WELCOME TO

Department of Disability Studies

The Department of Disability Studies aims to become the lead centre for teaching, professional skills development and research on disability related issues in Sri Lanka. At the DDS all teaching and research programs are underpinned by a disability studies paradigm.

WELCOME TO

Department of Disability Studies

Undergraduate Programmes

Offers courses for Speech and Hearing Science degree.

SHS Student Portal

Student Portal for SHS Degree Program.

OT Student Portal

Student Portal for OT Degree Program.

Research

The department is engaged in multidisciplinary research.

Research Projects - Batch 3 (Audiology)

Student Name	Title	Name of Supervisor/s
N.D.Dantanarayana	Awareness on excessive noise exposure, hearing protection and situations, perceived symptoms of noise exposure among grade 12 students of a selected government school in the Colombo district.	Ms.L.D.Illeperuma
D.P.A.E.Devapaksha	Subjective evaluation of teachers' exposure to noise in selected Sinhala medium primary schools in Gampaha Educational Zone.	Ms.L.D.Illeperuma
Krisha Hansajie	Knowledge, attitudes and practices on Noise Induced Hearing Loss among factory workers of two dairy product manufacturing factories in Gampaha District, Sri Lanka	Ms. B.N.Jayasena
Amanjali Nayanathara	Attitudes of mainstream school teachers towards inclusion of hearing impaired children into mainstream schools in Wennapuwa education division and the perceived factors affecting the inclusion approach	Ms. B.N.Jayasena
Manjula Thilini	The Proportion of Tinnitus and its characteristics among the workers of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Cylinder Infusion Factory in Biyagama Zone Sri Lanka	Ms.RenukaFonseka
K.Piumi Ayeshika Perera	Occupational noise exposure, awareness,attitudes, use of personal hearing protection devices among Liquefied Petroleum Gas Cylinder Infusion factory workers	Ms.RenukaFonseka
L.M.Unagolla	Commonly used Behavioral Hearing Tests among Audiologists and audiometricians in the Western Province, Sri Lanka	Ms. B.N. Jayasena
DinushaManathunga	Different severity levels of tinnitus and how it affects the lifestyle of patients who are attending the ENT clinics, national hospital,Colombo	Ms.RenukaFonseka
Dulanji Udage	Parents' Perceptions towards the Outcomes of Auditory Skills Training Performance of Hearing Impaired Children from 02 to 05 years	Ms. B.N. Jayasena
S. Vijeshanth	Association between mobile phone usage and hearing sensitivity among third year students of university of Kelaniya	Ms. D. De Silva

Student Research Presentations

International Conference for Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists & Speech and Language Therapists 2019

Pacific Rim International Conference on Disability and Diversity (2015)

1st World Congress in Ear and Hearing Care (2015)

ASHA (2015)

ASHA (2014)

ASHA (2013)

Research Projects - Batch 1

Name	Title	Name of supervisor
Abdul Wahid Ajeema	A normative study of Phonemic and Phonological development in three year old Sri Lankan Tamil speaking children in the Trincomalee district	Dr. Shyamani Hettiarachchi
M.M.M K Bandara	Developing a word list to assess articulation skills in Sinhala speaking children with cleft lip and palate: age range between 3 years to 3 ½ years	Prof. Debbie Sell Ms. Saumya Rathnayake
T.K Bandaranayaka	Acquisition of expressive skills of colours and post-positional labels of Sinhala speaking children in the Galle district: age range 4 ½ - 5 ½ years	Prof. Manique Gunesekera Ms. Ianthe Perera
L.K Eranthi Chathurika	Performance scores of Sinhala speaking normative hearing children for translated Glendonald Auditory Screening Procedure (GASP)	Ms. Dinushee Atapattu
R.M.D.S.M Hamine	Acquisition of comprehension skills of Colours& Postpositional labels of Sinhala speaking children in the Galle district (first language acquisition study: Typical development 3 ½ - 4 ½ years)	Prof. Manique Gunesekera Ms. Ianthe Perera
Y.K.K Hettiarachchi	Narrative development in Sinhala children in Colombo (first language acquisition: Typical development 5 years and 6 months)	Prof. Barbara B. Shadden Ms. Ianthe Perera
R.S Lorensu Hewa	Identifying social and economical challenges faced by parents of children with Down Syndrome and coping strategies used to overcome these challenges in the age range between birth to ten years	Dr. Leenika Wijerathne
K.A.P Jayatissa	Is disability a challenge? The parents’ perspective…	Dr. Leenika Wijerathne
P.V.I.I Jayawardhana	The challenges faced by adolescents with Down Syndrome while accessing education and establishing social relationships and strategies used to overcome these challenges by parents (Western province)	Dr. Leenika Wijerathne
L.B.T.C Lokubalasuriya	Developing a word list to assess articulation skills in Sinhala speaking children with cleft lip and/or palate ( age range 2 ½ to 3 years)	Prof. Debbie Sell Ms. Saumya Rathnayake
M.M.N Nimeshika	Acquisition of expressive skills of colours and post-positional labels of Sinhala speaking children in the Galle district	Prof. Manique Gunesekera Ms. Ianthe Perera
P.D.M Nonis	A study of Phonetic and Phonological development of Sinhala speaking children in the Puttalam district aged 3 -4 years	Dr. Shyamani Hettiarachchi
K.M.N. Pathirana	A comparison of the phonetic and phonological development in typically developing Sinhala speaking monolingual and Sinhala and Sri Lankan English speaking bilingual children in the Kandy district	Dr. Shyamani Hettiarachchi
M.S.D Perera	Narrative development in Sinhala speaking children in Colombo (first language acquisition: Typical development 7 years and 6 months)	Prof. Barbara B. Shadden Ms. Ianthe Perera
P.A.J.S Perera	Groundwork for developing prospective Sinhala language assessment for identifying post-stroke aphasia: Project pre-aphasia Sri Lanka 2012	Prof. Barbara B. Shadden Ms. Saumya Rathnayake
M.S.S Premarathna	Psychosocial aspect of Puberphonia (based on Western Province)	Dr. Leenika Wijerathne
K.B G.S Ranasingha	A comparative analysis of phonemic and phonological acquisition in the speech of 3-4 year old Sinhala speaking first born and later born children in the Kalutara district	Dr. Shyamani Hettiarachchi
B.S.T Ranasinghe	A normative study of distortion product Otoacoustic Emissions (DPOAEs) in a Sri Lankan adult population	Ms Lakna Mendis
R.A.D.U Ranawake	A normative study of distortion product Otoacoustic Emissions in 3 -8 year old children in Sri Lankan context	Ms. Asela Udayangani
S.M.A.I Senanayaka	Development MPT ( Monosyllabic – Trochee – Polysyllabic words) test performance scores in Sinhala speaking children	Ms. Lakna Mendis
A.S.F Shakeela	Typical phonemic and phonological development of three year old Sri Lankan Tamil speaking children from the Colombo district	Dr. Shyamani Hettiarachchi
Y.P Sirisoma	Establishing a non-linguistic perception tool for children to be used in auditory training	Ms. Piumi Kosgallana
A.A.N Subajani	A study of identifying challenges faced by adolescents with hearing impairment and coping strategies used by the parents to overcome these challenges while accessing education and establishing social relationship	Dr. Leenika Wijerathne
S Udanganuwa	Developing a work list to assess articulation skills in Sinhala speaking children with cleft lip and palate: Age range 2 years to 2 ½ years	Prof. Debbie Sell
G.N Uthpala	Acquisition of receptive skills of colours& post positional labels of Sinhala speaking children in Galle district (first language acquisition study: Typical development 4 ½ - 5 ½ years)	Prof. Manique Gunesekera Ms. Ianthe Perera
W.A.G.M Wanniarachchi	Phonemic and phonological development in the speech of 3 to 4 year old Sinhala speaking children living in the Rathnapura district whose mothers are employed or not employed	Dr. Shyamani Hettiarachchi
U.P Wanniarachchi	Acquisition of receptive skills of colours & post – positional labels of Sinhala speaking children in the Galle district (first language acquisition study: Typical development 2 ½ - 3 ½ years)	Prof. Manique Gunesekera Ms. Ianthe Perera
R. Weerasekera	Groundwork for developing prospective Sinhala language assessments for identifying post – stroke aphasia: Project pre-aphasia Sri Lanka 2012	Prof. Barbara B. Shadden Ms. Saumya Rathnayake
B.G.S.D Wickramasooriya	Groundwork for developing prospective Sinhala language assessments for identifying post – stroke aphasia: Project pre-aphasia Sri Lanka 2012	Prof. Barbara B. Shadden Ms. Saumya Rathnayake
G.P.T Wijerathne	Groundwork for developing prospective Sinhala language assessments for identifying post – stroke aphasia: Project pre-aphasia Sri Lanka 2012	Prof. Barbara B. Shadden Ms. Saumya Rathnayake
M.G.A Jayarathna	Psychosocial aspect of dysfluency in young adults (Western province)	Dr. Leenika Wijerathne
F.S Hamza	A comparative study of phonetic and phonological development in monolingual Sinhala & bilingual Sri Lankan Tamil – Sinhala speaking children	Dr. Shyamani Hettiarachchi
S.P.B.N Silva	Narrative development in Sinhala speaking children (first language acquisition study: Typical development 6 years 6 months)	Prof. Barbara B. Shadden Ms. Ianthe Perera
W.A.K.H Wijesooriya	Groundwork for developing prospective Sinhala language assessments for identifying post – stroke aphasia: Project pre-aphasia Sri Lanka 2012	Prof. Barbara B. Shadden Ms. Saumya Rathnayake
A.K.S.T.H Silva	Acquisition of expressive skills for colours & postpositional labels of Sinhala speaking children in the Galle district(first language acquisition study: Typical development 3 ½ - 4 ½ years)	Prof. Manique Gunesekera Ms. Ianthe Perera

Research Projects - Batch 2

Name	Title	Name of supervisor/s
A.A.P. Wijerathne	The impact of dysphagia and its management strategies on Clients’ life style Clients’ perspective	Ms. Saumya Rathnayake
K.W.K.N. Priyadharshani	Assessments and referral procedures of dysphagic clients seen by speech and language therapist in three hospital settings	Ms. Saumya Rathnayake
W.A.M.A. Weerasinghe	Current Clinical Practice on Dysphagia Management Speech Therapists’ Perspective in Sri Lankan Context	Ms. Saumya Rathnayake
N.A. Panterlyon	Profile of the clients with dysphagia in three government hospital settings	Ms. Saumya Rathnayake
D.M.S.K. Disanayake	Managing and caring for clients with dysphagia- Caregivers ’ perspective	Ms. Saumya Rathnayake
K.D.R.D. Perera	Intervention procedures and outcome measures for Neurogenic dysphagic clients seen by speech therapists in three hospital settings	Ms. Saumya Rathnayake
K.P.S. Perera	An exploratory study on identification of children experiencing Speech, Fluency and Language Difficulties by mainstream school teachers of Kelaniya and Piliyandala Educational Zones”	Dr. Shyamani Hettiarachchi
K.L.L.G. Udugama	A normative study on phonological error patterns exhibited by 3 (3;0-3;11) year old Sri Lankan Sinhala speaking children in the Matale district	Dr. Shyamani Hettiarachchi
A.A.A. Wickramasinghe	Documenting phonological error patterns a normative study of Sinhala speaking 3;0-3;11 year old children in the Matara District	Dr. Shyamani Hettiarachchi
N. Nazla	A normative study on phonological error patterns exhibited by 3 (3; 0 -3; 11) year old Sri Lankan Tamil speaking children in the Kandy district tea estate population and in the Akurana area	Dr. Shyamani Hettiarachchi
N.M.F. Rushdha	A normative study on phonological error patterns exhibited by 3 (3; 0 -3; 11) year old Sri Lankan Tamil speaking children in the Kandy district tea estate population and in the Akurana area	Dr. Shyamani Hettiarachchi
K.S. Samadhi	Impact of self-reporting voice symptoms on occupational and social life among bus conductors and their knowledge on vocal hygiene techniques, habits and treatment options. (occupational voice disorders)	Prof. Mary Ann Toner Ms. Thilanka Wijesinghe
H.L.D. Madhushani	Impact of self-reporting voice symptoms on occupational and social life among lawyers and their knowledge on vocal hygiene techniques, habits and treatment options (occupational voice disorders)	Prof. Mary Ann Toner Ms. Thilanka Wijesinghe
N.N. Dhahanayake	Impact of self-reporting voice symptoms on occupational and social life among nurses and their knowledge on vocal hygiene techniques, habits and treatment options (occupational voice disorders)	Prof. Mary Ann Toner Ms. Thilanka Wijesinghe
P.O. de Saram	Impact of self-reporting voice symptoms on occupational and social life among stage drama actors and their knowledge on vocal hygiene techniques, habits and treatment options (occupational voice disorders)	Prof. Mary Ann Toner Ms. Thilanka Wijesinghe
H.M. L.L. Chularathne	Impact of self-reporting voice symptoms on occupational and social life among salesman and their knowledge on vocal hygiene techniques, habits and treatment options (occupational voice disorders)	Prof. Mary Ann Toner Ms. Thilanka Wijesinghe
P.G. Sellahewa	Impact of self-reporting voice symptoms on occupational and social life among primary school teachers and their knowledge on vocal hygiene techniques, habits and treatment options. (occupational voice disorders)	Prof. Mary Ann Toner Ms. Thilanka Wijesinghe
E.P.M.S. Ediriweera	Communication related quality of life of patients after total laryngectomy	Ms. Samanthi Kalupahana
K.S.D. Jayasinghe	Communication related quality of life in oral cancer patients after surgery	Ms. Samanthi Kalupahana
A.M.M.S. Adhikari	Communication related quality of life in oral cancer patients with after radio therapy	Ms. Samanthi Kalupahana
A.M.P. Nadeeshani	Swallowing related quality of life in oral cancer patients treated with radiotherapy	Ms. Samanthi Kalupahana
R.M.T.A.B. Rathnayake	Swallowing related quality of life of patients’ after laryngectomy; A study identifying the patients’ viewpoint	Ms. Samanthi Kalupahana
A.W.R. Sachinthani	Evaluation Of Dysphagia Related Quality Of Life In Oral Cancer Patients After Surgery	Ms. Samanthi Kalupahana
C.M. Waidyasekara	A Comparative study of receptive and expressive language development in children aged 2-5 years with profound hearing loss undergoing an intensive Auditory Oral education compared to their age matched typically developing peers	Dr. Shyamani Hettiarachchi
R.D.M.S. Rajapakshe	A Comparative study of receptive and expressive language development in children aged 2-5 years with profound hearing loss undergoing an intensive Auditory Oral education compared to their age matched typically developing peers	Dr. Shyamani Hettiarachchi
H.M.M.K.I.Herath	A Comparative study of receptive and expressive language development in children aged 2-5 years with profound hearing loss undergoing an intensive Auditory Oral education compared to their age matched typically developing peers	Dr. Shyamani Hettiarachchi
P.T. N. I. Dharmarathne	A comparison of errors in languages spoken by Sinhala-English bilingual patients with post- stroke aphasia	Ms. Dinushee Atapattu
W.M.C. Gimhani	Communicative effectiveness of the post stroke Aphasic and their care givers	Ms. Dinushee Atapattu
D.P. Thilakarathne	An analysis of errors and error patterns in monolingual Sinhala Patients with post stroke Aphasia	Ms. Dinushee Atapattu
A.G.S. Udayangani	Early Lexical development in typically developing Sri Lankan, Sinhala speaking children in the Ragama region (12 -18 months)	Ms. Ianthe Perera
H. M. W. C. Herath	Early Lexical development in typically developing Sri Lankan, Sinhala speaking children in the Ragama region (12 -18 months)	Ms. Ianthe Perera
H.M.C. Priyadharshani	Early Lexical development in typically developing Sri Lankan, Sinhala speaking children in the Ragama region (12 -18 months)	Ms. Ianthe Perera
K.L.R.N.de Alwis	Audiological services in the western province of Sri Lanka	Ms. Renuka Fonseka
H.M.U.M. Wijesinghe	Audiological services in the western province of Sri Lanka	Ms. Renuka Fonseka
M.S. Gimhani	Audiological services in the western province of Sri Lanka	Ms. Renuka Fonseka
I.S. Weerasooriya	Audiological services in the western province of Sri Lanka	Ms. Renuka Fonseka
K.Y. Arunashantha	Hearing impaired children's; caregivers’ knowledge of use and maintenance of hearing aids	Ms. Asela Udayangani
M.C.S. Perera	Prevalence of the external and middle ear pathologies among school going children with hearing impairment	Ms. Asela Udayangani
W.B.S.R. Rupasinghe	Subjective measures of hearing aid outcome in hearing impaired school children	Ms. Asela Udayangani
M.T. K. F. Nifras	Determining the most optimum age range for neonatal hearing screening using otoacoustic emissions	Ms. Piumi Kosgallana
W.A.K.S. Abeywicrema	Determining the most optimum age range for neonatal hearing screening using otoacoustic emissions	Ms. Piumi Kosgallana
R.P.N. Jeewanthi	Determining the most optimum age range for neonatal hearing screening using otoacoustic emissions	Ms. Piumi Kosgallana

Undergraduate Research Projects - SHS Programme

As part of the SHS degree programme-specializing in Audiology or Speech and Language Therapy, the final year students complete an individual research project. Students of Batch 1 worked under five broad themes in Speech and Language Therapy and two themes in Audiology with the support of their research supervisor/s. to complete 35 individual research projects. Similarly, the students of batch 2 completed 43 individual research projects on eight broad Speech and Language Therapy and three broad Audiology themes under the guidance of their research supervisor. The students undertook a group presentation, an individual poster presentation and handed-in an individual dissertation.