Repetition priming in oral text reading: A therapeutic strategy for phonologic text alexia

from Aphasiology

Background: Phonologic text alexia (PhTA) is a reading disorder in which reading of pseudowords is impaired, but reading of real words is impaired only when reading text. Oral reading accuracy remains well preserved when words are presented individually, but when presented in text the part-of-speech effect that is often seen in phonologic alexia (PhA) emerges.

Aims: To determine whether repetition priming could strengthen and/or maintain the activation of words during text reading.

Methods & Procedures: We trained NYR, a patient with PhTA, to use a strategy, sentence building, designed to improve accuracy of reading words in text. The strategy required NYR to first read the initial word, and then build up the sentence by adding on sequential words, in a step-wise manner, utilising the benefits of repetition priming to enhance accuracy.

Outcomes & Results: When using the strategy, NYR displayed improved accuracy not only for sentences she practised using the strategy, but unpractised sentences as well. Additionally, NYR performed better on a test of comprehension when using the strategy, as compared to without the strategy.

Conclusions: In light of research linking repetition priming to increased neural processing efficiency, our results suggest that use of this compensatory strategy improves reading accuracy and comprehension by temporarily boosting phonologic activation levels.

Treating naming impairments in aphasia: Findings from a phonological components analysis treatment

from Aphasiology

Background: A new phonologically based treatment that we developed for addressing naming deficits in aphasia—the phonological components analysis (PCA) treatment—is presented. The PCA was modelled after the semantic feature analysis (SFA) approach (Boyle & Coelho, 1995). The SFA approach was chosen as a model for two reasons. First, results from the semantic therapies that have used SFA have been encouraging (e.g., Boyle, 2004; Boyle & Coelho, 1995; Coelho, McHugh, & Boyle, 2000; Conley & Coelho, 2003; Lowell, Beeson, & Holland, 1995). Second, SFA incorporates the principle of choice, a factor that has been identified by some as being important in producing longer-lasting effects of treatment (e.g., Hickin, Best, Herbert, Howard, & Osborne, 2002). The PCA was developed to serve as a comparable phonological comparison for the SFA approach with the future goal of comparing the relative effects of both types of therapies.

Aims: The primary aim of this investigation was to document the effectiveness of PCA treatment for the remediation of naming deficits in aphasia. In addition, we wished to examine potential maintenance and generalisation effects associated with this treatment.

Methods & Procedures: The PCA treatment followed the protocol of Coelho et al. (2000). The target picture was presented in the centre of a chart and the participant was asked to name it. Irrespective of his/her ability to name the picture, the participant was asked to identify five phonological components related to the target item (i.e., rhymes with, first sound, first sound associate, final sound, number of syllables). For each component targeted, if a participant could not spontaneously provide a response, he/she was asked to choose one from a list. A single-subject multiple-baseline across behaviours design was employed, with maintenance effects examined 4 weeks post-treatment. Generalisation effects were examined by comparing pre- and post-treatment scores on the Philadelphia Naming Test (Roach, Schwartz, Martin, Grewal, & Brecher, 1996). Ten individuals with aphasia participated.

Outcomes & Results: Of the 10 individuals, 7 demonstrated notable treatment effects. Follow-up testing indicated maintenance of treatment gains over a 4-week period, with some generalisation to untreated items.

Conclusions: This investigation was successful in demonstrating the effectiveness of a new phonological approach to the remediation of naming deficits in aphasia and in supporting the notion that a components analysis treatment protocol (similar to a semantic feature based treatment) is useful in strengthening activations within the lexical system with the potential result of longer-lasting effects.
* Portions of this work were presented at the Academy of Aphasia meetings in New York, October 2002 (Rochon, Leonard, & Laird, 2002) and Victoria, October 2006 (Rochon et al., 2006a), at the American Speech and Hearing Association meeting, Philadelphia, November 2004, and at the Rotman Research Conference, Toronto, March 2006 (Rochon et al., 2006b). This project was supported by grant number 44069 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and by grant number NA 5379 from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario. The authors are grateful to the North York Aphasia Institute, the York Durham Aphasia Centre, and the Aphasia Centre of Ottawa-Carleton for allowing us to recruit participants from their institutions, and to all the individuals who participated in this research. James Andrews, Eleanor Arabia, Jennifer Cupit, Kit Flynn, Heather McCallum, Lauren Reznick, and Patty Vlachos, provided valuable assistance on this project. Thank you also to two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

Automatic semantic feedback during visual word recognition

from Aphasiology

Four experiments were conducted to determine whether semantic feedback spreads to orthographic and/or phonological representations during visual word recognition and whether such feedback occurs automatically. Three types of prime-target word pairs were used within the mediated-priming paradigm: (1) homophonically mediated (e.g.,frog-[toad]-towed), (2) orthographically mediated (e.g.,frog-[toad]-told), and (3) associatively related (e.g.,frog-toad). Using both brief (53 msec; Experiment 1) and long (413 msec; Experiment 3) prime exposure durations, significant facilitatory-priming effects were found in the response time data with orthographically, but not homophonically, mediated prime-target word pairs. When the prime exposure duration was shortened to 33 msec in Experiment 4, however, facilitatory priming was absent with both orthographically and homophonically mediated word pairs. In addition, with a brief (53-msec) prime exposure duration, direct-priming effects were found with associatively (e.g.,frog-toad), orthographically (e.g., toad-told), and homophonically (e.g., toad-towed) related word pairs in Experiment 2. Taken together, these results indicate that following the initial activation of semantic representations, activation automatically feeds back to orthographic, but not phonological, representations during the early stages of word processing. These findings were discussed in the context of current accounts of visual word recognition.

Eye movements during the reading of compound words and the influence of lexeme meaning

from Memory and Cognition

We examined the use of lexeme meaning during the processing of spatially unified bilexemic compound words by manipulating both the location and the word frequency of the lexeme that primarily defined the meaning of a compound (i.e., the dominant lexeme). The semantically dominant and nondominant lexemes occupied either the beginning or the ending compound word location, and the beginning and ending lexemes could be either high- or low-frequency words. Three tasks were used–lexical decision, naming, and sentence reading–all of which focused on the effects of lexeme frequency as a function of lexeme dominance. The results revealed a larger word frequency effect for the dominant lexeme in all three tasks. Eye movements during sentence reading further revealed larger word frequency effects for the dominant lexeme via several oculomotor motor measures, including the duration of the first fixation on a compound word. These findings favor theoretical conceptions in which the use of lexeme meaning is an integral part of the compound recognition process.

How do readers handle incorrect information during reading?

from Memory and Cognition

How do readers deal with information that is inconsistent with what they know? This question has typically been addressed by examining whether carefully designed texts can help readers revise inaccurate beliefs. However, texts sometimes present incorrect information that runs counter to readers’ accurate knowledge. Three experiments were performed to examine how individuals process incorrect information during reading. Participants read stories describing familiar historical scenarios. These scenarios included historically accurate or inaccurate outcomes. The scenarios also included contexts that either supported accurate outcomes or utilized suspense to call into question the likelihood of those events. Overall, participants took longer to read inaccurate outcomes than to read accurate outcomes, but suspenseful contexts attenuated this difference. This pattern held even with a task that encouraged readers to consider their prior knowledge. Story contexts were particularly influential when modified to present novel scenarios. These results provide insight into the role of prior knowledge when readers encounter incorrect information, and into the consequences of such experiences.

Poor readers’ use of orthographic information in learning to read new words: a visual bias or a phonological deficit?

from Memory and Cognition

In this study, we examined the ability of 11-year-old poor readers and reading age controls to learn new print vocabulary. It was found that the poor readers were slower than the controls to learn to read a set of nonwords accurately but that, when asked to pick out the nonwords in a visual recognition memory task, they reached criterion much more quickly than did the controls. However, when the groups were compared on auditory recall of the items being learned, the poor readers were at a disadvantage. Thus, the poor readers developed a visual store for the nonwords more quickly than did the controls but were slower to establish phonological representations for the nonwords. It was concluded that the poor readers were slower to establish a form of sight word reading that was well underpinned in memory by connections between the letters in the spelling and the phonemes in the pronunciation, suggesting that they had a greater reliance on an orthographic-semantic pathway in word recognition than did the controls.

When semantics means less than morphology: The processing of German prefixed verbs

from Memory and Cognition

This study investigated whether form and meaning relatedness modulate the processing of morphologically related German verbs. In two overt visual priming experiments, we compared responses for verb targets (kommen, come) that were preceded by a purely semantically related verb (nahen, approach), by a morphologically and semantically related verb (mitkommen, come along), by a purely morphologically related verb (umkommen, perish), or by an unrelated verb (schaden, harm). In Experiment 1, morphological relatedness produced robust facilitation, which was not influenced by semantic relatedness. Moreover, this morphological facilitation was far stronger than the priming by purely semantically related verbs. In Experiment 2, orthographically similar primes (kmmen, comb) produced interference effects and thus indicated that the morphological facilitation effects were not the result of sheer form overlap between primes and targets. These findings argue for a single system that processes morphological relations independently of form and meaning relatedness.

Auditory Perception and Speech Production Skills of Children with Cochlear Implant Assessed by Means of Questionnaire Batteries

from Dangerous Decibels.org

Objective: The aims of this study were to evaluate early auditory perception and speech production skills, and to compare the outcomes between two groups of children wearing the Nucleus cochlear implant (CI) and Clarion CI. Methods: A total number of subjects were 68 prelingually deaf children who were implanted with a CI at our center, 31 subjects with the Nucleus CI (N-group), and 37 with the Clarion CI (C-group). The early time course of auditory perception and speech production skills were assessed by means of parental interviews using three kinds of questionnaires, the Listening in Progress (LIP) score, the Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (IT-MAIS) and the Meaningful Use of Speech Scale (MUSS). Results: The basement scores for all three test batteries before the use of CI were poorer for the C-group than the N-group. The scores improved rapidly over the initial 6 months and gradually reached a plateauover a 6- to 12-month period. The speech production skills evaluated by MUSS developed much more slowly and took over 3 years to reach a given level. Conclusions: Our pediatric CI users showed steady development of auditory perception and speech production skills after CI without any significant difference between the two groups. Copyright © 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Brainstem Timing Deficits in Children with Learning Impairment May Result from Corticofugal Origins

from Audiology & Neuro-Otology

A substantial proportion of children with language-based learning problems [learning disabilities (LD)] display abnormal encoding of speech at rostral levels of the auditory brainstem (i.e. midbrain) as measured by the auditory brainstem response (ABR). Of interest here is whether these timing deficits originate at the rostral brainstem or whether they reflect deficient sensory encoding at lower levels of the auditory pathway. We describe the early brainstem response to speech (waves I and III) in typically developing 8- to 12-year-old children and children with LD. We then focus on the early brainstem responses in children with LD found to show abnormal components of the rostral speech-evoked ABR (waves V and A). We found that wave I was not reliably evoked using our speech stimulus and recording parameters in either typically developing children or those with LD. Wave III was reliably evoked in the large majority of subjects in both groups and its timing did not differ between them. These data are consistent with the view that the auditory deficits in the majority of LD children with abnormal speech-evoked ABR originate from corticofugal modulation of subcortical activity.

Vocal aging and adductor spasmodic dysphonia: Response to botulinum toxin injection

from Clinical Interventions in Aging

Abstract: Aging of the larynx is characterized by involutional changes which alter its biomechanical and neural properties and create a biological environment that is different from younger counterparts. Illustrative anatomical examples are presented. This natural, non-disease process appears to set conditions which may influence the effectiveness of botulinum toxin injection and our expectations for its success. Adductor spasmodic dysphonia, a type of laryngeal dystonia, is typically treated using botulinum toxin injections of the vocal folds in order to suppress adductory muscle spasms which are disruptive to production of speech and voice. A few studies have suggested diminished response to treatment in older patients with adductor spasmodic dysphonia. This retrospective study provides a reanalysis of existing pre-to-post treatment data as function of age. Perceptual judgments of speech produced by 42 patients with ADSD were made by two panels of professional listeners with expertise in voice or fluency of speech. Results demonstrate a markedly reduced positive response to botulinum toxin treatment in the older patients. Perceptual findings are further elucidated by means of acoustic spectrography. Literature on vocal aging is reviewed to provide a specific set of biological mechanisms that best account for the observed interaction of botulinum toxin treatment with advancing age.

The processing of novel and lexicalised prefixed words in reading

from Language and Cognitive Processes

Two experiments compared how relatively long novel prefixed words (e.g., overfarm) and existing prefixed words were processed in reading. The use of novel prefixed words allows one to examine the roles of whole-word access and decompositional processing in the processing of non-novel prefixed words. The two experiments found that, although there was a large cost to novelty (e.g., gaze durations were about 100 ms longer for novel prefixed words), the effect of the frequency of the root morpheme on fixation measures was about the same for novel and non-novel prefixed words for most measures. This finding rules out a (“horse-race”) dual-route model of processing for existing prefixed words in which the whole-word and decompositional route are parallel and independent, as such a model would predict a substantially larger root frequency effect for novel words (where whole-word processes do not exist). The most likely model to explain the processing of prefixed words is a parallel interactive one.

Reading First Impact Study — Interim Report

from Docuticker

The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences has released the interim report from the Reading First Impact Study, a Congressionally-mandated evaluation of the federal government’s $1.0-billion-per-year initiative to help all children read at or above grade level by the end of third grade. The evaluation is being conducted by Abt Associates and MDRC with Westat, Rosenblum-Brigham Associates, RMC Research, Computer Technology Services, DataStar, Field Marketing Incorporated, and Westover Consulting.

Reading First is a curricular and instructional cornerstone of The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (PL 107-110, Title I, Part B, Subpart 1). It builds directly on recommendations from the National Reading Panel’s (NRP’s) review of scientifically-based reading research. The NRP identified five areas of instructional practice that were found to be essential to teaching children to read: phonemic awareness (manipulation of individual speech sounds), phonics (mappings between sounds and print), fluency (improved speed and accuracy in oral reading), vocabulary, and text comprehension. Reading First is the largest federal funding initiative ever undertaken with the explicit goal of increasing classroom teachers’ use of research-based reading instructional practices. It does so through support for teacher professional development, curricula, materials, coaching, assessments, and supplemental interventions.

Rather than an evaluation of the NRP’s conclusions, the Reading First Impact Study is an assessment of the extent to which this federal funding stream increases teachers’ use of the essential elements of reading instruction and improves students’ reading comprehension skills. The present report — the first of two from the study — examines the impact of Reading First funding in 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 in 17 school districts across 12 states and in one statewide program (for a total of 18 sites).

Obstructive sleep apnea, seizures, and childhood apraxia of speech

from Pediatric Neurology

Associations between obstructive sleep apnea and motor speech disorders in adults have been suggested, though little has been written about possible effects of sleep apnea on speech acquisition in children with motor speech disorders. This report details the medical and speech history of a nonverbal child with seizures and severe apraxia of speech. For 6 years, he made no functional gains in speech production, despite intensive speech therapy. After tonsillectomy for obstructive sleep apnea at age 6 years, he experienced a reduction in seizures and rapid growth in speech production. The findings support a relationship between obstructive sleep apnea and childhood apraxia of speech. The rather late diagnosis and treatment of obstructive sleep apnea, especially in light of what was such a life-altering outcome (gaining functional speech), has significant implications. Most speech sounds develop during ages 2-5 years, which is also the peak time of occurrence of adenotonsillar hypertrophy and childhood obstructive sleep apnea. Hence it is important to establish definitive diagnoses, and to consider early and more aggressive treatments for obstructive sleep apnea, in children with motor speech disorders.

Phonological and orthographic spelling in high-functioning adult dyslexics

from Dyslexia

Abstract
Despite a history of reading or spelling difficulties, some adults attain age-appropriate spelling skills and succeed at university. We compared the spelling of 29 such high-functioning dyslexics with that of 28 typical students, matched on general spelling ability, and controlling for vocabulary and non-verbal intelligence. Participants wrote derived real and pseudo words, whose spelling relationship to their base forms was categorized as phonologically simple (apt-aptly), orthographically simple (deceit-deceitful), phonologically complex (ash-ashen), or orthographically complex (plenty-plentiful). Dyslexic participants spelled all word and pseudoword categories more poorly than controls. Both groups spelled simple phonological words best. Dyslexics were particularly poor at spelling simple orthographic words, whose letter patterns and rules must likely be memorized. In contrast, dyslexics wrote more plausible spellings of orthographic than phonological pseudowords, but this might be an artefact of their more variable spelling attempts. These results suggest that high-functioning dyslexics make some use of phonological skills to spell familiar words, but they have difficulty in memorizing orthographic patterns, which makes it difficult to spell unfamiliar words consistently in the absence of sufficient phonological cues or orthographic rules. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

When gesture-speech combinations do and do not index linguistic change

from Language and Cognitive Processes

At the one-word stage children use gesture to supplement their speech (‘eat’+point at cookie), and the onset of such supplementary gesture-speech combinations predicts the onset of two-word speech (‘eat cookie’). Gesture thus signals a child’s readiness to produce two-word constructions. The question we ask here is what happens when the child begins to flesh out these early skeletal two-word constructions with additional arguments. One possibility is that gesture continues to be a forerunner of linguistic change as children flesh out their skeletal constructions by adding arguments. Alternatively, after serving as an opening wedge into language, gesture could cease its role as a forerunner of linguistic change. Our analysis of 40 children – from 14 to 34 months – showed that children relied on gesture to produce the first instance of a variety of constructions. However, once each construction was established in their repertoire, the children did not use gesture to flesh out the construction. Gesture thus acts as a harbinger of linguistic steps only when those steps involve new constructions, not when the steps merely flesh out existing constructions.