from Brain Impairment
This article reviews literature in aphasia rehabilitation in the English-speaking world. Although attempts have been made to incorporate literature from other continents, the major bias is toward North America. Four themes are emphasised. They are (1) advances in neuroscience that have already realised influences in language rehabilitation and some that have potential influence for the near future; (2) effects on language rehabilitation that have resulted from the worldwide acknowledgment and acceptance of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF); (3) the growing emergence of psychosocial concerns in the management of aphasia; and (4) present and future applications of technology to aphasia rehabilitation. For the sake of manageability, the review is largely limited to the rehabilitation literature of the decade from 1998, and to published or in-press work that is programmatic in the sense that it represents more than a single publication.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: aphasia, language, rehabilitation, stroke, therapy, treatment | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Callier Library on September 3, 2008
from Brain Impairment
With increasing life expectancy and the changing age structure of the population, the health sector is experiencing increased demands on services associated with age-related diseases including stroke and Alzheimer’s disease. The communication needs of older Australians in these disease groups need to be understood to enable adequate provision of speech pathology services. In this project we set out to make a preliminary investigation of 12-month communication outcome and discharge destination of aphasic stroke survivors over age 65 at onset of first ever in a lifetime stroke (FELS). The recruitment timeframe was a 6-month period of stroke admissions to a large metropolitan health network. Nearly 70% of stroke admissions were aged 65 years and over and 34% were ascertained retrospectively from medical records as having aphasia. Within this group, there was a 20% mortality rate. Sixteen left-hemisphere stroke survivors with aphasia were followed up at 12 months. More than half were living in residential care. Excluding the impact of recurrent stroke, 12-month reassessment of language demonstrated substantial improvement could occur in the old-very old stroke survivor. These findings highlight the need to develop systematic review and follow-up speech pathology services that operate effectively in residential care environments.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: aging, aphasia, outcome, stroke | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Callier Library on September 3, 2008
from the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
Purpose: The goal of this paper was to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of the AG500, an electromagnetic device developed recently to register articulatory movements in three dimensions (Carstens Medizinelectronik, Lenglern, Germany). This technology seems to have unprecedented capabilities to provide rich information about time-varying positions of articulators. However, strengths and weaknesses of the system need to be better understood before the device is used for speech research.
Method: Evaluations of the sensor positions over time were obtained during (1) movements of the calibration device, (2) manual movements of sensors in a cartridge within the recording field of the cube, and (3) various speech tasks.
Results: Results showed a median error to be under 0.5 mm across different types of recordings. The maximum error often ranged between 1 to 2 mm. The magnitude of error depended somewhat on the task but largely on the location of the sensors within the recording region of the cube.
Conclusions: The performance of the system was judged as adequate for speech movement acquisition provided that specific steps are taken to minimize error during recording and to validate the quality of recorded data.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: AG500, articulation, electromagnetic articulograph | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Callier Library on September 3, 2008
from the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
Purpose: This study examined whether late talkers identified at 24 to 31 months continued to have weaker language and reading skills at age 17 than typically developing peers.
Method: Language and reading outcomes at 17 years of age were examined in 26 children identified as late talkers with normal nonverbal ability and normal receptive language at intake and 23 typically developing children matched at intake on age, SES, and nonverbal ability.
Results: Although late talkers performed in the average range on all language and reading tasks at age 17, they obtained significantly lower Vocabulary/Grammar and Verbal Memory factor scores than SES-matched peers. The age 17 Vocabulary/Grammar factor had large correlations with the age 17 Verbal Memory and Reading/Writing factors. The age 17 Vocabulary/Grammar and Reading/Writing factors were strongly predicted by comparable factors at age 13. Age 2 Language Development Survey (LDS) vocabulary score explained 17% of the variance in the age 17 Vocabulary/Grammar and Verbal Memory factors.
Conclusions: Results suggested that slow language development at 24 to 31 months is associated with a weakness in language-related skills into adolescence relative to skills manifested by typically developing peers, findings consistent with a dimensional perspective on language delay.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: language delay, reading | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Callier Library on September 3, 2008
from the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
Purpose: This study investigated the association of two mechanisms of working memory (phonological short-term memory (PSTM), attentional resource capacity/allocation) with the sentence comprehension of school-age children with specific language impairment (SLI) and two groups of control children.
Method: Twenty-four children with SLI, 18 age-matched (CA), and 16 language- and memory-matched (LMM) children completed a nonword repetition task (PSTM), the Competing Language Processing Task (CLPT, resource capacity/allocation), and a sentence comprehension task comprising complex and simple sentences.
Results: (1) the SLI group performed worse than the CA group on each memory task; (2) all three groups showed comparable simple sentence comprehension but for complex sentences the SLI and LMM groups performed worse than the CA group; (3) for the SLI group, (a) CLPT correlated with complex sentence comprehension and (b) nonword repetition correlated with simple sentence comprehension; (4) for CA children, neither memory variable correlated with either sentence type; and (5) for LMM children, only CLPT correlated with complex sentences.
Conclusions: Comprehension of both complex and simple grammar by school-age children with SLI is a mentally demanding activity, requiring significant working memory resources.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: children, sentence comprehension, SLI, working memory | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Callier Library on September 3, 2008
from the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
Purpose: Two studies examined speech skill learning in persons with Apraxia of Speech (AOS). Motor-learning research shows that delaying or reducing the frequency of feedback promotes retention and transfer of skills. By contrast, immediate or frequent feedback promotes temporary performance enhancement, but interferes with retention and transfer. These principles were tested in the context of a common treatment for AOS.
Method: Two studies (N=4, N=2) employed single-subject treatment designs to examine acquisition and retention of speech skills in adults with AOS under different feedback conditions.
Results: Reduced-frequency or delayed feedback enhanced learning in three participants with AOS. Feedback manipulation was not an influential variable in three other cases in which stimulus-complexity effects may have masked treatment effects.
Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that individuals with AOS can benefit from structured intervention. They provide qualified support for reduction and delay of feedback, although interaction with other factors such as stimulus complexity or task difficulty needs further exploration. This study adds to the growing body of literature investigating the use of principles of motor learning in treating AOS, and provides impetus for consideration of pre-treatment variables that affect outcome in treatment studies.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: apraxia of speech, feedback, therapy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Callier Library on September 3, 2008
from the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
Purpose: This study used the cross-modal PWI task of Brooks & MacWhinney (2000) to compare effects of phonologically-related words on lexical access in children with SLI.
Method: Children (7;1-11;2) named pictures while ignoring auditory distractors. Three stimulus asynchronies conditions varied the timing of distractors relative to the pictures. Experiment 1 presented onset-related (bell-bed), unrelated (clown-bed), neutral (go-bed), and identical (bed-bed) distractors. Experiment 2 presented rhyme-related instead of onset-related distractors (clock-sock).
Results: Children with SLI produced longer RTs and more errors than their TLD peers. For children with SLI, onset-related distractors led to slower RTs than unrelated distractors (inhibition) when presented before the picture, and faster RTs (facilitation) when presented after the picture. Children with TLD showed facilitation from onset-related distractors when presented after the picture, but no inhibition when presented before the picture. Both groups failed to show facilitation from rhyme-related distractors.
Conclusions: The priming effects from onset-related distractors and lack of effects from rhyme-related distractors in SLI supports ‘just in time’ incremental processing, similar to children with TLD. However, children with SLI experience phonological interference from members of a lexical cohort while accessing words. Results are discussed with respect to observed word finding and word learning difficulties in SLI.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: language impairment, lexical access, lexical development, phonological priming, phonological processing | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Callier Library on September 3, 2008
from the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
Purpose: To assess the ability of an acoustic model composed of both time and spectral-based measures to track change following voice disorder treatment and serve as a possible treatment outcomes measure.
Method: A weighted, four-factor acoustic algorithm consisting of shimmer; pitch sigma; the ratio of low-to-high frequency spectral energy; and a measure of the cepstral peak was used to predict dysphonia severity in pre/post-treatment vowel samples from 88 females with primary muscle tension dysphonia treated using manual circumlaryngeal therapy. Predicted severity ratings were also compared to mean perceived severity ratings determined by a group of judges.
Results: Predicted severity scores were strongly associated with perceived dysphonia severity ratings for pre-treatment, post-treatment, and change in dysphonia severity. Analyses of the agreement between predicted vs. perceptual severity ratings indicated that the majority of differences were within +/– 1 standard deviation from the mean difference. Acoustic predictions of perceived severity were observed to be most accurate for the mid-portion of the 7-pt. EAI severity scale.
Conclusions: The acoustic model and predicted dysphonia severity scores show promise as a sensitive and objective outcomes measure, even with extremely perturbed pre-treatment voice samples that would be difficult to analyze using traditional time-based perturbation measures.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: auditory-perceptual ratings, cepstrum, dysphonia, muscle tension dysphonia, perturbation measures, spectral analysis | 2 Comments »
Posted by Callier Library on September 3, 2008
from the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
Purpose: This study examined the relationship between swallowing and lung volume initiation in healthy adults during single swallows of boluses differing in volume and consistency. Differences in lung volume according to respiratory phase surrounding the swallow were also assessed.
Method: Nine men and 11 women between the ages of 19 and 28 years served as study participants. Lung volume and respiratory phase data was recorded as each participant completed 5 trials each of 10mL and 20mL water boluses by cup, and thin and thick paste boluses by spoon, presented in randomized order.
Results: Significant differences in lung volume at swallow initiation were found based on bolus consistency, but not on bolus volume. No differences were found for lung volume initiation based on the respiratory phase surrounding the swallow, or for the respiratory pattern based on bolus volume or consistency.
Conclusion: Findings of this study extend the existing knowledge base regarding the interaction of the swallow and respiratory systems by identifying targeted lung volumes at swallow initiation. In addition to other swallow-related biomechanical events and respiratory phase relationships surrounding a swallow, the lung volume at swallow initiation may be an important consideration when investigating swallow physiology and physiopathy.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: respiration, swallow motor control, swallow-respiratory integration, swallowing | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Callier Library on September 3, 2008
from Dyslexia
Thirty dyslexic boys, aged between 9 and 15 years, and 30 age-matched controls were tested on a series of sums involving division, subtraction and addition. During the testing a record was kept of any bodily movements or verbal utterances (vocalizations) irrelevant to the task in hand. It was found that the dyslexics produced many more extraneous bodily movements and many more irrelevant vocalizations than did the controls. Possible reasons for these findings are tentatively suggested. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: chattering, dyslexia, fidgeting | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Callier Library on September 3, 2008
from Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology
This study assessed stability of measurement of quality of life (QOL) and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) over the course of 1 year among 185 adolescents (mean age 16y, SD 1y 9mo) with cerebral palsy (CP). Participants were classified on the Gross Motor Function Classification System as level I (n=55), II (n=30), III (n=27), IV (n=46), or V (n=27). QOL was assessed by self- (n=125) or proxy-report (n=60) with the Short Version of the Quality of Life Instrument for People with Developmental Disabilities (QOL Instrument), which describes domains of Being, Belonging, and Becoming. HRQOL was captured through parent proxy-reports with the Health Utilities Index Mark 3 (HUI3). Generalizability coefficients (G) for domain and Overall QOL scores on the QOL Instrument ranged from 0.50 to 0.73, indicating that between 50 and 73% of the variance was stable over 1 year. Stability on the HUI3 was excellent (G>0.90) for ambulation and overall utility scores; moderate (G=0.70–0.90) for speech, vision, dexterity, cognition, and hearing; and low for pain (G=0.48) and emotion (G=0.24). Correlations between scores on the two instruments were moderate even when adjustments were made for the lack of perfect stability over 1 year. This supports the notion that QOL and HRQOL are different aspects of life experience among adolescents with CP.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: adolescents, cerebral palsy, quality of life | 1 Comment »
Posted by Callier Library on September 3, 2008
from Dyslexia
At the end of first grade, TM did not know the alphabet and could read no words. He could not tap syllables in words, had difficulty producing rhyming words and retrieving the phonological representations of words, and he could not discriminate many phoneme contrasts. He learned letter-sound correspondences first for single-consonant onsets and then later for the final consonant in a word but had difficulty with letter-sound associations for vowels. TM’s ability to select a printed word to match a spoken word on the basis of the initial or final letter and sound was interpreted as evidence of Ehri’s phonetic-cue reading. Using the Glass Analysis method, the authors taught TM to read and he became an independent reader. We discuss how his phonological processing deficits contributed to his reading difficulties. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: dyslexia, phoneme discrimination, phonological deficits, phonological processing, reading acquisition, word-retrieval deficits | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Callier Library on September 3, 2008
from the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
PURPOSE: To examine the role of phonotactic probabilities at the onset of language development, in a new language (Dutch), while controlling for word position.
METHOD: Using a non-word imitation task, 64 Dutch-learning children (2;2-2;8) were tested on how they imitated segments in low and high phonotactic probability environments, in word- initial and word-final position. The relationship between phonological representations and vocabulary development was examined by comparing children’s performance to their receptive and expressive vocabularies.
RESULTS: Segments in high phonotactic probability environments were at an advantage in production, in both word-initial and word-final position. Significant correlations were found between vocabulary size and children’s mean segment repetition accuracy for word-initial position, but not in word-final position.
CONCLUSION: The results indicate that phonological representations are mediated not only by children’s developing vocabularies, but also by the structure of children’s emerging lexicons.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: language development, phonotactic probability, speech production | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Callier Library on September 3, 2008
from the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
Purpose: Many children with specific language impairment (SLI) demonstrate delays in print knowledge, yet the reasons for these delays are not well understood. The present study investigates the degree to which developmental risk factors and home literacy experiences predict the print knowledge of children with SLI.
Methods: Direct child measures, maternal reports, and observations from 41 mothers and their preschool-aged children with SLI assessed child language and attentional difficulties, family SES, the frequency and quality of home literacy, and children’s print knowledge.
Results: Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that individual differences in children’s oral language abilities did not explain individual variability in print knowledge. The quality of home literacy was the only significant predictor of print knowledge, but its influence was moderated by children’s attentional difficulties.
Conclusions: Findings reveal that language difficulty is not an adequate explanation for the print knowledge delays of children with SLI, and suggest that literacy experiences may play an important role in the print knowledge attainment of children with SLI. The quality of home literacy appears to foster print knowledge by compensating for attentional difficulties in children with SLI, but is not sufficient to promote print knowledge in children with SLI without attentional difficulties.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: literacy, SLI | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Callier Library on September 3, 2008
from the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
Purpose: This study investigated the concurrent biomechanical and electromyographic properties of two swallow-specific tasks (effortful swallow and Mendelsohn Maneuver) and one swallow-nonspecific (expiratory muscle strength training; EMST) swallow therapy task in order to examine the differential effects of each on hyoid motion and associated submental activation in healthy adults, with the overall goal of characterizing task-specific and overload properties of each task.
Method: Twenty-five healthy male and female adults (mean age, 25 years) participated in this prospective, experimental study with one participant group. Each participant completed all study tasks (including normal swallow, Mendelsohn maneuver swallow, effortful swallow, and EMST task) in random order during concurrent videofluoroscopy and surface EMG recording.
Results: Results revealed significant differences in the trajectory of hyoid motion as measured by overall displacement and angle of elevation of the hyoid bone. As well, timing of hyoid movement and amplitude differences existed between tasks with regard to the activation of the submental musculature.
Conclusions: Study results demonstrated differential effects of the three experimental tasks, on the principles of task specificity and overload. These principles are important in the development of effective rehabilitative programs. Subsequent direction for future research is suggested.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: hyoid bone, swallowing | Leave a Comment »
