Monthly Archives: November 2010
Alterations in visual and auditory processing in hemispatial neglect; an evoked potential follow-up study
Hemispatial neglect is common after cerebrovascular stroke in the right hemisphere. Cortical electrophysiological studies, especially investigations of both visual and auditory processing in subjects with neglect are sparse. Our purpose was to assess whether and to which extent subjects with neglect may show impairments in both visual and auditory processing. Thereby, we assessed the evolution of changes in sensory processing and neglect symptoms over a 6 months follow-up period. Twenty-one stroke subjects with hemispatial neglect were studied at baseline, 3 weeks later and at 6 months follow-up. At enrollment, 12 patients were in Acute/subacute and 9 were in Chronic stage of stroke. Visual and auditory evoked potentials (EP) were elicited with unilateral stimulations and electrophysiologic data were registered with high-density EEG. Primary visual and auditory cortex activations seen in EP components were analyzed at three time points in order to detect alterations. Both sensory modalities revealed differences between hemispheres in processing stimuli coming from a unilateral source. Amplitudes of visual and auditory EP components elicited by left-sided stimuli were smaller compared to those elicited by right-sided stimuli in the Acute/subacute group. The behavioral neglect was more severe in those who had smaller EP amplitudes (e.g. EP amplitude after right auditory stimulus was significantly associated with total behavioral neglect score, r=.57). The main hemispheric differences diminished by the follow-up 6 months later along with the decreasing severity of neglect in the Acute/subacute group.
from the International Journal of Psychophysiology
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Diagnosis, Microbial Epidemiology, and Antibiotic Treatment of Acute Otitis Media in Children
Conclusions Otoscopic findings are critical to accurate AOM diagnosis. AOM microbiology has changed with use of PCV7. Antibiotics are modestly more effective than no treatment but cause adverse effects in 4% to 10% of children. Most antibiotics have comparable clinical success.
Cochlear implantation in patients with autoimmune inner ear disease including cogan syndrome: A comparison with age- and sex-matched controls
Conclusions:
To our knowledge this was the largest study of cochlear implantation in AIED and Cogan syndrome patients. In our experience, both groups generally attained high levels of post-CI speech perception and performed above average. Cochlear ossification affecting implantation in Cogan syndrome patients was not observed in our series, contrary to some reports.
from The Laryngoscope
Silent saliva aspiration in Parkinson’s disease
Conclusion: Silent aspiration and laryngeal penetration of saliva are common features in PD patients with daily drooling. The presence of hypoesthesia of the laryngeal structures and the lack of protective reflexes in such patients may play a major role in the mechanisms of SLP/SA
from Movement Disorders
AuD student attitudes toward the profession: a 2002 survey repeated in 2009.
Review the findings of this repeat of a 2002 survey on the attitudes of audiology students toward their future profession, the results are not encouraging.
from Audiology Today
Hear my dream.
During audiology consultation appointments, it is not uncommon for parents to request contact information of other local families of children with hearing loss. A local support group could provide a venue where parents could freely exchange contact information as desired. However, support groups for parents of children with hearing loss are inconsistently located few and far beetween across the country.
from Audiology Today
High-frequency audiometry: an underutilized tool in the practice of audiology.
Review a number of cases in which the incorporation of HFA has allowed for a better understanding of diagnostics and patient management options.
from Audiology Today
Implementing a private practice model in an on-campus clinic.
Many in academic circles are concerned that, while audiology education focuses on the acquisition of clinical knowledge, little is done to prepare a student for the business details of audiology practice management (American Academy of Audiology, 2009). This article describes the implementation of an on-campus, private practice audiology clinic as a practice management training ground for first- and second-year students in an AuD residential program.
from Audiology Today
Pediatric audiology practice analysis study and exam outline.
No abstract available.
from Audiology Today
Play it by (h)ear.
As audiologists familiarize themselves with phonological awareness and its contribution to early literacy skills, they will be better equipped to educate parents to be long-term literacy advocates.
from Audiology Today
A comparison of bilingual and monolingual children’s conversational repairs
This study examined the conversational repair skills of 2- and 3-year-old French— English bilingual children and monolingual French-speaking children. While the ability to respond to requests for clarification has been well researched in monolingual children, it has not been investigated among bilingual children except to examine their ability to repair breakdowns due to the use of a language not spoken by their interlocutor. The present study provides a direct comparison of bilingual and monolingual children’s repairs of the types of breakdowns in conversations that are experienced by both populations, e.g., breakdowns due to ambiguity, choice of words, mispronunciations, inaudible utterances, and so on. A methodology of stacked requests for clarification was used to examine the range of response strategies and the overall response patterns of the children.The results reveal no differences between the bilingual and the monolingual children’s conversational repair skills. The present findings contribute to the growing body of evidence that bilingualism does not interfere with the language development of simultaneous bilinguals. As well, they extend our understanding of their ability to repair conversational breakdowns of the type that are experienced by all children.
from First Language
Assertiveness, responsiveness, and reciprocity in verbal interaction: Dialogues between children with SLI and peers with typical language development
The present study examined assertiveness and responsiveness in two different conversational contexts: children with specific language impairment (SLI) interacting with an age-matched peer with typical language development (TLD) and children with SLI interacting with a language-matched peer with TLD.The dialogues where the 10 participating children with SLI interacted with an age peer were characterized by a higher degree of responsiveness and coherence.The age peers tended to dominate the interaction with the children with SLI. The dialogues where children with SLI interacted with a language peer were characterized by less responsiveness and less coherence and the child with SLI was likely to be more dominant in the interaction. Thus children with SLI take different roles in verbal interaction depending on how much support the conversational partner can offer.
from First Language
The acquisition of early verbs in French: Assessing the role of conversation and of child-directed speech
This article examines the production of early verbs by two children acquiring French as their first language. The study focuses on the developmental period during which verbs are produced in one form only. Child-directed speech (CDS) and conversational contingencies (CC) occurring around these verbal forms were analysed up to the moment when some verbs are produced in two different forms. Results show that children’s use of a single form per verb can also be found in CDS by adults where the majority of verbs are used in one morphophonological form only. Moreover, the particular form children use for a given verb corresponds to the one adults predominantly use in CDS. At the same time, child-produced verb forms are reinforced in the CC occurring in adult—child exchanges. When trying to separate the role of CCs from that of more general CDS, for both children the study found that for about half of the verbal forms CDS and CC provide the same congruent information. Of the remaining verb types, three-quarters are explained by CC, while fewer then 15 percent are explained by CDS, indicating that CCs are a stronger source of influence than general input. These findings underline the close relationships between patterns of language acquisition, conversational exchanges and CDS. The data suggest a construction process based on specific characteristics of the language children hear, what they can produce and, importantly, the temporally close reinforcing relations between these two that are forged in conversational interactions.
from First Language
The relationship between young children’s linguistic ability, home language, and their adaptive modifying strategies in peer conflicts
This article presents the results of a study of conflict strategies in 96 two- and three-year-old children in multiethnic childcare centers. The main question was whether young children’s use of psychologically complex strategies in conflict management depends on language development. It is hypothesized that 2-year-olds rely on verbal adaptive modification strategies less often than 3-year-olds; and that children with a home language different from the dominant one in the childcare center also use verbal modification strategies less often. The overall conclusion is that the use of psychologically complex strategies in conflict management does not totally depend on language development. Age seems to contribute most to the use of psychologically and linguistically complex modification strategies. A description is given of the diverse forms of verbal adaptive modifying behavior that was found in 2- and 3-year-olds.
from First Language
