Auditory attentional set-shifting and inhibition in children who stutter

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether previously reported parental questionnaire-based differences in attentional shifting and inhibitory control (AS and IC; Eggers, De Nil, & Van den Bergh, 2010) would be supported by direct measurement of AS and IC using a computer task. Method: Participants were 16 Finnish children who stutter (CWS; mean age = 7.06 years) and 16 Finnish children who do not stutter (mean age = 7.05 years). Participants were matched on age (±8 months) and gender. AS and IC were assessed by the auditory set-shifting task of the Amsterdam Neuropsychological Tasks (De Sonneville, 2009).Results: No group differences were found for the speed of auditory AS or IC. However, CWS, as a group, scored significantly lower on the accuracy (error percentage) of auditory AS. In addition, CWS, compared with the children who do not stutter, showed a higher increase in error percentages under AS and IC conditions. Conclusions: The findings on error percentages partly corroborate earlier questionnaire-based findings showing difficulties in CWS on AS and IC. Moreover, it also seems to imply that CWS are less able to slow down their responses to achieve higher accuracy rates.</p

Population-Based Screening for Language Delay: Let’s Talk STEPS Study

This study evaluates the reliability of two differently constructed screening instruments for language delay. Only few studies have addressed the question of early identification at population level. Data for this article were drawn from a Finnish cohort study, entitled the Steps to the Healthy Development and Well-Being of Children (the STEPS study, N = 9.936). The MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (CDI-T), based on parent reported vocabulary, was used for screening at 24 months. At 36 months, child’s language skills were screened with the Fox Language Inventory (FLI) carried out by a clinical nurse. The Renfrew Word Finding Vocabulary Test and Reynell Developmental Language Scales III (language comprehension), served as outcome measures at 36 months. Receiver operating characteristic-analysis (ROC) was used to examine the cost and benefit of the two screening methods in decision making at 36 months. We found that expressive vocabulary at 24 months, can already foretell later language development. However, to reach even better predictivity, screening based on a structured language battery and age point of 36 months would be a valuable addition to clinical assessment. Further studies are needed to address to what extend early screening is able to predict atypical language during later preschool-years.</p

OASES-itsearviointilomakkeiden suomennosten validiteetti ja reliabiliteetti

The Overall Assessment of the Speaker´s Experience of Stuttering (OASESTM; Yaruss &amp; Quesal,2016) is a patient-reported outcome measure that was designed to provide a comprehensiveassessment of “the experience of the stuttering disorder from the perspective of individualswho stutter” (Yaruss &amp; Quesal, 2006, p. 90). The aim of the present study was to evaluate thevalidity and reliability of the authorized Finnish adaptations of the OASES-S (for school-agechildren, ages 7-12), OASES-T (for teens, ages 13-17), and the OASES-A (for adults ages18 and above). In this research, 60 school-aged children completed the OASES-S responseforms with 60 statements, 31 teenagers completed the OASES-T response forms with 80statements, and 31 adults completed the OASES-A response forms with 100 statements.The analyses of external (age), construct (correlation between different sections) and content(descriptive comparison between the Finnish and English OASES scores) validity indicatedthat the Finnish OASES questionnaires are valid measures. The age of the participant didnot have an effect on the results indicating good external validity. The mean scores weredescriptively close to those of the English version. Internal consistency and re-test reliabilitieswere high for both measures. The alpha scores of the OASES-S, OASES-T and OASES-Awere high (α 0,82–0,95) indicating good internal consistency. Similarly test-retest reliabilitydemonstrated high consistency of responses (r = 0,65–0,97) from one administration tothe next, except for the OASES-A Part I (General information). To conclude, the FinnishOASES-S, OASES-T and OASES-A validly and reliably measure the impact of stuttering onthe Finnish children, teenagers, and adults. The titles of the impact ratings may be changedto equal to the Finnish clinical terminology. Moreover, further research is needed on thecultural differences of the experience of stuttering and the assessment of the experience toget the measures more sensitive for different cultures.Overall Assessment of the Speaker´s Experience of Stuttering (OASESTM; Yaruss &amp; Quesal, 2016) -itsearviointimenetelmä mittaa änkyttävän henkilön kokemuksia änkytyksestä hänen omasta näkökulmastaan. Tutkimuksemme tavoitteena oli arvioida alakouluikäisten OASES-S-, nuorten OASES-T- ja aikuisten OASES-A-itsearviointimenetelmän suomennosten pätevyyttä (validiteettia) ja luotettavuutta (reliabiliteettia). Tutkimuksessa 60 änkyttävää lasta täytti OASES-S:n (60 kysymystä), 31&nbsp; änkyttävää nuorta OASES-T:n (80 kysymystä) ja 31 änkyttävää aikuista OASES-A:n (100 kysymystä). Mittareiden ulkoinen validiteetti, rakennevaliditeetti ja sisällön validiteetti todettiin hyväksi, joten itsearviointilomakkeet arvioivat pätevästi vastaajien kokemusta änkytyksen vaikutuksesta elämänlaatuun. Eri ikäisille suunnattujen itsearviointilomakkeiden alfakertoimet olivat korkeat (α 0,82–0,95) osoittaen hyvää sisäistä konsistenssia, ja mittaustulosten pysyvyys oli hyvä (r = 0,65– 0,97), lukuun ottamatta OASES-A:n osaa yleiset tiedot. Tutkimus osoitti, että suomennetut OASES-itsearviointilomakkeet erottelevat änkyttävien ihmisten kokemuksia änkytyksen vaikutuksesta heidän elämänlaatuunsa pätevyyden lisäksi luotettavasti. Vaikutuksen luokitukset olisi kuitenkin hyvä muuttaa suomalaisen kliinisen käytänteen mukaisiksi. Lisätutkimuksia tarvitaan kulttuurierojen vaikutuksesta änkytyksen kokemukseen ja sen itsearviointiin arviointimenetelmien sensitiivisyyden parantamiseksi

Generalized Slowing Rather Than Inhibition Is Associated With Language Outcomes in Both Late Talkers and Children With Typical Early Development

Purpose: While most of the children who are identified as late talkers at the age of 2 years catch up with their peers before school age, some continue to have language difficulties and will later be identified as having developmental language disorder. Our understanding of which children catch up and which do not is limited. The aim of the current study was to find out if inhibition is associated with late talker outcomes at school age.Method: We recruited 73 school-aged children (ages 7– 10 years) with a history of late talking (n = 38) or typical development (n = 35). Children completed measures of language skills and a flanker task to measure inhibition. School-age language outcome was measured as a continuous variable.Results: Our analyses did not reveal associations between inhibition and school-age language index or history of late talking. However, stronger school-age language skills were associated with shorter overall response times on the flanker task, in both congruent and incongruent trials. This effect was not modulated by history of late talking, suggesting that a relationship between general response times and language development is similar in both children with typical early language development and late talkers.Conclusions: Inhibition is not related to late talker language outcomes. However, children with better language outcomes had shorter general response times. We interpret this to reflect differences in general processing speed, suggesting that processing speed holds promise for predicting school-age language outcomes in both late talkers and children with typical early development.</div

Restricted consonant inventories of 2-year-old Finnish children with a history of recurrent acute otitis media

Many children experience recurrent acute otitis media (RAOM) in early childhood. In a previous study, 2-year-old children with RAOM were shown to have an immature neural patterns for speech sound discrimination. The present study further investigated the consonant inventories of these same children usign natural speech samples. The results showed that 2-year-old children with RAOM (N=19) produced fewer words and had smaller consonant inventories compared to healthy controls (N=21). In partucular, the number of consonants produced in medial positions of words was restricted. For places and manners of articulation, the most notable difference between the groups was observed for fricatives,which were produces less often by children with RAOM than by the controls.These results further support the asdumption that early and recurrent middle ear infections should be considered a risk factor for language development.</p

Speech disfluencies in typically developing Finnish-speaking children - preliminary results

We investigated the speech disfluencies of 54 typically fluent Finnish-speaking children: 14 children randomly selected from a longitudinal study (age levels 2, 3, and 4 years), and 40 children from a cross-sectional study (age levels 6, 7, 8, and 9 years). Speech samples, collected during a semi-structured conversation, were analysed for disfluencies per 100 words and 100 syllables. No significant within-age effect was found for the total frequency of disfluencies or disfluency types among the 2- to 4-year-olds. Across the 6- to 9-year-olds, between-group differences were found for the total frequency and type of disfluencies. Clinically relevant was that the criterion to distinguish normally fluent children from those who stutter, i.e., <3 stuttering-like disfluencies (SLD) per 100 syllables, was applicable in all age groups whereas the criterion <3SLD per 100 words was not. Consequently, these preliminary results suggest that different guidelines are needed for defining normal disfluency from stuttering in different languages

Long-term influence of recurrent acute otitis media on neural involuntary attention switching in 2-year-old children

Background: A large group of young children are exposed to repetitive middle ear infections but the effects of the fluctuating hearing sensations on immature central auditory system are not fully understood. The present study investigated the consequences of early childhood recurrent acute otitis media (RAOM) on involuntary auditory attention switching. Methods: By utilizing auditory event-related potentials, neural mechanisms of involuntary attention were studied in 22-26 month-old children (N = 18) who had had an early childhood RAOM and healthy controls (N = 19). The earlier and later phase of the P3a (eP3a and lP3a) and the late negativity (LN) were measured for embedded novel sounds in the passive multi-feature paradigm with repeating standard and deviant syllable stimuli. The children with RAOM had tympanostomy tubes inserted and all the children in both study groups had to have clinically healthy ears at the time of the measurement assessed by an otolaryngologist. Results: The results showed that lP3a amplitude diminished less from frontal to central and parietal areas in the children with RAOM than the controls. This might reflect an immature control of involuntary attention switch. Furthermore, the LN latency was longer in children with RAOM than in the controls, which suggests delayed reorientation of attention in RAOM. Conclusions: The lP3a and LN responses are affected in toddlers who have had a RAOM even when their ears are healthy. This suggests detrimental long-term effects of RAOM on the neural mechanisms of involuntary attention.Peer reviewe

KiddyCAT- ja BigCAT -itsearviointilomakkeiden suomennosten normatiiviset ja psykometriset ominaisuudet

Lasten kommunikointiasenteita arvioivan “Communication Attitude Test for Preschool and Kindergarten Children Who Stutter” (KiddyCAT) ja aikuisten kommunikointiasenteita arvioivan “Communication Attitude Test for Adults” (BigCAT) -testien kansainvälinen tutkimus on osoittanut, että änkyttävät lapset ja aikuiset suhtautuvat kielteisemmin puhumiseen kuin sujuvasti puhuvat verrokit. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli arvioida KiddyCAT-Fin- ja BigCAT-Fin-testien suomennosten pätevyyttä (validiteettia) ja luotettavuutta (reliabiliteettia). Lisäksi tavoitteena oli määritellä kummallekin testille kliinisen käytön tueksi katkaisupistemäärä, jonka ylittävä pistemäärä ilmaisee keskimääräistä kielteisempää kommunikointiasennetta. Tutkimuksessa 86 alle kouluikäistä lasta (joista 41 änkyttävää) täytti KiddyCAT-Fin:n 12 kysymystä sisältävän itsearviointilomakkeen ja 109 aikuista (joista 29 änkyttävää) täytti BigCAT-Fin:n 34 kysymystä sisältävän itsearviointilomakkeen. Itsearviointien kokonaispistemäärien keskiarvot olivat lähellä alkuperäisten englanninkielisten versioiden arvoja. Lisäksi änkyttävien lasten ja aikuisten kommunikointiasenteet olivat merkitsevästi kielteisemmät kuin sujuvasti puhuvien. Kummankin testin sisäinen konsistenssi ja uudelleenmittausreliabiliteetti olivat korkeat. Suomennettujen KiddyCAT:n ja BigCAT:n voidaan todeta erottelevan änkyttävien ihmisten kommunikointiasenteet tehokkaasti sujuvasti puhuvien ihmisten asenteista</p