Age-related Differences in Idiom Production in Adulthood

To investigate whether idiom production was vulnerable to age-related difficulties, we asked 40 younger (ages 18–30) and 40 older healthy adults (ages 60–85) to produce idiomatic expressions in a story-completion task. Younger adults produced significantly more correct idiom responses (73%) than did older adults (60%). When older adults generated partially correct responses, they were less likely than younger participants to eventually produce the complete target idiom (old: 32%; young: 70%); first-word cues after initial failure to retrieve an idiom resulted in more correct idioms for older (24%) than younger (15%) participants. Correlations between age and idiom correctness were positive for the young group and negative for the older group, suggesting mastery of familiar idioms continues into adulthood. Within each group, scores on the Boston Naming Test correlated with performance on the idiom task. Findings for retrieving idiomatic expressions are thus similar to those for retrieving lexical items

Another type of bilingual advantage? Tense-mood-aspect frequency, verb-form regularity and context-governed choice in bilingual vs. monolingual Spanish speakers with agrammatism

Introduction: This study asks whether Spanish-English bilinguals with agrammatism perform better than comparable monolingual Spanish speakers on a test of copular verb production. We chose the Spanish dual-copula system, because its two copula verbs: ser and estar (meaning ‘be’ in English), differ semantically (depending on the context of the sentence), as well as in overall frequency and form-regularity. We asked: Do bilingual Spanish-English speakers with agrammatism perform differently from their monolingual Spanish counterparts on a test comparing the effects of TMA Frequency, VF Regularity and CGC on verb production? Methodology: Participants were asked to complete 130 written sentences orally with the correct verb-form. E.g., “¿Donde ______ la pelota?” (está)- “Where is the ball?” Six sentence types were employed to compare among the three factors: 1) High TMA Frequency/Low VF Regularity (ser in present tense) 2) High TMA Frequency/High VF Regularity (estar in present tense) 3) Low TMA Frequency/Low VF Regularity (ser in imperfect past tense) 4) Low TMA Frequency/High VF Regularity (estar in imperfect past tense) 5) High TMA Frequency/High CGC (sentences requiring either ser or estar in the present tense and result in a semantic change) 6) High TMA Frequency/Low CGC (sentences allowing a choice of either ser or estar in the present tense and do not result in a semantic change) Participants: Six Spanish-speaking participants with agrammatism were tested. Three had been highly proficient bilingual Spanish-English speakers, while the other three were relatively monolingual Spanish speakers. All had suffered left-frontal strokes at least 6 months prior to this study (X= 3.4 years) and were judged agrammatic (in both languages, for bilinguals) based on the effortfulness of their spontaneous speech, short phrase-length, high substantive-word use, omission of functors, and relatively good comprehension. Twelve non-aphasic Spanish-English speakers served as controls, and were matched for language history, age, educational attainment, and relative socio-economic status. Results and Conclusions: In general, participants with agrammatism made markedly more errors on this task (X= 40%) than control participants (X= 4%), thus reinforcing our finding that despite high frequency in daily usage, ser and estar are not resistant to agrammatism (O’Connor Wells, 2011; O’Connor, Obler & Goral, 2007). A mixed-effects logistic regression analysis of the bilingual vs. monolingual data, revealed a trend (p = 0.07) for the mean performance of the bilinguals with agrammatism (65%) to be greater than that of the monolinguals (54%). Although the direction of their performance was the same, the bilinguals with agrammatism outperformed the monolingual ones on all three of our verb factors. These data are consistent with the possibility that bilingualism facilitates language performance among bilinguals in their first language

Dysphagic Symptoms in Patients with Chagas Disease, as Assessed by Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing

Dysphagic Symptoms in Patients with Chagas Disease, as Assessed by Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing, Fred DiCarlo, Ed.D., Associate Professor, Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences, Speech-Language Pathology, Barbara O\u27Connor Wells, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences, Speech-Language Pathology, and David Ross,M.Sc., CCC-SLP, SLP.D. student, Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences, Speech-Language Pathology Objective: This study was conducted to examine and describe oral and pharyngeal dysphagic symptoms in adults residing in Brazil with a diagnosis of Chagas Disease (CD) using fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing. Background: CD is a parasitic disease transmitted by an insect that can greatly impact a person’s swallowing and their ability to meet their daily nutrition and hydration needs. Methods: The purpose of this study is to provide objective descriptions of the oral and pharyngeal swallow anatomy and physiology, with a focus on the dysphagic symptoms of adults with swallowing disorders arising from CD infections in order to fill the void in the existing literature. The theoretical method used as a foundation for this study is the WHO\u27s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health model. Conclusion: Data analyses presented will include descriptive statistics, measurement of central tendencies, and inter-rater reliability to analyze quantitative and qualitative data from swallowing and nutrition assessments used in the study. “Logistic Regression” will analyze if certain demographic factors (e.g., age, gender, length of time since diagnosis of CD) can predict swallowing symptoms and the severity of those symptoms. Our goal is to create a database of oral and pharyngeal symptoms that can be disseminated to communities impacted by CD. Grants: This study was partially funded by a grant from PCHCS/ACO

VARIBAR THIN BARIUM® VS. “ULTRATHIN”: OCCURRENCE OF PENETRATION/ASPIRATION IN PATIENTS DIAGNOSED WITH DYSPHAGIA AS MEASURED THROUGH MBSS

Objective. The purpose of this study is to determine if diluting Varibar Thin Barium® with water by 50% (referred to as “Ultrathin”) will capture more instances of penetration and/or aspiration during a Modified Barium Swallow Study (MBSS), than the currently available product consistency, labeled Varibar Thin Barium®. Background. Previous research has shown that the commercially available Varibar Thin Barium® may not be thin enough in viscosity to identify patients who are at risk for penetrating and/or aspirating a “true” thin liquid (e.g., water). In the Fink and Ross (2009) study, if the “Ultrathin” had not been used to identify patients at risk for penetration and/or aspiration, the patients would have tested safe for thin liquids and the recommendation of thin liquid consumption (e.g., water) following discharge from the MBSS would have been based on only assessing the use of Varibar Thin Barium®, which has a thicker viscosity and does not represent a “true” thin liquid placing the patients at risk for penetration and/or aspiration on thin liquid. Methods. A quasi-experimental research design will be used for this study to determine if the intake of “Ultrathin” versus the intake of Varibar Thin Barium® increases the occurrence of penetration and/or aspiration in patients with neurological dysphagia resulting from stroke. Patients suspected of presenting with penetration and/or aspiration as a result of neurological dysphagia will be physician referred for an MBSS as part of a diagnostic protocol at Swallowing Diagnostics, Inc. to rule out or confirm penetration and/or aspiration. Results. There will be an increase in penetration and/or aspiration events on the MBSS using diluted Varibar Thin Barium® (“Ultrathin”) versus Varibar Thin Barium® in patients with neurogenic dysphagia. Conclusion. Our findings will support those of Fink and Ross (2009) in showing that the currently available Varibar Thin Barium® is not thin enough in viscosity to match a “true” thin liquid (e.g., water), and that an “Ultrathin” consistency needs to become the commercially available standard for thin liquid assessment during an MBSS. Grants. This study may be partially funded by the NSU CHCS Faculty Research and Development Grant and a grant offered by Bracco, who is the production company for Varibar Thin Barium®