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At least 667 records · Page 37Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Home environments of 10-month-old infants selected by the WILSTAAR screen for pre-language difficulties.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The Ward Infant Language Screening Test, Assessment, Acceleration and Remediation (WILSTAAR) comprises a programme for identifying and helping 8-10-month-old infants showing early signs of language and communication difficulty. The study addresses one of the queries raised by critics of the programme by providing evidence about the backgrounds and home environments of infants who fail the WILSTAAR screening assessment. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Thirty 10-month-old infants who failed the screen ('at-risk' infants) and 30 gender- and age-matched infants who passed the screen ('not-at-risk' infants) were visited at home by a trained observer who collected information about the infants' physical and social environment and families' demographic features. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Parents of both groups were well educated, in stable relationships, and had no evidence of social or economic disadvantage. Measures of ambient sound level and television exposure did not support the hypothesis that the at-risk infants' environments involved high levels of noise. However, observations of spontaneous behaviour and a standardized Mother-Infant Play Task identified low amounts of social interaction in at-risk cases. During the play task, mothers of at-risk infants spent twice as much time without interacting with their infants. At-risk infants babbled one-third less than not-at-risk infants during 150-min observations of spontaneous behaviour. CONCLUSIONS: The findings point to deficiencies in social interaction and communication, involving both infant and parental contributions, as maintaining the infants' difficulties at this age. The core of the WILSTAAR intervention, of encouraging social communication between parents and infants, is not complex and does not need to be confined to at-risk cases. How this is best accomplished in the general community, and whether it should be included in national schemes such as Sure Start in the UK, are important topics for practitioners and policy-makers.

Attention↗
PubMed2000

A preliminary version of a computerized naming test for preschool children with language impairment.

The most prevailing hypothesis regarding mechanisms behind specific language impairment today is the hypothesis of general limitations of processing capacity. Such an hypothesis can hardly be tested by available language assessment tools, especially not by instruments in use for clinical assessment of the lexical-semantic domain in children. Reduced naming speed is by some researchers considered as a core deficit in dyslexia and a better predictor of some aspects of reading proficiency than phonological processing. The overall purpose of the present study was therefore to develop a processing dependent tool, that could capture dynamic aspects of naming; response latencies, hesitation phenomena and contextual influence. We also present data from 30 children (4-6 years old) with normal language development. We believe that, with some modifications, the naming test has a potential of becoming a processing dependent measure of naming and a necessary complement to the assessment of vocabulary skills in children with language impairment.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Evaluation of performance with the COMBI40 cochlear implant in adults: a multicentric clinical study.

The present multicentric clinical study involves 19 centres, 16 of them in German-speaking countries, 1 British, 1 Polish and 1 Hungarian. 60 postlingually deafened adults with a mean age of 47.5 years (20-70) and mean duration of deafness of 5.3 years (0.5-20) have been evaluated with the MED-EL COMBI 40 cochlear implant which implements a high-rate continuous-interleaved-sampling strategy with 8 channels. Safety and effectiveness data have been collected. Speech perception tests include a 16-consonant, an 8-vowel, a sentence and a monosyllabic-word test in all languages and a 2-digit figure test in all languages but English. Test intervals are 1, 3, 6 months and 1 year after first fitting. 41 of the 60 postlingually deafened adult study patients have completed their 6-month evaluation. While their pre-operative monosyllabic-word score was 0%, their mean monosyllabic-word score 6 months after first fitting was 48% (8-90) with a median of 50%. The mean sentence understanding was 84% (24-100) with a median of 90%. The respective values for the 1-year evaluations with 25 patients are a mean of 50% (5-85), with a median of 60% for the monosyllables and a mean of 89% (30-100), with a median of 97%, for the sentences.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Education and decline in cognitive performance: compensatory but not protective.

The association between education and cognitive change was investigated in a large community sample of elderly people followed up after 3.6 years. Lower education was predictive of decline on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and on tests of language and knowledge, but not on tests of cognitive speed, memory or reaction time. The effects of education were not attenuated when adjusted for health, disability or activity level. The findings suggest that education slows the rate of decline on crystallized intelligence, but not other cognitive abilities. Education may compensate for neurodegenerative changes rather than protect against them.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1981

Intracranial arterial aneurysms in children and adolescents.

This is a report on 32 patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage caused by rupture of an intracranial arterial aneurysm in the 0-19 age group. Sixteen of the aneurysms were situated in the bifurcation of the internal carotid artery, 8 in the anterior communicating artery, 4 in the posterior communicating artery, two in PICA, one in the middle cerebral artery, and one in the pericallosal artery. Direct intracranial clipping of the neck of the aneurysm was carried out in 26 cases, proximal clipping in three, wrapping in two, and common carotid ligation in one case. There was one death from surgery. The surgical mortality was thus 3.1%. In 80% of cases the result was good, i.e., the patient had no neurological deficit and was able to work or continue at normal school. The psychological tests indicated some cognitive deficits in aneurysm patients as compared to the control patients. The common feature of these deficits seemed to be an impairment of active retrieval and searching of memory, while common cognitive skills were usually preserved. Four of the five patients who were disabled had obvious deficits in their performances. In the other patients these deficits did not affect their capacity for work or studies, and they were usually unaware of them. Children seem to tolerate surgery better than adults. Comatose or drowsy patients should not be operated on. The operative method of choice is direct intracranial clipping of the neck of the aneurysm.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

The influence of amphetamine on language activation: an fMRI study.

RATIONALE: Amphetamine administration has been found to affect the degree of cerebral dominance for motor control in animals. In humans, cerebral dopamine neurotransmission is also correlated to motor dominance. Since language dominance is related to motor dominance, amphetamine might also affect cerebral dominance for language. METHODS: To test this hypothesis, language activation was measured twice with functional magnetic resonance imaging in ten healthy right-handed men in a double-blind crossover design 2 h after amphetamine or placebo administration. RESULTS: Language-related activation increased significantly in task-related areas, but the individual lateralization index was not affected in the amphetamine condition as compared to placebo. CONCLUSIONS: This finding suggests that short-termed alterations in the dopaminergic neurotransmission do not affect language dominance.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Differences between scorers on selected language measures.

Differences in scores assigned by five speech-language pathologists were determined for 96 language samples utilizing assessments of total words, total sentences, words per sentence, syntax quotient (usage and endings), syntax quotient (structures), and an abstract-concrete scale. Results of the study showed statistically significant interscorer differences for words per sentence, syntax quotient (usage and endings), and the abstract-concrete scale. Although the mean differences between scorers for total words, total sentences, and syntax quotient (structures) were not statistically significant, substantial absolute differences between scorers were found on all six measurement procedures.

Child↗
PubMed1994

Communicative development in twins with discordant histories of recurrent otitis media.

The communicative abilities of six sets of same-sex, dizygotic twins (CAs 2;1-4;1) were examined. In each dyad, one sibling had a strong positive history of recurrent otitis media (ROM), while the other twin had a negative or minimal history of ROM. Standardized test performance and spontaneous speech and language abilities were examined. Results suggest that although a history of ROM is associated with lowered receptive vocabulary scores in these dyads, no consistent effects of ROM could be detected in expressive speech and language tasks. In two dyads, the ROM-positive twin did score lower on articulation and language measures; however, in two dyads, children with equivalent histories of ROM outscored their ROM-negative siblings. In the remaining dyads, little difference was observed between the siblings on the measures we used. We suggest that the effects of ROM on communicative development are complex and subtle, and that control of home and day care environment may minimize some of the previously documented associations between ROM and speech-language development.

Child Language↗
PubMed1983

Cognitive capacities of juvenile violent, nonviolent, and sexual offenders.

Juvenile violent, nonviolent, and sexual offenders were compared across a broad range of intellectual, neuropsychological, and psychoeducational measures. No systematic group differences were noted, nor was cognitive status related to the severity of violent behavior. These findings cast doubt on the generalizability of previous investigations implicating cerebral dysfunction in juvenile delinquents.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Assessment of auditory skills in 140 cochlear implant children using the EARS protocol.

Auditory performance of cochlear implant (CI) children was assessed with the Listening Progress Profile (LiP) and the Monosyllabic-Trochee-Polysyllabic-Word Test (MTP) following the EARS protocol. Additionally, the 'initial drop' phenomenon, a recently reported decrease of auditory performance occurring immediately after first fitting, was investigated. Patients were 140 prelingually deafened children from various clinics and centers worldwide implanted with a MEDEL COMBI 40/40+. Analysis of LiP data showed a significant increase after 1 month of CI use compared to preoperative scores (p < 0.01). No initial decrease was observed with this test. Analysis of MTP data revealed a significant improvement of word recognition after 6 months (p < 0.01), with a significant temporary decrease after initial fitting (p < 0.01). With both tests, children's auditory skills improved up to 2 years. Amount of improvement was negatively correlated with age at implantation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Apolipoprotein E epsilon4 allele differentiates the clinical response to donepezil in Alzheimer's disease.

The existence of an association between apolipoprotein E (APOE) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been reported in several studies. The possession of an ApoE epsilon4 allele is now considered a genetic risk factor for sporadic AD. There has been a growing agreement about the role exerted by the ApoE epsilon4 allele on the neuropsychological profile and the rate of cognitive decline in AD patients. However, a more controversial issue remains about a possible influence of the APOE genotype on acetylcholinesterase inhibitor therapy response in AD patients. In order to address this issue, 81 patients diagnosed as having probable AD were evaluated by a complete neuropsychological test battery at the time of diagnosis (baseline) and after 12-16 months (retest). Patients were divided into two subgroups: (1) treated with donepezil at a dose of 5 mg once a day (n = 41) and (2) untreated (n = 40). Donepezil therapy was started after baseline evaluation. The APOE genotype was determined according to standardized procedures. We evaluated the possible effect of the APOE genotype on the neuropsychological tasks in relation to donepezil therapy. The statistical analysis of the results showed a global worsening of cognitive performances for all AD patients at the retest. Differences in the clinical outcome were analysed in the four subgroups of AD patients for each neuropsychological task. ApoE epsilon4 carriers/treated patients had improved or unchanged scores at retest evaluation for the following tasks: visual and verbal memory, visual attention and inductive reasoning and Mini Mental State Examination. These results indicate an effect of donepezil on specific cognitive domains (attention and memory) in the ApoE epsilon4 carriers with AD. This might suggest an early identification of AD patients carrying at least one epsilon4 allele as responders to donepezil therapy.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Ease of administration of the cognitive adaptive test/clinical linguistic and auditory milestone scale (CAT/CLAMS) during pediatric well-child visits.

Barriers to early identification of children with developmental delays include time constraints during well-child visits and lack of easily administered, quantitative measures that can be used by pediatricians. This study assesses the ease of administration of the Cognitive Adaptive Test/Clinical Linguistic and Auditory Milestone Scale (CAT/CLAMS) during well-child visits from 2 to 36 months of age. During a single visit 177 children were assessed by either a developmental pediatrician (n = 121) or a third-year pediatric resident (n = 56). The mean time required to complete the CAT/CLAMS for all subjects was 6 minutes and 10 seconds (SD 2 minutes 44 seconds); less than 10 minutes was required in 92% of children assessed. There were no significant differences in the time required by the 2 examiners at any age level. Its ease of administration and psychometric properties make the CAT/CLAMS an excellent choice for the assessment of early development by primary care pediatricians.

Analysis of Variance↗