Effect of Modality on Transfer of Linguistic Stimuli from Short-Term to Long Term Memory: Evidence on Immediate and Delayed Recall

Memory is considered as an important cognitive domain found to be important in our daily-walks of life. Short term and long term memory are considered as the main variants under memory. The information in short term memory is prone to be transferred to the long term memory through attention, practice, rehearsal. The current study aims to investigate the effect of modality on transfer of linguistic stimuli from short to long term memory. 20 neuro-typical Tamil speaking participants were recruited for the study. The participants were divided into two groups based on random sampling. Auditory task was administered on the first group where the participants were presented with sentences and were asked to remember the key/content word. While auditory plus visual task was administered on the second group of participants. Recall of key/content words was tested at the level of immediate and delayed recall conditions. On immediate recall condition, there was no difference between the two groups but on delayed recall condition, modality of stimulus presentation had a significant role as the group presented with auditory stimulus performed well compared to the group presented with auditory plus visual modalitie

Role of Semantic Teaching in the Acquisition of New Words

Fast mapping refers to the acquisition of new words in children just by the virtue of mere exposure. With a minimal exposure the words are imbibed. This study was carried with the aim of comparing the fast mapping and slow mapping in typically developing children. A total of 20 children in the age range of 5-6 years were considered for the study and the participants were divided into two groups on random basis. Fast mapping and slow mapping methods were used to train the first and group respectively. In fast mapping, the participants were exposed to the label of the target word for 5 times. In slow mapping method, the semantic features related to the target word was taught to the participants. The number of words learnt by group 1 and group 2 children was computed on immediate naming task and delayed naming. Statistically there was no significant difference between number of words learnt on fast mapping and slow mapping as observed on Mann-Whitney U test. While there was significant difference between the two methods on delayed naming as proven by the same statistic. More number of words learnt through slow mapping suggested that it was effective in evoking learning

Is Bilingualism a boon or bane for children with Communication Disorders?

Journal of Child Language Acquisition and Development - JCLA

Comparing the cognitive Flexibility and Response Inhibition Abilities in Individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Older Healthy Individuals

Cognitive flexibility refers to the ability to switch rapidly between different responses sets. It is further sub divided into set shifting and cognitive shifting. While set shifting is considered to be automatic, cognitive shifting is considered to be conscious and strategic. Cognitive shifting can be assessed through a variety of linguistic and non-linguistic tasks. The non-linguistic tasks include stroop task, non-zero task etc. The alternating fluency task is a linguistic task, built in the same lines of generative naming. The only difference is that the participant has to rapidly alternate between two lexical categories in other words has to name a lexical item from first lexical category and then name a lexical item from the other lexical category. Response inhibition is the other executive function required for performing the alternating fluency task, as it would require the participants to inhibit the response belonging to the other lexical category. The current study was taken up with the aim of comparing cognitive shifting abilities in individuals with MCI and older individuals by employing alternating fluency task. Four lexical category combinations (animals-vehicles; birds-common objects; fruits-vegetables, colours and body parts) were considered and the task of participant was to name a lexical category from each combination (at once) within a period of 2 minutes. Each correct response was given a score of 1 when the participant could produce responses from both lexical categories given. 0 was given for partial and incorrect responses. Older participants performed better compared to participants with MCI. Individuals with MCI performed poorly as the cognitive flexibility and response inhibition are found to be compromised in these individuals

Special Educators’ Experience Teaching during the Pandemic: A Retrospective Study

With the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, a shift in teaching children with special needs has taken place. The purpose of this descriptive research study was to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on teacher relationships with special needs kids during the mandated school closures in March 2020. A descriptive cross-sectional survey was carried out through google form questionnaire. A total of forty special educators participated in the study. The challenges faced by special educators were documented through five sections: Demographic details, Online Teaching, Access to Resources, Individualized Educational Plan and Parental Satisfaction. During the Covid pandemic, more than 90% of teachers switched to an online way of service delivery. Special educators agree that online resources should be used properly, and that parents should be able to organize material for online education. They agreed that acquiring and exchanging information on Individualized Educational Plan (IEP), establishing IEP direction, planning and drafting IEPs for online classrooms, and implementing and reviewing IEPs were all tough. Parents’ satisfaction with online education and interest in online programs were lower than in-person teaching, according to the study. Special educators were constantly seeking to adapt to the present instructional requirements. Culturally relevant resources, guidelines for implementing the Individualized Educational Plan, and a family-centered approach are all needed

Treatment Approaches for Word Retrieval Deficits in Persons with Aphasia: Recent Advances

Word retrieval deficit is found to be one of the most persistent symptoms reported among the constellation of symptoms exhibited by persons with aphasia (PWAs). This deficit restraints the persons with aphasia to perform with ease across day-to-day conversations. As a consequence, PWAs fail to communicate their desired ideas or thoughts. Word retrieval is an intricate process as it entails various levels of processing. In addition, word retrieval breakdown can occur at multiple levels (semantic level or lexical-semantic level, or phonological level). Thus, there is a need for speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to treat this deficit through effective treatment approaches. In recent decades, semantic feature analysis, verb network strengthening treatment, and phonological component analysis have received greater focus and importance in treating word retrieval deficits. Many studies confirmed that the use of these treatment approaches on PWAs possesses a pivotal role in remediating word retrieval deficits