Toward the Standardization of the BVL_RU: An Instrument for Speech and Language Assessment of Russian-speaking Children

The Battery for the assessment of speech and language development in children from 4 to 12 years (BVL_4-12; [1]) was originally developed for Italian-speaking children and currently is under adaptation into several European languages including Russian. The BVL_4-12 consists of three parts and includes tasks assessing oral production, comprehension and repetition skills in children. This article describes the process of adaptation of the BVL_4-12 into Russia and focuses on the instructions’ translation and standardization. It presents the results of the tasks instructions’ clarity evaluation by an expert panel including Russian-speaking specialists constantly working with children of a target age in Russia and Italy (N = 7) and a cohort of children from 4.06 to10.10 including monolinguals with typical language development, children previously diagnosed with primary language impairment (PLI) and heritage Russian speakers (N = 84). Overall, 10 task instructions were judged as absolutely clear and 5 task instructions were somewhat unclear to some of the participants. Further analysis ofthe age of the participants who rated the instructions as ‘unclear’ was performed. Some of the youngest participants, whose age did not exceed 6.10, found that the instructions for the following tasks were not clear: phonological fluency; sentence completion; grammatical judgments; idiom comprehension, and comprehension of linguistic prosody. However, the minimum inter-rater agreement among the sample was reached. The potential explanation of the results of the study is proposed in the Discussion section. Keywords: language assessment, Russian, children, SLI, task instruction

Comprehension of idiomatic expressions by Russian speaking typically developing children

© Lomonosov Moscow State University, 2017. Background. The ability to understand idiomatic expressions begins to develop at an early age. However, such skill is not achieved within the same age and at the same pace in children speaking different languages. Objective. This study assesses comprehension of idiomatic expressions by Russian- speaking monolingual children aged 4 to 12 and monitoring the age dynamics of figurative language understanding. Design. 80 children were split in 4 age groups balanced for gender and level of formal education. The participants were asked to identify the correct non-literal meaning of 10 idioms. For each idiomatic expression, children heard three potential interpretations (one correct, and two incorrect ones of which one was literal while the other was overtly wrong). Results. Age-related differences were analysed by performing a series of univariate ANOVAs. These analyses showed that already at preschool age children begin to understand some kinds of idiomatic expressions and that such ability slowly develops throughout childhood. Interestingly, until the age of 6 children predominantly interpreted idioms literally. By the age of 7 their ability to correctly understand the non-literal meanings of idiomatic expressions enhanced significantly until it reached a plateau around the age of 12. Conclusion. The results of the study are in line with those found for children speaking other languages. The findings are interpreted in light of recent theories of language and cognitive development. Potential limitations of the study are also discussed

Current state and tendencies of development of mass electronic educational resources

The report considers the current trends of mass electronic educational resources and technologies. Analysis of existing foreign electronic educational resources, as well as the Russian experience of development in this sphere. Makes a number of conclusions about the prospects of introduction of mass electronic educational technologies on the Russian market.В докладе рассмотрены современные тенденции развития массовых электронных образовательных ресурсов и технологий. Проводится анализ существующих зарубежных электронных образовательных ресурсов, а также российского опыта развития в данной сфере. Делается ряд выводов о перспективности внедрения массовых электронных образовательных технологий на российском рынке

Cognitive development in children with Prader–Willi syndrome

© 2018 International Strategic Management Association. All rights reserved. Aim: The article is devoted to the specificity of cognitive development in three children with Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) in the period up to 6-year-old. The PWS is a rare hereditary disease caused by the absence of the father's copy of the 15q11-13 chromosome. Methods: Genomic imprinting is involved into the regulation of the genes in this area of chromosome 15. Diagnostic signs of this syndrome are muscular hypotension, hypogonadism, obesity, excessive adiposity, respiratory complications, mental retardation, small brushes and feet, dysplasia of the hip joints, and stigma of disembryogenesis. Currently, specific ways of treating people with this syndrome have not been developed. It is considered that children with PWS suffer from the retardation of cognitive development; however, there is a lack of scientific information about it. The study of PWS requires an interdisciplinary approach and the detailed description of cognitive development. Results: The results showed that in the period up to 6 years in three children with this rare syndrome the most obvious decline is registered predominantly in the development of impressive speech, and other functions do not suffer significantly in spite of the presence of impairments in motor development. Conclusion: The research was conducted at A. Yu. Ratner Pediatic Сlinical Hospital NO. 8 (Kazan, Russia) by the group of clinical linguists, neurologists, and speech therapists

LOXL1 gene polymorphism candidates for exfoliation glaucoma are also associated with a risk for primary open-angle glaucoma in a Caucasian population from central Russia

This study was aimed to replicate the previously reported associations of the three LOXL1 gene polymorphisms with exfoliation glaucoma (XFG) and to analyze these genetic variants for their possible contribution to primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) in Caucasians from central Russi

The haplotype of the CDKN2B-AS1 gene is associated with primary open-angle glaucoma and pseudoexfoliation glaucoma in the Caucasian population of Central Russia

To replicate the finding of the association of five CDKN2B-AS1 gene polymorphisms (rs7865618,rs1063192, rs944800, rs2157719, and rs4977756) with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and to analyze them for possible association with pseudoexfoliation glaucoma (PXFG) in a Caucasian population of Central Russi

Statistics of Neutron Stars at the Stage of Supersonic Propeller

We analyze the statistical distribution of neutron stars at the stage of a supersonic propeller. An important point of our analysis is allowance for the evolution of the angle of inclination of the magnetic axis to the spin axis of the neutron star for the boundary of the transition to the supersonic propeller stage for two models: the model with hindered particle escape from the stellar surface and the model with free particle escape. As a result, we have shown that a consistent allowance for the evolution of the inclination angle in the region of extinct radio pulsars for the two models leads to an increase in the total number of neutron stars at the supersonic propeller stage. This increase stems from he fact that when allowing for the evolution of the inclination angle $\chi$ for neutron stars in the region of extinct radio pulsars and, hence, for the boundary of the transition to the propeller stage, this transition is possible at shorter spin periods (P~5-10 s) than assumed in the standard model.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures; scale corrected for figures 3-

Dataset of allele, genotype and haplotype frequencies of five polymorphisms CDKN2B-AS1 gene in Russian patients with primary open-angle glaucoma

Data on the allele, genotype and haplotype frequencies of the five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) such as rs1063192, rs7865618, rs2157719, rs944800 and rs4977756 of the CDKN2B-AS gene in Russian patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) are provide

Study of aversive and p38 mapk-inhibitory properties of kappa-agonist with analgesic activity-compound RU-1205

The clinical use of kappa-opioid agonists, despite their lack of significant drug potential, is limited by the development of severe sedation, dysphoria, depression, and anhedonia. To this date, there are kappa-opioid receptor agonists lacking these side effects due to the selective activation of intracellular signal transmission pathways without p38-MAPK-kinase activatio

Body Height of Children with Bronchial Asthma of Various Severities

© 2017 Tatiana I. Eliseeva et al. Influence of bronchial asthma (BA) severity on physical development in children patients was evaluated in comparison with healthy population. Materials and Methods. 1042 children and adolescents (768 boys) with atopic BA were evaluated. All children underwent standard examination in a clinical setting, including anthropometry. The control group included 875 healthy children of a comparable age (423 boys). Results. The fraction of patients with the normal, lower, and increased height among the whole group of patients with BA is close to the corresponding values in the healthy population (χ 2 =3.32, p=0.65). The fraction of BA patients with the reduced physical development is increased monotonically and significantly when the BA severity increases: healthy group, 8.2% (72/875), BA intermittent, 4.2% (6/144), BA mild persistent 9% (47/520), BA moderate persistent, 11.7% (36/308), and BA severe persistent, 24.3% (17/70) (χ 2 =45.6, p=0,0009). Conclusion. The fraction of the children with the reduced height is increased monotonically and significantly in the groups of increasing BA severities. At the same time, the fraction of such children in groups of intermittent and mild persistent BA practically does not differ from the conditionally healthy peers