Backward recall of automatic word sequences involves declarative and working memory abilities known to be impaired in the early stages of cognitive decline. Yet its utility in the diagnosis of mild ...cognitive impairment and mild dementia has not been studied in detail. We analysed word sequence production in 234 participants drawn from three categories: subjective cognitive impairment, mild cognitive impairment, and mild dementia in Alzheimer's disease. The names of the months were used as a diagnostic target for investigating forward versus backward sequence production. Forward production remained normal across categories. In contrast, backward speed was significantly decreased in mild cognitive impairment. In dementia both speed and accuracy were impaired. Backward production had significant diagnostic classificatory power. We conclude that word sequence production yields data relevant to the diagnosis of dementia with a minimum of time and expense.
It was hypothesized that stuttering may be related to impaired sensory gating, leading to overflow of superfluous disturbing auditory feedback and breakdown of the speech sequence. This hypothesis ...was tested using the
acoustic startle prepulse inhibition (PPI) paradigm. A group of 22 adults with developmental stuttering were compared with controls regarding the degree of PPI. No significant differences were found between the stuttering adults and the control group; the groups showed similar means and distribution. Likewise, no relation between the degree of PPI and the effect of altered auditory feedback on stuttering was found. In summary, the results of the study indicate that there is no relation between stuttering and PPI.
Background: Symptoms of prosodic problems have been found in Swedish children with language impairment at word and phrase level and possibly also at discourse level.
Aims: The aim was twofold. First, ...to characterize a group of children with prosodic problems compared with children with normal language development. Second, to investigate the possibilities to classify subgroups of prosodic problems.
Methods & Procedures: A new Swedish assessment procedure for prosody that captures prosodic features at word, phrase and discourse level was used. Twenty-five children with prosodic problems and 25 children with typically developing language matched by age, gender and regional dialect participated in the study. Pretesting included tests of language comprehension, grammatical skills and oral motor skills.
Outcomes & Results: The difference between the experimental and control groups was highly significant in all parts of the procedure. The total score of the procedure significantly correlated with grammatical abilities measured in the pretesting procedure, but there was no correlation with the other linguistic abilities measured in the pretesting procedure.
Conclusions: The results indicate a possible differentiation into two different subgroups, one with primarily phonetic and or linguistic problems, the other with prosodic problems at discourse level possibly related to pragmatic problems.
Twenty-seven children, with typical language development (TLD), 8-10 years old and 10-12 years old, were assessed with keystroke-logging in order to investigate their narrative writing. Measures of ...the writing process and the written product were used. One purpose was to explore how children produce written narratives in on-line production, and to relate the writing process to the written product. The results showed that those children who produced the final text faster, also wrote stories that comprised of more words. In the group of older children, children with better narrative ability used less pause time than those with worse ability, and the girls were faster writers than the boys. We believe that keystroke-logging gives valuable information for the assessment of young children's writing and that it is a potentially valid assessment tool for children from about 10 years of age.
The present study was designed to examine the production of the Swedish tonal accents in children with language impairment and normal controls in order to verify previous findings. The productions of ...25 children with linguistic impairment and their matched controls, aged 4;4-10;0 (mean age 5;11) were evaluated by ratings of fundamental frequency patterns, and by perceptual analysis by ten linguistically naive listeners to assess the distinctiveness of the accents. These methods give a more detailed description of the children's productions of tonal word accents. The results show that 60.8% of the children with language impairment have difficulties to produce the contrast of tonal word accents according to the F0 patterns. The difference in the rating of the F0 curves between the children with LI and their matched controls was significant. There is a significant positive correlation between the perceptual results and the F0-rating, indicating that the better a child was perceived, the better his her F0 production was rated. We conclude that the distinction between the tonal word accents is a difficult feature to acquire for Swedish children, which is shown both by acoustic and perceptual evaluations.
Introduction to Vol. 1 (2016) Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska. Sectio N, Educatio Nova, p. 9-14
Wprowadzenie do Vol. 1 (2016) Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska. Sectio N, ...Educatio Nova, s. 9-14
Wprowadzenie do Vol. 1 (2016) Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska. Sectio N, Educatio Nova, s. 9-14
Swedish children with language impairment (LI) have prosodic problems at word and phrase level, possibly also at discourse level. The aim of this study was to investigate the reliability and validity ...of a newly developed comprehensive procedure to capture prosody at word level (e.g., tonal word accent), phrase level (e.g., copula) and discourse level (e.g., conversation) in Swedish children with LI. Twenty-nine children with LI participated in the study. The reliability of the total score of the procedure was found to be sufficiently high, as was inter-examiner agreement. The total score significantly correlated with language comprehension and grammatical abilities. Prosodic problems were found by perceptual assessment in one third of the children. t test for equality of variances for presence versus absence of prosodic problems showed that these two groups significantly differed in total score of the procedure. This indicates that the procedure is a valid measure of prosodic problems.
The term cluttering designates a conglomerate of symptoms and characteristics displayed in varying degrees by affected individuals. No single aspect is sufficient to determine the diagnosis; it is ...the clustering of certain traits that constitute this syndrome
1
(see St. Louis & Schulte, chapter 14 this volume). Cluttering is a speech-language disorder, but many authors, such as Weiss (1964), have argued that the symptoms also may include non-verbal motor behaviour, temperament, and attention deficits.
2
Prosody Intervention for Children Samuelsson, Christina
Embedding Evidence practice in Speech and Language Therapy,
03/2010
Book Chapter
This chapter contains sections titled:
The clinical problem
Implementing the evidence for management of prosodic problems
Reflections
Acknowledgements
References
INTRODUZIONE Questo lavoro di ricerca prende in esame pazienti affetti da Sclerosi Laterale Amiotrofica (SLA), con l’obiettivo di verificare come l’utilizzo di ausili di comunicazione aumentativa ...alternativa (CAA) consentono alla persona di interagire con l’ambiente e con i vari partner comunicativi, migliorando la loro qualità di vita. MATERIALI E METODI Sono stati presi in esame n.11 pazienti con diagnosi di SLA, ai quali è stato somministrato il test AAC Device Trial Checklist & Rubric, ripetuto a distanza di sei mesi. Il test consente di valutare la capacità da parte del paziente di utilizzare il sistema di comunicazione aumentativa alternativa di cui dispone, in uno o più ambienti comunicativi e con uno o più partner comunicativi. RISULTATI I risultati della ricerca, in linea con le evidenze scientifiche di settore, hanno rivelato che i pazienti presi in esame hanno tratto beneficio dall’utilizzo di ausili di comunicazione aumentativa alternativa. Dalle valutazioni effettuate si riscontrano risultati migliori (100% dei casi) nell’utilizzo del sistema di CAA in due ambienti e con almeno 2 partner comunicativi. L’82% dei casi mostra dei miglioramenti nell’utilizzo della CAA per la richiesta di oggetti e azioni. Il 72,7% dei casi mostra miglioramenti nell’utilizzo della CAA per gli scopi comunicativi legati all’espressione di emozioni e/o per richiamare l’attenzione del partner comunicativo. DISCUSSIONE La ricerca sottolinea attraverso i risultati quanto sia importante l’utilizzo dei sistemi di CAA in persone con disabilità del linguaggio espressivo e di quanto risulti fondamentale il ruolo del logopedista nel progetto di CAA. Il logopedista, infatti, estende la propria azione professionale alla valutazione delle funzioni neurolinguistiche potendo così contribuire grandemente alla conoscenza delle caratteristiche individuali della disabilità della persona. CONCLUSIONI Una corretta presa in carico multidisciplinare, che includa una valutazione delle competenze comunicative del soggetto e la scelta dell’ausilio di CAA più adeguato, nelle condizioni in cui l’eloquio della persona risulti essere intellegibile, migliora l’interazione e il coinvolgimento della persona con i diversi partner comunicativi e l’ambiente esterno, migliorando di conseguenza la qualità di vita della persona
