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PubMedDate not supplied

Effects of working memory deficits on the communicative functioning of Alzheimer's dementia patients.

Individuals with Alzheimer's disease experience frontal lobe pathology and deficits in working memory processes are well documented. Less documented is how various working memory deficits impact communicative functioning. The performance data of individuals with mild and moderate Alzheimer's dementia on five tests of language comprehension and four tests of language expression are presented and discussed in the context of possible contributions from impaired working memory functions. The argument is advanced that diminished scores on tests of language comprehension and production result primarily from attenuated span capacity, difficulty focusing attention, encoding, and activation of long-term knowledge rather than from loss of linguistic knowledge. Techniques that may advantage Alzheimer's patients in the comprehension and expression of linguistic information are discussed.(1) Readers will become familiar with the typical functioning of individuals with Alzheimer's disease on common linguistic expression and comprehension tasks. (2) Readers will become familiar with the distinction between language knowledge and performance and its importance in understanding the cause of communication breakdowns in individuals with Alzheimer's disease. (3) Readers will become familiar with techniques that may facilitate the communicative functioning of individuals with Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer Disease↗
PubMed1991

Hypothesis-testing abilities of language-impaired children.

Hypothesis-testing abilities were assessed using a modification of the discrimination-learning paradigm employed by Nelson, Kamhi, and Apel (1987) that was designed to minimize the short-term memory demands of the task. Sixteen language-impaired and 16 normal-language children in kindergarten and first and second grades participated in the study. The language-impaired children solved significantly fewer problems than normal-language controls equated on cognitive level, but the two groups used similar hypothesis types to solve the problems. Type of verbal feedback provided during the hypothesis testing task (explicit vs. nonexplicit) did not significantly affect the performance of either group. These results are interpreted as indicating that language-impaired children demonstrate inefficient use of problem-solving strategies that cannot be attributed solely to memory difficulties. Issues surrounding the investigation of language-impaired children's cognitive abilities are discussed.

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Language development in very low birth weight preterm children: a follow-up study.

The language development of 17 very low birth weight (VLBW) preterm children was compared with that of matched controls at the ages of 2 and 4 years. At the age of 2 years, the VLBW preterm children achieved significantly lower scores in the language comprehension test than their matched controls. In addition, they used shorter and more immature sentences. At the age of 4 years, difficulties in the VLBW preterm children manifested as deficiencies in language comprehension, naming and auditory discrimination. The language test results at the age of 2 years significantly correlated with those at the age of 4 years, but mainly in the preterm group. The highest and most frequent correlations were found between the language test scores at 2 years and the auditory discrimination test scores at 4 years. The only significant correlation to be found in the control group was between the vocabulary test score at 2 years and the consonant discrimination test score at 4 years. Therefore, language development of the VLBW preterm children should be measured and monitored from toddler age onwards. Special attention should be paid to measurements of auditory processing. While the results of the present study, however, represent mainly the outcome in a group of VLBW preterm children with changes in the neonatal MRI, the results should not be generalized to all VLBW preterm children.

Brain↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Relationships among bilingualism, critical thinking ability, and critical thinking disposition.

Evidence exists supporting relationships between bilingualism and many cognitive factors. Research, however, has not been conducted to specifically examine the relationships among bilingualism, critical thinking ability, and critical thinking disposition of baccalaureate nursing students. This cross-sectional study used a pooled, within-bilingual, correlational design to examine such relationships. Specific research questions posed were: (1) is there a statistically significant curvilinear relationship between bilingualism and critical thinking ability, (2) is there a statistically significant curvilinear relationship between bilingualism and critical thinking disposition, and (3) is there a statistically significant relationship between critical thinking disposition and critical thinking ability? A convenience sample of nursing students (N = 111) was administered a French language Cloze Test (C-Test), an English language C-Test, as well as the California Critical Thinking Skills Test, and the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. Findings failed to provide sufficient evidence to support the existence of a relationship between either bilingualism and critical thinking ability, or between critical thinking disposition and critical thinking ability. However, there was sufficient evidence to support the existence of a curvilinear relationship between bilingualism and critical thinking disposition. Implications for nursing education are presented.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Language skills of young children with unilateral cleft lip and palate following infant orthopedics: a randomized clinical trial.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of infant orthopedics (IO) on the language skills of children with complete unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP). DESIGN: In a prospective randomized clinical trial (Dutchcleft), two groups of children with complete UCLP were followed up longitudinally: one group was treated with IO based on a modified Zurich approach in the first year of life (IO group); the other group did not receive this treatment (non-IO group). At the ages of 2, 2(1/2), 3, and 6 years, language development was evaluated in 12 children (six IO and six non-IO). Receptive language skills were assessed using the Reynell test. Expressive language skills of the toddlers were evaluated by calculating mean length of utterance (MLU) and mean length of longest utterances (MLLU); in the 6-year-olds, the expressive language skills were measured using standardized Dutch language tests. PATIENTS: The participants had complete UCLP without soft tissue bands or other malformations. RESULTS: IO did not affect the receptive language skills. However, the expressive language measures MLU and MLLU were influenced by IO. At age 2(1/2) and 3 years, the IO group produced longer utterances than the non-IO group. In the follow-up, the difference in expressive language between the two groups was no longer significant. CONCLUSIONS: Children treated with IO during their first year of life produced longer sentences than non-IO children at the ages of 2(1/2) and 3 years. At 6 years of age, both groups presented similar expressive language skills. Hence, IO treatment did not have long-lasting effects on language development.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1998

Independent recovery of memory and language functioning during the Intracarotid Sodium Amytal Test.

Memory and language recovery during the Intracarotid Sodium Amytal Test (IAP) was investigated in 49 left-hemisphere-dominant patients with unilateral temporal epileptic seizure foci. Memory was assessed by presenting items (words, objects, and faces) immediately after injection, and testing for recognition memory 10 min after motoric recovery. To assess language the patients responded verbally to the same items during memory presentation. Memory for the individual items was found to be independent of their presentation order and language functioning was impaired only with the dominant-hemisphere injection, recovering during the presentation of the memory items. These results suggest that the encoding of material remains at a constant level throughout the initial active phase of the IAP, whereas language functioning recovers independently.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Dichotic listening in children with serious language problems.

20 children with serious language problems (mainly expressive) were tested with the Dichotic Listening (DL) test for language laterality. 16 were right-handed and 4 left-handed. The dichotic test consisted of series of pairwise presentations of CVC-syllables with "target-syllables" that should be detected interspersed among "distractors." The child pointed to a sheet of paper on which a picture representing the targets (and distractors) was printed. In addition, the children were tested on several expressive and impressive language tests and on finger-tapping. Analysis showed an increased frequency of subjects with a left-ear advantage (LEA) and a reduced amplitude of the right-ear advantage (REA) for those subjects showing a right-ear advantage. Correlations with the language variables and with finger-tapping are presented and discussed.

Attention↗
PubMed1988

A long-term follow-up case study of crossed aphasia assessed by single-photon emission tomography (SPECT), language, and neuropsychological testing.

A 65-year-old man with well-defined crossed aphasia secondary to right cerebral infarction 10 years previously was studied for current language and cognitive abilities and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) during cognitive activation measured by single-photon emission tomography (SPECT). Reversed hemispheric lateralization was demonstrated by qualitative aspects of the patient's constructional deficits, dominant parietal lobe signs, and absence of the neglect syndrome. Language activation procedures during SPECT produced focal increases in rCBF to both frontal lobes with a phoneme detection task and to right temporal and parietal lobes with a math task. The authors stress the complexities of assessing brain/language mechanisms in vivo and demonstrate variabilities in rCBF during language activation dependent on task selection.

Aged↗
PubMed1986

Sensitivity of the Denver Developmental Screening Test in speech and language screening.

A retrospective study was undertaken to determine whether the Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST) language sector is a sensitive screen of speech and language development. Seventy-one children between 18 and 66 months of age with suspected developmental problems were referred to screening clinics conducted by a child evaluation team. Each child was screened using the DDST (revised) and another screening measure of speech and language development. Statistically significant differences were found between the DDST language sector and the speech-language screening in identification of expressive language and articulation problems. No significant difference was found with receptive language. The DDST failed to identify more than one half of the children with expressive language and/or articulation problems. These results demonstrate that the DDST may fail to identify children with speech and language impairment. Professionals involved in developmental screening need to be advised of alternative speech and language screening measures.

Child↗
PubMed2003

Language lateralization by Wada test and fMRI in 100 patients with epilepsy.

Comparing the determination of language dominance using fMRI with results of the Wada test in 100 patients with different localization-related epilepsies, the authors found 91% concordance between both tests. The overall rate of false categorization by fMRI was 9%, ranging from 3% in left-sided temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) to 25% in left-sided extratemporal epilepsy. Language fMRI might reduce the necessity of the Wada test for language lateralization, especially in TLE.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Differential diagnosis between dementia and depression: a study of efficiency increment.

A battery of neuropsychological tests was examined to establish its value in differentiating mild dementia from depression. The battery was applied to 84 subjects: 31 dementia patients of several etiologies, 31 patients with major depression and 22 volunteers whose age and educational level was similar to that of the patients. The battery consisted of tests for immediate, recent and remote memory, the Mini Mental State examination, a screening test for language disorders, and tests measuring abstraction, calculation, judgement, praxic and gnosic functions. The results showed significant differences among the three groups in all memory tests. Deficits of abstraction, calculation, praxis and language functions were strongly associated with dementia. The epidemiological analysis of efficiency increment, with determination of sensitivity and specificity, showed a highly significant enhancement of efficiency for diagnostic purposes when the results of the tests were combined. These findings suggest that the entire battery of neuropsychological tests should be applied, and their results compared using the efficiency increment procedure, in order to establish a firm differential diagnosis between dementia and depression, and/or to detect the former when it is at a mild early stage.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

[A test for the detection of speech and language disorders in the acute phase after stroke. Development and clinical application].

No standardized assessment of aphasic symptoms for stroke patients in the acute phase has as yet been published in the German language. Current test batteries such as the AAT are too time-consuming and cannot be performed on severely impaired patients. A short test for the examination of aphasic and dysarthric symptoms has been developed which contains 7 subtests in three main areas: spontaneous speech, comprehension and planning of movements, speech and language abilities. Since abilities in acute cases may only be functionally impaired and often only detectable after stimulation, standardized stimulation is applied in most of the subtests. In this way it is possible to test acute stroke patients for aphasic and dysarthric symptoms. The course of recovery in a typical case is described.

Aged↗
PubMed1995

The 'dice' game: a new test of pragmatic language skills after closed-head injury.

There are few clinical tools available to assess communication skills following closed-head injury. This paper describes one such task in which the subject is required to explain a board game to a naive listener. The explanation is taped, transcribed and the content is quantified. Reliability studies demonstrated that the test can be consistently scored. A group of 43 normal subjects was investigated, and some variation in performance according to age and educational background was revealed. A group of 20 brain-injured male adults with executive-type deficits were then compared to a matched subgroup of the controls. The clinical group produced less essential information and relatively more unnecessary information than their non-brain-damaged counterparts. Qualitative features of discourse disorganization were also revealed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Testing the generalized slowing hypothesis in specific language impairment.

This study investigated the proposition that children with specific language impairment (SLI) show a generalized slowing of response time (RT) across tasks compared to chronological-age (CA) peers. Three different theoretical models consistent with the hypothesis of generalized slowing--a proportional, linear, and nonlinear model--were examined using regression analyses of group RT data. Each model was an excellent fit with the RT data. The most parsimonious model indicated that the SLI group was proportionally slower than the CA group. Mean RTs of the SLI group were about one fifth slower across tasks than the CA group's mean RTs. Less slowing was evident for a subgroup of young children with expressive SLI than for children with mixed (expressive and receptive) SLI. Although the mean RT data reflected many individual SLI children's RT performance, not all SLI children showed generalized slowing.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2000

Substance dependence, family history of alcohol dependence and neuropsychological functioning in adolescence.

AIMS: It was hypothesized that adolescent substance dependence moderates the relationship between family history of alcohol dependence and neuropsychological functioning. DESIGN: This study compared the neuropsychological functioning of non-abusing and alcohol and drug-dependent adolescents with and without a family history of alcohol dependence using hierarchical multiple regressions and general factorial analyses. SETTING: Substance-dependent adolescents were recruited and tested in inpatient alcohol and drug abuse treatment programs after 3 weeks of abstinence. A matched sample of non-abusing adolescents was recruited from the same San Diego-area communities. PARTICIPANTS: Substance-dependent adolescents (n = 101) met DSM-III-R criteria for dependence on alcohol and at least one other substance. Non-abusing adolescents (n = 50) had no substance use disorders. Groups were comparable on socio-economic status. Participants were 44% female, ages 13-18, and had no serious head injuries or neurological disorders. MEASUREMENTS: Information was gathered on demographics, family history, substance involvement, and conduct disorder behaviors and adolescents were administered neuropsychological tests covering language, visuospatial, verbal memory, attention and executive functioning domains. FINDINGS: The hypothesis was supported for language and attention tests. Substance involvement interacted with family history of alcohol dependence to predict language and attention functioning. Family history negative non-abusers performed better than the other adolescents. CONCLUSIONS: The pattern of results suggests that family history of alcohol dependence and adolescent substance use are separate risk factors for poorer neuropsychological performance in youth.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Development and psychometric testing of Korean language versions of 4 neck pain and disability questionnaires.

STUDY DESIGN: Cohort study. OBJECTIVES: To develop and establish the psychometric properties of Korean versions of 4 neck pain and disability questionnaires: the Neck Disability Index, Neck Pain and Disability Scale, Functional Rating Index, and Short Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SFMPQ). SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: To our knowledge, there are no published Korean language neck pain and disability measures. METHODS: Versions of each questionnaire in idiomatic modern Korean were developed with a process involving initial independent translation, synthesis of the translations, independent back translation, and review by an expert committee to achieve equivalence with the original English. Psychometric testing of the questionnaires with 261 subjects was undertaken to examine test-retest reliability, internal consistency, discriminative validity, and longitudinal construct validity. RESULTS: Test-retest reliability of the translated versions of the 3 disability questionnaires was excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient[2,1] = 0.86-0.90). High internal consistency was found in the 3 disability questionnaires (Cronbach-alpha ranged from alpha = 0.88 for the Functional Rating Index to alpha = 0.96 for the Neck Pain and Disability Scale, and 0.82 for the SFMPQ). The visual analog scale subscale of the SFMPQ was the most responsive of the subscales (effect size = 1.44, standardized response mean = 1.37). The visual analog scale was also the most responsive pain and disability index in internal responsiveness analysis, although disability indexes showed marginally better responsiveness when compared with external standards. No floor or ceiling effects were observed. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the questionnaires were successfully translated and show acceptable measurement properties, and, as such, are suitable for use in clinical and research applications.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Predicting preschool speech/language referral-status with the Lollipop Test and the Cognitive-Language Profile of the Early Screening Profiles.

603 preschoolers who attended early childhood screenings were administered the Lollipop Test, the Cognitive Language Profile of the Early Screening Profiles, and the Fluharty Preschool Speech and Language Screening Test. Scores from the Lollipop and the Cognitive-Language Profile significantly predicted speech/language referral-status based on Fluharty scores and clinical judgment.

Child, Preschool↗