japan. (2019)

More publications

Research

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Research Interests

My research interests are aligned to University’s health and wellbeing strategy in the area of speech, language, voice and communication.

Recent projects focused on developing tools for evaluating voice difficulties in children.

My longest standing interests relate to a national collaboration investigating the genetic factors associated with language and communication difficulties. My involvement in this (the SLI consortium) dates back to the design, collection and analysis of genetic and language performance data from a Scottish family cohort study. The SLI Consortium brought together key personnel from a series of cohort studies to increase the statistical strength of the data. I led the design of the language assessment protocol and data gathering for the Scottish cohort. The data continues to be analysed as genetic analysis techniques are refined. This is resulting in current collaborative publications which are attributed to key named authors and all members of the SLI Consortium who had principle involvement in the data gathering and early analysis.

Professional Activities

CAHPR Scotland lunchtime webinar: Demystifying ethics

Speaker

23/3/2023

Scottish Government (External organisation)

Advisor

8/2022

Scottish Government (External organisation)

Advisor

7/2022

HCPC Partner - Fitness to Practice

Consultant

6/2022

Developing and applying skills in psychological science across health, social care and industry

Host

10/5/2022

CPD in PSH: Developing and applying skills in psychological science across health, social care and industry

Recipient

10/5/2022

More professional activities

Projects

Evaluating the extent to which the Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) impact on future student placement development

Cohen, Wendy (Principal Investigator) Timmins, Claire (Co-investigator)

When designing the current BSc (Hons) in Speech and Language Pathology, OSCEs were identified as having a role at a specific stage in student development. Using the Scottish Curriculum Qualifications Framework (SCQF, 2012) as a skills’ benchmark, there was a clear description in two skill sets (Practice, applied knowledge and understanding; Communication) at levels 8 and 9 of the framework that corresponded to 2nd and 3rd year level of undergraduate study in Scotland. Four specific clinical skills were identified as suitable for OSCE and these were introduced into the curriculum in academic session 2015/16. Each task was intrinsically linked to a specific skill that would be developed during the 2nd year clinical placement with class based support activities. The OSCEs were then timetabled to take place during the summer examination diet for 2nd year students. Student feedback has been positive since the introduction of the OSCEs, with students commenting on aspects related to their relevance to clinical practice, their understanding of what the OSCEs were assessing, parity across the cohort and the value of constructive feedback for future learning (Cohen & Timmins, 2017). External examiners have also commended the course team on the introduction of the OSCEs. Recent studies have explored OSCEs from the learners’ perspective and in particular from the field of nursing. Nursing students have reported that OSCEs lead to increased self-directed learning and increased self-confidence (Ha, 2016) and that the constructive feedback learners receive contribute positively to their future learning and development. The extent to which speech and language therapy students can implement the skills they have demonstrated during their 2nd year OSCEs has not been evaluated and this study proposes to undertake this type of evaluation. By sampling, anonymously, the current 3rd year SLP cohort, who have successfully completed their OSCEs it is hoped that we can understand whether or not students have been able to implement these skills successfully in practice. Through additional discussion with the clinical tutors who provide guidance and support to these students as they progress through their subsequent 3rd year placement we hope to understand more about the effect that OSCEs have on future student learning and development.

24-Jan-2018 - 31-Jan-2019

Effect of a voice care programme on student teachers

Cohen, Wendy (Principal Investigator) Andrews, Carolyn (Principal Investigator)

The proposed study aims to introduce voice hygiene at an early stage in student teacher training and follow this up with materials designed to stimulate self-management throughout participants’ teacher training programme. This approach will be evaluated using validated questionnaires and a demographic questionnaire. This will establish if there is a sustained impact of vocal hygiene training on student teachers, with a focus on those who are following a shorter duration of training so that retention might be facilitated with the project lasting during their registered studies. Follow up of participants to the end of their first year as a newly qualified teacher will be offered to participants who opt in to the study so that longer term impact can be evaluated

24-Jan-2018 - 31-Jan-2020

Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis: Towards improved clinical diagnosis using analysis of voice recordings

Di Caterina, Gaetano (Principal Investigator) Cohen, Wendy (Co-investigator) Soraghan, John (Co-investigator)

Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis: Towards improved clinical diagnosis using analysis of voice recordings

01-Jan-2018 - 28-Jan-2019

Voice outcomes following airway reconstruction in children

Cohen, Wendy (Principal Investigator)

Voice outcomes following airway reconstruction in children

01-Jan-2015 - 31-Jan-2015

Parent perceptions of Down’s Syndrome Scotland (DSS) communication groups

Anderson, Carolyn (Co-investigator) Cohen, Wendy (Academic)

06-Jan-2014 - 16-Jan-2014