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PubMedDate not supplied

Issues in the assessment of reading disabilities in L2 children--beliefs and research evidence.

In bilingual and multilingual settings one is constantly challenged by the difficulty of teasing apart phenomena associated with normal second language (L2) reading acquisition from authentic warning signs of reading failure. The bulk of this paper focuses on a critical discussion of a cluster of beliefs that pertain to the issues concerning the diagnosis of reading disability in multilingual and bilingual settings among school children. Findings from available research on reading acquisition among bilingual children and research focusing specifically on the assessment of English-as-a-second language (ESL) children who might be at risk for reading disability are used to evaluate the validity of these beliefs. While some beliefs are supported by research, others are not. In particular, the research suggests that reliable diagnosis of dyslexia among ESL children can be achieved by examining within-language differences on various indices of basic reading skills such as phonological processing, and by noting a significant gap between oral and reading comprehension.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Rational versus anti-rational interpretations of science: an ape-language case-study.

Robert Nola (2003) has argued that anti-rationalist interpretations of science fail to adequately explain the process of science, since objective reasons can be causal factors in belief formation. While I agree with Nola that objective reasons can be a cause of belief, in this paper I present a version of the strong programme in the sociology of knowledge, the Interests Thesis, and argue that the Interests Thesis provides a plausible explanation of an episode in the history of ape-language research. Specifically, I examine Terrace, Petitto, Sandess, & Bever (1979, 1980) illegitimate comparison of the signing of their chimpanzee, Nim, with data from human early childhood language development, and argue that Terrace et al.'s interests played a causal role in determining their sceptical beliefs concerning ape linguistic abilities. However, I go on to argue that Terrace et al.'s interests are not the only causal factors in determining their beliefs: objective reasons, associated with the institution of new methodologies, were also causally determinative of Terrace et al.'s sceptical beliefs. Consequently, I argue that belief formation in science is a multi-factorial affair wherein both interests and objective reasons have causal roles. I finish the paper with two conjectures concerning the proper locus of scientific rationality.

Animal Communication↗
PubMed1997

Serial recovery of language during the intracarotid amobarbital procedure.

There is considerable variability among epilepsy centers in the methods and interpretations of the intracarotid amobarbital procedure. Prominent among these differences is the determination of language representation and assessment of language functions. Some centers rely on speech arrest following amobarbital injection as a marker for language representation, whereas other centers examine verbal output for the presence of aphasic errors. The present study assessed the pattern of language recovery following amobarbital injection in epilepsy patients who were candidates for temporal lobectomy. Language recovery from dominant hemisphere injection (left or right) followed a stereotypical progression, with 71.8% of patients showing return of vocalization followed by return of naming and comprehension. Repetition deficits with paraphasic errors persisted the longest (mean = 12'30"), with a conduction aphasia persisting after the acute global aphasia resolved. Although two patients interpreted as left hemisphere language dominant were mute following right hemisphere injection, all language functions were intact immediately upon resumption of vocalization and they showed no other signs of aphasia such as paraphasias or anomia. Possible explanations for serial language recovery and persistent conduction aphasia are discussed. These findings have significant implications for the determination of cerebral language dominance.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Goal importance and students at risk of having language difficulties: an underexplored aspect of student motivation.

The purpose of this study was to compare the motivational determinants of students at risk of language difficulties (in reading and spelling) and students with high language skills. Teachers' evaluations in language and mathematics at the end of the academic year constituted the dependent variable. Motivational orientations were examined using the constructs that reflect the theory of planned behavior and goal importance. Participants were 202 elementary school students-22 at risk of language difficulties and 180 with high language skills-drawn from 30 elementary schools in northern Greece. The results indicated that the two groups differed significantly, with the at-risk students exhibiting significantly lower perceptions of goal importance, intention to achieve, belief strength, outcome evaluation, and normative beliefs, and eventually scoring lower in language and mathematics at the end of the academic year. A finer analysis of students' motivational orientations was conducted using covariance structural modeling (CSM) and EQS 5.7b. The planned behavior model with goal importance produced a comparative fit index (CFI) of 1.00 in language and mathematics for the at-risk group. The respective CFIs for the high language skills group were .97 and 1.00 in language and mathematics, respectively. Although model fit was excellent across samples, different weights and signs linking motivational orientations to achievement partly explained the observed differences in language and mathematics manifested in the two groups.

Case-Control Studies↗
PubMed1998

Spontaneous sign systems created by deaf children in two cultures.

Deaf children whose access to usable conventional linguistic input, signed or spoken, is severely limited nevertheless use gesture to communicate. These gestures resemble natural language in that they are structured at the level both of sentence and of word. Although the inclination to use gesture may be traceable to the fact that the deaf children's hearing parents, like all speakers, gesture as they talk, the children themselves are responsible for introducing language-like structure into their gestures. We have explored the robustness of this phenomenon by observing deaf children of hearing parents in two cultures, an American and a Chinese culture, that differ in their child-rearing practices and in the way gesture is used in relation to speech. The spontaneous sign systems developed in these cultures shared a number of structural similarities: patterned production and deletion of semantic elements in the surface structure of a sentence; patterned ordering of those elements within the sentence; and concatenation of propositions within a sentence. These striking similarities offer critical empirical input towards resolving the ongoing debate about the 'innateness' of language in human infants.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1975

[The language of the unconscious].

The concept of consciousness, separate from that of vigilance, can be defined as the immediate knowledge of motor-perceptual activities on the cognitive assimilation of the real duration. The linguistic theories distinguish in the language first of all linguistic competence, it is grouping of signs or linguistic knowledge of the group, which one can compare to phenomenon of automatism, and secondly the spoken language or linguistic performance, a creative individual and voluntary act. The observation of aphasics and of a certain partial temporal epileptics permits to dissociate these two forms of language. That of the consciousness linked to the immediate observation of the self by ones' self could only be the creative word. The unconscious listener, separated from real time, without real creative ability, could only be the "-echo-souvenir" of the conscient person.

Aged↗
PubMed2005

Deep-feeling development gives autistics abstractions: when a young person has no abstractions, his or her thoughts or behaviors frequently seem autistic.

The heart of autism is existence by oneself. It is being, talking and acting by oneself. Talking by oneself is not talking to oneself but talking at others. Its purpose is not exchanging or hearing words. Its purpose is sending words to another person. If being completely by themselves is autistics' experience of their existence, then they may have no need for language. And there is no language development in about half of all autistics. For autistics who do have language, if they are mostly sending out words and are only sometimes exchanging or hearing words, then another person's language has little or no effect on them. Without language from outside persons as a guide, autistics' language becomes strange and free from the normal body motions (gestures) that come with language. So strange language and uncommon body motions with that language are two of autism's chief signs. Autistics are unnerved by change. So they keep their behaviors in a narrow range and do them over and over with no connection to other persons' purposes. A narrow range of behaviors done over and over for no seeming purpose is another chief sign of autism. Because young boys and girls get to being, talking and acting by themselves when they come down with autism, they no longer seem to have any idea of what is going on between themselves and other persons. So when boys and girls get autism, they frequently do or say strange and surprising things with other persons. The knowledge of what to do and say with other persons comes as abstractions. This paper's one hypothesis is that autistic persons have no abstractions because the development of their deep feelings has not gone far enough to let abstractions come into existence. By acting or talking without the support of abstractions, autistic persons have a hard time with language, learning, living and loving in relation to other persons or to society. Autism comes from stopping the development of a baby's deep feelings within the first six months after birth. The development of deep feelings may be started again by a special operation named deep-feeling contact. (Body-to-body touching is never necessary for making deep-feeling contact.) As the development of his or her deep feelings goes forward, the autistic person's abstractions come into existence. Then language, learning, living and loving become much simpler for him or her.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed2004

Liability issues for data monitoring committee members.

In randomized clinical trials, a data monitoring committee (DMC) is often appointed to review interim data to determine whether there is early convincing evidence of intervention benefit, lack of benefit or harm to study participants. Because DMCs bear serious responsibility for participant safety, their members may be legally liable for their actions. Despite more than three decades of experiences with DMCs, the issues of liability and indemnification have yet to receive appropriate attention from either government or industry sponsors. In industry-sponsored trials, DMC members are usually asked to sign an agreement delineating their responsibilities and operating procedures. While these agreements may include language on indemnification, such language sometimes protects only the sponsor rather than the DMC members. In government-sponsored trials, there has been even less structure, since typically there are no signed agreements regarding DMC activities. This paper discusses these issues and suggests sample language for indemnification agreements to protect DMC members. This type of language should be included in DMC charters and in all consulting agreements signed by DMC members.

Clinical Trials Data Monitoring Committees↗
PubMed2000

The abdominojugular reflux sign.

PURPOSE: The abdominojugular reflux sign is useful in diagnosing right ventricular failure, but is often performed and interpreted incorrectly. Our objective was to review the history, epidemiology, and pathophysiology of the abdominojugular reflux sign. METHODS: We conducted a MEDLINE search of the English language reports published between 1966 and 1999 and a manual search of bibliographies of relevant papers. RESULTS: A positive abdominojugular reflux sign is defined by an increase in the jugular venous pressure of greater than 3 cm, sustained for greater than 15 seconds. In the absence of left heart failure, a positive abdominojugular reflux sign should prompt consideration of impaired right ventricular preload, a decrease in right ventricular compliance, a decrease in right ventricular systolic function or an elevation in right ventricular afterload. In patients presenting with dyspnea, the abdominojugular reflux is useful in predicting congestive heart failure (LR+ 6.0 (95% CI; 0.8-51); LR- 0.78; (95% CI: 0.62 to 0.98)) and suggests pulmonary capillary wedge pressures of greater than 15 mm Hg (LR+ 6. 7 (95% CI: 3.3 to 13.4); LR- 0.08 (95% CI: 0.01 to 0.52)). CONCLUSION: The abdominojugular reflux is not specific to any one disorder, but rather is a reflection of a right ventricle that cannot accommodate augmented venous return. Constrictive pericarditis, right ventricular infarction, and restrictive cardiomyopathy are common causes of a positive finding. Left ventricular failure may also induce the sign, but only when the pulmonary capillary wedge pressure is greater than 15. The one diagnosis not seen with abdominojugular reflux is cardiac tamponade.

Abdomen↗
PubMed1988

Acquisition of spoken and signed English by hearing-impaired children of hearing-impaired or hearing parents.

This study examines the degree to which hearing-impaired children of hearing-impaired parents (HIP) demonstrate an advantage in their acquisition of signed and spoken English over hearing-impaired children of hearing parents (HP). A subset from the normative sample of the Grammatical Analysis of Elicited Language, 50 HIP children and 50 HP children, were matched in terms of their educational program, hearing level, and age. Results indicate that both groups had comparably poor expressive English language ability at 5 and 6 years of age. However, at age 7 and 8 HIP children demonstrated a significant linguistic advantage in both their spoken and signed English over HP children. Because the production of English by HIP children closely resembled that of orally educated hearing-impaired children of hearing parents, consistent language stimulation throughout the child's early years may be a critical factor in the development of English, regardless of the language or mode of expression.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2002

Postictal signs of lateralizing and localizing significance.

Epileptic seizures are followed by dynamic alterations in neurological function in the postictal period. Although the first observation of such phenomena dates back to Bravais who described postictal hemiparesis in 1827, this critical period of time after seizure offset has received little attention in the literature. In this article, we report some of the most important postictal signs, such as postictal hemiparesis, postictal nose wiping, postictal language dysfunction, postictal headache and postictal cognitive impairment. Summarizing our own experience of the postictal state in more than 160 patients with focal epilepsy, we conclude that postictal signs can provide reliable information for the localization of the seizure onset zone in patients with focal epilepsy. Since the lateralization and localization of the seizure onset zone has become a major issue for the presurgical evaluation of those patients, we argue that more attention should be paid to the postictal state during video EEG monitoring. Moreover, in an ambulatory setting, the postictal period and its related signs is usually the only part of an epileptic seizure that is accessible to the physician's examination and might therefore add some information to the differential diagnosis of paroxysmal events, such as epileptic or psychogenic seizures [published with videosequences].

Brain↗
PubMed1993

Communication development in Angelman's syndrome.

The communication development in 11 children with Angelman's syndrome is described. The clinical observation that these children appear to have a greater ability with receptive rather than expressive language is investigated and these skills assessed using published communication schedules. In addition the understanding and the use of nonverbal communication such as natural gesture was studied. The data collected highlight the fact that these children have developed very few words and have difficulty in using gestural or sign systems. This has implications for speech and language therapists and the children's remedial programmes. Possible future longitudinal studies are suggested.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[The ego and dysphonias].

Every psycho-affective disorder may be a factor of language constitution and communication disorders. The study of it, particularly in psychosis is a major sign for diagnosis. Linguistic troubles are correlate with mind perturbations and the psychotic language is symptomatic. The most suggestive example is schizophrenia. Rythm and sound stay, yet semantics and syntactics expressions are down.

Communication↗
PubMed1998

Psychomotor development in children with triphalangeal thumbs. A preliminary study.

In order to explore the influence of an isolated congenital hand malformation on psychomotor development, we performed an exploratory, observational study on 18 children with triphalangeal thumbs. The investigative procedure consisted of a hand function examination, a semi-structured interview with the mother about the development of the child, the so-called "Hand test", and the "Child Behaviour Check List". Our observations suggest specific developmental difficulties in fine motor skills and language development, but the children showed no signs of behavioural psychopathology.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

[Severe infant myoclonic epilepsy (author's transl)].

Twenty children (15 males and 5 females) suffering from a particular type of myoclonic epilepsy were submitted to a longitudinal study. All children were neurologically normal. Familial antecedents existed for epilepsy in 25% of the cases (5/20) and for febrile convulsions in 15% (3/20). The first fit appeared with fever at the mean age of 6 months in all cases but one of clonic type. Frequent similar febrile or afebrile clonic seizures recurred in all subjects before the age of 12 months. At this time the EEG was normal in 14 cases and brief discharges of generalized spike-waves during ILS or during sleep were present in 6 cases only. Later, frequent non-febrile clonic unilateral or generalized fits, frequent atypical 'absences' often accompanied by jerks, high photosensitivity and non-epileptic erratic myoclonias appear. Nevertheless, atomic and/or tonic seizures did not appear. The evolution is characterized by the persistence of fits and the appearance of severe language disorder and light cerebellar and pyramidal signs. The authors present their results and discuss the nosological problems of this severe infant myoclonic epilepsy.

Electroencephalography↗
PubMed2002

The "prudent layperson" definition of an emergency medical condition.

The study objectives, based on federal and state legislative language, were to objectively define symptoms and signs commonly agreed on by "prudent laypersons" as "emergency medical conditions." After comprehensive tabulation of symptom classifications from the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9), we performed a survey of nonmedical laypersons. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, proportional calculations, and 95% confidence intervals. A minority of symptoms and signs (25/87, 29%) were considered emergency medical conditions by more than half of nonmedical survey respondents who were self-defined as prudent laypersons. The leading conditions deemed emergencies were loss of consciousness, seizure, no recognition of one side of the body, paralysis, shock, gangrene, coughing blood, trouble breathing, chest pain, and choking. Pain, except for renal colic or chest pain, was not considered an emergency. No symptoms or signs specifically related to gynecologic disorders were considered emergencies. Most symptoms and signs tabulated in the diagnostic coding manual, ICD-9, are not considered emergency medical conditions by self-designated prudent laypersons. These include many conditions that are commonly investigated and treated in the emergency department setting. Use of the prudent layperson standard for reimbursable emergency health services may not reflect the actual scope of symptoms necessitating emergency care.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

The case of the lawyer's lugubrious language: dysarthria plus primary progressive aphasia or dysarthria plus dementia?

A productive, intelligent, 60-year-old practicing attorney slowly begins to notice that the language that he has commanded throughout his life is beginning to become more difficult to produce, exacting its toll on his mental energy and emotional stability. His search for answers to his diminished "memory for words" leads him through the fetid ranks of traditional medicine and into the search for a differential diagnosis involving clinical neurology, neuropsychology, and speech-language pathology. Consistencies and conflicts in the signs and symptoms between the competing diagnoses raise theoretical and clinical classification issues. A course of treatment for aphasia provides evidence to support the diagnosis of primary progressive aphasia, but the development of concommitant spastic dysarthria and dysphagia challenge current wisdom about the underlying neuropathology of aphasia and support a diagnosis of early dementia. A selective but steady and rapid decline of abilities over the course of 2 years leads to the patient's death and autopsy, from which a neuropathologic analysis was to provide the "final" and "ultimate" diagnosis. But it doesn't!

Aphasia↗
PubMed1992

Positive rolandic sharp waves in the EEG of the premature newborn: a five year prospective study.

In a prospective study of 301 premature newborn infants, neonatal tracings were done to evaluate the use of the electroencephalogram (EEG) and positive rolandic sharp waves (PRSW) in the diagnosis and prognosis of periventricular leucomalacia. Each infant had ultrasonographic studies and standardised neurological examinations at 1 year of age or later. Two hundred and eighty infants were followed up at 1 year. This study demonstrated that the absence of PRSW was correlated with a favourable motor development (98.2%) and confirmed the great value of PRSW in the diagnosis and the prognosis of periventricular leucomalacia. PRSW were sensitive (98%) and specific (84%) markers of developmental motor disability and were a sensitive (96%) marker of severe spastic diplegia. A frequency above 2/minute was a specific (92%) sign of severe spastic diplegia. Social and language developmental abnormalities were not correlated with the neonatal EEG.

Cerebral Hemorrhage↗