Defining language impairments in a subgroup of children with autism spectrum disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is diagnosed on the basis of core impairments in pragmatic language skills, which are found across all ages and subtypes. In contrast, there is significant heterogeneity in language phenotypes, ranging from nonverbal to superior linguistic abilities, as defined on standardized tests of vocabulary and grammatical knowledge. The majority of children are verbal but impaired in language, relative to age-matched peers. One hypothesis is that this subgroup has ASD and co-morbid specific language impairment (SLI). An experiment was conducted comparing children with ASD to children with SLI and typically developing controls on aspects of language processing that have been shown to be impaired in children with SLI: repetition of nonsense words. Patterns of performance among the children with ASD and language impairment were similar to those with SLI, and contrasted with the children with ASD and no language impairment and typical controls, providing further evidence for the hypothesis that a subgroup of children with ASD has co-morbid SLI. The findings are discussed in the context of brain imaging studies that have explored the neural bases of language impairment in ASD and SLI, and overlap in the genes associated with elevated risk for these disorders.M01 RR00533 - NCRR NIH HHS; R01 DC10290 - NIDCD NIH HHS; U19 DC03610 - NIDCD NIH HH

Replication of CNTNAP2 association with nonword repetition and support for FOXP2 association with timed reading and motor activities in a dyslexia family sample

Two functionally related genes, FOXP2 and CNTNAP2, influence language abilities in families with rare syndromic and common nonsyndromic forms of impaired language, respectively. We investigated whether these genes are associated with component phenotypes of dyslexia and measures of sequential motor ability. Quantitative transmission disequilibrium testing (QTDT) and linear association modeling were used to evaluate associations with measures of phonological memory (nonword repetition, NWR), expressive language (sentence repetition), reading (real word reading efficiency, RWRE; word attack, WATT), and timed sequential motor activities (rapid alternating place of articulation, RAPA; finger succession in the dominant hand, FS-D) in 188 family trios with a child with dyslexia. Consistent with a prior study of language impairment, QTDT in dyslexia showed evidence of CNTNAP2 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) association with NWR. For FOXP2, we provide the first evidence for SNP association with component phenotypes of dyslexia, specifically NWR and RWRE but not WATT. In addition, FOXP2 SNP associations with both RAPA and FS-D were observed. Our results confirm the role of CNTNAP2 in NWR in a dyslexia sample and motivate new questions about the effects of FOXP2 in neurodevelopmental disorders

Ambientes linguísticos para a produção das fricativas /z/, <img width=32 height=32 src="../../../../../img/revistas/rcefac/2011nahead/5111c1.jpg" align=absmiddle />e <img width=32 height=32 src="../../../../../img/revistas/rcefac/2011nahead/5111c2.jpg" align=absmiddle />: variabilidades na aquisição fonológica de seis sujeitos Linguistic environments for the production of the fricatives /z/, <img width=32 height=32 src="../../../../../img/revistas/rcefac/2011nahead/5111c1.jpg" align=absmiddle />and <img width=32 height=32 src="../../../../../img/revistas/rcefac/2011nahead/5111c2.jpg" align=absmiddle />: variability in the phonological acquisition of six subjects

TEMA: percursos de aquisição fonológica de crianças tratadas com ambientes favoráveis em oposição aos ambientes pouco favoráveis e neutros para a produção de /z/, <img border=0 width=32 height=32 src="../../../../../img/revistas/rcefac/2011nahead/5111c1.jpg" align=middle />e <img border=0 width=32 height=32 src="../../../../../img/revistas/rcefac/2011nahead/5111c2.jpg" align=absmiddle />na terapia fonológica. PROCEDIMENTOS: foram selecionadas seis crianças com desvio fonológico e idades entre 4:7 e 7:8 para participarem do estudo. As mesmas estavam devidamente autorizadas por seus responsáveis. Foram realizadas avaliações fonoaudiológicas e complementares para diagnóstico do desvio fonológico. Os sujeitos foram pareados de acordo com a gravidade do desvio fonológico, sexo, faixa etária e aspectos do sistema fonológico em relação aos fonemas alterados. Metade das crianças foi tratada com palavras em que os fonemas /z/, <img border=0 width=32 height=32 src="../../../../../img/revistas/rcefac/2011nahead/5111c1.jpg" align=middle />e <img border=0 width=32 height=32 src="../../../../../img/revistas/rcefac/2011nahead/5111c2.jpg" align=absmiddle />encontravam-se em ambientes favoráveis e a outra metade com ambientes pouco favoráveis e neutros. Foram realizadas oito sessões e, após estas, novas avaliações foram realizadas para descrever e comparar qualitativamente os percursos de aquisição fonológica dos sujeitos por meio do Modelo Implicacional de Complexidade de Traços. RESULTADOS: os resultados indicaram discreta vantagem na evolução terapêutica de dois sujeitos tratados com ambientes favoráveis, em relação a seus pares. Porém, uma criança tratada com ambientes pouco-favoráveis e neutros, obteve resultados mais positivos do que seu par. CONCUSÃO: os ambientes favoráveis à produção das fricativas /z/, <img border=0 width=32 height=32 src="../../../../../img/revistas/rcefac/2011nahead/5111c1.jpg" align=middle />e <img border=0 width=32 height=32 src="../../../../../img/revistas/rcefac/2011nahead/5111c2.jpg" align=absmiddle />não determinaram o sucesso terapêutico, porém influenciaram positivamente a evolução fonológica dos sujeitos do estudo.<br>BACKGROUND: routes of phonological acquisition in children treated with favorable environments in contrast with unfavorable and neutral environments for production of /z/, <img border=0 width=32 height=32 src="../../../../../img/revistas/rcefac/2011nahead/5111c1.jpg" align=middle />and <img border=0 width=32 height=32 src="../../../../../img/revistas/rcefac/2011nahead/5111c2.jpg" align=absmiddle />in phonological therapy. PROCEDURES: six children with phonological disorder aged between 4:7 and 7:8 were selected to take part in the study. They were properly authorized by their parents. There were speech-language and complementary evaluations in order to diagnose the phonological disorder. The subjects were matched according to the severity of the phonological disorder, gender, age and aspects of the phonological system in relation to the altered phonemes. Half of the children were treated with words in which the phonemes /z/, <img border=0 width=32 height=32 src="../../../../../img/revistas/rcefac/2011nahead/5111c1.jpg" align=middle />and <img border=0 width=32 height=32 src="../../../../../img/revistas/rcefac/2011nahead/5111c2.jpg" align=absmiddle />were in favorable environments and the other half with unfavorable and neutral environments. There were eight sessions and, after that, new evaluations were made in order to describe and qualitatively compare the routes of phonological acquisition in the said subjects through the Implicational Model of Features Complexity. RESULTS: the results indicated a small advantage in the therapeutic evolution of two subjects treated with favorable environments, in relation to their matches. However, children treated with unfavorable and neutral environments obtained more positive results than their matches. CONCLUSION: the favorable environments for production of fricatives /z/, <img border=0 width=32 height=32 src="../../../../../img/revistas/rcefac/2011nahead/5111c1.jpg" align=middle />and <img border=0 width=32 height=32 src="../../../../../img/revistas/rcefac/2011nahead/5111c2.jpg" align=absmiddle />did not determine the therapeutic success, but positively influenced the phonological evolution in the subjects in the study

INNOVACIÓN CON BLOUSSE "FIEL" BANCO MATERO ARGENTINO

La presente investigación se realizó en Capital Federal y Provincia de Buenos Aires durante el Segundo semestre del 2009 y en ella participaron productores laneros, exportadores, procesadores de lana , especialistas en marketing , comercio exterior y diseño industrial, tomándose como punto de partida el trabajo realizado por el INTI denominado: “Diseño sustentable. Oportunidades de agregar valor a la cadena lanera”, de allí que el propósito de la presente investigación consistió en el análisis del panorama actual, de lo existente en procesos de afieltrado de la lana, productos con fieltro y modelos de negocio que lo incluyan para luego hacer una propuesta de producto. Para ello fue necesario la definición de los métodos de transformación en función a sus posibilidades de implementación en un entorno de pequeña o mediana empresa, se definió el modelo comercial y el rubro mas adecuado para su implementación y finalmente la tipología de objeto a producir y su forma final. El presente estudio se justificó por cuanto posee valor teórico, utilidad práctica, relevancia social, por su conveniencia y en base a los beneficios que le generara a los actores intervinientes. El resultado del análisis arrojo las siguientes conclusiones: Emplearemos como materia prima el subproducto de la lana llamado blousse, cuyo costo es aproximadamente 1/3 del valor de la lana, para afieltrarlo con un material estructural en una maquina plana con presión superior. Este nuevo material se usara para desarrollar una pieza de mobiliario domestico de identidad local con fines principalmente de exportación, aunque esto no excluye la comercialización en el mercado local. Puntualmente la tipología de producto a diseñar será un ”banco matero” .Todo este planteo contenido en un marco de comercio justo y consumo responsable