Importance of speech production for phonological awareness and word decoding: The case of children with cerebral palsy

The goal of this longitudinal study was to investigate the precursors of early reading development in 52 children with cerebral palsy at kindergarten level in comparison to 65 children without disabilities. Word Decoding was measured to investigate early reading skills, while Phonological Awareness, Phonological Short-term Memory (STM), Speech Perception, Speech Production and Nonverbal Reasoning were considered reading precursors. Children with cerebral palsy lag behind on all reading precursors at the beginning of the second year of kindergarten. For the children without disabilities, early reading skills in Grade 1 were best predicted by Phonological Awareness and Phonological STM while Speech Production was the most important predictor of early reading success for the children with cerebral palsy, followed by Phonological Awareness and Speech Perception. Furthermore, for children with cerebral palsy, Speech Production appears to dominate reading development, as Speech Production measured at the beginning of the second year of kindergarten was strongly predictive of all other reading precursors measured at the end of the second year of kindergarten. The results of this study reveal that children with cerebral palsy with additional speech impairments are at risk for limited literacy development. Clinical implications are discussed.     

Needle electromyography

Physiologic assessment of diseases of the motor unit from the anterior horn cells to the muscles relies on a combination of needle electromyography (EMG) and nerve conduction studies (NCS). Both require a unique combination of knowledge of peripheral nervous system anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, diseases, techniques, and electricity is necessary. Successful, high‐quality, reproducible EMG depends on the skills of a clinician in patient interaction during the physical insertion and movement of the needle while recording the electrical signals. These must be combined with the skill of analyzing electric signals recorded from muscle by auditory pattern recognition and semiquantitation. 10 , 52 This monograph reviews the techniques of needle EMG and waveform analysis and describes the types of EMG waveforms recorded during needle EMG. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Muscle Nerve 39: 244–270, 2009     

Study of fingerprint classification and their gender distribution among South Indian population

Identification of an individual plays a vital part of any medicolegal investigation. Fingerprint is considered to be the most accurate and reliable indicator in identification.The present study was conducted on 500 South Indian subjects to determine the individuality and the predominant fingerprint pattern among South Indian population. Two-hundred and fifty males and 250 females of South Indian origin were included for this study and rolled prints were taken from all the 10 digits and the same were stored on a proforma.The most frequent fingerprint pattern was ulnar loop in the total population, as well as in the sex wise distribution.