Background
Previous research, although scarce, has indicated that the general public is still relatively unaware of developmental language disorder (DLD), one of the most common (neuro)developmental ...disorders. Raising awareness would increase timely involvement in intervention procedures.
Aims
To examine public awareness of DLD in the neighbouring countries of Croatia, Italy and Slovenia, as well as to assess the influence of age, gender and education level on that awareness. Also, to investigate public knowledge about the professionals who recognize DLD and to compare the awareness of DLD with that of other (neuro)developmental disorders in childhood.
Methods & Procedures
A convenience sample of adults living in the countries of the Adriatic region—Croatia (N = 92), Italy (N = 105) and Slovenia (N = 90)—were asked to fill out a paper‐and‐pencil questionnaire (public survey) developed within the Working Group 3 of the COST Action IS1406. Responses were analysed quantitatively as a function of age, gender, education level and country using the t‐test and analysis of variance (ANOVA).
Outcomes & Results
Public awareness of DLD is still unsatisfactory in all three countries. Around 70% of respondents reported having heard of DLD; however, only around 20% of Croatian, 40% of Italian and 5% of Slovenian respondents provided an adequate definition of DLD. Differences in research and clinical traditions may explain the observed variations amongst the three countries. Education level was the only variable that was significantly associated with an awareness of DLD in Croatia and Italy: there, more educated people showed a higher awareness and more correct knowledge, which was not found in the Slovenian sample. Respondents generally perceived speech and language pathologists (SLPs) as the professionals responsible for recognizing DLD. Finally, people possess the highest awareness of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), while the awareness of DLD and other (neuro)developmental disorders is equally low.
Conclusions & Implications
Public awareness of DLD varies substantially among the three countries, but there is space for improvement in each of them. The findings of this study build on the existing data from the international group of collaborators, and argue for well‐planned, systematic awareness‐raising activities in the region.
WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS
What is already known on the subject
DLD is one of the most common (neuro)developmental disorders, yet it is not well known to the general public. This low awareness hinders timely recognition and adequate intervention, which can have negative psychosocial and emotional consequences for affected individuals. It is known that the awareness of any disorder can depend on one's demographic characteristics, but levels of awareness of DLD are still not examined in detail.
What this study adds to existing knowledge
Public awareness of DLD is moderate in Croatia, Italy and Slovenia, but many individuals who report having heard of it appear to misunderstand what it actually is. Of various demographic factors tested, only education significantly influenced public awareness in Croatia and Italy, where more educated people possess greater knowledge. Moreover, respondents generally perceived SLPs as professionals responsible for recognizing DLD.
What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?
Professionals and researchers should focus on raising DLD awareness in the general public of these three countries, and may need to target different demographic groups accordingly.
The aim of this study was to explore spoken and sign language comprehension among Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) adults in Slovenia. A sample of 116 DHH participants from eleven Slovenian DHH ...associations completed a series of tasks that were used to measure their comprehension abilities related to spoken and sign language. The instructions were stratified into three groups according to the complexity of the language. Positive correlations were established between the comprehension ability of spoken and sign language. Slovenian DDH participants differed significantly with respect to the following predictors of spoken and sign language comprehension: age at onset of hearing loss, degree of hearing loss, and age of sign language exposure. The findings of this study provide a starting point for further research on the comprehension of spoken and sign language.
This paper describes word-initial (WI) rhotic cluster development in Slovenian 4-year-olds. Data for /l/ and WI singleton /r/ serve as comparisons. Participants were 19 children with typical ...development (TD) and 13 with more protracted phonological development (PPD). A single-word list included 15 WI /r/-clusters, 9 /l/-clusters and 3 singleton /r/s and /l/s each. Results showed significantly higher match (accuracy) levels for rhotics in the TD group. Among rhotic clusters, TD children showed highest match levels for labial clusters, and the PPD group, for /dr/. Match levels did not differ significantly between singletons and clusters or targets in stressed versus unstressed syllables. Substitutions were more frequent than deletions, and children with PPD had more frequent and varied mismatch patterns; for the PPD group, l was the most frequent substitution for /r/ and for the TD group, other rhotics. The study provides additional criterion reference data on Slovenian phonological development.
Although developmental language disorder (DLD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders, it is often burdened by misconceptions since the general public are unaware of the features of ...this disorder. Insufficient levels of public awareness and knowledge about DLD highlight the need to adopt appropriate public awareness activities. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential misconceptions associated with the aetiology and recovery of people with DLD in three neighbouring countries - Croatia, Italy, and Slovenia. Additionally, we explored effective ways to promote the spread of accurate information among the public in order to minimise or eliminate false ideas about DLD. To address these specific aims, a public survey was conducted. It was completed by 287 respondents (ages 18 to 60+) with different educational backgrounds (primary and secondary or higher). The results show that the general public in all three countries are misinformed about DLD and hold strong opinions that it is a temporary condition that occurs in childhood, probably as a result of other developmental conditions, and that it will pass either spontaneously or with hard work and proper education. Moreover, the optimal way to increase awareness about DLD was dependent on the age and level of education of the person. Therefore, promoters (ideally researchers and clinicians) must apply specific activities when they target specific groups of people, or use different forms of dissemination activities to reach the broader public, regardless of age and education. The findings reveal a significant lack of knowledge about DLD among the general public and highlight the need for continued awareness campaigns that can target specific groups of people.
Hearing-impaired speakers show changes in vowel production and formant pitch and variability, as well as more cases of overlapping between vowels and more restricted formant space, than hearing ...speakers; consequently their speech is less intelligible. The purposes of this paper were to determine the differences in vowel formant values between 32 hearing speakers, 14 severely hearing-impaired speakers, and 25 profoundly hearing-impaired speakers, and to investigate the influence of perceptual constraints on the contrastiveness of spoken vowels in speakers with hearing loss, as these underline the importance of good phonation, articulation, and resonance in speech production. Several differences in formant values were confirmed with Anova-Welch tests, except for the F1 of open /e/ and /a/, the most open and loud vowels in Slovene. In addition, discriminant analysis showed real differences in vowel production (97.1% classification success), thus making it possible to differentiate between groups of hearing and hearing-impaired speakers based on this one function of vowel production. The hypothesis was confirmed that vowel production in hearing-impaired individuals is different from that in hearing individuals.
The results suggest that speech rehabilitation should consider specific tasks and training for vowel production, including neuromuscular oral control and self-monitoring, to improve speech intelligibility. The results are also useful for those who are in contact with people with hearing impairment, such as teachers, audiologists, speech and language pathologists, nurses, and researchers in speech and hearing sciences.
In early infancy, hearing loss significantly affects the development and intelligibility of speech in children with hearing impairment. Assuming that both speech and voice disorders occur in the ...speech of hearing-impaired speakers, the present study will 1) analyse the speech and overall intelligibility of 91 hearing-impaired speakers (from ages 5 to 23, M = 13 years, 56% males, 44% female) who exhibit an average hearing loss of air conductivity of99 dB (SD = 19.48); 2) compare latent space in the hearing impaired (HI) subjects ’speech and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (known as ICF) speech and voice functions to determine whether they overlap partially or totally; 3) investigate the presence of an autonomous factor of nasality and determine through analysis of the latent structure of speech whether nasality is a matter of articulation or phonation; and 4) investigate the correlations between derivedfactors and speech intelligibility of HI subjects from a closed list of words.
Using principal component analysis, four relevantfactors were determined that explained 65.650% of the total variance. The first prosodic factor, the fluency and rhythm of speech, explained 40.036% of the total variance, the second factor of quality of speech production (voice, articulation and resonance) explained 11.430%, the third factor of micro-chaining explained 7.970% and the fourth factor, nasality, explained 6.214%.
The ICF and speech factor distributions were similar but not identical. In this study, speech can be seen in terms of four dimension factors on the micro- and macro-segmental levels: prosodic factors, voice, resonance and articulation quality and nasality. The four factors, especially the second factor of voice, resonance and articulation quality, show statistically significant correlations with the intelligibility of speech in HI subjects (p < 0.01).
Different authors agree that stuttering is a multifactorial disorder that manifests itself in verbal, psychological, physiological, physical and social fields and requires corresponding evaluation, ...diagnosis and treatment (Conture 2001; Logan, Yaruss, 1999; Vanryckeghem, Brutten, 1997; Zebrowski, Kelly, 2002). Contemporary research links the development of stuttering with certain temperamental characteristics, among which extraversion plays an important role. The aim of this study was to investigate one such temperamental characteristic – extraversion – in Slovenian preschool children who stutter and to compare these children with their fluently-speaking peers. Using a parent administered questionnaire (Inventory of Children’s Individual Differences, Zupančič, Kavčič, 2009), extraversion as a temperamental characteristic was assessed in 49 children who stutter and in 75 children who do not stutter. All children were aged between 3 and 6 years.
The results demonstrated that preschool children who stutter achieved, on average, a statistically significantly lower score on the dimension of extraversion than preschool children who do not stutter. Accordingly, children who stutter are not as extraverted, active, sociable and open to experience as children who speak fluently.
In early infancy, hearing loss significantly affects the development and intelligibility of speech in children with hearing impairment. Assuming that both speech and voice disorders occur in the ...speech of hearing-impaired speakers, the present study will 1) analyse the speech and overall intelligibility of 91 hearing-impaired speakers (from ages 5 to 23, M = 13 years, 56% males, 44% female) who exhibit an average hearing loss of air conductivity of 99 dB (SD = 19.48); 2) compare latent space in the hearing impaired (HI) subjects’ speech and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (known as ICF) speech and voice functions to determine whether they overlap partially or totally; 3) investigate the presence of an autonomous factor of nasality and determine through analysis of the latent structure of speech whether nasality is a matter of articulation or phonation; and 4) investigate the correlations between derived factors and speech intelligibility of HI subjects from a closed list of words.
Using principal component analysis, four relevant factors were determined that explained 65.650% of the total variance. The first prosodic factor, the fluency and rhythm of speech, explained 40.036% of the total variance, the second factor of quality of speech production (voice, articulation and resonance) explained 11.430%, the third factor of micro-chaining explained 7.970% and the fourth factor, nasality, explained 6.214%.
The ICF and speech factor distributions were similar but not identical. In this study, speech can be seen in terms of four dimension factors on the micro- and macro-segmental levels: prosodic factors, voice, resonance and articulation quality and nasality. The four factors, especially the second factor of voice, resonance and articulation quality, show statistically significant correlations with the intelligibility of speech in HI subjects (p < 0.01).
Reka Reka, s prispevno površino 422 km2 , ponika v Škocjanskih jamah, ki jih je UNESCO leta 1986 proglasil za svetovno dediščino. V sedemdesetih letih je bila Reka ena od najbolj onesnaženih rek v ...Sloveniji. V času visokih vod leta 1999 in 2000 smo izvedli meritve hitrosti, kalnosti, vrste fizikalnih in kemičnih parametrov ter teste strupenosti. Glavni cilji teh pionirskih meritev so bili preveriti mersko opremo v terenskih pogojih visokih voda, zbrati čimveč podatkov ter primerjati uporabnost opreme. The river Reka, with 422 square kilometres of drainage area sinks into the Škocijan Cave system, which was proclaimed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1986. In the seventies, the Reka river was one of most polluted rivers in Slovenia. During floods in 1999 and 2000, experimental measurements of velocity, water level, suspended sediment transport, chemical parameters and toxicity tests were conducted. The main tasks in the first stage of the investigation: check the equipment in field conditions and test the toxicity of water in particular cross sections. In the paper, the measurements and some discussion of the results and applicability of equipment are presented.
PDF
