Phonological working memory and auditory processing speed in children with specific language impairment

Background and Aim: Specific language impairment (SLI), one variety of developmental language disorder, has attracted much interest in recent decades. Much research has been conducted to discover why some children have a specific language impairment. So far, research has failed to identify a reason for this linguistic deficiency. Some researchers believe language disorder causes defects in phonological working memory and affects auditory processing speed. Therefore, this study reviews the results of research investigating these two factors in children with specific language impairment.Recent Findings: Studies have shown that children with specific language impairment face constraints in phonological working memory capacity. Memory deficit is one possible cause of linguistic disorder in children with specific language impairment. However, in these children, disorder in information processing speed is observed, especially regarding the auditory aspect.Conclusion: Much more research is required to adequately explain the relationship between phonological working memory and auditory processing speed with language. However, given the role of phonological working memory and auditory processing speed in language acquisition, a focus should be placed on phonological working memory capacity and auditory processing speed in the assessment and treatment of children with a specific language impairment

Phonological working memory and its relationship with language abilities in children with cochlear implants

Background and Aim: Many studies have demonstrated a close relationship between phonological working memory and language abilities in normal children and children with language developmental disorders, such as those with cochlear implants. A review of these studies would clarify communication and learning in such children and provide more comprehensive information regarding their education and treatment. In this study, the characteristics of phonological working memory and its relationship with language abilities in children with cochlear implants was examined.Recent Findings: In this study, the authors studied the characteristics of phonological working memory and its relationship with language abilities of children with cochlear implants. These studies showed that in addition to demographic variables, phonological working memory is a factor that affects language development in children with cochlear implants. Children with cochlear implants typically have a shorter memory span.Conclusion: It is thought that the deficiency in primary auditory sensory input and language stimulation caused by difficulties in the processing and rehearsal of auditory information in phonological working memory is the main cause of the short memory span in such children. Conversely, phonological working memory problems may have adverse effects on the language abilities in such children. Therefore, to provide comprehensive and appropriate treatment for children with cochlear implants, the reciprocal relationship between language abilities and phonological working memory should be considered

Study and Comparison of Phonological Awareness Skills and Naming Speed in Dyslexic and Normal Children

Objective: In recent decades, it has been accepted that , deficiencies in phonological Awareness is related to reading problems, and phonological Awareness is the most important causal factor of dyslexia. Although recent researchers on naming speed skill reveal that this skill is orther possible source of dyslexia. Materials & Methods: Present research has been fulfilled on 58 second elementary grade students on the aim of reviewing and comparing the phonological awareness and naming speed. There was 28 dyslexic subject and 30 normal people. There was analyzing of all collected information in this research by independent statistical “ T “ and U – man Whitney Test . Likewise, The correlation between phonological awarecess skills and naming speed in two subject groups by Pearson and Spearman correlated coefficint. Results: Results shiwed that, it was significant differences detween both dyslexia and normal groups in mentioned skills, and dyslexic groupe is weaker than normal group for both skills. Furthermore, in this research there was not significant corellation between phonological awareness and naming speed. Keywords dyslexia/ phonological awarness/ naming speed. Conclusion: consistent with the previous studies , the results of this study revealed that dyslexic individuals have problems in phonological awareness and naming speed . Also insignificant Correlation between the above skills may show that naming speed is independant of phonological awareness

Developing and Standardization of a Diagnostic Reading Test

Objective: This paper is a report on the development, structure and content of a diagnostic dyslexia reading test. The target population of this test is persian children who have problems in learning reading and may be considered as dyslexic. This diagnostic test is the first reading test developed for the native speakers of persian. Materials & Methods: The theoretical framework of the test is based on two well- established reading tests for the English speaking children, namely Durrell Analysis of Reading and Neale Analysis of Reading Ability. The linguistic content of the subtests is selected from the vocabulary and texts of the textbook used in the primary schools. Both the vocabulary and the sentences of the parrallel passeges were controlled for frequency, phonemic/graphemic regularity, syllable structure, morphology, syntax and semantics. They were also controlled for value judgement by two linguistics and three first grader teachers.The first version of the test is normed on 605 boy and girl first graders from different educational sectors and schools selected randomly.The method used in this research is cross- sectional, descriptive- analytic and the data analysis is based on pearson, and mann-whitney u. Results: Reliability of the test is calculated based on parrallel forms (~ 90%) and validity is based on content validity.This test has a supplementary section including spelling, graphem/ phoneme correspondness, nonword reading, irregular word reading, and copy subtests. Conclusion: Considering highreliability and precise validation of the test it can be used to diagnose the dyslexia and related linguistic impairments

Auditory-Verbal Comprehension Development of 2-5 Year Old Normal Persian Speaking Children in Tehran, Iran

Background and Aim: Understanding and defining developmental norms of auditory comprehension is a necessity for detecting auditory-verbal comprehension impairments in children. We hereby investigated lexical auditory development of Persian (Farsi) speaking children.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, auditory comprehension of four 2-5 year old normal children of adult’s child-directed utterance at available nurseries was observed by researchers primarily to gain a great number of comprehendible words for the children of the same age. The words were classified into nouns, verbs and adjectives. Auditory-verbal comprehension task items were also considered in 2 sections of subordinates and superordinates auditory comprehension. Colored pictures were provided for each item. Thirty 2-5 year old normal children were randomly selected from nurseries all over Tehran. Children were tested by this task and subsequently, mean of their correct response were analyzed. Results: The findings revealed that there is a high positive correlation between auditory-verbal comprehension and age (r=0.804, p=0.001). Comparing children in 3 age groups of 2-3, 3-4 and 4-5 year old, showed that subordinate and superordinate auditory comprehension of the former group is significantly lower (p<0.05) than the others . Intra-group comparisons revealed no significant difference between nouns, verbs and adjectives (p>0.05), while the difference between subordinate and superordinate auditory comprehension was significant in all age groups (p<0.05).Conclusion: Auditory-verbal comprehension develop much faster at lower than older ages and there is no prominent difference between word linguistic classes including nouns, verbs and adjectives. Slower development of superordinate auditory comprehension implies semantic hierarchical evolution of words

Word Definitional Skills in School age Persian Speaking Children: A Developmental Study on Form

Objectives: Word definitional skills (WDSs) were classified according to the quality of both semantic content and syntactic form. The aim of the present study was to investigate the syntactic development in WDSs in typically developing school- age children. Methods: In this cross-sectional and descriptive-analytical study,&nbsp; 150 of typically developing school-age children participated by the&nbsp; multistage sampling method in the second to sixth grade from primary schools in 1, 7 and 17 municipal&nbsp; districts of Tehran. The definition skill was assessed with word definition task. The reliability was assessed by two independent values and the validity was determined by the content. The results were&nbsp; analyzed by the SPSS (22th version)&nbsp; statistical software and with the method of independent- samples T test, univariate analysis of variance and Tukey test. Results: The form analysis revealed that all children use phrase/clause&nbsp; or simple sentence, transitional form and Aristotelian form frequently, but by increasing the age, definitions were developed from simple syntactic structure into Aristotelian form, in fact mean score of the form in word definition was significantly increased by age (P<0.001). Discussion: Owing to the findings of this study, the development of word definitional skills in terms of form was developed from phrase/clause or simple sentence and transitional form responses into Aristotelian form. Also WDSs are closely related to academic success and the development of literacy

انطباق پرسشنامه ی تجدید نظر شده برقراری ارتباط-نسخه دومChildren’s Communication Checklist (CCC-2 ) با زبان فارسی و تعیین ویژگی های روان سنجی آن

چکیده مقدمه:بیشتر آزمون­ها در گفتاردرمانی مبتنی بر ساختار زبان هستند و بنابراین برای ارزیابی کاربرد زبان نیاز به تهیه­ی ابزارهایی روا و معتبر می­باشد. پرسشنامه­ی برقراری ارتباط (1998) و نسخه­ی تجدید نظر شده­ی آن(2003) به ارزیابی کاربرد زبان اختصاص دارد. این مطالعه، با هدفترجمه انطباق و بومی­سازی پرسشنامه­ی  تجدید نظرشده برقراری ارتباط به زبان فارسی از طریق تعیین روایی محتوایی و بررسی  اعتبار آن(اعتبار درونی، اعتبارآزمون باز آزمون)انجام شده است. مواد و روش­ها:مطالعه حاضریک مطالعه غیر تجربی از نوع ابزارسازی بود. ترجمه پرسشنامه و برگردان ترجمه،  توسط سه آسیب­شناس گفتار و زبان و زبان­شناس صورت گرفت. همین­طور از نظرات 28 والد کودک 7تا 9 ساله دارای رشد طبیعی زبان در خصوص قابل درک بودن و ساده بودن گویه­ها استفاده شد. فرم ترجمه­شده پرسشنامه جهت تعیین روایی محتوایی برا­ی 10 آسیب شناس گفتار و زبان و زبان شناس فرستاده شد. سپس شاخص روایی محتوا(Content validity index)محاسبه گردید.ثبات درونی ابزار و اعتبار آزمون باز آزمون از طریق تکمیل پرسشنامه توسط98 والد کودک 7تا 9 ساله طبیعی صورت گرفت. یافته­ها:در بخش ترجمه و انطباق به جز 4 گویه، سایر گویه­هاCVRبالاتر از 0.85 احراز کردند که پس از اصلاح مجدد، این گویه­هانیز امتیاز مناسب کسب کردند. شاخص روایی محتوایی گویه­ها (CVI) بالاتر از 0.75 بود.ضریب آلفای کرونباخ زیرمجموعه­ها بین 0.66 تا 0.74 محاسبه شد و نتایج بازآزمایی  بعد از دوهفته بالاتر از 0.90 بدست آمد. نتیجه­گیری: بر طبق نتایج حاصل از پژوهش حاضر به نظر می­رسدکه پرسشنامه مطابقت داده شده­ی برقراری ارتباط کودکان به زبان فارسی از رواییمحتوا  و پایایی قابل قبولی برای کودکان 7 تا 9 سالهبرخوردار است. با این وجود نیاز به مطالعات دیگری به منظور سنجش بهتر ویژگی­های روان­سنجی این پرسشنامه در نمونه هایی با حجم بالاتر و در گروه­های سنی دیگر به چشم می خورد.   کلید واژ ه­ها:پرسشنامه تجدید نظر شده برقراری ارتباط، کاربردشناسی، انطباق، روایی، پایایی، فارس

Object and Action Naming: A Study on Persian-Speaking Children

Objectives: Nouns and verbs are the central conceptual linguistic units of language acquisition in all human languages. While the noun-bias hypothesis claims that nouns have a privilege in children&rsquo;s lexical development across languages, studies on Mandarin and Korean and other languages have challenged this view. More recent cross-linguistic naming studies on children in German, Turkish, English and Korean demonstrate that all languages, including Korean show a noun advantage however the degree of this discrepancy differs between languages. The aim of this study wasto look at object and action naming in normal Persian children as a measure of conceptual developmentin preschool children and its possible use for screening and therapeutic procedures. Methods: In this analytical study, noun bias and processing dissociation of object and action naming in 64 three to six year old healthy monolingual Persian-speaking children was investigated. A black and white picture naming task, consisting of 36 nouns (natural and man-made), and 36 verbs (transitive and intransitive) was designed using DMDX software to measure response accuracy and reaction time of the subjects. Results: The results indicate a significant noun advantage with regard to accuracy and naming latencies. The results also reveal that transitive verbs are named more accurately than intransitive ones in Persianspeaking children. Also,the data indicate that accuracy of object and action namingimprove with age (P=0.000). Discussion: Based on the resultswe recommended that a standardized Persian object and action naming battery be used. Such a tool would have the potential of screening lexical development delay and possible noun-verb performance gap in preschool children

Review and Comparison of Content Growth in Word Definition of Persian Speaking Children of 7-12 Years of Age

Objective Language has three components: content, form and pragmatic. The content includes the semantic components. Semantic knowledge of word relationships requires awareness of the relationships between different words in the same field and other fields. One of the main components of the semantic is the mental lexicon that many of the semantic communications, including the organization and semantic representations of words, take shape in this network. The important issue is how to organize words in mind, linking the words together and their position in the semantic network. One task that helps to organize the meanings of the words in the mental lexicon is the word definition task. The ability to define words is reliant o&nbsp; several aspects of linguistic and metalinguistic&nbsp; development, literacy, and academic achievement. The aim of this investigation was to study the definitional style of nouns in typically developing school-aged children.&nbsp; Materials & Methods In this cross-sectional and descriptive-analytical study, 150 typically developing school-aged children, selected using multistage sampling method, studying in the second to sixth grades in 1, 7 and 17 municipal districts of Tehran were included. The definition skill was assessed with word definition task. The students were asked to define the words, and their answers were scored based on content. The reliability was assessed by two independent values, and the validity was determined by the content. The results were analyzed by the SPSS V. 22 software using the methods of independent- samples T test, univariate analysis of variance and Tukey&rsquo;s test. Results The findings showed that by increasing the age, the noun definitions were developed from functional and concrete responses into combination two and using of superordinate terms were increased. The mean score of the content in word definition was significantly increased by age (P<0.001). Also the performance of girl students was better as they earned higher scores than the boys (P=0.03).&nbsp; Conclusion&nbsp; On increasing the age, the content quality of word definitions improved significantly. The concepts were found to be organized into hierarchies of connections. Also, definitions were developed from functional and concrete responses into combination two and formal responses. And finally, the word definition task can be used by speech and language therapists in clinical and educational environments

Comparison of Reading Instruction and Traditional Methods Effects on Receptive and Expressive Language of Down Syndrome Children

Objective: Considering the fact that children with Down Syndrome have a severe delay in language development which does not appear being improved by language therapy leaning on auditory modality, this research was aimed to compare the traditional educational method and reading method effects on receptive and expressive language of 4 – 10 years old Down Syndrome children with 40 – 60 I.Q scores. Materials & Methods: In this quasi experimental and interventional research from Navide Asr Rehabilitation clinic in Tehran, Rezvan Rehabilitation clinic in Shahriar, Ehsan Rehabilitation clinic in Karaj and Down Syndrome Association of Karaj, 20 Down Syndrome children were selected by simple and convenient sampling from 96 Down Syndrome children and were allocated into two groups by balanced randomized method. The first group was educated by whole word reading method and the other group was educated by traditional method. Both groups had three 15-minute educational sessions per week for a period of 6-month. Languages of both groups have been examined by TOLD- P: 3 test as pre and post-test. The results were analyzed by statistical tests including Kolmogoroff - Smironoff (K-S), Independent-T-Test and Paired-T-Test. Results: Independent-T-Test in both groups revealed no significant differences before education in receptive (P=0.452), expressive (P=0.1) and speech (P=0.428) Language, but after intervention period, the groups have significant statistical differences in all language portions such as receptive (P=0.043), expressive (P<0.001) and Speech (P<0.001). Conclusion: Reading education has more effects on receptive and expressive language in children with Down syndrome than the other educational methods (traditional ones). Thus it seems that focusing on behavioral and cognitive phenotype of Down syndrome with emphasis on visual modality facilitates language development more than auditory modality, and aptitude training may have the best effects