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PubMed1988

Linguistic status subsequent to childhood immersion injury.

The linguistic abilities of two groups of children who had been involved in immersion incidents are reported--one group at 12 months after the immersion incident (n = 25), and the second group at five years after the immersion incident (n = 9). The performances of the two experimental groups on standardized language tests were compared with the performances of appropriate control groups that were matched for age, sex and socioeconomic status. The speech and language skills of the 12-months post-immersion group and the matched control group were assessed by means of the sequenced inventory of communication development. Subjects who were assessed 12 months after the immersion injury scored significantly lower results than did control subjects on receptive and expressive language ages that were calculated as percentages of the chronological age. No differences in language scores were evident between the subjects who were at five years after the immersion incident and their control subjects as assessed by the test of language development--primary. The language abilities of the victims of an immersion incident were correlated with their neurological status at presentation to hospital. The results suggest a need to monitor the linguistic development of all children who present initially in a coma after an immersion incident. The need for a longitudinal study of the linguistic abilities of these children is indicated.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed2001

Method for quantitatively evaluating the lateralization of linguistic function using functional MR imaging.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Various methods for evaluating the lateralization of linguistic function using functional MR imaging have been proposed. However, the optimal method remains controversial. The purpose of this study was not only to establish a method for quantitatively evaluating the lateralization of linguistic function but also to evaluate its optimality. METHODS: Internal speech tasks were measured by functional MR imaging in 17 healthy adult volunteers by use of z scores. The laterality index (LI) was calculated first by a previously reported method and second by our newly designed method, in which we investigated the correlation between the z scores and the number of activated pixels in the regions of interest; that is, we made scatter diagrams (z scores versus number of activated pixels). To obtain detailed information, we searched a regression function that fit the scatter diagrams well. RESULTS: We found the number of activated pixels was proportional to (1/z score)(4) and the correlation coefficient was very high. Each hemisphere showed an original proportional constant. Our newly designed LI was calculated from these two constants and was found to be a fixed value. In contrast, the reported LI varied with the z score. We found our LI differed in robustness and reproducibility from the reported LI. CONCLUSION: Our LI method proved more optimal than the reported LI. The lateralization of linguistic function can be evaluated quantitatively using our new LI method.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

[Demographic behavior of linguistic groups in Montreal].

The author examines trends in fertility, internal migration, and mortality among the principal linguistic groups in Montreal, Canada. "Certain non-negligible disparities exist in demographic behaviour of linguistic groups on the Montreal and Jesus Islands. On the other hand, in the rest of the metropolitan Montreal area, linguistic disparities in demographic behaviour are noticeably smaller: the three groups have the same fertility level and the same propensity to migrate; only differentials in mortality can be observed. The natural growth rate of francophones on the Island of Montreal was (in 1985-1987) slightly inferior to that of the other two groups, but in the metropolitan region it was superior. On the whole however, taking into account internal migration, the group of francophones of the Islands of Montreal and Jesus had the highest growth rate and the anglophone group the lowest rate (in fact negative)." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND SPA)

Americas↗
PubMed1993

[Geo-linguistic mobility of the Francophone population of Quebec and Ontario].

"The relation between geographic and linguistic mobility among the population of French mother tongue in Ontario and Quebec [Canada] is explored. The results show that language behaviour, in particular the use of English as home language, is fairly regularly and coherently related to spatial behaviour. A distinct positive correlation between geographic and linguistic mobility is observed. It would seem, furthermore, that the ability of various linguistic environments to impose the dominant language is notably stronger when the dominant language is English." (SUMMARY IN ENG)

Americas↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The national standards for culturally and linguistically appropriate services in health care.

In December 2000, the Office of Minority Health published the National Standards on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care (CLAS Standards). These standards provide a framework for building the cultural and linguistic competence of home health care agencies. This article describes each of the 14 standards and suggests strategies for meeting the cultural and linguistic needs of home health care patients.

Communication Barriers↗
PubMed2005

Listening to patients: cultural and linguistic barriers to health care access.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Full access to medical care includes cultural and linguistic access as well as financial access. We sought to identify cultural and linguistic characteristics of low-income, ethnic minority patients' recent encounters with health care organizations that impede, and those that increase, health care access. METHODS: We conducted four focus groups with ethnically homogeneous African American, Latino, Native American, and Pacific Islander patients. Study participants were "walked" through the stages of a medical encounter and asked to identify physician and staff behaviors that made the patient feel more comfortable (a surrogate for increasing access) and behaviors that made the patient feel less comfortable (a surrogate for decreasing access). RESULTS: African American and Native American patients in particular expressed overall satisfaction with their physicians' services. Patients from all groups saw nonphysician staff as frequently impeding access. Based on perceptions of negative stereotypes, Native American and Pacific Islander patients reported hostility toward physicians' efforts at prevention and patient education. CONCLUSIONS: For the ethnic minority patients in our study, most perceived that cultural impediments to access involved nonphysician staff. Closer collaborations between health care organizations and ethnic minority communities in the recruitment and training of staff may be needed to improve cultural and linguistic access to care.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Self-assessment of cultural and linguistic competence in an ambulatory health system.

The University Health System (UHS) leaders organized a comprehensive planning process of its ambulatory care system. As part of this planning process, UHS assessed the cultural and linguistic competence of its outpatient environment. This assessment was conducted within the context of standards outlined in the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (2001) Standards for Cultural and Linguistically Appropriate Services, using a multimethod approach. This multimethod approach included (1) a review of the organizational profile, (2) a review of organizational documents, (3) a review of policies and procedures, (4) clinic site visits, (5) a staff survey, (6) patient and provider focus groups, and (7) interviews with key stakeholders in the community. Generally, the UHS was found to have several strengths that enable it to continue meeting the medical needs of its target populations. To develop greater capacity in the areas of cultural and linguistic competencies, the UHS should continue to promote respect for diversity by focusing on attitudes; beliefs; behaviors; practices; and communication patterns associated with race, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status, historical and social context, physical or mental ability, age, gender, sexual orientation, generational status, and acculturation level. Recommendations for achieving a more culturally competent healthcare organization are provided.

Academic Medical Centers↗
PubMed2006

[Subtypes of specific language impairment in Spanish-speaking children: a cluster analysis of linguistic features].

INTRODUCTION: Specific language impairment (SLI) can be viewed as a continuum with different subtypes depending on the combination of deficits and strengths in each of the components of linguistic behavior. AIM. To analyze the phenomenological profiles in a correlative series of Spanish children in order to facilitate their endophenotypic differentiation and the choice of strategies of intervention. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 86 referred children, aged 4 to 9 years, with a mean non-verbal intelligence quotient of 93 (range 72-114) and accomplishing clinical criteria of SLI. Apart from clinical interview and neurological examination, a protocol of questionnaires and tests was used in all subjects in order to measure their formal (phonological, syntactic, lexical) and functional (semantic and pragmatic) linguistic abilities. A cluster analysis of variables was used in order to investigate SLI subtypes. RESULTS: In the total sample, a 24% of whole series have a pure phonological expressive disorder. 55% of subjects have mixed receptive/expressive disorders; from these, the most pervasive subtype is due to verbal agnosia (11%), but more frequently observed subtypes affect syntax reception and expression combined to difficulties in phonological programming (36%) or in lexical retrieval (8%). Furthermore, 21% of the total sample present with difficulties in pragmatic use of language even if their formal linguistic abilities and non-verbal behavior are normal. CONCLUSIONS: Our empirical approach confirms that the admitted SLI subtypes in international literature applies to Spanish-speaking children for endophenotyping and intervention-planning purposes.

Child↗
PubMed1991

A specific linguistic ability.

A young man with diagnosed hydrocephalic brain injury was found to be an able linguist. His ability to translate into English from French, German, and Spanish was confirmed to be at a high level, and his capacity to express thoughts and describe scenes in these languages was also verified. A set of translations of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test was prepared in French, German, and Spanish, and IQs were derived in each language. The subject's performance intelligence was tested separately and found to be low, especially in relation to spatial reasoning. The subject's linguistic achievements were discussed in terms of an IQ-independent linguistic talent.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

[Effect of linguistic competence on speech audiometry results using the Basel Sentence Test].

Linguistic competence, such as a mental lexicon knowledge of syntactic rules of the language and the use of semantic constraints, may impact central speech processing and play an important role in speech recognition. The influence of linguistic ability on speech understanding was investigated using the Basel Sentence Understanding Test. The subject's linguistic ability was determined based upon educational background (elementary school, high school and or university) and intelligence quotients (IQ) based on the reduced version of the Hamburg-Wechsler Intelligence Test. Forty normally-hearing subjects listened to five test forms of the Basel Sentence Understanding Test. Each test form comprised a fraction of 15 low-predictable (LP) test items and 15 high-predictable (HP) test items based on the amount of contextual information in the phrases. No effect of educational background and IQ-value could be demonstrated on the scores of LP sentences. However, there was a small but significant influence of educational background and IQ-value on the scores of HP sentences. The implications of these findings on clinical speech audiometry are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Linguistic ability in early life and cognitive function and Alzheimer's disease in late life. Findings from the Nun Study.

OBJECTIVE: To determine if linguistic ability in early life is associated with cognitive function and Alzheimer's disease in late life. DESIGN: Two measures of linguistic ability in early life, idea density and grammatical complexity, were derived from autobiographies written at a mean age of 22 years. Approximately 58 years later, the women who wrote these autobiographies participated in an assessment of cognitive function, and those who subsequently died were evaluated neuropathologically. SETTING: Convents in the United States participating in the Nun Study; primarily convents in the Milwaukee, Wis, area. PARTICIPANTS: Cognitive function was investigated in 93 participants who were aged 75 to 95 years at the time of their assessments, and Alzheimer's disease was investigated in the 14 participants who died at 79 to 96 years of age. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Seven neuropsychological tests and neuropathologically confirmed Alzheimer's disease. RESULTS: Low idea density and low grammatical complexity in autobiographies written in early life were associated with low cognitive test scores in late life. Low idea density in early life had stronger and more consistent associations with poor cognitive function than did low grammatical complexity. Among the 14 sisters who died, neuropathologically confirmed Alzheimer's disease was present in all of those with low idea density in early life and in none of those with high idea density. CONCLUSIONS: Low linguistic ability in early life was a strong predictor of poor cognitive function and Alzheimer's disease in late life.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Relations between the sides of linguistic cerebral dominance and manuality in Chinese aphasics.

OBJECTIVE: To study the relations between the sides of linguistic cerebral dominance and of cerebral lesions and manuality in Chinese aphasics and whether there is essential difference between Chinese Han nationality and Westerners in the linguistic cerebral dominant laterality. METHODS: 309 cases of cerebral infarction (225 cases) and cerebral hemorrhage (84 cases) at the acute stage (within 3 months) of illness were studied by Standardized Aphasia Battery in Chinese (ABC) and Manuality Test (12 items). All cases were at their first onset of cerebral vascular disease (CVD) and were orientated. Cranial CT scan demonstrated single cerebral lesion in each case. Aphasia was divided into 10 types, and manuality was divided into dextrals and nondextrals. RESULTS: 286 cases (92.56%) were dextrals and 23 cases (7.44%) were nondextrals. The lesions of 222 cases (71.85%) were in the left cerebral hemisphere and 87 cases (28.15%) were in the right cerebral hemisphere. 170 cases (55.02%) were normal in their speech and 139 (44.98%) with aphasia of 10 types, of whom, 134 cases (96.40%) were dextral and 5 (3.60%) were nondextral. 136 patients (97.84%) were aphasic due to lesions of the left cerebral hemisphere, of whom, 131 cases (94.24%) were dextral and 5 (3.60%) were nondextral. Only 3 dextrals (2.16%) were with crossed aphasia due to lesions of the right cerebral hemisphere. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of the Chinese Han nationality had their linguistic cerebral dominance in the left cerebral hemisphere, no matter whether they were dextral or not, which had no essential difference between Chinese and Westerners.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Cultural and linguistic factors in worker notification to blue collar and no-collar African-Americans.

This presentation offers historical and sociolinguistic perspectives regarding the origins of the language used by African-Americans. U.S. descendants of slaves of West and Niger Congo African origin should not be thought of as native speakers of English. To the extent that they have lived in de jure or de facto social isolation from Euro-American English-speaking persons, they have retained a West and Niger Congo African thought process or substratum in the phonology and morphosyntax of their speech. Their mother tongue has been described by several African-American linguists, psychologists, and ethnologists as Ebonics. In a sense, Ebonics refers to the paralinguistic verbal and non-verbal sounds, cues, and gestures that are systematically used in the process of communication by many African-Americans. As one consequence of historical social isolation, African-Americans invariably score poorly on nationally standardized scales of "Standard American" English competence. Therefore, worker notification intended for African-Americans, especially among the blue- and no-collar levels, that does not contain an Afro-centric perspective will likely not prove successful. The linguistic factors, which can severely impede or tremendously enhance the effectiveness of worker notification to these groups, are therefore vital and should not be ignored. Worker notification targeted for limited English-speaking or unlettered populations should include the development of materials and presentations in the language or primary medium best understood by the audience. Based upon research findings on the psycholinguistics of learning modal preference, the development of notification materials that target a learning channel that is audio oral or aural-oral is promoted.

Black or African American↗
PubMed2002

Genetic, geographic, and linguistic variation among South American Indians: possible sex influence.

To better understand the relationship between genetic variability, geographical distance, and linguistic affiliation in South Amerinds, and to elucidate whether the migration rate is the same for both sexes, spatial autocorrelation, Mantel's test, and F(ST) analyses were performed in four sets of populations and alleles (group 1: 48 populations, 12 alleles; group 2: 16 (all belonging to the Tupi linguistic group) and 12; group 3: 21 and 17; and group 4: 28 and 4 haplotypes). Groups 1-3 included blood group and protein (i.e., serum protein, red cell enzymes, and immunoglobulin systems), while group 4 was concerned with mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) only. The latter set was also subjected to a molecular analysis of variance (AMOVA) evaluation. The frequencies of statistically significant correlograms were lower than those obtained in other populations when the blood groups and protein systems were considered, but 3 of the 4 mtDNA haplogroups gave suggestions of population structure. The variability in this organelle is also significantly correlated with language when geography is held constant. Migration per generation is generally low, but higher estimates were obtained for females. The AMOVA results suggest that populations whose members speak the same language are genetically homogeneous and may be viewed as the ultimate evolutionary unit at this level of analysis.

Biological Evolution↗
PubMed1975

Genetic distance and gene diversity among linguistically different tribes of Mexican Indians.

Using gene frequency data for 14 genetic loci, genetic distances between 13 tribes of Mexican Indians belonging to 12 language groups were determined and a dendrogram was constructed. The genetic distance between tribes is correlated more with geographic proximity than with language affinity. The gene diversity (heterozygosity) of the total population was decomposed into the three components, i.e., the gene diversity between three main linguistic groups, the gene diversity between tribes within the main linguistic groups and the gene diversity within tribes. About 95% of the total gene diversity exists within tribes, the intergroup and intertribe components being only about 5%.

Blood Group Antigens↗
PubMed2006

Potential interactions among linguistic, autonomic, and motor factors in speech.

Though anecdotal reports link certain speech disorders to increases in autonomic arousal, few studies have described the relationship between arousal and speech processes. Additionally, it is unclear how increases in arousal may interact with other cognitive-linguistic processes to affect speech motor control. In this experiment we examine potential interactions between autonomic arousal, linguistic processing, and speech motor coordination in adults and children. Autonomic responses (heart rate, finger pulse volume, tonic skin conductance, and phasic skin conductance) were recorded simultaneously with upper and lower lip movements during speech. The lip aperture variability (LA variability index) across multiple repetitions of sentences that varied in length and syntactic complexity was calculated under low- and high-arousal conditions. High arousal conditions were elicited by performance of the Stroop color word task. Children had significantly higher lip aperture variability index values across all speaking tasks, indicating more variable speech motor coordination. Increases in syntactic complexity and utterance length were associated with increases in speech motor coordination variability in both speaker groups. There was a significant effect of Stroop task, which produced increases in autonomic arousal and increased speech motor variability in both adults and children. These results provide novel evidence that high arousal levels can influence speech motor control in both adults and children.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

The lateralized linguistic cerebellum: a review and a new hypothesis.

During the past 2 decades the collaboration across disciplines and the methodologic and conceptual advances of contemporary neuroscience have brought about a substantial modification of the traditional view of the cerebellum as a mere coordinator of autonomic and somatic motor functions. Growing insights in the neuroanatomy of the cerebellum and its interconnections, evidence from functional neuroimaging and neurophysiological research, and advancements in clinical and experimental neuropsychology have established the view that the cerebellum participates in a much wider range of functions than conventionally accepted. This increase of insight has brought to the fore that the cerebellum modulates cognitive functioning of at least those parts of the brain to which it is reciprocally connected. This article reviews the recently acknowledged role of the cerebellum in cognition and addresses in more detail experimental and clinical data disclosing the modulatory role of the cerebellum in various non-motor language processes such as lexical retrieval, syntax, and language dynamics. In agreement with the findings indicating a topographical organization of the cerebellar structures involved in language pathology we advance the concept of a "lateralized linguistic cerebellum." In our view crossed cerebral diaschisis processes, reflecting a functional depression of supratentorial language areas due to reduced input via cerebellocortical pathways, might represent the relevant pathomechanism for linguistic deficits associated with cerebellar pathology.

Aphasia↗
PubMed1997

A cross-linguistic examination of the noun-category bias: its existence and specificity in French- and Spanish-speaking preschool-aged children.

Previous research has revealed that English-speaking preschoolers expect that a novel count noun (but not a novel adjective), applied to an individual object, may be extended to other members of the same basic or superordinate level category. However, because the existing literature is based almost exclusively on English-speakers, it is unclear whether this specific expectation is evident in children acquiring languages other than English. The experiments reported here constitute the first cross-linguistic, developmental test of the noun-category linkage. We examined monolingual French- and Spanish-speaking preschool-aged children's superordinate level categorization in a match-to-sample task. Target objects were introduced with (a) novel words presented as count nouns (e.g., "This is a fopin"), (b) novel words presented as adjectives (e.g., "This is a fopish one"), or (c) no novel words. Like English-speakers, French- and Spanish-speakers extended count nouns consistently to other category members. This is consistent with our prediction that the mapping between count nouns and object categories may be a universal phenomenon. However, children's extension of novel adjectives varied across languages. Like English-speakers, French-speakers did not extend novel adjectives to other members of the same category. In contrast, Spanish-speakers did extend novel adjectives, like count nouns, in this fashion. This is consistent with our prediction that the mappings between adjectives and their associated applications vary across languages. The results provide much-needed cross-linguistic support for the noun-category linkage and illustrate the importance of the interplay between constraints within the child and input from the language environment.

Analysis of Variance↗