Effects of phonemic awareness instruction on the encoding skills of children with severe speech impairment

PURPOSE: To examine the effects of phoneme-grapheme correspondence and phonemic awareness instruction on the encoding abilities of three pre-reading children with severe speech impairment (SSI). METHOD: Using a single subject multiple baseline design across behaviours and participants, children received phoneme-grapheme awareness instruction followed by instruction in segmenting, manipulating, and encoding consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) pseudowords. RESULTS: Generalization occurred to encoding of novel CVC pseudo- and real words for two of the three participants. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that phoneme-grapheme correspondence and phonemic awareness instruction is effective in developing encoding skills in children with SSI. Findings are consistent with those for other at-risk children.     

Effects of phonemic awareness instruction on the encoding skills of children with severe speech impairment

Purpose: To examine the effects of phoneme-grapheme correspondence and phonemic awareness instruction on the encoding abilities of three pre-reading children with severe speech impairment (SSI). Method: Using a single subject multiple baseline design across behaviours and participants, children received phoneme-grapheme awareness instruction followed by instruction in segmenting, manipulating, and encoding consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) pseudowords. Results: Generalization occurred to encoding of novel CVC pseudo- and real words for two of the three participants. Conclusions: Results suggest that phoneme-grapheme correspondence and phonemic awareness instruction is effective in developing encoding skills in children with SSI. Findings are consistent with those for other at-risk children.     

Mobile communication jacket for people with severe speech impairment

Purpose: Cerebral palsy is a movement disorder caused by damage to motor control areas of the developing brain during early childhood. Motor disorders can also affect the ability to produce clear speech and to communicate. The aim of this study was to develop and to test a prototype of an assistive tool with an embedded mobile communication device to support patients with severe speech impairments.

Methods: A prototype was developed by equipping a cycling jacket with a display, a small keyboard, a LED and an alarm system, all controlled by a microcontroller. Functionality of the prototype was tested in six participants (aged 7–20?years) with cerebral palsy and global developmental disorder and three healthy persons. A patient questionnaire consisting of seven items was used as an evaluation tool.

Results: A working prototype of the communication jacket was developed and tested. The questionnaire elicited positive responses from participants. Improvements to correct revealed weaknesses were proposed. Enhancements like voice output of pre-selected phrases and enlarged display were implemented.

Conclusions: Integration in a jacket makes the system mobile and continuously available to the user. The communication jacket may be of great benefit to patients with motor and speech impairments.

• Implications for Rehabilitation

• The communication jacket developed can be easily used by people with movement and speech impairment.

• All technical components are integrated in a garment and do not have to be held with the hands or transported separately.

• The system is adaptable to individual use. Both expected and unexpected events can be dealt with, which contributes to the quality of life and self-fulfilment.

     

Effects of awareness interventions on children's attitudes toward peers with a visual impairment

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of two awareness programs (6-day vs. 1-day programs) on children's attitudes toward peers with a visual impairment. Three hundred and forty-four Spanish physical education students (164 girls and 180 boys) aged 10-15 years, took part in the study. A modified version of the Attitudes Toward Disability Questionnaire (ATDQ) was used, which includes three sub-scales: (i) cognitive perceptions, (ii) emotional perception, and (iii) behavioral readiness to interact with children with disabilities. The questionnaire was filled out during the regular physical education class before and immediately after the awareness activity. The 6-day didactical unit included a lecture on visual impairments and a video describing visual impairments and the game of 5-a-side soccer (first lesson), sensibilization activities toward visual impairment (second and third lessons), training and competitive 5-a-side soccer tasks using blindfolded goggles (fourth and fifth lessons), and a sport show and chat with soccer players with a visual impairment (sixth lesson). The 1-day awareness unit only included the final session of the didactical activity. Repeated measures analysis of variance revealed significant time effects in the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral subscales. Sex also was found to demonstrate significant effects, in which women showed more favorable results than men. A time-by-group intervention effect was only demonstrated in the cognitive sub-scale, and the 6-day didactic intervention was more effective than the 1-day awareness unit.     

Dynamic assessment of word learning skills of pre-school children with primary language impairment

Abstract

Dynamic assessment has been shown to have considerable theoretical and clinical significance in the assessment of socially disadvantaged and culturally and linguistically diverse children. In this study it is used to enhance assessment of pre-school children with primary language impairment. The purpose of the study was to determine whether a dynamic assessment (DA) has the potential to enhance the predictive capacity of a static measure of receptive vocabulary in pre-school children. Forty pre-school children were assessed using the static British Picture Vocabulary Scale (BPVS), a DA of word learning potential and an assessment of non-verbal cognitive ability. Thirty-seven children were followed up 6 months later and re-assessed using the BPVS. Although the predictive capacity of the static measure was found to be substantial, the DA increased this significantly especially for children with static scores below the 25th centile. The DA of children's word learning has the potential to add value to the static assessment of the child with low language skills, to predict subsequent receptive vocabulary skills and to increase the chance of correctly identifying children in need of ongoing support.     

Not knowing--the problem of pain in children with severe neurological impairment

This study uses a grounded theory approach to explore the diagnostic and clinical decision-making processes used by parents and healthcare professionals in relation to pain in children with severe to profound neurological impairment. Three forms of knowledge are required for optimal pain assessment and management (1) knowing the child, (2) familiarity with children with the same or similar conditions and (3) knowing the science. Pain relief can be compromised by systems of care that fragment rather than integrate care. A model which integrates knowledge of child, population and science is proposed together with an intersubjective attitude to assessing pain.     

The input processing,cognitive linguistic and oro-motor skills of children with speech difficulty

Children with speech difficulty of no known etiology are a heterogeneous group. While speech errors are often attributed to auditory processing or oro-motor skill, an alternative proposal is a cognitive-linguistic processing difficulty. Research studies most often focus on only one of these aspects of the speech processing chain. This study investigated abilities in all three domains in children with speech difficulty (n = 78) and matched controls (n = 87). It was hypothesized that groups of children with speech difficulty would perform less well than controls on all tasks, but that the proportion of children with speech difficulty performing within the normal range would differ across tasks. The input processing task required children to perceive the auditory-visual illusion in speech perception, where listeners perceive when they hear presented in synchrony with the lip movements for . Diadochokinetic, isolated and sequenced movements tasks assessed oro-motor skills. Two non-verbal tasks evaluated rule derivation. The results indicated that rule derivation best discriminated typically developing and speech difficulty groups. Few children were identified as having an input or output difficulty, whereas difficulties with rule-derivation were common. The data support the notion that speech difficulty is, most often, associated with a central processing difficulty.     

Motor speech impairment,activity, and participation in children with cerebral palsy

Abstract

The present study used a population-based sample of children with cerebral palsy (CP) to estimate the prevalence of motor speech impairment and its association with activity and participation. A sample of 79 Victorian children aged 4 years 11 months to 6 years 5 months was recruited through the Victorian CP Register. The presence of motor speech impairment was recorded using the Viking Speech Scale (VSS). Activity and participation outcomes included speech intelligibility (the National Technical Institute for the Deaf rating scale, NTID), the Functional Communication Classification System (FCCS) and Communication Function Classification System (CFCS). A parent completed rating scale was used to examine the association between motor speech impairment and participation. Ninety per cent (71/79) of children demonstrated a motor speech impairment. Strong associations were found between the VSS and NTID (< .001), CFCS (< .001), and FCCS levels (<.001). VSS levels III–IV were significantly associated with restrictions in home, school, and community-based participation as perceived by parents. Although some diversity in activity and participation outcomes was observed within specific VSS levels, the results of this study suggested that children with mild motor speech impairments are more likely to demonstrate superior activity and participation outcomes compared to children with moderate or severe deficits.     

Implementation processes associated with a home-based phonological awareness intervention for children with specific language impairment

The implementation processes associated with a home-based phonological awareness intervention were observed for mothers and their 4-year-old children with specific language impairment (SLI). Mother-child dyads (n = 13) read books four times per week over 12 weeks; each book contained nine embedded phonological awareness (PA) tasks. Four hundred and ninety-eight book reading sessions were coded for three variables of interest: maternal support of concept development, quantity of maternal instructional support, and accuracy of children's responses to the PA tasks. Using growth curve modelling, results indicate that maternal support of concept development decreased over the course of the 12-week program, and the quantity of maternal supports changed considerably reflecting intra-individual differences among mothers. Both support of concept development and quantity of support decreased over the course of a given week. In addition, children's responses to the phonological awareness tasks significantly increased over the 12-week intervention. Overall, mothers did not provide support that consistently supported children's learning over time, and the increases in children's correct responses, although significant, were less than anticipated given the length of the intervention. These findings indicate that mothers may need additional supports when implementing emergent literacy programs with their children.     

Effects of instruction in basic communication skills on physical therapists and physical therapy students

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that laboratory instruction within a one-semester course could significantly change the communication skills of physical therapists and physical therapy students in the desired direction. Effective use of communication skills, the dependent variable, is defined in the counseling psychology literature. The independent variables were parts of two academic courses for physical therapists: one for graduate students (physical therapists) and one for undergraduate students. Data from the two groups were treated separately in a one-group, pretest-posttest, quasi-experimental design. The test for overall effect of changes in communication skills of undergraduate students was significant at the .0001 level. Post hoc tests for changes in use of seven specific skills varied in significance level from .8 to .0001. Education techniques, not subject variability, accounted for most of the change. Graduate student data did not reach traditional significance levels, but encouraging trends were noted. Results can be interpreted in terms of education, clinical experience, and measurement tools.     

家庭护理指导对认知障碍患者的影响

目的探讨脑损伤患者认知训练的有效性。方法74例脑损伤患者随机分为两组,均接受常规药物治疗,实验组同时对患者及家属进行认知训练,训练前后采用MMSE和FIM量表进行评定。结果训练后1个月、3个月实验组患者的认知功能及生活自理能力较对照组有明显提高(P<0.05;P<0.001),通过同组的比较,实验组患者经过3个月的认知训练后,其MMSE和FIM的评分明显高于训练后1个月的评分(P<0.001),差异有高度显著性意义。对照组3个月的评分高于1个月的评分,但两者比较,差异无显著性意义(P>0.05)。结论家庭认知训练干预能改善脑外伤患者的认知功能和生活自理能力,有助于患者全面康复。     

Effects of phonological awareness and semantic intervention on word-learning in children with SLI

This study examined the effects of phonological awareness and semantic intervention on word-learning abilities in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and whether treatment order influenced outcomes. An alternating treatment design was implemented to evaluate whether phonological awareness, semantic awareness, or a combination of both interventions positively influenced children's word-learning ability and whether the order of the treatments influenced outcomes. Nineteen children with SLI, aged between 6;3 and 8;2 years, and 19 age-matched children with typical language development participated in this study. The children with SLI were randomly assigned either to treatment condition A (phonological awareness intervention followed by semantic intervention) or treatment condition B (same interventions in reverse order). A word-learning paradigm was applied at pre-, mid-, and post-testing to evaluate which condition accelerated the receptive and expressive learning of novel words. Positive treatment effects on producing new words were found for the children who received phonological awareness intervention followed by semantic intervention. There was no improvement on the comprehension of new words for either group. The findings suggest that phonological awareness intervention may not only improve children's phonological skills, but may help to facilitate some aspects of word-learning when followed by an additional semantic based intervention.     

Effects of phonological awareness and semantic intervention on word-learning in children with SLI

This study examined the effects of phonological awareness and semantic intervention on word-learning abilities in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and whether treatment order influenced outcomes. An alternating treatment design was implemented to evaluate whether phonological awareness, semantic awareness, or a combination of both interventions positively influenced children's word-learning ability and whether the order of the treatments influenced outcomes. Nineteen children with SLI, aged between 6;3 and 8;2 years, and 19 age-matched children with typical language development participated in this study. The children with SLI were randomly assigned either to treatment condition A (phonological awareness intervention followed by semantic intervention) or treatment condition B (same interventions in reverse order). A word-learning paradigm was applied at pre-, mid-, and post-testing to evaluate which condition accelerated the receptive and expressive learning of novel words. Positive treatment effects on producing new words were found for the children who received phonological awareness intervention followed by semantic intervention. There was no improvement on the comprehension of new words for either group. The findings suggest that phonological awareness intervention may not only improve children's phonological skills, but may help to facilitate some aspects of word-learning when followed by an additional semantic based intervention.     

重度听力障碍儿童非言语认知及社会适应能力发育水平的病例对照研究

目的:探讨重度听力障碍儿童的非言语认知及社会适应能力发育水平。方法:将50例来我院耳鼻喉科门诊就诊及石家庄市康复中心3—6岁听力障碍儿童分为两组，28例为3岁后配戴助听器并接受言语康复训练的患儿，22例为3岁前配戴助听器并接受言语康复训练的患儿。以34例普通幼儿园听力言语正常的儿童作为对照组。采用视觉运动整合发育测验、麦卡锡幼儿智能量表（知觉-操作和运动分量表）以及婴儿-初中生社会生活能力量表进行评估，比较两组儿童与正常儿童的非言语认知、视觉运动统合和社会适应能力的不同。结果:①听力障碍儿童视觉运动整合、知觉操作能力低于正常儿童（P<0.01），3岁后配戴助听器组低于3岁前配戴助听器组（P<0.05）；②听力障碍的两组儿童运动能力低于正常儿童（P<0.05）。③听力障碍的两组儿童与正常儿童社会适应能力无明显差别（P>0.05）。结论:重度听力障碍儿童非言语认知能力落后于正常儿童。