Sebastian discuss et al discuss their study on semantic and syntactic deficits in Malayam-speaking children with learning disability. The prevalence of speech and language delay among children has ...been studied by researchers, with reported rates ranging from 2.3 to 19 percent depending on the definition and population studied. Long-term consequences of language impairment on school performance have also been investigated, with findings suggesting that language difficulties persist into adolescence and can lead to academic difficulties. Additionally, children with dyslexia may exhibit weaker language skills compared to their typically developing peers. The study aims to compare the language skills of school-going children with learning disabilities to those of their typically developing peers. The objective is to understand the different aspects of language in these two groups. The study will focus on children between the ages of 5 and 9 years.
Objective: The objective of the study is to establish normative values of cortical evoked response audiometry (CERA) in a heterogeneous Indian population and correlate CERA threshold with pure tone ...audiometric (PTA) threshold values. Materials and Methods: A prospective study was carried out on 31 volunteers (n = 62) who had no otological or neurological complaints. Two study groups were formed; Group 1 with individuals from 20 to 40 years (mean age of 29.1 years) and Group 2 with individuals from 41 to 60 years (mean age of 46.2 years). The latencies and amplitudes of the waves of P1, N1, and P2 at threshold and 70 dBnHL were measured. Results: Twenty-nine participants (94% of the ears) had CERA threshold within 20 dB of true behavioral threshold with only 6% having a difference of >20 dB with their PTA thresholds. There was a significant difference (P < 0.05) at 70 dB in amplitudes for waves P1, N1, and P2 at 2 kHz and additionally at 1 kHz for N1 between the two groups. Conclusion: Normative values for CERA in a heterogeneous Indian population at 70 dB nHL using tone burst stimulus was found to have an average latency of 46.5, 90.1, and 155.5 ms for P1, N1, and P2, respectively. The average amplitude of P1 at 70 dB nHL was 4.3 μV, N1, was 6.5 μV and P2 was 3.2 μV. Hearing threshold obtained with CERA gave a good indication of the actual behavioral hearing threshold of the normal controls, and the age of an individual had a significant effect on the values obtained during CERA testing with N1 being significantly larger at 1 kHz and 2 kHz in older adults when compared to young adults.
Assessment of communication skills in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is challenging in an unfamiliar clinical environment due to their limited verbal output and inadequate motivation to ...communicate. To analyze whether the communication sample recorded at clinic represents the child’s competence and performance, this study compared caregiver–child interaction in 24 to 48 months old children with ASD (n = 10, M = 38.2 months) at clinic and home. The 30-minute caregiver–child interaction at clinic and home was video recorded and analyzed for frequency of pragmatic acts (initiations and responses) and duration of joint engagement. Results indicated that children initiated and responded more at home than at clinic, whereas caregivers initiated and responded more at clinic. The study provides evidence that communication profile of children with ASD in multiple environments needs to be considered for obtaining representative and reliable communication sample for child-centered assessment and intervention.
Short-lasting unilateral neuralgiform headache with conjunctival injection and tearing (SUNCT) and short-lasting unilateral neuralgiform headache attacks with cranial autonomic symptoms (SUNA) are ...primary headache disorders. Evidence suggests that SUNCT/SUNA have similar pathophysiology to the trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias and involves the trigeminal autonomic reflex. This review provides an overview of microvascular decompression of the trigeminal nerve and other surgical therapeutic options for SUNCT/SUNA. We have undertaken a mini-meta-analysis of available case reports and case series with the aim of providing recommendations for the use of such therapies in SUNCT/SUNA. There is some evidence supporting microvascular decompression of the trigeminal nerve in selected patients who have medically refractory SUNCT/SUNA and a demonstrable ipsilateral aberrant vessel on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We also consider what further investigations could be undertaken to assess the role of surgical interventions in the treatment of these often debilitating conditions.
This study aimed to develop a speech intelligibility tool in Malayalam, an Indian language, based on the perceptual analysis. The tool had components of vowel, consonant, word, passage, and overall ...intelligibility. After face and content validation, a sample of 30 consecutive oral cancer patients underwent preliminary testing for internal consistency, inter- and intra-rater reliability, concurrent, and known-group validity. Subsequent validation was done in 80 T1–T4 patients from two centers. The scale had a high level of internal consistency; the Cronbach’s alpha was 0.847 and good intra-rater and inter-rater agreement amongst all raters. There was a strong correlation between the Malayalam and the English passage. Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.646 proved concurrent validity. On known-group and subsequent validation, the tool showed expected differences between the treatment groups. The speech tool proved to be reliable and valid for perceptual evaluation of speech intelligibility in oral cancer patients.
Aphasia is an acquired language disorder due to brain damage that affects the production and comprehension of spoken and written language in varying degrees and patterns depending on the size and ...site of the lesion. Errors in speech production have been reported among aphasics. Errors in production can be either phonemic, involving language-based deformations, or phonetic, involving a motor planning deficit. The deficits can be said to be at the phonological level when the incorrect phonological form of the word is selected but is implemented correctly, and at the phonetic level when the correct sound segments are selected but articulatory implementation is impaired. Phonetic deficits are not linguistic. Most aphasics produce phonological errors in their speech in the form of substitution, omission, addition, or distortion(neologism), which are called "phonemic" (or "literal") paraphasias. Aphasia research on the nature of phonological breakdown as to whether the deficit is phonetic or phonemic in the different aphasia syndromes reveals contradictory results.
Speech intelligibility is severely affected in children with congenital profound hearing loss. Hypernasality is a problem commonly encountered in their speech. Auditory information received from ...cochlear implants is expected to be far superior to that from hearing aids. Our study aimed at comparing the percentages of nasality in the speech of the cochlear implantees with hearing aid users and also with children with normal hearing.
Three groups of subjects took part in the study. Groups I and II comprised 12 children each, in the age range of 4-10 years, with prelingual bilateral profound hearing loss, using multichannel cochlear implants and digital hearing aids respectively. Both groups had received at least one year of speech therapy intervention since cochlear implant surgery and hearing aid fitting respectively. The third group consisted of age-matched and sex-matched children with normal hearing. The subjects were asked to say a sentence which consisted of only oral sounds and no nasal sounds ("Buy baby a bib"). The nasalance score as a percentage was calculated.
Statistical analysis revealed that the children using hearing aids showed a high percentage of nasalance in their speech. The cochlear implantees showed a lower percentage of nasalance compared to children using hearing aids, but did not match with their normal hearing peers.
The quality of speech of the cochlear implantees was superior to that of the hearing aid users, but did not match with the normal controls. The study suggests that acoustic variables still exist after cochlear implantation in children, with hearing impairments at deviant levels, which needs attention. Further research needs to be carried out to explore the effect of the age at implantation as a variable in reducing nasality in the speech and attaining normative values in cochlear implantees, and also between unilateral versus bilateral implantees.
PDF
