Autobiographical narratives of deaf and hearing adults: An examination of narrative coherence and the use of internal states

from Memory

Abstract
To examine the impact of early linguistic experiences on later verbal report of autobiographical memory, 13 hearing adults and 13 deaf adults born to hearing parents described events that occurred before and after the age of 10 years. The contextual, temporal, and thematic coherence of the narratives was rated. The use of emotional, perceptual, mental, and physiological states was also recorded. There were differences in the coherence of the narratives and use of internal states according to the age at which the events occurred. There were no group differences in coherence, but hearing adults provided longer narratives than deaf adults. When narrative length was controlled, deaf adults included more emotional states than hearing adults. Results suggest that early unavailability of language does not impact the coherence of adults’ narratives, although certain features of linguistic expression specific to ASL may result in greater saturation of emotional states references in autobiographical narratives of deaf adults.

Meaning making in mothers’ and children’s narratives of emotional events

from Memory

Abstract
Narrative coherence and the inclusion of mental state language are critical aspects of meaning making, especially about stressful events. Mothers and their 8- to 12-year-old children with asthma independently narrated a time they were scared, frustrated, and happy. Although mothers’ narratives were generally more coherent and more saturated with mental state language than children’s narratives, for both mothers and children narratives of negative events were more coherent and contained more mental state language than narratives of positive events overall, and narratives of scary events contained more mental state language than narratives of frustrating events. Coherence appears to be multifaceted, in that the three dimensions of coherence coded, context, chronology, and theme were not strongly interrelated within narratives of the same event, but use of mental state language, including cognitive-processing and emotion words, appears to be more integrated. Moreover, while thematic coherence seems to be a consistent individual narrative style across valence of event being narrated, mental state language appears to be a consistent style only across the two stressful event narratives. Finally, and quite surprisingly, there were virtually no relations between mothers’ and children’s narrative meaning making.

Phonological sensitivity and memory in children with a foreign language learning difficulty

from Memory

Abstract
The phonological processing and memory skills of 12- and 13-year-old Italian children with difficulty in learning English as a foreign language (foreign language learning difficulty, FLLD) were examined and compared with those of a control group matched for age and nonverbal intelligence. Three experiments were conducted. A dissociation between verbal and visuo-spatial working memory was observed when compared to the control group; children with FLLD showed a poorer performance in a phonological working memory task but performed to a comparable level in a visuo-spatial working memory task (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2 the word length and the response modality of an auditory word span task were manipulated in order to examine the efficiency of the phonological loop and the relevance of the spoken output. The FLLD group did not show sensitivity to the word length effect and showed no advantage in the picture pointing recall condition. In Experiment 3 children with FLLD were shown to be sensitive to phonological similarity but again they showed neither a word length effect nor a slower articulation speed. Furthermore, in all three experiments children with FLLD were shown to be less efficient in phonological sensitivity tasks and this deficit appeared to be independent of the phonological memory problem. All three experiments consistently showed that children with FLLD have an impairment in phonological memory and phonological processing, which appear to be independent from one other but both contribute to the children’s difficulty in learning a second language.

Basic Principles of Language Intervention for Children Who Use AAC

from Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication

No abstract available.

Chomsky’s Minimalist Program: A Brief Linguistic Primer

from Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication

Children around the world, no matter what their native language, follow a similar course in language acquisition from the emergence of first words to the mastery of syntax. The uniformity and rapidity of first language acquisition is possible because human infants are born with a biologically endowed innate language faculty within the brain that drives the course of language development. Although this premise was doubted 50 years ago, today biologists and linguists alike accept it. Our human language faculty orchestrates and shapes the acquisition of language. Neurotypically developing children need only the surrounding language input to acquire language. In contrast, children with receptive language delays, including many of those who are or will become augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) users, need more than exposure to language if they are to develop adult competence in their native language.

Grammatical Morpheme Intervention Issues for Students Who Use AAC

from Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication

Many children who use AAC experience difficulties with acquiring grammar. At the 9th Annual Conference of ASHA’s Special Interest Division 12, Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Binger presented recent research results from an intervention program designed to facilitate the bound morpheme acquisition of three school-aged children who used augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Results indicated that the children quickly began to use the bound morphemes that were taught; however, the morphemes were not maintained until a contrastive approach to intervention was introduced. After the research results were presented, the conference participants discussed a wide variety of issues relating to grammar acquisition for children who use AAC. Some of the main topics of discussion included the following: provision of supports for grammar comprehension and expression, intervention techniques to support grammatical morpheme acquisition, and issues relating to AAC device use when teaching grammatical morpheme use.

Language Acquisition Theory and AAC

from Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication

This article presents a reflection on the relationship between language acquisition theories and augmentative and alternative (AAC) intervention, particularly related to grammar. Aspects of the language-learning situation for children needing AAC and of production of language using an AAC system that may pose challenges for acquisition of grammar are discussed. The implications for AAC intervention that can be drawn from several language acquisition theories are explored. It is suggested that establishing clearer or more overt links between theories and intervention is important in order to make underlying assumptions more explicit and to be aware of the theoretical underpinnings of AAC intervention.

Setting the Stage: AAC and Linguistic Competence

from Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication

No abstract available.

Thoughts on Grammar Intervention in AAC

from Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication

In this article, I propose that, for several reasons, grammar should be an early focus of communication interventions for young children using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems. The basic goals for such programs should be to facilitate the child’s comprehension of the language of the community, or the target language, thus leading the way to literacy, and to foster the child’s use of symbol combinations that mirror the grammatical patterns of speaking children acquiring the target language, even if they cannot be fully grammatically complete. I introduce five principles that underlie most successful approaches to grammar interventions with children with specific language impairment. My initial attempts to apply these principles to interventions with children with complex communication needs indicate that they may be of considerable value to clinicians planning intervention programs. On the other hand, the challenges posed by the intellectual and physical limitations of many AAC users and their communication systems make it necessary to modify at least Principle 5 if the basic goals of intervention are to be met.

Tips for Developing Literacy for Users of AAC

from Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication

No abstract available.

Developmental Links of Very Early Phonological and Language Skills to Second Grade Reading Outcomes

from the Journal of Learning Disabilities

The authors examined second grade reading accuracy and fluency and their associations via letter knowledge to phonological and language predictors assessed at 3.5, 4.5, and 5.5 years in children in the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia. Structural equation modeling showed that a developmentally highly stable factor (early phonological and language processing [EPLP]) behind key dyslexia predictors (i.e., phonological awareness, short-term memory, rapid naming, vocabulary, and pseudoword repetition) could already be identified at 3.5 years. EPLP was significantly associated with reading and spelling accuracy and by age with letter knowledge. However, EPLP had only a minor link with reading fluency, which was additionally explained by early letter knowledge. The results show that reading accuracy is well predicted by early phonological and language skills. Variation in fluent reading skills is not well explained by early skills, suggesting factors other than phonological core skills. Future research is suggested to explore the factors behind the development of fast and accurate decoding skills.

Selectivity of lexical-semantic disorders in Polish-speaking patients with aphasia: Evidence from single-word comprehension

from the Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology

Several neuropsychological studies have shown that patients with brain damage may demonstrate selective category-specific deficits of auditory comprehension. The present paper reports on an investigation of aphasic patients’ preserved ability to perform a semantic task on spoken words despite severe impairment in auditory comprehension, as shown by failure in matching spoken words to pictured objects. Twenty-six aphasic patients (11 women and 15 men) with impaired speech comprehension due to a left-hemisphere ischaemic stroke were examined; all were right-handed and native speakers of Polish. Six narrowly defined semantic categories for which dissociations have been reported are colors, body parts, animals, food, objects (mostly tools), and means of transportation. An analysis using one-way ANOVA with repeated measures in conjunction with the Lambda-Wilks Test revealed significant discrepancies among these categories in aphasic patients, who had much more difficulty comprehending names of colors than they did comprehending names of other objects (F(5,21) = 13.15; p < .001). Animals were most often the easiest category to understand. The possibility of a simple explanation in terms of word frequency and/or visual complexity was ruled out. Evidence from the present study support the position that so called “global” aphasia is an imprecise term and should be redefined. These results are discussed within the connectionist and modular perspectives on category-specific deficits in aphasia.

Selectivity of lexical-semantic disorders in Polish-speaking patients with aphasia: Evidence from single-word comprehension

from the Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology

Several neuropsychological studies have shown that patients with brain damage may demonstrate selective category-specific deficits of auditory comprehension. The present paper reports on an investigation of aphasic patients’ preserved ability to perform a semantic task on spoken words despite severe impairment in auditory comprehension, as shown by failure in matching spoken words to pictured objects. Twenty-six aphasic patients (11 women and 15 men) with impaired speech comprehension due to a left-hemisphere ischaemic stroke were examined; all were right-handed and native speakers of Polish. Six narrowly defined semantic categories for which dissociations have been reported are colors, body parts, animals, food, objects (mostly tools), and means of transportation. An analysis using one-way ANOVA with repeated measures in conjunction with the Lambda-Wilks Test revealed significant discrepancies among these categories in aphasic patients, who had much more difficulty comprehending names of colors than they did comprehending names of other objects (F(5,21) = 13.15; p < .001). Animals were most often the easiest category to understand. The possibility of a simple explanation in terms of word frequency and/or visual complexity was ruled out. Evidence from the present study support the position that so called “global” aphasia is an imprecise term and should be redefined. These results are discussed within the connectionist and modular perspectives on category-specific deficits in aphasia.

Object file continuity and the auditory attentional blink

from Perception and Psychophysics

Three experiments were designed to investigate the causes of the auditory attentional blink (AB). Experiments 1A and 1B revealed that there was a larger auditory AB when the target and the distractors were different in two attributes than when they were different in only one attribute. Experiments 2A and 2B showed that for pure-tone distractor sequences, there were small auditory AB deficits when both the target and the probe were different from the distractors in two attributes or in one attribute; however, for pulse distractor sequences, there was a large auditory AB when both the target and the probe were different from the distractors in one attribute, but not when they were different in two attributes. Experiments 3A and 3B revealed that regardless of the relationship of the target to the subsequent distractors, a large AB was generated if it was the first sound in a sequence. Moreover, only a very small AB was apparent when the distractors following the probe were replaced by silence. These results indicated that the auditory AB is affected by both the requirement of creating and consolidating a new object file for the target and the overwriting of the probe by the distractors following it.

Change in hearing during ‘wait and scan’ management of patients with vestibular schwannoma

from the Journal of Laryngology and Otology

Aim: To evaluate hearing changes during ‘wait and scan’ management of patients with vestibular schwannoma.

Subjects: Over a 10-year period, 636 patients have prospectively been allocated to ‘wait and scan’ management, with annual magnetic resonance scanning and audiological examination.

Results: At the time of diagnosis, 334 patients (53 per cent) had good hearing and speech discrimination of better than 70 per cent; at the end of the 10-year observation period, this latter percentage was 31 per cent. In 17 per cent of the patients, speech discrimination at diagnosis was 100 per cent; of these, 88 per cent still had good hearing at the end of the observation period. However, in patients with even a small initial speech discrimination loss, only 55 per cent maintained good hearing at the end of the observation period.

Conclusion: After comparing the hearing results of hearing preservation surgery and of radiation therapy with those of ‘wait and scan’ management, it appears that, in vestibular schwannoma patients with a small tumour and normal speech discrimination, the main indication for active treatment should be established tumour growth.

New Reading First Data From States Shows Impressive Gains in Reading Proficiency

from Docuticker

“U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced new data from the states showing impressive gains for Reading First students. . . .”

Aphasia and AAC: Enhancing Communication Across Health Care Settings

from the ASHA Leader

. . .”Throughout the health care continuum, a variety of AAC-oriented treatment strategies can enhance communication and participation for people living with severe aphasia, provided SLPs have matched the skills and capabilities of the users carefully with appropriate strategies. . . .”

Aphasia: The Great Leveler

from the ASHA Leader

“Although research indicates that people who survive strokes can continue to improve with rehabilitation, traditional speech and language services usually are reimbursed by insurance only for a few months. Across the country, new alternatives focus on group treatment for stroke survivors who are no longer considered ‘acute’. . . .”

Audiology Telepractice Overcomes Inaccessibility

from the ASHA Leader

“When distance and inaccessibility pose barriers to health care, the answer for some providers is telepractice—and audiologists are no exception. . . .”

Progressive Audiologic Tinnitus Management

from the ASHA Leader

“Audiologists are arguably the most qualified of all health care professionals to offer clinical services for tinnitus. Yet many audiologists lack a high level of training in appropriate interventions, leaving them wondering how to most effectively treat ‘tinnitus patients’.”

Comparison of the recovery patterns of language and cognitive functions in patients with post-traumatic language processing deficits and in patients with aphasia following a stroke

from the Journal of Communication Disorders

In this study we investigated the recovery patterns of language and cognitive functions in patients with post-traumatic language processing deficits and in patients with aphasia following a stroke. The correlation of specific language functions and cognitive functions was analyzed in the acute phase and 6 months later.

Significant recovery of the tested functions was observed in both groups. However, in patients with post-traumatic language processing deficits the degree of recovery of most language functions and some cognitive functions was higher. A significantly greater correlation was revealed within language and cognitive functions, as well as between language functions and other aspects of cognition in patients with post-traumatic language processing deficits than in patients with aphasia following a stroke.

Our results show that patients with post-traumatic language processing deficits have a different recovery pattern and a different pattern of correlation between language and cognitive functions compared to patients with aphasia following a stroke.

Mothers’ Causal Attributions Concerning the Reading Achievement of Their Children With and Without Familial Risk for Dyslexia

from the Journal of Learning Disabilities

The present study analyzed data from the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia to investigate the factors to which mothers of children with and without familial risk for dyslexia attribute the causes of their first-grade children’s reading achievement. Mothers’ causal attributions were assessed three times during their children’s first school year. Children’s verbal intelligence was assessed at 5 years and their word and nonword reading skills at 6.5 years. The results showed that the higher the word reading skills the children had, the more their mothers attributed their success to ability than to effort. However, if children had familial risk for dyslexia, their mothers’ attribution of success to ability decreased during the first grade as compared with the ability attributions of mothers whose children were in the control group.

Learning Strategies and Study Approaches of Postsecondary Students With Dyslexia

from the Journal of Learning Disabilities

The present study describes the self-reported learning strategies and study approaches of college and university students with and without dyslexia and examines the relationship of those characteristics with reading ability. Students with (n = 36) and without (n = 66) dyslexia completed tests measuring reading rate, reading comprehension, reading history, learning strategies, and learning approaches. The results indicated that students without dyslexia obtained significantly higher scores than students with dyslexia in their reported use of selecting main ideas and test taking strategies. Students with dyslexia reported significantly greater use of study aids and time management strategies in comparison to students without dyslexia. Moreover, university students with dyslexia were significantly more likely to report a deep approach to learning in comparison to university students without dyslexia. Reading ability correlated positively with selecting main ideas and test taking strategies and negatively with use of study aids. The authors interpret the learning strategy results as consequences of and compensations for the difficulties that students with dyslexia have in word reading.

Speed-curvature relations in speech production challenge the one-third power law

from the Journal of Neurosphysiology

Relations between tangential velocity and trajectory curvature are analyzed for tongue movements during speech production in the framework of the 1/3 power law, discovered by Viviani and colleagues for arm movements. In 2004, Tasko and Westbury found for American English that the power function provides a good account of speech kinematics, but with an exponent that varies across articulators. The present work aims at broadening Tasko and Westbury’s study (1) by analyzing speed-curvature relations for various languages (French, German, Mandarin) and for a biomechanical tongue model simulating speech gestures at various speaking rates, and (2) by providing for each speaker or each simulated speaking rate a comparison of results found for the complete set of movements with those found for each movement separately. It is found that the 1/3 power law offers a fair description of the global speed-curvature relations for all speakers and all languages, when articulatory speech data are considered in their whole. This is observed also in the simulations, while the motor control model does not specify any kinematic property of the articulatory paths. However, the refined analysis for individual movements reveals numerous exceptions to this law: the velocity always decreases when curvature increases, but the variation of the slope in the log-log representation is variable. It is concluded that the speed-curvature relation is not controlled in speech movements, and that it only accounts for general properties of the articulatory movements, which could arise from vocal tract dynamics or/and from stochastic characteristics of the measured signals.

Congenital cytomegalovirus: association between dried blood spot viral load and hearing loss

from the Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition

Aim: To investigate the relation between cytomegalovirus (CMV) viral load on dried blood spots (DBS) from newborn biochemical screening (”Guthrie”) cards, and sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) in congenital CMV.

Design: Cross-sectional study with retrospective case-note review.

Setting: Seven paediatric audiology departments in the United Kingdom.

Patients: 84 children, median age 7 years: 43 with known congenital CMV, 41 with unexplained SNHL.

Interventions: Half a DBS was tested for CMV DNA viral load by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Main outcome measures: Pure tone average hearing thresholds (0.5–4 kHz).

Results: DBS CMV DNA viral load significantly correlated with hearing thresholds for the worse and better hearing ears (Spearman’s rank correlations: r = 0.445, p = 0.008 and r = 0.481, p = 0.004 respectively). Multivariable logistic regression showed that the effect of DBS viral load on the risk of SNHL remained important, when age and central nervous system involvement had been taken into account (odds ratio (OR) 2.76, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.14 to 6.63, p = 0.024). The mean log DBS viral load was significantly higher in children with SNHL than in those with normal hearing (2.69 versus 1.64, 95% CI –1.84 to –0.27, p = 0.01). 8/35 (23%) children with unexplained SNHL tested positive for CMV DNA on DBS. One false positive result was obtained.

Conclusion: The risk of SNHL increased with DBS viral load. Further studies should investigate whether DBS CMV testing has a role in identifying asymptomatic congenitally infected neonates at risk of SNHL, and whether antiviral treatment can reduce this risk.

The Effectiveness of Direct Instruction for Teaching Language to Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Identifying Materials

from the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

Abstract Students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) frequently demonstrate language delays (American Psychiatric Association 2000). This study investigated the effects of a Direct Instruction (DI) language program implemented with elementary students with ASD. There is little research in the area of DI as a language intervention for students with ASD. This study examined the effectiveness of DI with regard to students’ oral language skills, specifically the identification of materials of which objects were made. A single-subject changing criterion design was employed. A functional relation between DI and oral language skills was demonstrated through replication of skill increase over three criterion changes and across three students. The results and their implications are discussed further.

The `Multiplex Model’ of Somatic Symptoms: Application to Tinnitus among Traumatized Cambodian Refugees

from Transcultural Psychology

Somatic symptoms are a common clinical presentation of distress among ethnic populations in the USA, particularly traumatized refugees. In this article, we apply a `multiplex model’ of bodily experience to explain how a somatic symptom is evoked, amplified, and generates distress, particularly distress related to post-traumatic stress disorder. We illustrate the multiplex model’s applicability to acute episodes of tinnitus (i.e., a buzzing-like sound in the ear) among Cambodian refugees, a common symptom in that group. The article demonstrates the importance of carefully examining somatic symptoms and associated meanings in distressed ethnic populations, especially traumatized refugees, and aims to contribute to a medical anthropology of somatic symptoms.

Treatment of tinnitus with a customized acoustic neural stimulus: a controlled clinical study

from Ear, Nose & Throat Journal

In patients with tinnitus, achieving consistently positive treatment results is a challenge. We conducted a controlled clinical study of a new treatment approach (Neuromonics Tinnitus Treatment) that involves the use of a customized neural stimulus. This stimulus is delivered to the patient in the form of a pleasant acoustic sensation that is spectrally modified according to each patient’s individual audiometric profile. This treatment approach is provided as part of a structured rehabilitation program. In our study, patients who received the customized stimulus (Neuromonics group) reported significantly greater and more consistent alleviation of tinnitus symptoms than did patients who participated in a counseling and support program with and without delivery of a broadband noise stimulus (Noise+Counseling group and Counseling-Only group, respectively). After 6 months of treatment, 86% of the Neuromonics patients met the minimum criterion for clinical success, defined as an alleviation of tinnitus disturbance of at least 40% (as determined by the Tinnitus Reaction Questionnaire score). By contrast, only 47 and 23% of the Noise+Counseling and Counseling-Only groups, respectively, reported a successful result according to this criterion. Mean improvements in tinnitus disturbance scores in the Neuromonics, Noise+Counseling, and Counseling-Only groups were 66, 22, and 15%, respectively. The differences between the Neuromonics group and the control groups were statistically significant. Significant differences were observed in other clinical outcomes. Patient reports of user acceptability were more consistently positive in the Neuromonics group.

Tuberculosis induced changes to the osseous cranial base and its potential effect on hearing

from the Anatomical Record

Our prior work suggested that petro-occipital fissure (POF) ossification may be altered in clinicopathologies of the cranial base such as hearing loss (Balboni et al., 2005). Here we demonstrate an accelerated and statistically significant ossification of the POF and cochlear aqueduct (CA) in a historical population of patients diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB). While a number of studies have sought to reduce the importance of the POF/CA to hearing, given its anatomical location, evolutionary conservation across mammals and the mounting data linking morphological changes of the POF/CA to the temporal onset of hearing loss and tinnitus, it is becoming difficult to maintain that its function is not related to inner ear homeostasis.