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At least 613 records · Page 34Linked to original sources
PubMed1986

An evaluation of the test for auditory comprehension of language.

The present study was designed to determine the internal consistency and test-retest consistency of the Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language (TACL) for a group of normally hearing and regularly educated children. Fifty-five children were randomly selected from three elementary schools and were administered the TACL exactly as described in the test's manual. From these 55 children, 30 were randomly selected and retested. The results indicated that the test was internally consistent but not consistent upon retesting.

Child↗
PubMed2003

Language disorders in young children: when is speech therapy recommended?

OBJECTIVE: Analysis of treatment recommendation given by speech therapists. Evaluation of the language abilities in the examined children and re-examination of those abilities after 12 months. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-four children, aged between 2.0 and 5.3 years, referred to speech therapists by their General Practitioners because of possible language problems were included in a prospective study. The number of children receiving speech therapy and the number of speech therapy sessions received during 1 year, and the therapy effect on three quantitative language measures were compiled. RESULTS: In 97% of the children referred to a speech therapist, speech therapy was recommended. Most of these children showed average to above-average language scores on standardised tests for sentence development (61%) and language comprehension (79%). In addition, for most children spontaneous speech, as screened by the Groningen Diagnostic Speech Norms, was age-adequate (76%). The children's problems consisted of pronunciation difficulties or periods of stammering. After 12 months for 50% of these children speech therapy was still continued which means that the articulation problems still were present. The mean number of speech therapy sessions was 26.7. The language scores on the three language tests remained relatively stable over the 12-month interval. CONCLUSIONS: In young children pronunciation difficulties often lead to the recommendation for speech therapy. For a large number of children therapy takes more than a year, indicating that speech therapy cannot influence these problems to a great extent. In addition language scores remained relatively stable. Therefore, language problems and especially articulation problems in young children should be reconsidered regarding maturation and normal variations in speech motor development. A 'watchful waiting' approach should be taken more often.

Child Language↗
PubMed1985

The relation of chronological age of normal children in kindergarten and grade 1 to their performance on the Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language.

For 55 normal-hearing and regularly educated children (Kindergarten and Grade 1) aged 62-81 months, the relationship was determined between chronological age and performance on the test for Auditory Comprehension of Language (TACL). Performance on the TACL related poorly to age (Spearman Rank Correlation coefficient: .35, p less than .02). The implication is that the TACL may not be sensitive to the normal development of auditory comprehension of language within the sharply limited age range examined. The data presented from these 55 entirely normal children may be used as additional norms of TACL for that age range.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1995

Effects of direct instruction in Spanish phonology on the native-language skills and foreign-language aptitude of at-risk foreign-language learners.

This study examined the effect of an academic year of direct instruction in the phonology/orthography of Spanish on the native-language skills and foreign-language aptitude of high school women identified as at risk (n = 14) and not at risk (n = 19) for experiencing problems with learning a foreign language. At-risk students received a specialized teaching approach; not-at-risk students received traditional foreign-language instruction. Pre- and posttest results showed that both groups improved significantly on a foreign-language aptitude test, and the at-risk group made significant gains on native-language phonology/orthography measures. Pretest comparisons showed significant between-group differences on several phonological/orthographic measures and the foreign-language aptitude test. Posttest comparisons showed that the not-at-risk subjects still scored significantly higher than at-risk subjects on the foreign-language aptitude measure; no differences were noted on two native-language phonological/orthographic measures. Pre- and posttest comparisons between groups showed that the at-risk group made significantly greater gains than the not-at-risk group on phonological/orthographic measures. Implications for instruction are presented.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Hearing, language, speech, vestibular, and dentofacial disorders in fetal alcohol syndrome.

Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is characterized by congenital anomalies traditionally associated with hearing disorders. The present study sought to (a) evaluate possible central hearing loss; (b) verify and extend previous observations on sensorineural and conductive hearing losses; (c) evaluate possible vestibular disorders; (d) examine the relationships between hearing, speech, language, vestibular, and dentofacial disorders in FAS patients; and (e) evaluate the influence of patient age, race, and gender on the expression of these morbidities. A biracial group of 22 FAS patients (aged 3 to 26 years) were evaluated by standard hearing, speech, language, and vestibular tests. Dentofacial and other malformations were also assessed. Of the 22 FAS patients, 17 (77%) had intermittent conductive hearing loss due to recurrent serous otitis media that persisted from early childhood into adulthood, whereas 6 (27%) had sensorineural hearing loss in addition to the conductive hearing loss. Among the 12 patients tested for central hearing function, all (100%) were significantly impaired. Among the patients tested for speech and language ability, 18 of 20 (90%) had speech pathology, 16 of 21 (76%) had expressive language deficits, and 18 of 22 (82%) had receptive language deficits. Hearing, speech, and language deficits were not influenced by age, race, or gender. On the vestibular tests, all performed within normal limits with the possible exception of one child (n = 6). High incidences of dentofacial, temporomandibular joint, ocular, cardiac, and skeletal disorders were observed. Race and gender tended to influence dental malocclusion class. Two subjects exhibited autistic tendencies. In conclusion, new and important findings included a high prevalence of sensorineural, conductive, and central hearing deficits, the persistence of otitis proneness into adulthood, the existence of temporomandibular joint disorders, and the possible influence of gender or race on dental malocclusions. Such disorders can contribute to the learning, behavioral, and emotional difficulties seen in FAS patients and warrant early, aggressive intervention.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Clinical and research congruence in identifying children with specific language impairment.

This paper reports on the results of a large multicenter project designed to develop an empirically based classification of preschool children with language impairments. A clinically selected population of 252 children with specific language impairments (SLI) was used to evaluate the reliability, coverage, and usefulness of both standard clinical and research definitions of such children. Varying degrees of congruence were found between the clinically identified children with SLI and those identified as SLI using discrepancy, deficit, and standardized operational criteria. Such mismatch between the original clinical identification and more standardized operational criteria may be related to different clinical perspectives, professional training, and limited assessment measures. These results suggest that there is a significant gulf between the clinical diagnosis of children with specific language impairment and more standardized operational criteria. It is suggested that the global concept of a "specific language impairment" may not be a useful concept for either clinical or research activities.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1983

Language function and dysfunction among Chinese- and English-speaking polyglots: cortical stimulation, Wada testing, and clinical studies.

Language functions in a group of Chinese- and English-speaking polyglots living in a multiracial society have been investigated by several methods: the effects of cortical stimulation on object-naming and reading tasks in patients who required awake craniotomy, lateralization of cerebral dominance for speech by the Wada Test, and the pattern of language loss and recovery following stroke. The data indicate that these polyglots were all left hemisphere dominant for the languages tested: no consistent evidence for increased participation by the right hemisphere for language functions was found. The cortical stimulation experiments provided data most compatible with the "differential localization" model of cerebral localization in bilingualism. The variable which most influenced performance in all of these investigations was which language was used primarily for speaking as well as reading and writing at the time of the study.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Using assessment of higher brain functions of children with GJB2-associated deafness and cochlear implants as a procedure to evaluate language development.

OBJECTIVE: While investigators have reported that patients with GJB2-associated deafness and cochlear implants have preferable language development, the mechanisms of this phenomenon remains unknown. The goal of the present study was to assess higher brain functions of patients with GJB2-related and GJB2-unrelated deafness as a method of evaluating language development. METHODS: Eight children with cochlear implants were subjected to genetic testing for GJB2 and underwent the Raven colored progressive matrices test, Rey's auditory verbal learning test, Rey's complex figure test, the standardized language test for aphasia, the picture vocabulary test, and the standardized comprehension test for abstract words. RESULTS: Three children were diagnosed with GJB2-related deafness, and five children were diagnosed with GJB2-unrelated deafness. All three GJB2-related cases demonstrated normal range higher brain functions and fair language development. By contrast, one GJB2-unrelated case showed a semantic disorder, another demonstrated a visual cognitive disorder with dyslexia, and another had attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. CONCLUSIONS: Children with GJB2-unrelated deafness showed a high frequency of heterogeneous disorders that can affect proper language development. This difference between children with GJB2-related and GJB2-unrelated deafness may account for the improved language development in children with GJB2-related deafness and cochlear implants. Further, genetic diagnosis of the non-syndromic hearing loss represents a useful tool for the preoperative prediction of outcomes following a cochlear implant procedure.

Audiometry↗
PubMed1981

Nonlinguistic symbolic and conceptual abilities of language-impaired and normally developing children.

This study was motivated in part by the claim that language-impaired children with normal nonverbal intelligence suffer from representational and symbolization deficits (Morehead & Ingram, 1973). The study also examined the developing concepts of class, number, and order in these children to evaluate the claim that their thinking and reasoning in the nonlinguistic domain were within normal limits. Subjects were language-impaired children and two groups of normally developing children, one matched for MA and the other for MLU to the language-imparied group. Each group consisted of ten children. Each child was administered six nonstandardized cognitive tasks from the Piagetian literature. These tasks were designed to assess developing nonlinguistic symbolic abilities and conceptual knowledge of class, number, and order relations. The language-impaired children consistently performed better than MLU-matched controls but more poorly than MA-matched peers. However, only one task--Haptic Recognition--uncovered a significant difference between the language-impaired and MA-matched groups. The difficulty that language-impaired children experienced on this task was taken as evidence that they had deficient nonlinguistic symbolic abilities. Some tentative conclusions are offered concerning the role representational abilities play in language development.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1992

Stability of the intelligence quotient-language quotient relation: is discrepancy modeling based on a myth?

Diagnostic and service eligibility decisions are often made on the basis of the relation between assessments of cognitive ability and assessments of language ability. A discrepancy between cognitive and language performance, with cognition being higher, is thought to be a positive predictor of ability to benefit from intervention. This triage model assumes reasonable stability of cognitive and language measures over time. We evaluated the stability, over 1- and 2-year periods, of the relation between a cognitive measure and two language measures. We examined whether the cognitive-language relation for these measures changed significantly over time and whether children remained in the same service eligibility category, based on the discrepancy model, over time. Results indicated substantial changes in the cognitive-language relation over time. Children's eligibility for service, based on the discrepancy model, also fluctuated greatly over time. We conclude that a discrepancy model of triage based on broad cognitive and language measures is not an effective means of determining who should receive service. Alternative triage methods were presented.

Child↗
PubMed2003

[Confusing stories, not always confusion! Language disorders and dementia].

Sometimes confusing stories may have unexpected causes. A confused patient is not necessarily delirious or demented. We present three patients in which diagnosis was difficult. Their confusion appeared to be caused only partially by memory impairment. Dementia often presents with memory impairment, but sometimes a language disorder is more prominent. Ten percent of the dementias show language disturbances as the first sign. Language disturbances may exist for a long time, even before the onset of the memory impairment. The language disorder causes difficulty in proper judgment of memory. Logopedic examination is necessary to diagnose the language disorder. Neuropsychological testing should take the language disorder into account. Diagnostic accuracy is important. Distinguishing dementia from a language disorder has implications for the judgment of the patient's (dis)abilities and management.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Functional MR of frontal lobe activation: comparison with Wada language results.

PURPOSE: Our purpose was to determine the utility of functional MR imaging in conjunction with a word-generation paradigm in the assessment of language lateralization. METHODS: Functional MR imaging and Wada testing for language lateralization was performed in patients with complex partial seizures during the performance of word-generation tasks. A language lateralization quotient was calculated from the number of activated pixels in the right and left hemispheres. A language laterality score was derived from the Wada results as the percentage of correct responses during right internal carotid artery injection minus the percentage of correct responses during left internal carotid injection. A correlation coefficient between the functional MR imaging results and the Wada language laterality scores was calculated. RESULTS: In 13 patients, hemispheric dominance based on Wada testing was confirmed by functional MR imaging during silent word generation. The Wada laterality scores varied from 100 to -100 and the functional MR imaging scores varied from 100 to -10. The language lateralization scores determined by functional MR imaging correlated significantly with the language lateralization scores derived from Wada testing. CONCLUSION: Functional MR imaging performed during word generation is an accurate method for lateralizing language function in patients with complex partial epilepsy.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Use of preoperative functional neuroimaging to predict language deficits from epilepsy surgery.

BACKGROUND: Left anterior temporal lobectomy (L-ATL) may be complicated by confrontation naming deficits. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether preoperative fMRI predicts such deficits in patients with epilepsy undergoing L-ATL. METHODS: Twenty-four patients with L-ATL underwent preoperative language mapping with fMRI, preoperative intracarotid amobarbital (Wada) testing for language dominance, and pre- and postoperative neuropsychological testing. fMRI laterality indexes (LIs), reflecting the interhemispheric difference between activated volumes in left and right homologous regions of interest, were calculated for each patient. Relationships between the fMRI LI, Wada language dominance, and naming outcome were examined. RESULTS: Both the fMRI LI (p < 0.001) and the Wada test (p < 0.05) were predictive of naming outcome. fMRI showed 100% sensitivity and 73% specificity in predicting significant naming decline. Both fMRI and the Wada test were more predictive than age at seizure onset or preoperative naming performance. CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative fMRI predicted naming decline in patients undergoing left anterior temporal lobectomy surgery.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Evaluation of practice effects in language and spatial processing test performance.

Recent research demonstrates that practice effects are attenuated through the administration of alternate-form memory tests. However, little is known about the degree of practice that can be expected when alternate forms of nonmemory tests are administered repeatedly. Two groups of healthy older adults were assigned to either a same- or alternate-forms condition. Participants completing the same forms of a confrontation naming task improved significantly over 4 testing sessions. On verbal fluency, participant performance significantly improved when completing only alternate forms. No significant practice effects were observed on tests of spatial processing. Practice effects caused by item-specific practice may be reduced via alternate test forms. However, similar reductions will be less apparent when practice effects are the result of test-specific practice.

Aged↗