Monthly Archives: June 2010
Assessing audiological, pathophysiological and psychological variables in tinnitus patients with or without hearing loss
The aim of this work is to study the characteristics of tinnitus both in normal hearing subjects and in patients with hearing loss. The study considered tinnitus sufferers, ranging from 21 to 83 years of age, who were referred to the Audiology Section of Palermo University in the years 2006–2008. The following parameters were considered: age, sex, hearing threshold, tinnitus laterality, tinnitus duration, tinnitus measurements and subjective disturbance caused by tinnitus. The sample was divided into Group1 (G1), 115 subjects with normal hearing, and Group2 (G2), 197 subjects with hearing loss. Especially for G2, there was a predominance of males compared to females (P = 0.011); the highest percentage of tinnitus resulted in the decades 61–70 and >70 with a significant difference for G2 demonstrating that the hearing status and the elderly represent the principal tinnitus-related factors (P < 0.0001). The hearing impairment resulted in most cases of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) type and was limited to the high frequencies; the 72.1% of the patients with SNHL had a high-pitched tinnitus, while the 88.4% of the patients with a high-frequency SNHL had a high-pitched tinnitus (P < 0.0001). As to the subjective discomfort, the catastrophic category was the most representative among G1 with a significant difference between the two groups; no correlation was found between the level of tinnitus intensity and the tinnitus annoyance confirming the possibility that tinnitus discomfort is elicited by a certain degree of psychological distress as anxiety, depression, irritability and phobias.
SKD Wins Two Silver IDEA Awards for 2010
SKD’s hearing aids for Starkey honored by the IDSA for design that eliminates a social stigma and improves ease of use.
from PRWeb.com
The Ability To Predict Stroke Recovery Has Important Implications For Stroke Survivors And Their Families
A team of researchers led by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center has developed a method to predict post-stroke recovery of language by measuring the initial severity of impairment. Being able to predict recovery has important implications for stroke survivors and their families, as they plan for short and long-term treatment needs. Findings are reported online in the journal Stroke.
Florida State Awarded $26 Million To Help Children Better Understand What They Read
More than a dozen Florida State University reading experts have been awarded a total of $26 million to help solve one of education’s most pressing, impenetrable problems: why some students may be able to decipher words on a page, yet still struggle to comprehend them.
Dimensions of Care Model and Pediatric Audiology
With the advent of universal newborn hearing screening programs as a standard of care and continuing technological advances, enhanced early intervention experiences for children who are deaf/hard of hearing and their families may be an attainable goal. The last two decades have brought much progress, but parents still have a range of experiences with newborn hearing screening. As their statements attest, Parent A’s experience was less than desirable and Parent B’s experience was quite positive.
from the ASHA Leader
Brain Stimulation Technique Boosts Language Ability in Alzheimer’s Patients
A brain stimulation technique, known as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, boosts the language ability of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, suggests preliminary research, published online in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
from ScienceDaily.com
Ear tubes appear safe in children with cochlear implants, UAB researchers say
Doctors have feared tubes would create complications with implants
from EurekAlert.org
Imaging reveals how brain fails to tune out phantom sounds of tinnitus
If a healthy noise cancellation system is restored within the brain, it may be possible to treat the disorder
from EurekAlert.org
Assessing Component Language Deficits in the Early Detection of Reading Difficulty Risk
This article focuses on some of the linguistic components that underlie letter-sound decoding skills and reading comprehension: specifically phonology, morphology, and syntax. Many children who have reading difficulties had language deficits that were detectable before they began reading. Early identification of language difficulties will therefore help identify children at risk of reading failure. Using a developmental psycholinguistic framework, the authors provide a model of how syntax, morphology, and phonology break down in children with language impairments. The article reports on a screening test of these language abilities for preschool or young school-aged children that identifies those at risk for literacy problems and in need of further assessment.
from the Journal of Learning Disabilities
Auditory Processing and Early Literacy Skills in a Preschool and Kindergarten Population
Although the relationship between auditory processing and reading-related skills has been investigated in school-age populations and in prospective studies of infants, understanding of the relationship between these variables in the period immediately preceding formal reading instruction is sparse. In this cross-sectional study, auditory processing, phonological awareness, early literacy skills, and general ability were assessed in a mixed sample of 88 three- to six-year-old children both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Results from both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses suggest the importance of early auditory rise time sensitivity in developing phonological awareness skills, especially in the development of rhyme awareness.
from the Journal of Learning Disabilities
A Short Report: Word-Level Phonological and Lexical Characteristics Interact to Influence Phoneme Awareness
In this study, we examined the influence of word-level phonological and lexical characteristics on early phoneme awareness. Typically developing children, ages 61 to 78 months, completed a phoneme-based, odd-one-out task that included consonant—vowel—consonant word sets (e.g., “chair—chain—ship”) that varied orthogonally by a phonological characteristic, sound contrast similarity (similar vs. dissimilar), and a lexical characteristic, neighborhood density (dense vs. sparse). In a subsample of the participants—those with the highest vocabularies—results were in line with a predicted interactive effect of phonological and lexical characteristics on phoneme awareness performance: word sets contrasting similar sounds were less likely to yield correct responses in words from sparse neighborhoods than words from dense neighborhoods. Word sets contrasting dissimilar sounds were most likely to yield correct responses regardless of the words’ neighborhood density. Based on these findings, theories of early phoneme awareness should consider both word-level and child-level influences on performance. Attention to these influences is predicted to result in more sensitive and specific measures of reading risk.
from the Journal of Learning Disabilities
An Exploratory Study of the Development of Early Syllable Structure in Reading-Impaired Children
Babbling between the ages of 8 and 19 months was examined in 19 children, 13 of whom were at high risk for reading disorder (RD) and 6 normally reading children at low familial risk for RD. Development of syllable complexity was examined at five periods across this 11-month window. Results indicated that children who later evidenced RD produced a lower proportion of canonical utterances and less complex syllable structures than children without RD. As syllable complexity is an early indicator of phonological sophistication, differences at this level may offer a window into how the phonological system of children with RD is structured. Future directions for this line of research are discussed.
from the Journal of Learning Disabilities
Early Oral Language Markers of Poor Reading Performance in Hong Kong Chinese Children
This study investigated the extent to which language skills at ages 2 to 4 years could discriminate Hong Kong Chinese poor from adequate readers at age 7. Selected were 41 poor readers (age M = 87.6 months) and 41 adequate readers (age M = 88.3 months). The two groups were matched on age, parents’ education levels, and nonverbal intelligence. The following language tasks were tested at different ages: vocabulary checklist and Cantonese articulation test at age 2; nonword repetition, Cantonese articulation, and receptive grammar at age 3; and nonword repetition, receptive grammar, sentence imitation, and story comprehension at age 4. Significant differences between the poor and adequate readers were found in the age 2 vocabulary knowledge, age 3 Cantonese articulation, and age 4 receptive grammar skill, sentence imitation, and story comprehension. Among these measures, sentence imitation showed the greatest power in discriminating poor and adequate readers.
from the Journal of Learning Disabilities
