Speech intelligibility and prosody production in children with cochlear implants

Objectives—The purpose of the current study was to examine the relation between speech intelligibility and prosody production in children who use cochlear implants. Methods—The Beginner\u27s Intelligibility Test (BIT) and Prosodic Utterance Production (PUP) task were administered to 15 children who use cochlear implants and 10 children with normal hearing. Adult listeners with normal hearing judged the intelligibility of the words in the BIT sentences, identified the PUP sentences as one of four grammatical or emotional moods (i.e., declarative, interrogative, happy, or sad), and rated the PUP sentences according to how well they thought the child conveyed the designated mood. Results—Percent correct scores were higher for intelligibility than for prosody and higher for children with normal hearing than for children with cochlear implants. Declarative sentences were most readily identified and received the highest ratings by adult listeners; interrogative sentences were least readily identified and received the lowest ratings. Correlations between intelligibility and all mood identification and rating scores except declarative were not significant. Discussion—The findings suggest that the development of speech intelligibility progresses ahead of prosody in both children with cochlear implants and children with normal hearing; however, children with normal hearing still perform better than children with cochlear implants on measures of intelligibility and prosody even after accounting for hearing age. Problems with interrogative intonation may be related to more general restrictions on rising intonation, and th

Renewing the Conversation: Monetary Award Governance

In Canada, providing access to post-secondary education to everyone who wants it, is both a noble and multifaceted notion. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) addresses one facet of accessibility to Lynnwood University (LYNU; a pseudonym), with a focus on monetary awards (e.g. scholarships). Like many institutions, LYNU has made public commitments in support of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), and has increased efforts to recruit equity-deserving students using monetary awards which will help offset concerns of student affordability. Access to financial resources is a key factor for many students and without it, they may be unable to pursue their education as monetary awards can provide some or all financial resources needed to pay for tuition and living expenses. LYNU monetary awards are governed under institutional policies that hold students to academic requirements, and students who do not meet these conditions will have their award funding rescinded. Students who lose their award are often placed in a position of financial distress, and some will have to abandon their studies as they can no longer afford to study at LYNU or be forced to take on employment to supplement their income which leaves less time to focus on their academic assignments. This OIP recommends immediate changes to monetary award policies at LYNU which will be considered radical by some, and long overdue by others, but will be focused on improving student access to post-secondary education and encouraging regular reviews of policies through an EDI lens

Over-The-Counter Availability of Levonorgestrel Emergency Contraception in Pharmacies on Oahu

Since the United States Food and Drug Administration’s approval of over-the-counter levonorgestrel emergency contraception, access to this time-sensitive medication has improved. However, multiple barriers, including the cost of the medication and pharmacy availability, still exist. The objective of this study was to determine the over-the-counter availability of levonorgestrel emergency contraception in pharmacies on Oahu, Hawaii. We conducted a cross-sectional population-based study using in-person simulated patient encounters at all pharmacies on Oahu. Out of 109 chain pharmacies and 13 independent pharmacies, 102 (84%) pharmacies had levonorgestrel emergency contraception available over the counter. Of pharmacies in which it was available, 12.7% required an employee to unlock the medication, 37.3% required the medication to be unlocked at the register, 29.4% were packaged in a large plastic box, and 3.9% were packaged in a blister pack. Levonorgestrel emergency contraception is widely available as an over-the-counter medication in pharmacies on Oahu, yet there are packaging and display practices that make it less accessible. Many of these practices could be improved with pharmacy education or changes in store policies. Systems-based interventions are needed to improve the access to levonorgestrel emergency contraception as an over-the-counter medication