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PubMed1996

English language ability and mental health service utilisation: a census.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationship between English language proficiency and mental health service utilisation. METHODS: In September 1993, a sample census was conducted of all mental health services in the State of Victoria, including public and private hospital wards, outpatient consultations provided by psychiatrists and clinical psychologists, and primary mental health care provided by general practitioners. Response rates ranged from 37% for monolingual general practitioners (GPs) to 96% for inpatient units. Particular emphasis was placed on patients' English language proficiency and the role played by bilingual clinicians. RESULTS: Over 80% of inpatients received a diagnosis of either dementia or psychosis. This proportion was even greater in the case of patients with English language difficulties. The latter group of patients underutilised specialist outpatient services, and those using these services were less likely to receive psychotherapy than fluent English speakers. They utilised GPs for mental disorder at at least the same rate as other patients. There was a marked preference for bilingual GPs, with 80% of patients with poor English language skills consulting GPs who spoke their native language. CONCLUSION: There appears to be considerable underutilisation of specialist mental health services by patients who are not fluent in English. The liaison-consultation model of psychiatric care may be an effective way of addressing this problem, given the important role already played by billingual GPs in the psychiatric care of those whose native language is not English.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Spontaneous language production and aging: sex and educational effects.

Sex and educational level effects on spontaneous language production at different ages were analyzed in a 180-normal subject sample taken from the general population. Subjects were divided into groups according to three variables: (1) age (16-30, 31-50, and 51-65 years), (2) educational level (3-7, 8-12 and more than 12 years of formal educational), and (3) sex (males and females) with 10 subjects in each cell. The oral description of the Plate #1 ("The Cookie Theft") from the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (Goodglass & Kaplan, 1972) was selected. Number of nouns, verbs, adjectives and grammatical connectors were scored for each subject's picture description. It was concluded that: (1) the ratio among different phrase elements was very uniform across age, educational level and sex groups; (2) the total number of words used to describe the "The Cookie Theft" picture significantly increased with the subject's educational level; (3) the amount of spontaneous language in general decreased with age; however, a significant interaction-effect between age and sex was observed. A steady and pronounced spontaneous language decrease across age-groups was observed in males. However, only mild differences across age-groups were observed in female subjects. It was hypothetized that language changes during aging are strongly sex-dependent: while in men spontaneous language rapidly decreases with aging, in women spontaneous language production remains quite well-preserved.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

The effect of birth order on the occurrence of developmental language impairment.

The birth order of second-grade children with and without developmental language impairment was obtained to determine if language-impaired children were more likely to be later born than earlier born. In this study the family size and socioeconomic status of the families for the language-impaired and normal groups were very similar. Comparison of the distribution of birth ranks between second-grade language-impaired and normal second-grade children failed to show a difference in birth ranks. Further, the distribution of birth ranks of all language-impaired children within the sibships was not found to show evidence favouring either early or later born birth ranks. Thus, contrary to previous research in which family size and socioeconomic status were not controlled, this study did not provide evidence in support of a birth order effect in developmental language impairment.

Birth Order↗
PubMed1990

Figurative language and reading comprehension in American deaf and hard-of-hearing children: textual interactions.

The limited evidence on figurative language in deaf children, as well as 'professional intuitions', has led those who teach them to conclude that reading comprehension will be significantly complicated by figurative language. However, there are disagreements among practitioners as to how best to manage figurative language when it appears in text. Generally, some sort of textual modification is made, although those for and against 'simplified texts' are split on this issue. Those who favour them suggest either that complex vocabulary and syntax be reconstructed or that they be gradually introduced. However, reformulations are seldom standard nor are the figurative tropes such as metaphor, simile, personification etc. systematically introduced. Those against simplified texts argue that the problem of figurative language control is not one of linguistic complexity, but one of cognitive processing: deaf children can grasp inferred or indirect meaning so long as the referential domain is made clear. Such comprehension comes by way of demonstration, practice and feedback and figurative language need not present a special problem. In this present study, 14 deaf and hard-of-hearing children and youths who had been randomly assigned to one of two groups were given an original story entitled 'Peaches the Cat' and asked to read it. One group read a literal version of the story and one group read a figurative version in which all textual answers to the question were masked with figurative phraseology. Both groups answered the questions above a chance level and the figurative version did not prove to be more difficult than the literal version. The two groups were comparable on hearing loss and on reading and language ability.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Cognition↗
PubMed1998

Encouraging speech and language development in exceptional circumstances.

An evaluation of the accessibility of the speech and language therapy service within Down Lisburn Trust and a needs assessment of the levels of speech and language difficulties in preschool children was conducted between October 1996 and March 1997. Results highlighted that 42% of preschool children had speech and language difficulties, however only 17.8% were able to access the speech and language therapy service for remediation of their difficulties. A further 2-3 year project is now planned. This aims to tackle the high levels of speech and language difficulties in children through prevention, early identification and remediation programmes. It also aims to ensure equitable access to the speech and language therapy service for all children.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1979

Individual variability in cortical localization of language.

Individual variability in the localization of language, as measured by object-naming, was assessed for left lateral peri-Sylvian cortex with a multi-sample technique of stimulation mapping at a constant current. This study was performed during craniotomy under local anesthesia in 10 patients with medically intractable epilepsy and the usual pattern of left brain dominance for language. A high degree of variability in the exact location of naming was present. Only one area, a small portion of the third frontal convolution immediately in front of the motor strip, showed naming changes in all patients in whom it was sampled. This area is considerably smaller than the classical Broca's area. Elsewhere in language cortex, including all parts of the posterior language area, there was considerable individual variability. Because of this, the classical model of language localization is an inaccurate basis for establishing the risk of aphasia in surgical therapy of dominant hemisphere peri-Sylvian lesions in this and related patient populations. Rather, that risk should be assessed from the individual localization of language, established by the multisample technique of stimulation mapping.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Language function following anterior temporal lobectomy.

The authors report the results of a prospective investigation that evaluated postoperative changes in language function after dominant (29 cases) or nondominant (35 cases) anterior temporal lobectomy for treatment of complex partial seizures. These patients received conservative resection of lateral temporal cortex but aggressive resection of medial temporal cortex. None of the patients underwent functional mapping of cortical language ability. All patients were assessed with a standardized aphasia battery (Multilingual Aphasia Examination) before and 6 months after surgery. Postoperatively, the dominant anterior temporal lobectomy group did not show any significant losses in language function compared to patients who underwent nondominant anterior temporal lobectomy. In addition, the dominant temporal lobectomy group showed significant postoperative improvement in complex receptive language comprehension compared to the nondominant group. These results suggest that patients with complex partial seizures of medial temporal lobe onset can undergo a conservative resection of lateral temporal cortex without language mapping. Such surgery carries little risk to language function and provides an excellent postoperative surgical outcome.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Cortical stimulation mapping of language cortex by using a verb generation task: effects of learning and comparison to mapping based on object naming.

OBJECT: Cortical stimulation mapping has traditionally relied on disruption of object naming to define essential language areas. In this study, the authors reviewed the use of a different language task, verb generation, in mapping language. This task has greater use in brain imaging studies and may be used to test aspects of language different from those of object naming. METHODS: In 14 patients, cortical stimulation mapping performed using a verb generation task provided a map of language areas in the frontal and temporoparietal cortices. These verb generation maps often overlapped object naming ones and, in many patients, different areas of cortex were found to be involved in the two functions. In three patients, stimulation mapping was performed during the initial performance of the verb generation task and also during learned performance of the task. Parallel to findings of published neuroimaging studies, a larger area of stimulated cortex led to disruption of verb generation in response to stimulation during novel task performance than during learned performance. CONCLUSIONS: Results of cortical stimulation mapping closely resemble those of functional neuroimaging when both implement the verb generation task. The precise map of the temporoparietal language cortex depends on the task used for mapping.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Revitalization of minority languages as a way to promote well-being in the North.

BACKGROUND: In this paper I discuss the interdependence between the revitalization of minority languages and well-being at the population level. OBJECTIVES: The paper aims to describe the history and current status of three northern minority languages, Kven, Meänkieli and Viena Karelian, and the ways in which revitalization of these languages and restoration of their linguistic rights could enhance the well-being of the speakers of these languages. METHODS: A number of research findings are presented to show that being a minority language speaker constitutes an economic, social and health risk. The potential psychic and physical adverse effects of linguistic exploitation are also discussed. RESULTS: It is further demonstrated in the paper that non-existent linguistic rights may have a negative impact, not only on the overall well-being of the minority, but also on the group's economic status. Positive findings on minority status are presented concerning the speakers of Swedish in Finland and the speakers of French in Canada. CONCLUSION: It is also shown that the development of a minority language and functional linguistic rights may prolong the life expectancy and well-being of the minority members and have a positive economic impact, not only on the minority, but also on society as a whole.

Culture↗
PubMed2005

Language policies: instruments in cultural development and well-being.

OBJECTIVES: To measure social capital in one multilingual region of northern Sweden. Earlier studies have neglected the language aspect of social capital development. To map cultural production (song, literature, theatre) in Meänkieli, Finnish, Saami and Swedish in the Swedish Torne Valley. METHODS: Statistical comparison of regions. Cultural statistics from electronic libraries are related to language policies, density of voluntary associations, unemployment, sickness and life expectancy. Lists of voluntary associations from municipality authorities. STUDY DESIGN: The multilingual region contains five municipalities which are related to each other. Two monolingual regions are cited as references for the study: Finnish Torne Valley and parts of county Västerbotten. RESULTS: Pajala has the best institutionalisation of the former vernacular Meänkieli. Saami gains best institutional support in Kiruna. Gällivare has the weakest interest to maintain any minority language, whereas Haparanda promotes Finnish in education and administration. Overtorneå has some interest in Finnish and Meänkieli. Cultural production corresponds with the institutionalisation of Meänkieli and Saami and develops best in Pajala and Kiruna. Haparanda and especially Gällivare have weak cultural activities in Meänkieli, Finnish, Saami and Swedish. Finnish is a common, formal, administrative language in Haparanda, but is only occasionally used in cultural domains. However, the monolingual regions have higher cultural production and seem to have denser networks of voluntary associations. Since the 1980s, the cultural index is highest in the multilingual region. CONCLUSIONS: Former discriminative language policies have, most likely, hamperered development of the civil society in the multilingual region, which has seemingly had an influence on unemployment and well-being. The monolingual region has less unemployment, (earlier) better health and better life expectancy for males. There are, however, indications that the revitalisation of the minority language effects positively on socio-economic conditions.

Cross-Sectional Studies↗
PubMed2005

Attention control and ability level in a complex cognitive skill: attention shifting and second-language proficiency.

In this study, we investigated the relationship between attention control and proficiency in a complex cognitive skill. The participants were English-French bilinguals with varying degrees of second-language (French) proficiency. Proficiency was operationalized as efficiency of lexical access in an animacy judgment task, as reflected in the coefficient of variability of response time adjusted for first-language performance on the same task. Attention control was operationalized as the shift cost obtained in a linguistic version of the alternating runs task-switching paradigm. Hierarchical regression revealed that, overall, attention control accounted for 59% of the variance of proficiency and that second-language attention control alone accounted for 32% of the unique variance of proficiency, indicating a high degree of skill domain (second language) specificity in the relationship between attention control and proficiency. The results speak to issues regarding the development of expertise, second-language acquisition, and a cognitive linguistic approach to language and attention.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

SignStream: a tool for linguistic and computer vision research on visual-gestural language data.

Research on recognition and generation of signed languages and the gestural component of spoken languages has been held back by the unavailability of large-scale linguistically annotated corpora of the kind that led to significant advances in the area of spoken language. A major obstacle has been the lack of computational tools to assist in efficient analysis and transcription of visual language data. Here we describe SignStream, a computer program that we have designed to facilitate transcription and linguistic analysis of visual language. Machine vision methods to assist linguists in detailed annotation of gestures of the head, face, hands, and body are being developed. We have been using SignStream to analyze data from native signers of American Sign Language (ASL) collected in our new video collection facility, equipped with multiple synchronized digital video cameras. The video data and associated linguistic annotations are being made publicly available in multiple formats.

Computer Simulation↗
PubMed1977

Language acquisition: the new synthesis.

Developments concerning the nature of language have taken place in the disparate disciplines of linguistics, ethology and neurology. It is not widely known that these developments have brought these fields of study into accord, and have helped clarify the mechanism of language acquisition in childhood. They carry practical implications important to the teaching of language and to the understanding of language disabilities. The conclusions have also led to the discovery of cranial vault asymmetries which promise insight into the evolution of language in man's prehistory. The learning of language has become better understood as a result of recent developments in the fields of linguistics, ethology and comparative neurology.

Animal Communication↗
PubMed2000

[Which language will MEDLINE speak in the next millennium?].

OBJECTIVES: To analyze the trends in the prevalence of the languages used in Medline, since its creation up to the present time, for the overall indexed articles in this database and those specifically related to the field of Urology. The results are extrapolated to determine the trend over the next 15 years. METHODS: The Pubmed page on Internet (http:www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/nlm. html) and the Medline database (OldMedline 1960-1965 and current Medline 1966-1999) were accessed to determine the total number of indexed articles and the distribution by year, language and country. The same method was applied for articles specifically pertaining to the field of Urology. RESULTS: Overall, English accounts for 75% of the nearly 10 million articles indexed in Medline since its creation. The prevalence of the English language has grown steadily since 1966 when it already accounted for 53% of these indexed articles up to 89% in 1999, for a yearly increase of 1%. Similar results were found for the articles specifically pertaining to the field of Urology. The number of the indexed articles in the English language has grown to almost 400% since 1966, whereas those written in other languages have dropped by 40%. In some countries like Holland, Germany or Japan, most of the articles are published in English. CONCLUSIONS: If the current trend continues, all the articles indexed in the Medline database will comprise only those written in the English language by 2014.

Forecasting↗
PubMed2000

An evaluation of ontology exchange languages for bioinformatics.

Ontologies are specifications of the concepts in a given field, and of the relationships among those concepts. The development of ontologies for molecular-biology information and the sharing of those ontologies within the bioinformatics community are central problems in bioinformatics. If the bioinformatics community is to share ontologies effectively, ontologies must be exchanged in a form that uses standardized syntax and semantics. This paper reports on an effort among the authors to evaluate alternative ontology-exchange languages, and to recommend one or more languages for use within the larger bioinformatics community. The study selected a set of candidate languages, and defined a set of capabilities that the ideal ontology-exchange language should satisfy. The study scored the languages according to the degree to which they satisfied each capability. In addition, the authors performed several ontology-exchange experiments with the two languages that received the highest scores: OML and Ontolingua. The result of those experiments, and the main conclusion of this study, was that the frame-based semantic model of Ontolingua is preferable to the conceptual graph model of OML, but that the XML-based syntax of OML is preferable to the Lisp-based syntax of Ontolingua.

Computational Biology↗
PubMed2003

Development of communication and speech skills after cochlear implant in a sign language child.

In selecting patients to undergo cochlear implant, a pre-existing use of sign language gives rise to two problems that have been widely debated in the literature. First, the caution shown toward the candidacy of patients using this mode of communication, since it is considered a possible element of interference in the acquisition of speech. Secondly, refusal of the cochlear implant procedure, on the part of the deaf community, on the grounds both of cultural identity and of it being more "natural" for a deaf person to use an unimpaired visual channel rather than an impaired hearing channel. In order to establish whether knowledge of sign language does, indeed, affect speech production negatively and evaluate which mode of communication, oral or gestual, is preferred, the present investigation was carried out on a preverbal deaf child who had undergone cochlear implant at about 7 years of age and has always used both languages. His verbal skills were evaluated in the precochlear implant stage, then at 6 and 12 months after, together with the changes in his use of sign language and in the relationship between the two modes. Results, besides observing the presence of linguistic evolution at each level examined and already evident at 6 months, also documented a progressive reduction in the spontaneous use of sign language. In conclusion, the present experience revealed no temporal or qualitative differences in post-cochlear implant evolution of speech skills, in comparison with that observed in patients with an exclusively aural-oral approach. Furthermore, the increased use of the hearing pathway, made possible by cochlear implant, determined a spontaneous choice of verbal language as the most natural and economic mode of communication.

Child↗
PubMed2004

Population behaviors and language maintenance--a case of the Korean-speaking community in China.

With the regard to language maintenance, one of the most successful in over fifty of ethno-linguistic communities in China is the Korean community with more than two millions of Korean-speakers, in which there have been Regulations Regarding the Ethnic Language Use, and a maintenance-orientated and bilingual education system. However, language attrition comes to be occurring in the Korean community because more than two hundred thousands of Korean-speaking migrants have streamed from the Korean-rural community to the Chinese-urban community for the last twenty years. This paper, in urban-anthropological and sociolinguistic perspectives, is aiming at an analysis of the cause of population moves and the urbanization process of the Korean community as well as their impact on the language maintenance and bilingual education in the Korean community. It is mainly divided into four sections, namely, (1) the situation of Korean-speaking community; (2) the problem of language maintenance; (3) the impact of Korean-speakers moves on language maintenance; (4) the impact of negative growth of population, and (5) the impact of uneven ratio of female population.

Anthropology, Cultural↗
PubMed2004

Description and status update on GELLO: a proposed standardized object-oriented expression language for clinical decision support.

A major obstacle to sharing computable clinical knowledge is the lack of a common language for specifying expressions and criteria. Such a language could be used to specify decision criteria, formulae, and constraints on data and action. Al-though the Arden Syntax addresses this problem for clinical rules, its generalization to HL7's object-oriented data model is limited. The GELLO Expression language is an object-oriented language used for expressing logical conditions and computations in the GLIF3 (GuideLine Interchange Format, v. 3) guideline modeling language. It has been further developed under the auspices of the HL7 Clinical Decision Support Technical Committee, as a proposed HL7 standard., GELLO is based on the Object Constraint Language (OCL), because it is vendor-independent, object-oriented, and side-effect-free. GELLO expects an object-oriented data model. Although choice of model is arbitrary, standardization is facilitated by ensuring that the data model is compatible with the HL7 Reference Information Model (RIM).

Decision Making, Computer-Assisted↗