Exploring the Overlap Between Dyslexia and Speech Sound Production Deficits

Purpose Children with dyslexia have speech production deficits in a variety of spoken language contexts. In this article, we discuss the nature of speech production errors in children with dyslexia, including those who have a history of speech sound disorder and those who do not, to familiarize speech-language pathologists with speech production-specific risk factors that may help predict or identify dyslexia in young children. Method In this tutorial, we discuss the role of a phonological deficit in children with dyslexia and how this may manifest as speech production errors, sometimes in conjunction with a speech sound disorder but sometimes not. We also briefly review other factors outside the realm of phonology that may alert the speech-language pathologist to possible dyslexia. Results Speech-language pathologists possess unique knowledge that directly contributes to the identification and remediation of children with dyslexia. We present several clinical recommendations related to speech production deficits in children with dyslexia. We also review what is known about how and when children with speech sound disorder are most at risk for dyslexia. Conclusion Speech-language pathologists have a unique opportunity to assist in the identification of young children who are at risk for dyslexia

An Examination of Music Therapy with Adolescent Populations

The purpose of this study was to examine the current use of music therapy with adolescent clients. Ninety–seven board certified music therapists working with adolescents between the ages of 11 and 19 completed the on–line survey. Survey results found that most of the participants worked with adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders, developmental disabilities, and emotional/behavioral disorders. Results indicated that music therapists are targeting a number of goals with the three most common being social, communication, and behavioral skills. The results highlighted commonly reported objectives, functional outcomes, data collection methods, the types of music used, and commonly used music interventions for these and other goals. The results of this survey may be helpful for music therapy students and young professionals who want to learn more about how music therapists are meeting the needs of their clients

Multimodal Data Analysis of Dyadic Interactions for an Automated Feedback System Supporting Parent Implementation of Pivotal Response Treatment

abstract: Parents fulfill a pivotal role in early childhood development of social and communication skills. In children with autism, the development of these skills can be delayed. Applied behavioral analysis (ABA) techniques have been created to aid in skill acquisition. Among these, pivotal response treatment (PRT) has been empirically shown to foster improvements. Research into PRT implementation has also shown that parents can be trained to be effective interventionists for their children. The current difficulty in PRT training is how to disseminate training to parents who need it, and how to support and motivate practitioners after training. Evaluation of the parents’ fidelity to implementation is often undertaken using video probes that depict the dyadic interaction occurring between the parent and the child during PRT sessions. These videos are time consuming for clinicians to process, and often result in only minimal feedback for the parents. Current trends in technology could be utilized to alleviate the manual cost of extracting data from the videos, affording greater opportunities for providing clinician created feedback as well as automated assessments. The naturalistic context of the video probes along with the dependence on ubiquitous recording devices creates a difficult scenario for classification tasks. The domain of the PRT video probes can be expected to have high levels of both aleatory and epistemic uncertainty. Addressing these challenges requires examination of the multimodal data along with implementation and evaluation of classification algorithms. This is explored through the use of a new dataset of PRT videos. The relationship between the parent and the clinician is important. The clinician can provide support and help build self-efficacy in addition to providing knowledge and modeling of treatment procedures. Facilitating this relationship along with automated feedback not only provides the opportunity to present expert feedback to the parent, but also allows the clinician to aid in personalizing the classification models. By utilizing a human-in-the-loop framework, clinicians can aid in addressing the uncertainty in the classification models by providing additional labeled samples. This will allow the system to improve classification and provides a person-centered approach to extracting multimodal data from PRT video probes.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Computer Science 201

Cerebral Palsy and School Performance

The purpose of this paper is to inform the audience about the disability of Cerebral Palsy and what schools are doing to accommodate and/or provide appropriate interventions for academics and psychological health for best success. Schools may lack in awareness of chronic health accommodations and creation of interventions for improvement, leading to an increase in concern and distress of parents and children. Those with chronic health conditions, like Cerebral Palsy undergo many social-emotional difficulties that others might not think about. When entering a school, starting school, or transitioning back to school as an individual with a chronic health condition, it is important to consider all social, emotional, behavioral, physical, mental, and academic needs. For children, it is also important to ensure the child’s parent(s) or guardian(s) have the needs to support their child while they are going to school. These accommodations might be supplying local resources for reliable transportation, doctors that are closer to a certain part of town, or counseling support. The focus of this paper includes information on school functioning with Cerebral Palsy, social and psychological needs of students with Cerebral Palsy, description and diagnostic criteria of Cerebral Palsy, effective academic and psychological interventions, how Cerebral Palsy affects the family dynamic, assessment tools used to identify students with Cerebral Palsy, and legal and ethical considerations. The conclusion of this paper will help determine appropriate and adequate accommodations and interventions for students with the disability of Cerebral Palsy and inform others what students with Cerebral Palsy experience socially, emotionally, physically, and psychologically

Communication disorders and indigenous Australians : a synthesis and critique of the available literature

Purpose: To synthesise and critique the available diverse literature related to communication disorders experienced by Indigenous Australians. This is in order to provide health professionals with a resource guide for evidence based decision making. The review has a specific focus on prevalence, assessment and effective treatment of communication disorders and explores these across the lifespan. Method: A three phase systematic search process was adopted. A number of key databases, speech pathology journals and grey literature sources were searched to obtain articles relevant to the research aims. Two researchers independently rated articles for inclusion as well as methodological quality using the Kmet rating tool. Data synthesis was completed by categorising articles according to communication disorder type and methodology used.. Each article was then summarised for key findings relating to the research aims. Results: A total of 85 articles rated highly relevant were included in the review. A total of 60% of the available literature was textual or grey literature and 40% was quantitative or qualitative studies. Methodological quality of the 34 quantitative and qualitative articles ranged from limited (13), adequate (2), good (5) to strong (14). The majority of articles focussed on hearing loss, language and early literacy. No articles were identified addressing voice or fluency disorders. Limited evidence was found for any of the areas addressed in the research aims. Conclusion: High quality scientific literature surrounding Indigenous communication disorders is limited. The available sources of information favoured textual papers or ‘grey’ literature government sources. Very little published scientific quantitative or qualitative studies are available to address the issues of prevalence, assessment or treatment of specific communication disorders. Given the likelihood of the burden of communication disorders amongst this population, the lack of evidence is concerning. The complexities of conducting research within the Indigenous Australian population are acknowledged and whilst empirical scientific evidence is still lacking, the last five years has seen greater focus and commitment to improving the knowledge base with higher quality scientific research being conducted

Occupational Therapy Using Hippotherapy for Children with Developmental Disabilities

The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the impact of incorporating equine movement (hippotherapy) as a treatment tool in occupational therapy (OT) sessions for children with developmental disabilities. This study posed research questions relating to the impact of this treatment tool in OT practice on mobility and daily activity skills within the population of interest. A non-randomized controlled trial with pretest-posttest design was utilized to explore the research questions. Sixteen subjects enrolled in this study by convenience sampling and participated in six weeks of 45-minute OT sessions incorporating equine movement (intervention group, n = 8) or six weeks of 45-minute adaptive riding sessions involving equine movement without OT (control group, n = 8). All research activities took place at a PATH Intl. Member Center in Western Pennsylvania. Caregivers completed the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory Computer Adaptive Test (PEDI-CAT) before and after the six-week treatment period, and occupational therapy practitioners (OTPs) completed the Goal Attainment Scale (GAS) after the six-week treatment period based on individualized, measurable goals created based on needs identified on the PEDI-CAT. Data was analyzed using repeated measures and multivariate ANOVAs. Results indicated a statistically significant improvement in mobility and daily activity skills as determined by OTP-reported outcomes. These results were accompanied by caregiver-reported data that revealed a need for more carryover of therapeutic outcomes to everyday life. Skill areas that had caregiver- and OTP-reported improvements include: balance, motor planning, standing and sitting endurance, attention to task, functional mobility, dressing, fastener and container manipulation, and food preparation

Evaluation of a Picture Exchange Communication System Program for Children with Autism

The current study examined the effectiveness of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) as a functional communication training (FCT) program implemented by a local community agency specializing in autism diagnosis and treatment in developing communication skills among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Conducted using archival data, this study used a within-subjects repeated measures research design to determine if PECS improved the overall communication skills of enrolled participants at the agency, as measured by the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Third Edition (Vineland-3) and the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC). Individual growth on communication goals was measured by comparing goals concerning the use of appropriate communication set before treatment and goals achieved after treatment. A total of 44 children ranging in age from 2 years to 6 years participated in the PECS program, and clinicians and parents completed treatment assessments. The results indicated that the differences between pretreatment and posttreatment measures for the Communication domain on the Vineland-3 and the Speech/Language Communication (I) subtest on the ATEC were significant. There was no significant relationship between the differences in pretreatment and posttreatment scores on the Vineland-3 Communication domain and the ATEC Speech/Language Communication (I) subtest and the length of time between assessments. Individual growth on communication goals was achieved by most participants