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Biomedical subjects

N C Brady

Publications and source records attributed to N C Brady.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Identity matching of consonant-vowel-consonant words by prereaders.

Using an identity matching-to-sample procedure, normally developing prereaders who matched individual letters with high accuracy (e.g., m and s) did not show high accuracy in matching three-letter printed words that differed only in the first letter (e.g., mad and sad). Teachers and researchers should not assume that children who can discriminate individual letters can also discriminate minimally different words that contain those letters.

Child↗
PubMed1999

Communication forms and functions of children and adults with severe mental retardation in community and institutional settings.

The forms and functions of expressive communication produced by 84 individuals with severe mental retardation were assessed, using a structured communication sampling procedure. Symbolic communication acts were produced by 39 participants, and 27 of these symbolic communicators produced one or more multiword/multisymbol utterances. Of the remaining participants, 38 produced intentional but nonsymbolic communication acts; 7 were not observed to produce any intentional communication. For all participants who produced intentional communication, there were significantly more imperative than declarative communication acts. Significant differences in the frequencies and functions of communication acts produced by these participants were associated with differences in their communication levels (contact gesture, distal gesture, or symbolic), age (child vs. adult), and residential status (community home vs. large facility).

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Reported communication abilities of individuals with severe mental retardation.

Little is known about the distribution of communication skills among individuals with severe mental retardation. The present study was designed to obtain basic descriptive information about the reported expressive communication status and other associated sensory and behavioral characteristics of four representative samples of this overall population. These samples include both children and adults and individuals living in large residential facilities as well as those living at home or in smaller, more natural community environments. Results of this study, based on completed questionnaires for 211 subjects, revealed a wide range of communication abilities in this population, with a significantly larger percentage of adults than children communicating at symbolic levels.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Initiation and repair of intentional communication acts by adults with severe to profound cognitive disabilities.

This study assessed the communication initiation and repair behaviors of 28 individuals with severe to profound mental retardation in a variety of experimental conditions. All of these individuals communicated through nonsymbolic gestures. The experimental procedures were devised to simulate the conditions that typically evoke two different types of initiations: comments and requests. Each subject initiation was followed by an experimenter response that indicated a communication breakdown to determine if and how these subjects would attempt to repair such breakdowns. Different indicators of communication breakdown were systematically varied in these scripted interactions, including explicit requests for repair (verbal and gestural) and implicit requests for repair (failure to respond or inappropriate response to the subject's communication act). All subjects initiated at least one communication act, and all but three subjects repaired at least one communication act following a breakdown. Significantly more subjects initiated protoimperative than protodeclarative communication acts, despite equal opportunities for both types of acts. Across all conditions, additions were observed to occur significantly less often than recasts or repetitions. There were no significant differences in the number of subjects repairing communication following the different types of communication breakdown.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Communication profiles of two types of gesture using nonverbal persons with severe to profound mental retardation.

A structured communication sampling procedure was used to measure the form and function characteristics of intentional communication acts produced by nonverbal adults with severe mental retardation. Four "contact" subjects (who communicated only with contact gestures) and 4 "distal" subjects (who used distal as well as contact gestures) participated in this study. All subjects produced communication acts that were coded as initiations, and all subjects produced protoimperative-type communication acts. However, contact subjects produced no protodeclarative-type communication acts, whereas all distal subjects produced some protodeclaratives. Distal subjects also produced significantly more repair/recast acts than did contact subjects. Other findings included a tendency for distal subjects to communicate at a higher rate, to initiate more communication acts, and to produce more accompanying wordlike vocalizations than contact subjects. These results are discussed in light of Werner and Kaplan's (1984) concept of distancing as central to symbolization. Implications for future research and for clinical practice are also discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

The commitment to breastfeeding.

The Agency for International Development (A.I.D.) is increasing its efforts to promote breastfeeding, as part of its child survival initiatives in child spacing, diarrheal disease control, and nutrition. Research suggests that promotion can increase breastfeeding rates. The Agency, for the first time, has set aside funds specifically for breastfeeding promotion and is working to identify places in its programs where such promotion can take place.

Breast Feeding↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Emergent symbolic relations in speakers and nonspeakers.

Eight adults with developmental disabilities and four typically developing preschool children participated in an experiment studying emergent stimulus-stimulus relations after match-to-sample instruction. Participants were taught to match lexigrams (arbitrary graphic stimuli) to objects. Each object was functionally related to another object in the teaching set. For example, brush and comb were members of the teaching set. Most participants were able to select objects when the objects were named in pretests. Postteaching probes assessed emergent relations between spoken names and lexigrams. In addition, we included probes to detect emergent relations between related lexigrams. That is, would participants select the lexigram for comb when the experimenter displayed the lexigram for brush (without explicit teaching)? Two preschool children and five adults with developmental disabilities showed emergent relations between lexigrams and spoken words. However, only two preschool children showed the emergent lexigram to related lexigram relations.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Simultaneous and delayed matching to sample in gesture users and speakers with mental retardation.

Sixty-eight participants with severe mental retardation participated in a study of representational matching to sample. Participants were asked to match objects to identical objects, line drawings, miniature objects (icons), pantomimes, and spoken names. Participants who were successful in these matching tasks also experienced delayed matching tasks. Participants differed in their expressive communication and comparisons were made between symbolic (speaking) individuals, distal gesture users, and contact gesture users. Contact gesture users were significantly worse on identical matching to sample tasks than other participants. Mean scores on matching objects to line drawings were significantly better than mean scores on other matching tasks. In delayed matching, however, scores for matching objects to spoken names were significantly better than other tasks. The implications of these results for learning to use an augmentative communication device are discussed.

Adolescent↗