Volume 16, Issue 2

Introduction: Aphasia persists in about one third of the patients with left hemisphere stroke, yet it is not known if it enhances the risk of dementia, beyond what results from any focal brain lesion. This lack of knowledge is mostly related to the difficulty of cognitive evaluation in people with aphasia. The development of tools aiming to assess cognitive functioning in people with aphasia could overcome this limitation. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the frequency and the profile of cognitive impairment in stroke patients with aphasia, to assemble existing non-verbal instruments to be used in patients with language disorders. Methods: We conducted a systematic review, through Web of Science, Medline and PsycINFO electronic databases, of articles published between January 1995 and October 31, 2015 related to aphasia due to stroke and non-verbal neurobehavioral tests. Results: The electronic search identified 2487 citations. After screening 38 were included in this review. Additionally 53 articles were selected among the references of analyzed publications of which nine were included producing a total of 47 articles. The cognitive tests more frequently used in persons with aphasia are the Figures Memory Tests, Visual Memory Span, Progressive Matrices, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and some measures of the Test of Everyday Attention, covering a reasonable range of cognitive domains. The majority of studies across cognitive domains reported lower scores for patients with aphasia compared with controls. No specific difficulties were reported regarding tests applicability. Conclusion: There are several tools available to assess cognitive functions in aphasia. Although there is some variability, patients with aphasia tend to present lower scores than those with left hemisphere stroke without aphasia or healthy subjects. A consensus tool should be developed to screen or evaluate cognition and dementia in individuals with language impairment.

Dynamic systems theory (DST) outlines three constraints (i.e. individual, task, and environment) that influence the emergence of behavior. These constraints interact with one another to self-organize and create a spontaneous behavior. For many researchers studying motor development, this spontaneous behavior refers to the production of motor movement. DST provides an explanation for the variability and spontaneous movement that occurs from individual to individual. While this theory is accepted as one of the major explanations of motor development, it is unknown how it is being utilized to inform the research on motor development or the development of interventions. In this review, the author found 18 instances in the literature where DST had been used to analyze, test, or manipulate motor patterns and movement. Overall, the studies report a positive effect from the manipulation of constraints with respect to a change in motor pattern. Only one study was found that sought to positively improve behavior through the directed use of constraints; the majority of studies sought to understand the influence constraints have on the production of movement.

The aim of this study was to assess word learning in Italian preschool children with cochlear implants (CIs). Fifteen children with CIs (CI-group) and two groups of typically developing (TD) children, one age-matched group (CATD-group) and one of the same hearing age (HATD-group), participated in the study. A word-learning task was assigned to each child in which the numbers of correct, incorrect and absent responses were considered, both for comprehension and production. The learning procedure comprised eight nonwords and the children were tested immediately (fast mapping) and after 2 h (retention). In the word-learning task, the children with CIs displayed lower scores than the CATD-group and higher scores than the HATD-group both for comprehension and production and for fast mapping and retention. Fast mapping (comprehension and production) is significantly related to the children’s age at CI activation, while in the retention phase the correlation is significant only for comprehension. Although children with CI display slight limitations in word learning relative to age-matched children, the limitation is less severe with earlier CI activation.

Researchers have studied that human-computer interactions (HCIs) can be more effective only when machines understand the emotions conveyed in speech. Speech emotion recognition has seen growing interest in research due to its usefulness in different applications. Building a neutral speech model becomes an important and challenging task as it can help in identifying different emotions from stuttered speech. This paper suggests two different approaches for identifying neutral pitch from stuttered speech. The implementation has proved through its accuracy the best model that can be adopted for neutral speech pitch identification.

Traditional continuous exercise, as well as low-volume high-intensity interval training in adults, have shown to offer benefits to one’s cardio-metabolic health. With the benefits of physical activity being proven without a doubt, education curricula around the world have implemented physical and health education programs with the aim of promoting a healthy lifestyle through physical activity and healthy habits. The primary objective of this study was to determine whether physical and health education, alone without any change, improved heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SP) and diastolic blood pressure (DP) of adolescents at Crescent School. HR, SP and DP of students were recorded before and immediately after they ran 1 mile, and statistical analyses were conducted to determine whether there was any difference in HR, SP and DP from baseline at the beginning of the year to Term 2, the middle of the school year. While mile-run times did improve from baseline to Term 2, SP, DP and HR did not significantly change from one term to another. This study does suggest that SP, DP and HR are not affected by physical and health education classes, but it is important to keep in mind that the sample group was already a very healthy and active group.

Background: Articulation is a process that allows air to pass through vocal cords and then form words and syllables using the tongue, teeth, mentum and palatine tonsils. A person who has pronunciation problems produces, syllables or words inaccurately so; the auditoria have got difficulty to understand what did say, such that the listener has difficulty in understanding what is being said. Due to being genetically different the Down syndrome individual has difficulty with speech due to structural defects in the mouth and problems with the mouth-tongue muscles. Aim: Here the determination of the articulation (pronunciation) problems and the probable causes of the determined problems have been studied. Methods: This study involved children without hearing loss problems; 17 females and 23 males who have Down syndrome and were ages between 3 and 12 years. The Ankara articulation test (AAT) was applied to the individuals. The articulation (pronunciation) ages have been determined according to the ATT. By the detailed assessment of the ATT, it was determined which voices were uttered correctly or not. Through a family interview survey, the information that affected the development of the Down syndrome child’s speech and academic development was obtained. Through a patient identification survey, the education and health information that may effect the speech development were obtained. Through an oral motor assessment survey, the information regarding the competence of oral motor skills that may effect articulation problems were collected. The data were analyzed. Using a family survey, child identification survey and an oral motor assessment survey the correlation between articulation age and articulation defects were viewed. Results: It has been detected that the articulation age of Down syndrome children between 3 and 12 years of age are quite a bit lower when compared to the chronological age according to the ATT. Moreover, in terms of results from the ATT, children with Down syndrome whose cronological age is 8 years 7 months have a 3 year 5 months’ articulation age according to the ATT. They have some difficulties with Turkish vowels such as (/a/, /e/, /ı/, /i/). Also they have some difficulties with consonants such as (/r/, /j/, /z/, /ş/, /z/, /l/, /s/, /n/). Articulation defects at various levels have been detected for all Down syndrome children. Articulation (pronunciation) problems were encountered less in children from highly educated and more concerned families. It has been shown that articulation (pronunciation) problems are less children who receive early treatment, therapy and education services. Conclusion: Significant correlation between the level of articulation usage by individuals and frequency of the articulation problem were detected. For this reason, attaching importance to oral motor studies are considered. Raising parental awareness is required on prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. By treating the problems of the speech organs at an early age and including the children who have Down syndrome into the early education programs around 0–3 years and accurate intervention during critical periods, the articulation problems can be reduced. Using a wider age range and having more participants, it is considered that more efficient results may be obtained.

This article is about Washington, DC’s intellectually disabled and the history of their struggle for habilitation rights, which for them includes gainful employment and having a family. Against them has been a conservative local and national government and the US District Court in its rulings over the past 40 years in the Evans et al. v. Bowser case. The disabled have had only limited success in their expansive interpretation of their rights, but by exploiting differences between the government and court, they have obtained concessions concerning basic food, clothing and shelter. For this reason they advocate for an indefinite continuation of the Evans litigation.

Objective: This study aims to investigate whether there is a relationship between articulation levels and social skills of normally developing children at the ages of 4 and 5 years and to determine whether articulation levels and social skills are differentiated with regard to variable factors. Methods: A relational screening model was used in this study. Eighty-seven boys and 73 girls (160 children in total) who were educated at four preschools were selected according to simple random sampling in Kütahya province, Turkey. The mean age of the children was 4.6 years. The Ankara Articulation Test (AAT) was used to specify the articulation levels of children and the Preschool Social Skills Rating Scale [PSSRS, Okul Öncesi Sosyal Beceri Değerlendirme Ölçeği (OSBED)] was used to evaluate the social skills of the children. Findings: The results of the study revealed that the articulation mistakes decrease and social skills increase as the age of children rises. It was found that girls had better results in both social skills and articulation levels than boys. Analysis of the socio-economic statuses of the children showed no significant differences between articulation levels and social skills. Correlation analysis showed that children with articulation disorders have lower social skills rankings than children without articulation disorders, and speech is one of the factors that affect social skills ranking. Results: This study is important because of its observations about speech, communication, and social skills in children, as well as for raising awareness among parents and teachers of preschool children.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of several dimensions of functioning on satisfaction for quality of life (QoL) experienced by visually impaired older adults. Participants: A sample of 58 older adults (37 women and 21 men) was involved in the study. Their age ranged from 50 to 88 years (M=68.95, SD=1.51). They were characterized by visual impairment of different origin and visual acuity (VA) ranging from 4/10 to total blindness. The QoL questionnaire was used along with short form-12 health Survey, the National Eye Institute visual function questionnaire-25 and problem solving inventory (PSI) which analyzes problem solving appraisal. Results: A stepwise regression analysis was conducted in order to find predictors of satisfaction for QoL. A contribution of mental and physical health, more specifically, of problem solving appraisal was found. Conclusion: Results support the notion that the functional relationship between visual impairment and satisfaction for QoL must be understood in terms of approaches that incorporate psychological and socio-cognitive elements. Problem solving appraisal, in fact, makes a substantial contribution to the prediction of variance in life satisfaction and it may play an important role for intervention strategies.