Permanent Bilateral Sensory and Neural Hearing Loss of Children After Neonatal Intensive Care Because of Extreme Prematurity: A Thirty-Year Study

CONCLUSIONS. Permanent hearing loss remains an adverse outcome of extreme prematurity, complicated by significant delayed-onset and progressive loss. Prolonged supplemental oxygen use is a marker for predicting permanent hearing loss; this requires detailed analysis of the pathophysiologic features, to reduce the prevalence of permanent hearing loss.

from Pediatrics

Psychiatric Characteristics in a Self-Selected Sample of Boys With Klinefelter Syndrome

CONCLUSIONS. Children with Klinefelter syndrome seem to be at risk for problems in social and language development, as well as for problems in regulation of emotion and behavior. This is reflected in the broad spectrum of psychiatric classifications applicable in the present selected sample. Health care professionals should be aware of an increased a priori possibility of psychiatric problems when confronted with a child with Klinefelter syndrome.

from Pediatrics

Strategies for the Prevention of MP3-Induced Hearing Loss Among Adolescents: Expert Opinions From a Delphi Study

CONCLUSIONS. Authorities, the music industry in general, and especially manufacturers of MP3 players and earphones should recognize their responsibility and create a safer MP3-listening environment by taking measures to protect today’s youth from the dangers of listening to high-volume music on MP3 players.

from Pediatrics

The Forgotten Learning Disability: Epidemiology of Written-Language Disorder in a Population-Based Birth Cohort (1976–1982), Rochester, Minnesota

CONCLUSIONS. In this population-based birth cohort of school-aged children, written-language disorder was at least as frequent as reading disabilities and significantly more frequent among boys than girls.

from Pediatrics

Early brain activity sheds new light on the neural basis of reading

Most people are expert readers, but it is something of an enigma that our brain can achieve expertise in such a recent cultural invention, which lies at the interface between vision and language. Given that the first alphabetic scripts are thought to have been invented only around four to five thousand years it is unlikely that enough time has elapsed to allow the evolution of specialized parts of the brain for reading. While neuroimaging techniques have made some progress in understanding the neural underpinning of this essentially cultural skill, the exact unfolding of brain activity has remained elusive.

from EurekAlert.org

Environmental Factors Are Biggest Risk Factor For Impaired Hearing

Many people may not be aware that they are battling a silent health crisis – one that affects over 30 million people. In fact, hearing loss, the third leading health condition among Americans, impacts one in 10 people, about 40 percent of whom are younger than 65 years old. Recognizing the severity of these statistics, Miracle-Ear is honoring Better Hearing Month this May by offering tips for members of the community to actively help prevent hearing loss.

from Medical News Today.com

Cognitive development in children with cochlear implants: Relations to reading and communication

The purpose of the present article is to present an overview of a set of studies conducted in our own laboratory on cognitive and communicative development in children with cochlear implants (CI). The results demonstrate that children with CIs perform at significantly lower levels on the majority of the cognitive tasks. The exceptions to this trend are tasks with relatively lower demands on phonological processing. A fairly high proportion of the children can reach a level of reading comprehension that matches hearing children, despite the fact that they have relatively poor phonological skills. General working memory capacity is further correlated with the type of questions asked in a referential communication task. The results are discussed with respect to issues related to education and rehabilitation.

from the International Journal of Audiology

SPEEDY Babies A New Behavioural Syndrome

Delayed motor development is widely known to coexist with speech and language disorders. However, hardly any attention has been paid to children in whom delayed speech development is associated with learning to walk unassisted at an early stage.

from Medical News Today.com

Effects of fluency, oral language, and executive function on reading comprehension performance

Abstract Reading disability (RD) typically consists of deficits in word reading accuracy and/or reading comprehension. While it is well known that word reading accuracy deficits lead to comprehension deficits (general reading disability, GRD), less is understood about neuropsychological profiles of children who exhibit adequate word reading accuracy but nevertheless develop specific reading comprehension deficits (S-RCD). Establishing the underlying neuropsychological processes associated with different RD types is essential for ultimately understanding core neurobiological bases of reading comprehension. To this end, the present study investigated isolated and contextual word fluency, oral language, and executive function on reading comprehension performance in 56 9- to 14-year-old children [21 typically developing (TD), 18 GRD, and 17 S-RCD]. Results indicated that TD and S-RCD participants read isolated words at a faster rate than participants with GRD; however, both RD groups had contextual word fluency and oral language weaknesses. Additionally, S-RCD participants showed prominent weaknesses in executive function. Implications for understanding the neuropsychological bases for reading comprehension are discussed.

from Annals of Dyslexia

Generativity Abilities Predict Communication Deficits but not Repetitive Behaviors in Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) often demonstrate impaired generativity that is thought to mediate repetitive behaviors in autism (Turner in J Child Psychol Psychiatry, 40(6):839–849, 1999a). The present study evaluated generativity in children with and without ASD via the use-of-objects task (Turner in J Child Psychol Psychiatry, 40(2):189–201, 1999b) and an Animals Fluency Task (Lezak in Neuropsychological assessment. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995). Groups differed significantly on two of four metrics from the Animals Fluency Task and two of seven metrics from the Use of Objects task. In the ASD sample, no significant relations were found between generativity and repetitive behaviors. Significant relations were found, however, between performance on the Animals Fluency Task and communication symptoms. Results replicate reports of generativity deficits in ASD and suggest that impaired generativity may reflect communication deficits that are characteristic of the disorder.

from the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

Therapy experience was very rewarding

Tommy and I would like to thank the physical, occupational and speech therapists at Rush Memorial Hospital.

from Topix.net

Assistive Technology for Infants and Toddlers With Disabilities: Who Will Pay?

Without abstract.

from Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication

Listener’s social perception of speakers after treatment for laryngeal cancer

Forty listeners were recruited to rate the voices of four groups of speakers: individuals treated with radiation therapy; individuals treated with total laryngectomy and rehabilitated with a tracheoesophageal voice prosthesis; individuals treated with supracricoid laryngectomy; and individuals with no history of vocal disorders. The listeners rated the speakers’ voices on rating scales with eight descriptors related to the social perception of speech. The ratings were made on 7-point Likert scales. Results indicated that listeners rated the non-surgical groups more positively than the surgical groups on traits such as attractive, clever, sophisticated, and trustworthy. The surgical groups were rated more negatively than non-surgical groups on traits such as scary, annoying, and intimidating. These findings provide insight into how patients undergoing these treatments may be perceived by society. Individuals with total laryngectomies may be at a higher risk of encountering negative social stigmatization in their daily life.

from the Canadian Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology

Roles of speech-languge pathologists and nurses in providing communication intervention for nonspeaking adults in acute care: A regional pilot study

Most nurses agreed that quality of care would be enhanced if S-LPs were more involved in facilitating communication for acute care patients. Forty-eight percent of S-LPs and 49% of nurses reported that at their facilities, less than half of nonspeaking patients are routinely referred to speech-language pathology (S-LP), whereas 94% of S-LPs and 66% of nurses felt that nonspeaking patients should be referred to S-LP most of the time. Results suggest that S-LPs are spending increasing amounts of time in the area of dysphagia management and relatively minimal amounts of time providing communication intervention.

from the Canadian Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology

Using culturally appropriate methodology to explore dene mother’s views on language facilitation

The study revealed subtle differences between the Dene and the non-Aboriginal mothers with regards to both their beliefs and practices. The Dene mothers valued spirituality and their child’s connection to traditional faith and beliefs more highly than the non-Aboriginal mothers. They also supported the use of child-directed speech to facilitate their children’s language development. They felt that Elders and grandparents had an important role to play in their children’s lives, and they favoured teaching by providing a combination of verbal and hands-on instruction. The Dene mothers reported frequent use of language facilitation strategies. By adjusting the survey in a culturally appropriate way, the participation in the research was facilitated for the Dene mothers.

from the Canadian Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology