Assessment of Dementia in Individuals with Dual Sensory Loss:Application of a Tactile Test Battery

Background/Aims: Individuals with dual sensory loss (DSL) are more likely to experience cognitive decline with age than individuals without sensory loss. Other studies have pointed to the challenges in assessing cognitive abilities in individuals with DSL, as most existing instruments rely on use of vision and hearing. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a Tactile Test Battery (TTB) for cognitive assessment in individuals with DSL. Method: Twenty elderly individuals with DSL, 20 with diagnosed dementia, and 20 without dementia or DSL (controls) completed the following tactile tests developed for the present study: Spatial learning, Spatial recall, Tactile form board, Clock reading, and Naming. The participants with dementia and controls also completed the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Results: Overall, participants with dementia performed significantly worse on the tactile tests than participants with DSL and control participants. No significant differences on the tactile tests were found between participants with DSL and controls. The TTB and MMSE scores correlated significantly. Conclusion: The findings from this study of applying tactile tests for cognitive examination in individuals with DSL are promising. They indicate that symptoms of dementia can be differentiated from symptoms related to DSL

SPÆDBARNSPSYKOLOGI OG MEDFØDT DØVBLINDHED. Om hvordan spædbarnspsykologien kan bruges i forskning og klinisk arbejde med børn med alvorlige sociale, sproglige og kognitive funktionsnedsættelser

Spædbarnspsykologien og forskning omkring mennesker med medfødt døvblindhed har mange berøringsflader. Den seneste årrække har arbejdet med børn med medfødt døvblindhed været inspireret af spædbarnspsykologien. Etablering og udvikling af det sociale samspil som forudsætning for kommunikation og sprog er af væsentlig betydning for denne gruppe mennesker. Det gælder temaerne etablering og regulering af kontakt, rytme og tempo, turtagning, fælles opmærksomhed mv., der illustreres med eksempler. Forskning omkring børn med medfødt døvblindhed kan være et bidrag til viden om almene spædbarnspsykologiske temaer, som f.eks. taktil opmærksomhed og motoriske mønstre i det tidlige samspil. Til sidst i artiklen vil forskning omkring børn med autisme blive præsenteret som et eksempel på en anden gruppe af børn, hvor spædbarnspsykologien har haft stor betydning. Denne artikel er relevant for klinikeren, der arbejder med personer med alvorlige sociale, sproglige og kognitive funktionsnedsættelser, og for forskeren, som interesserer sig for spædbarnspsykologi

Changes in Educational Planning for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children in Scandinavia over the Last Three Decades

Approaches to deaf education in Scandinavia have been shaped and buffeted by controversies and debates about language, educational policy, and new technology. By way of thematic analysis of the content of national policy papers, this study provides a history and comparison of educational planning in Scandinavia over the last 30 years. The overall finding was that educational planning in Scandinavia has been similar over the years. In parallel, these countries adopted a bilingual-bicultural approach to deaf education 30 years ago and then, more recently, shifted towards an auditory-oral approach that makes less use of sign language. However, the study also found differences. While Denmark has increasingly focused efforts on auditory-oral education, Sweden has maintained an approach that seeks to protect minority languages and cultures, and Norway has developed an approach that mixes mainstreaming in local community schools and the protection of rights to a specialist curriculum in Norwegian Sign Language.publishedVersio

Measure of Node Similarity in Multilayer Networks

The weight of links in a network is often related to the similarity of the nodes. Here, we introduce a simple tunable measure for analysing the similarity of nodes across different link weights. In particular, we use the measure to analyze homophily in a group of 659 freshman students at a large university. Our analysis is based on data obtained using smartphones equipped with custom data collection software, complemented by questionnaire-based data. The network of social contacts is represented as a weighted multilayer network constructed from different channels of telecommunication as well as data on face-to-face contacts. We find that even strongly connected individuals are not more similar with respect to basic personality traits than randomly chosen pairs of individuals. In contrast, several socio-demographics variables have a significant degree of similarity. We further observe that similarity might be present in one layer of the multilayer network and simultaneously be absent in the other layers. For a variable such as gender, our measure reveals a transition from similarity between nodes connected with links of relatively low weight to dis-similarity for the nodes connected by the strongest links. We finally analyze the overlap between layers in the network for different levels of acquaintanceships.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

A national survey on violence and discrimination among people with disabilities

Background: The aim of the study was to quantify levels of violence and discrimination among people with disabilities and analyze the effects of gender and the type and degree of disability. Methods: The study analyzed data on self-reported violence and discrimination from a Danish national survey of 18,019 citizens, of whom 4519 reported a physical disability and 1398 reported a mental disability. Results: Individuals with disabilities reported significantly higher levels of violence than those without. Specifically, individuals reporting a mental disability reported higher levels of violence and discrimination. Significant gender differences were found with regard to type of violence: while men with disabilities were more likely to report physical violence, women with disabilities were more likely to report major sexual violence, humiliation and discrimination. Neither severity nor visibility of disability was found to be a significant factor for risk of violence. Conclusions: This large-scale study lends support to existing research showing that people with disabilities are at greater risk of violence than people without disabilities. Further, the study found that people with mental disabilities were significantly more likely to report all types of violence and discrimination than those with physical disabilities. The findings also show that gender is significant in explaining the type of violence experienced and the experience of discrimination