Hearing preservation at low frequencies by insulin-like growth factor 1 in a guinea pig model of cochlear implantation

Publication date: Available online 6 July 2018

Source: Hearing Research

Author(s): Kohei Yamahara, Koji Nishimura, Hideaki Ogita, Juichi Ito, Takayuki Nakagawa, Ichiro Furuta, Tomoko Kita, Koichi Omori, Norio Yamamoto

Abstract

The hybrid or electric-acoustic stimulation cochlear implant is indicated in patients with a residual hearing at low frequencies. It provides electric and acoustic stimulation for compensating for high- and low-frequency sounds, respectively. However, the implantation procedure damages the cochlea, resulting in loss of the residual-hearing and diminished effects of the acoustic-hearing in several patients. To prevent hearing loss after implantation, corticosteroids have been used clinically although their effects are limited. As an alternative to corticosteroids, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) has shown potent effects in various types of cochlear injury. In this study, the effects of IGF1 on hearing preservation were examined after cochlear implantation to a normal-hearing guinea pig model. The electrode was inserted in an atraumatic way through the round window membrane of guinea pigs with the application of a gelatin-sponge soaked with IGF1 or saline. The auditory brainstem response (ABR) was recorded pre-operatively, immediately after cochlear implantation, and 7, 14, 28, and 56 days after electrode insertion. In comparison to the control group, the IGF1-treated group showed better hearing preservation at low frequencies, 7 days after surgery. IGF1 application was effective at low frequencies (2 and 4 kHz) throughout the period of examination. Histological studies revealed that outer hair cell numbers, in the IGF1-treated group, were maintained in the cochlear region responsible for low-frequency hearing (upper midbasal turn) and that there was less fibrous tissue formation around the electrode. Both the outer hair cell counts and the extent of fibrosis significantly correlated with the ABR threshold shifts at low frequencies. These results indicate that IGF1 might attenuate loss of low-frequency hearing after cochlear implantation, suggesting its possible clinical use in soft surgeries involving cochlear implants with electric-acoustic stimulation for hearing preservation.

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Hearing preservation at low frequencies by insulin-like growth factor 1 in a guinea pig model of cochlear implantation

Publication date: Available online 6 July 2018

Source: Hearing Research

Author(s): Kohei Yamahara, Koji Nishimura, Hideaki Ogita, Juichi Ito, Takayuki Nakagawa, Ichiro Furuta, Tomoko Kita, Koichi Omori, Norio Yamamoto

Abstract

The hybrid or electric-acoustic stimulation cochlear implant is indicated in patients with a residual hearing at low frequencies. It provides electric and acoustic stimulation for compensating for high- and low-frequency sounds, respectively. However, the implantation procedure damages the cochlea, resulting in loss of the residual-hearing and diminished effects of the acoustic-hearing in several patients. To prevent hearing loss after implantation, corticosteroids have been used clinically although their effects are limited. As an alternative to corticosteroids, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) has shown potent effects in various types of cochlear injury. In this study, the effects of IGF1 on hearing preservation were examined after cochlear implantation to a normal-hearing guinea pig model. The electrode was inserted in an atraumatic way through the round window membrane of guinea pigs with the application of a gelatin-sponge soaked with IGF1 or saline. The auditory brainstem response (ABR) was recorded pre-operatively, immediately after cochlear implantation, and 7, 14, 28, and 56 days after electrode insertion. In comparison to the control group, the IGF1-treated group showed better hearing preservation at low frequencies, 7 days after surgery. IGF1 application was effective at low frequencies (2 and 4 kHz) throughout the period of examination. Histological studies revealed that outer hair cell numbers, in the IGF1-treated group, were maintained in the cochlear region responsible for low-frequency hearing (upper midbasal turn) and that there was less fibrous tissue formation around the electrode. Both the outer hair cell counts and the extent of fibrosis significantly correlated with the ABR threshold shifts at low frequencies. These results indicate that IGF1 might attenuate loss of low-frequency hearing after cochlear implantation, suggesting its possible clinical use in soft surgeries involving cochlear implants with electric-acoustic stimulation for hearing preservation.

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Children With Dyslexia Benefit From Orthographic Facilitation During Spoken Word Learning

Purpose

Orthographic facilitation describes the phenomenon in which a spoken word is produced more accurately when its corresponding written word is present during learning. We examined the orthographic facilitation effect in children with dyslexia because they have poor learning and recall of spoken words. We hypothesized that including orthography during spoken word learning would facilitate learning and recall.

Method

Children with dyslexia and children with typical development (n = 46 per group), 7–9 years old, were matched for grade and nonverbal intelligence. Across 4 blocks of exposure in 1 session, children learned pairings between 4 spoken pseudowords and novel semantic referents in a modified paired-associate learning task. Two of the pairings were presented with orthography present, and 2 were presented with orthography absent. Recall of newly learned spoken words was assessed using a naming task.

Results

Both groups showed orthographic facilitation during learning and naming. During learning, both groups paired pseudowords and referents more accurately when orthography was present. During naming, children with typical development showed a large orthographic facilitation effect that increased across blocks. For children with dyslexia, this effect was present initially but then plateaued.

Conclusions

We demonstrate for the first time that children with dyslexia benefit from orthographic facilitation during spoken word learning. These findings have direct implications for teaching spoken vocabulary to children with dyslexia.

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Auditory Lexical Decisions in Developmental Language Disorder: A Meta-Analysis of Behavioral Studies

Purpose

Despite the apparent primacy of syntactic deficits, children with developmental language disorder (DLD) often also evidence lexical impairments. In particular, it has been argued that this population have difficulty forming lexical representations that are detailed enough to support effective spoken word processing. In order to better understand this deficit, a meta-analysis of studies testing children with DLD in the auditory lexical decision task was conducted. The objective was to provide summary effect size estimates for accuracy and response time measures for comparisons to age- and language-matched control groups.

Method

Two thousand three hundred seventy-two records were initially identified through electronic searches and expert consultation, with this cohort reduced to 9 through duplicate removal and the application of eligibility and quality criteria. The final study cohort included 499 children aged 3;8–11;4 (years;months).

Results

Multivariate analysis suggests that children with DLD were significantly less accurate in the auditory lexical decision task than age-matched controls. For the response time estimate, however, confidence intervals for the same group comparison crossed 0, suggesting no reliable difference between groups. Confidence intervals also crossed 0 for language-matched control estimates for both accuracy and response time, suggesting no reliable difference between groups on either measure.

Conclusion

Results broadly support the hypothesis that children with DLD have difficulty in forming detailed lexical representations relative to age- though not language-matched peers. However, further work is required to determine the performance profiles of potential subgroups and the impact of manipulating different lexical characteristics, such as the position and degree of nonword error, phonotactic probability, and semantic network size.

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Short-Term Memory, Inhibition, and Attention in Developmental Stuttering: A Meta-Analysis

Purpose

This study presents a meta-analytic review of differences in verbal short-term memory, inhibition, and attention between children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS).

Method

Electronic databases and reference sections of articles were searched for candidate studies that examined verbal short-term memory, inhibition, and attention using behavioral and/or parent report measures. Twenty-nine studies met the eligibility criteria, which included, among other things, children between the ages of 3 and 18 years and the availability of quantitative data for effect size calculations. Data were extracted, coded, and analyzed, with the magnitude of the difference between the 2 groups of children being estimated using Hedge's g (Hedges & Olkin, 1985).

Results

Based on the random-effects model (Hunter & Schmidt, 2004), findings revealed that CWS scored lower than CWNS on measures of nonword repetition (Hedges' g = −0.62), particularly at lengths of 2 and 3 syllables (Hedges' g = −0.62 and − 0.50, respectively), and forward span (Hedges' g = −0.40). Analyses further revealed that the parents of CWS rated their children as having weaker inhibition (Hedges' g = −0.44) and attentional focus/persistence (Hedges' g = −0.36) skills than the parents of CWNS, but there were no significant differences between CWS and CWNS in behavioral measures of inhibition and attention.

Conclusion

The present findings were taken to suggest that cognitive processes are important variables associated with developmental stuttering.

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Immature Auditory Evoked Potentials in Children With Moderate–Severe Developmental Language Disorder

Purpose

Immature auditory processing has been proposed to underlie language impairments in children with developmental language disorder (DLD; also known as specific language impairment). Using newly available normative auditory evoked potential (AEP) waveforms, we estimated AEP maturity in individual children with DLD and explored whether this maturational index was related to their language abilities.

Method

AEPs were elicited by 225 trials of a 490-Hz pure tone. Using intraclass correlation and our previously established normative AEP waveforms of 7- to 10-year-old children with typical development, we estimated the age equivalent of the AEPs (AEP–age) from 21 children with DLD. The relation between AEP maturity and language was explored through regression analysis.

Results

AEP–age predicted 31% of the variance in the language abilities of children with DLD. The AEP–age of children with mild DLD was similar to their chronological age, whereas children with moderate–severe DLD showed, on average, a 1.3-year delay in their neural responses. AEP–age predicted receptive, but not expressive, language performance.

Conclusion

Maturation in auditory neural responses is a significant predictor of language ability, particularly in children with moderate–severe DLD.

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Clinical Forum: Working Memory in School-Age Children

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Children With Dyslexia Benefit From Orthographic Facilitation During Spoken Word Learning

Purpose

Orthographic facilitation describes the phenomenon in which a spoken word is produced more accurately when its corresponding written word is present during learning. We examined the orthographic facilitation effect in children with dyslexia because they have poor learning and recall of spoken words. We hypothesized that including orthography during spoken word learning would facilitate learning and recall.

Method

Children with dyslexia and children with typical development (n = 46 per group), 7–9 years old, were matched for grade and nonverbal intelligence. Across 4 blocks of exposure in 1 session, children learned pairings between 4 spoken pseudowords and novel semantic referents in a modified paired-associate learning task. Two of the pairings were presented with orthography present, and 2 were presented with orthography absent. Recall of newly learned spoken words was assessed using a naming task.

Results

Both groups showed orthographic facilitation during learning and naming. During learning, both groups paired pseudowords and referents more accurately when orthography was present. During naming, children with typical development showed a large orthographic facilitation effect that increased across blocks. For children with dyslexia, this effect was present initially but then plateaued.

Conclusions

We demonstrate for the first time that children with dyslexia benefit from orthographic facilitation during spoken word learning. These findings have direct implications for teaching spoken vocabulary to children with dyslexia.

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Auditory Lexical Decisions in Developmental Language Disorder: A Meta-Analysis of Behavioral Studies

Purpose

Despite the apparent primacy of syntactic deficits, children with developmental language disorder (DLD) often also evidence lexical impairments. In particular, it has been argued that this population have difficulty forming lexical representations that are detailed enough to support effective spoken word processing. In order to better understand this deficit, a meta-analysis of studies testing children with DLD in the auditory lexical decision task was conducted. The objective was to provide summary effect size estimates for accuracy and response time measures for comparisons to age- and language-matched control groups.

Method

Two thousand three hundred seventy-two records were initially identified through electronic searches and expert consultation, with this cohort reduced to 9 through duplicate removal and the application of eligibility and quality criteria. The final study cohort included 499 children aged 3;8–11;4 (years;months).

Results

Multivariate analysis suggests that children with DLD were significantly less accurate in the auditory lexical decision task than age-matched controls. For the response time estimate, however, confidence intervals for the same group comparison crossed 0, suggesting no reliable difference between groups. Confidence intervals also crossed 0 for language-matched control estimates for both accuracy and response time, suggesting no reliable difference between groups on either measure.

Conclusion

Results broadly support the hypothesis that children with DLD have difficulty in forming detailed lexical representations relative to age- though not language-matched peers. However, further work is required to determine the performance profiles of potential subgroups and the impact of manipulating different lexical characteristics, such as the position and degree of nonword error, phonotactic probability, and semantic network size.

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Short-Term Memory, Inhibition, and Attention in Developmental Stuttering: A Meta-Analysis

Purpose

This study presents a meta-analytic review of differences in verbal short-term memory, inhibition, and attention between children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS).

Method

Electronic databases and reference sections of articles were searched for candidate studies that examined verbal short-term memory, inhibition, and attention using behavioral and/or parent report measures. Twenty-nine studies met the eligibility criteria, which included, among other things, children between the ages of 3 and 18 years and the availability of quantitative data for effect size calculations. Data were extracted, coded, and analyzed, with the magnitude of the difference between the 2 groups of children being estimated using Hedge's g (Hedges & Olkin, 1985).

Results

Based on the random-effects model (Hunter & Schmidt, 2004), findings revealed that CWS scored lower than CWNS on measures of nonword repetition (Hedges' g = −0.62), particularly at lengths of 2 and 3 syllables (Hedges' g = −0.62 and − 0.50, respectively), and forward span (Hedges' g = −0.40). Analyses further revealed that the parents of CWS rated their children as having weaker inhibition (Hedges' g = −0.44) and attentional focus/persistence (Hedges' g = −0.36) skills than the parents of CWNS, but there were no significant differences between CWS and CWNS in behavioral measures of inhibition and attention.

Conclusion

The present findings were taken to suggest that cognitive processes are important variables associated with developmental stuttering.

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Immature Auditory Evoked Potentials in Children With Moderate–Severe Developmental Language Disorder

Purpose

Immature auditory processing has been proposed to underlie language impairments in children with developmental language disorder (DLD; also known as specific language impairment). Using newly available normative auditory evoked potential (AEP) waveforms, we estimated AEP maturity in individual children with DLD and explored whether this maturational index was related to their language abilities.

Method

AEPs were elicited by 225 trials of a 490-Hz pure tone. Using intraclass correlation and our previously established normative AEP waveforms of 7- to 10-year-old children with typical development, we estimated the age equivalent of the AEPs (AEP–age) from 21 children with DLD. The relation between AEP maturity and language was explored through regression analysis.

Results

AEP–age predicted 31% of the variance in the language abilities of children with DLD. The AEP–age of children with mild DLD was similar to their chronological age, whereas children with moderate–severe DLD showed, on average, a 1.3-year delay in their neural responses. AEP–age predicted receptive, but not expressive, language performance.

Conclusion

Maturation in auditory neural responses is a significant predictor of language ability, particularly in children with moderate–severe DLD.

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Clinical Forum: Working Memory in School-Age Children

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Relationships between gait and emotion in Parkinson’s disease: A narrative review

Publication date: September 2018

Source: Gait & Posture, Volume 65

Author(s): Laura Avanzino, Giovanna Lagravinese, Giovanni Abbruzzese, Elisa Pelosin

Abstract

Background

Disturbance of gait is a key feature of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and has a negative impact on quality of life. Deficits in cognition and sensorimotor processing impair the ability of people with PD to walk quickly, efficiently and safely. Recent evidence suggests that emotional disturbances may also affect gait in PD.

Research question

We explored if there were relationships between walking ability, emotion and cognitive impairment in people with PD.

Methods

The literature was firstly reviewed for unimpaired individuals. The recent experimental evidence for the influence of emotion on gait in people with PD was then explored. The contribution of affective disorders to continuous gait disorders was investigated, particularly for bradykinetic and hypokinetic gait. In addition, we investigated the influence of emotional processing on episodic gait disturbances, such as freezing of gait. Potential effects of pharmacological, surgical and physical therapy interventions were also considered.

Results

Emerging evidence showed that emotional disturbances arising from affective disorders such as anxiety and depression, in addition to cognitive impairment, could contribute to gait disorders in some people with PD. An analysis of the literature indicated mixed evidence that improvements in affective disorders induced by physical therapy, pharmacological management or surgery improve locomotion in PD.

Significance

When assessing and treating gait disorders in people with PD, it is important to take into the account non-motor symptoms such as anxiety, depression and cognitive impairment, in addition to the motor sequalae of this progressive neurological condition.

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Stopping Medications before Vestibular Testing: Evidence-Based or Neuromythology?

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Impact of Personal Frequency Modulation Systems on Behavioral and Cortical Auditory Evoked Potential Measures of Auditory Processing and Classroom Listening in School-Aged Children with Auditory Processing Disorder

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The Influence of Caffeine on Rotary Chair and Oculomotor Testing

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The Influence of Speech Rate on Acceptable Noise Levels

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Psychometric Validity, Reliability, and Responsiveness of the Tinnitus Functional Index

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Prevalence and Characteristics of Patients with Severe Hyperacusis among Patients Seen in a Tinnitus and Hyperacusis Clinic

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An Evaluation of the World Health Organization and American Medical Association Ratings of Hearing Impairment and Simulated Single-Sided Deafness

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Impact of Hearing Loss and Amplification on Performance on a Cognitive Screening Test

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Measuring Perceptions of Classroom Listening in Typically Developing Children and Children with Auditory Difficulties Using the LIFE-UK Questionnaire

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JAAA CEU Program

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Using Language-Specific and Bilingual Measures to Explore Lexical–Grammatical Links in Young Latino Dual-Language Learners

Purpose

This study examined the nature of the relation between language-specific vocabulary and conceptual lexical–semantic skills with grammatical abilities within and across languages in preschool Latino dual language learners (DLLs).

Method

Sixty-one typically developing, Spanish–English speaking DLLs from preschools serving low-income families participated in the study. Lexical, semantic, and grammar skills were assessed toward the end of the fall in both Spanish and English using normative and researcher-developed assessment instruments. Hierarchical linear regressions using baseline cross-sectional data were completed to determine the association of language-specific vocabulary and bilingual lexical and semantic abilities to grammatical skills measured by sentence repetition tasks in Spanish and English both within and across languages.

Results

Results from the study revealed that a considerable percentage of the variance in the grammatical ability of these Latino DLL preschoolers in both Spanish and English was explained by lexical variables in the same language (54% in English and 16% in Spanish). In the strong language (Spanish), bilingual semantic skills also played a role, explaining an additional 8% of the variance. Conceptual vocabulary was a significant predictor of English grammar in the model that excluded the language-specific vocabulary measures.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that grammatical skills in the Latino preschoolers examined in the study are strongly related to language-specific measures of vocabulary. In contrast, no evidence supporting the relation between vocabulary and grammar skills across languages was observed. Findings from this study provide insight into the impact of bilingual lexical–semantic knowledge on the grammatical skills of dual-language preschool children developing language abilities in their 2 languages. Clinical implications are also discussed.

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Introduction to the Clinical Forum: Working Memory in School-Age Children

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to introduce the LSHSS Clinical Forum: Working Memory in School-Age Children. All the articles in this clinical forum concern the nature of working memory and its relationship to language and academic skills.

Method

The introduction provides a basic overview of working memory and its importance for explicit and implicit learning and highlights the topics of the 8 articles that comprise the clinical forum.

Conclusion

The articles in this clinical forum provide readers with important information about the current state of our understanding of working memory and its importance for understanding the language and academic skills of school-age children developing typically and those with language and learning difficulties. Articles in this forum also address the practical implications of this knowledge for assessment and intervention.

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Theories of Working Memory: Differences in Definition, Degree of Modularity, Role of Attention, and Purpose

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to review and discuss theories of working memory with special attention to their relevance to language processing.

Method

We begin with an overview of the concept of working memory itself and review some of the major theories. Then, we show how theories of working memory can be organized according to their stances on 3 major issues that distinguish them: modularity (on a continuum from domain-general to very modular), attention (on a continuum from automatic to completely attention demanding), and purpose (on a continuum from idiographic, or concerned with individual differences, to nomothetic, or concerned with group norms). We examine recent research that has a bearing on these distinctions.

Results

Our review shows important differences between working memory theories that can be described according to positions on the 3 continua just noted.

Conclusion

Once properly understood, working memory theories, methods, and data can serve as quite useful tools for language research.

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Internal and External Factors That Support Children's Minority First Language and English

Purpose

Sequential bilingual children in the United States often speak 2 languages that have different social statuses (minority–majority) and separate contexts for learning (home–school). Thus, distinct factors may support the development of each language. This study examined which child internal and external factors were related to vocabulary skills in a minority language versus English.

Method

Participants included 69 children, aged 5–8 years, who lived in Southern California, spoke Vietnamese as the home language, and received school instruction in English. All participants had at least 1 foreign-born parent, and most mothers reported limited English proficiency. Parents completed a telephone survey, and children completed measures of receptive and expressive vocabulary in each language. Using correlations and stepwise regression, we examined predictors of vocabulary skills in each language that were internal to the child (age, gender, analytical reasoning, phonological memory) or that pertained to the surrounding environment (cumulative exposure, quantity and quality of input/output).

Results

Vietnamese vocabulary outcomes were related to multiple external factors, of which input and enrichment activities were the best predictors. In contrast, English vocabulary outcomes were related to internal factors, of which age and phonological memory were the best predictors. Parental use of Vietnamese contributed to children's Vietnamese vocabulary outcomes but was not related to children's English vocabulary outcomes.

Conclusions

Vietnamese exposure does not hinder English development. Children from immigrant families are learning English with or without familial support. Rich and frequent exposure and opportunities for practice are essential for the continued development of a minority first language.

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Do Bilingual Children Have an Executive Function Advantage? Results From Inhibition, Shifting, and Updating Tasks

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in performance between monolingual and Spanish–English bilingual second graders (aged 7–9 years old) on executive function tasks assessing inhibition, shifting, and updating to contribute more evidence to the ongoing debate about a potential bilingual executive function advantage.

Method

One hundred sixty-seven monolingual English-speaking children and 80 Spanish–English bilingual children were administered 7 tasks on a touchscreen computer in the context of a pirate game. Bayesian statistics were used to determine if there were differences between the monolingual and bilingual groups. Additional analyses involving covariates of maternal level of education and nonverbal intelligence, and matching on these same variables, were also completed.

Results

Scaled-information Bayes factor scores more strongly favored the null hypothesis that there were no differences between the bilingual and monolingual groups on any of the executive function tasks. For 2 of the tasks, we found an advantage in favor of the monolingual group.

Conclusions

If there is a bilingual advantage in school-aged children, it is not robust across circumstances. We discuss potential factors that might counteract an actual advantage, including task reliability and environmental influences.

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A Multilinguistic Approach to Evaluating Student Spelling in Writing Samples

Purpose

Spelling is a critical component of literacy and language arts that can negatively influence other aspects of written composition. This clinical focus article describes a spelling error classification system that can be used to identify underlying linguistic deficits that contribute to students' spelling errors. The system is designed to take advantage of the linguistic expertise of speech-language pathologists to efficiently assess student errors in written compositions that are generated as a component of everyday classroom instruction.

Method

A review of the literature was conducted regarding spelling as a component of literacy and language arts, the development of spelling, and the linguistic contributions to spelling. Then, existing criterion-referenced measures of spelling simple and morphologically complex words were reviewed, and a new, manual technique for analyzing spelling in student written compositions was created.

Conclusions

The language expertise of speech-language pathologists enables them to readily evaluate the phonological, orthographic, and morphological errors in student misspellings, in order to identify specific underlying linguistic deficits and plan targeted interventions. The error classification system provides speech-language pathologists with a tool that is both simple and time efficient and, thus, may help increase their confidence and ability in addressing the spelling needs of students.

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Math Difficulties and Working Memory Growth in English Language Learner Children: Does Bilingual Proficiency Play a Significant Role?

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to determine those components of working memory (WM) that play a significant role in predicting math growth in children who are English language learners (N = 157) with serious math difficulties (MD).

Method

A battery of tests was administered in English and Spanish that assessed computation, reading, vocabulary, inhibition, and components of WM in Grade 1 children with follow-up testing in Grades 2 and 3.

Results

The results indicated that growth in the executive component of WM was related to growth in math performance. Proficient bilingual children (proficient in both Spanish and English vocabulary) with MD outperformed less proficient bilingual children with MD on measures of math calculation, fluid intelligence, reading, and Spanish WM at Grade 3.

Conclusion

Growth in the executive component of WM is significantly related to growth in math computation, and increased bilingual proficiency across testing waves yielded positive gains in both math and cognitive performance in children with MD.

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Bridging Oral and Written Language: An Oral Narrative Language Intervention Study With Writing Outcomes

Purpose

Despite literature showing a correlation between oral language and written language ability, there is little evidence documenting a causal connection between oral and written language skills. The current study examines the extent to which oral language instruction using narratives impacts students' writing skills.

Method

Following multiple baseline design conventions to minimize threats to internal validity, 3 groups of 1st-grade students were exposed to staggered baseline, intervention, and maintenance conditions. During the intervention condition, groups received 6 sessions of small-group oral narrative instruction over 2 weeks. Separated in the school day from the instruction, students wrote their own stories, forming the dependent variable across baseline, intervention, and maintenance conditions. Written stories were analyzed for story structure and language complexity using a narrative scoring flow chart based on current academic standards.

Results

Corresponding to the onset of oral narrative instruction, all but 1 student showed meaningful improvements in story writing. All 4 students, for whom improvements were observed and maintenance data were available, continued to produce written narratives above baseline levels once the instruction was withdrawn.

Conclusions

Results suggest that narrative instruction delivered exclusively in an oral modality had a positive effect on students' writing. Implications include the efficiency and inclusiveness of oral language instruction to improve writing quality, especially for young students.

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Decoding: It's Not All About the Letters

Purpose

Reading requires the ability to decode and comprehend. Impairments in working memory (WM) are often implicated in students who are poor decoders. It is unclear whether this is a domain-specific issue or a task-specific issue. Therefore, this study examined how auditory–verbal (AV) WM, visual–spatial (VS) WM, and cognitive load affected the decoding skills of students identified as poor readers.

Method

Twenty-five 2nd-grade and 23 fifth-grade students completed 3 different measures requiring various levels of cognitive demand for each domain of WM, and their decoding skills were assessed with word identification and word attack measures.

Results

AV WM measures with moderate and high cognitive demands were correlated with 2nd-grade students' abilities to decode words. AV WM measures also predicted their performance on decoding tasks. For 5th-grade students, the AV WM measure with simple cognitive load was correlated with ability to decode words. The VS WM measures were not correlated with word identification or word attack at either level.

Conclusions

This study has implications for training instruction in reading. Because the AV WM measures and not the VS WM measures predicted decoding performance in second graders, a greater emphasis on language-rich reading programs could be beneficial in scaffolding early academic achievement and reading performance.

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Relationships between gait and emotion in Parkinson’s disease: A narrative review

Publication date: September 2018

Source: Gait & Posture, Volume 65

Author(s): Laura Avanzino, Giovanna Lagravinese, Giovanni Abbruzzese, Elisa Pelosin

Abstract

Background

Disturbance of gait is a key feature of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and has a negative impact on quality of life. Deficits in cognition and sensorimotor processing impair the ability of people with PD to walk quickly, efficiently and safely. Recent evidence suggests that emotional disturbances may also affect gait in PD.

Research question

We explored if there were relationships between walking ability, emotion and cognitive impairment in people with PD.

Methods

The literature was firstly reviewed for unimpaired individuals. The recent experimental evidence for the influence of emotion on gait in people with PD was then explored. The contribution of affective disorders to continuous gait disorders was investigated, particularly for bradykinetic and hypokinetic gait. In addition, we investigated the influence of emotional processing on episodic gait disturbances, such as freezing of gait. Potential effects of pharmacological, surgical and physical therapy interventions were also considered.

Results

Emerging evidence showed that emotional disturbances arising from affective disorders such as anxiety and depression, in addition to cognitive impairment, could contribute to gait disorders in some people with PD. An analysis of the literature indicated mixed evidence that improvements in affective disorders induced by physical therapy, pharmacological management or surgery improve locomotion in PD.

Significance

When assessing and treating gait disorders in people with PD, it is important to take into the account non-motor symptoms such as anxiety, depression and cognitive impairment, in addition to the motor sequalae of this progressive neurological condition.

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Stopping Medications before Vestibular Testing: Evidence-Based or Neuromythology?

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Impact of Personal Frequency Modulation Systems on Behavioral and Cortical Auditory Evoked Potential Measures of Auditory Processing and Classroom Listening in School-Aged Children with Auditory Processing Disorder

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The Influence of Caffeine on Rotary Chair and Oculomotor Testing

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The Influence of Speech Rate on Acceptable Noise Levels

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Psychometric Validity, Reliability, and Responsiveness of the Tinnitus Functional Index

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Prevalence and Characteristics of Patients with Severe Hyperacusis among Patients Seen in a Tinnitus and Hyperacusis Clinic

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An Evaluation of the World Health Organization and American Medical Association Ratings of Hearing Impairment and Simulated Single-Sided Deafness

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Impact of Hearing Loss and Amplification on Performance on a Cognitive Screening Test

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Measuring Perceptions of Classroom Listening in Typically Developing Children and Children with Auditory Difficulties Using the LIFE-UK Questionnaire

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JAAA CEU Program

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Using Language-Specific and Bilingual Measures to Explore Lexical–Grammatical Links in Young Latino Dual-Language Learners

Purpose

This study examined the nature of the relation between language-specific vocabulary and conceptual lexical–semantic skills with grammatical abilities within and across languages in preschool Latino dual language learners (DLLs).

Method

Sixty-one typically developing, Spanish–English speaking DLLs from preschools serving low-income families participated in the study. Lexical, semantic, and grammar skills were assessed toward the end of the fall in both Spanish and English using normative and researcher-developed assessment instruments. Hierarchical linear regressions using baseline cross-sectional data were completed to determine the association of language-specific vocabulary and bilingual lexical and semantic abilities to grammatical skills measured by sentence repetition tasks in Spanish and English both within and across languages.

Results

Results from the study revealed that a considerable percentage of the variance in the grammatical ability of these Latino DLL preschoolers in both Spanish and English was explained by lexical variables in the same language (54% in English and 16% in Spanish). In the strong language (Spanish), bilingual semantic skills also played a role, explaining an additional 8% of the variance. Conceptual vocabulary was a significant predictor of English grammar in the model that excluded the language-specific vocabulary measures.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that grammatical skills in the Latino preschoolers examined in the study are strongly related to language-specific measures of vocabulary. In contrast, no evidence supporting the relation between vocabulary and grammar skills across languages was observed. Findings from this study provide insight into the impact of bilingual lexical–semantic knowledge on the grammatical skills of dual-language preschool children developing language abilities in their 2 languages. Clinical implications are also discussed.

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Introduction to the Clinical Forum: Working Memory in School-Age Children

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to introduce the LSHSS Clinical Forum: Working Memory in School-Age Children. All the articles in this clinical forum concern the nature of working memory and its relationship to language and academic skills.

Method

The introduction provides a basic overview of working memory and its importance for explicit and implicit learning and highlights the topics of the 8 articles that comprise the clinical forum.

Conclusion

The articles in this clinical forum provide readers with important information about the current state of our understanding of working memory and its importance for understanding the language and academic skills of school-age children developing typically and those with language and learning difficulties. Articles in this forum also address the practical implications of this knowledge for assessment and intervention.

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Theories of Working Memory: Differences in Definition, Degree of Modularity, Role of Attention, and Purpose

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to review and discuss theories of working memory with special attention to their relevance to language processing.

Method

We begin with an overview of the concept of working memory itself and review some of the major theories. Then, we show how theories of working memory can be organized according to their stances on 3 major issues that distinguish them: modularity (on a continuum from domain-general to very modular), attention (on a continuum from automatic to completely attention demanding), and purpose (on a continuum from idiographic, or concerned with individual differences, to nomothetic, or concerned with group norms). We examine recent research that has a bearing on these distinctions.

Results

Our review shows important differences between working memory theories that can be described according to positions on the 3 continua just noted.

Conclusion

Once properly understood, working memory theories, methods, and data can serve as quite useful tools for language research.

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Internal and External Factors That Support Children's Minority First Language and English

Purpose

Sequential bilingual children in the United States often speak 2 languages that have different social statuses (minority–majority) and separate contexts for learning (home–school). Thus, distinct factors may support the development of each language. This study examined which child internal and external factors were related to vocabulary skills in a minority language versus English.

Method

Participants included 69 children, aged 5–8 years, who lived in Southern California, spoke Vietnamese as the home language, and received school instruction in English. All participants had at least 1 foreign-born parent, and most mothers reported limited English proficiency. Parents completed a telephone survey, and children completed measures of receptive and expressive vocabulary in each language. Using correlations and stepwise regression, we examined predictors of vocabulary skills in each language that were internal to the child (age, gender, analytical reasoning, phonological memory) or that pertained to the surrounding environment (cumulative exposure, quantity and quality of input/output).

Results

Vietnamese vocabulary outcomes were related to multiple external factors, of which input and enrichment activities were the best predictors. In contrast, English vocabulary outcomes were related to internal factors, of which age and phonological memory were the best predictors. Parental use of Vietnamese contributed to children's Vietnamese vocabulary outcomes but was not related to children's English vocabulary outcomes.

Conclusions

Vietnamese exposure does not hinder English development. Children from immigrant families are learning English with or without familial support. Rich and frequent exposure and opportunities for practice are essential for the continued development of a minority first language.

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Do Bilingual Children Have an Executive Function Advantage? Results From Inhibition, Shifting, and Updating Tasks

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in performance between monolingual and Spanish–English bilingual second graders (aged 7–9 years old) on executive function tasks assessing inhibition, shifting, and updating to contribute more evidence to the ongoing debate about a potential bilingual executive function advantage.

Method

One hundred sixty-seven monolingual English-speaking children and 80 Spanish–English bilingual children were administered 7 tasks on a touchscreen computer in the context of a pirate game. Bayesian statistics were used to determine if there were differences between the monolingual and bilingual groups. Additional analyses involving covariates of maternal level of education and nonverbal intelligence, and matching on these same variables, were also completed.

Results

Scaled-information Bayes factor scores more strongly favored the null hypothesis that there were no differences between the bilingual and monolingual groups on any of the executive function tasks. For 2 of the tasks, we found an advantage in favor of the monolingual group.

Conclusions

If there is a bilingual advantage in school-aged children, it is not robust across circumstances. We discuss potential factors that might counteract an actual advantage, including task reliability and environmental influences.

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A Multilinguistic Approach to Evaluating Student Spelling in Writing Samples

Purpose

Spelling is a critical component of literacy and language arts that can negatively influence other aspects of written composition. This clinical focus article describes a spelling error classification system that can be used to identify underlying linguistic deficits that contribute to students' spelling errors. The system is designed to take advantage of the linguistic expertise of speech-language pathologists to efficiently assess student errors in written compositions that are generated as a component of everyday classroom instruction.

Method

A review of the literature was conducted regarding spelling as a component of literacy and language arts, the development of spelling, and the linguistic contributions to spelling. Then, existing criterion-referenced measures of spelling simple and morphologically complex words were reviewed, and a new, manual technique for analyzing spelling in student written compositions was created.

Conclusions

The language expertise of speech-language pathologists enables them to readily evaluate the phonological, orthographic, and morphological errors in student misspellings, in order to identify specific underlying linguistic deficits and plan targeted interventions. The error classification system provides speech-language pathologists with a tool that is both simple and time efficient and, thus, may help increase their confidence and ability in addressing the spelling needs of students.

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Math Difficulties and Working Memory Growth in English Language Learner Children: Does Bilingual Proficiency Play a Significant Role?

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to determine those components of working memory (WM) that play a significant role in predicting math growth in children who are English language learners (N = 157) with serious math difficulties (MD).

Method

A battery of tests was administered in English and Spanish that assessed computation, reading, vocabulary, inhibition, and components of WM in Grade 1 children with follow-up testing in Grades 2 and 3.

Results

The results indicated that growth in the executive component of WM was related to growth in math performance. Proficient bilingual children (proficient in both Spanish and English vocabulary) with MD outperformed less proficient bilingual children with MD on measures of math calculation, fluid intelligence, reading, and Spanish WM at Grade 3.

Conclusion

Growth in the executive component of WM is significantly related to growth in math computation, and increased bilingual proficiency across testing waves yielded positive gains in both math and cognitive performance in children with MD.

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Bridging Oral and Written Language: An Oral Narrative Language Intervention Study With Writing Outcomes

Purpose

Despite literature showing a correlation between oral language and written language ability, there is little evidence documenting a causal connection between oral and written language skills. The current study examines the extent to which oral language instruction using narratives impacts students' writing skills.

Method

Following multiple baseline design conventions to minimize threats to internal validity, 3 groups of 1st-grade students were exposed to staggered baseline, intervention, and maintenance conditions. During the intervention condition, groups received 6 sessions of small-group oral narrative instruction over 2 weeks. Separated in the school day from the instruction, students wrote their own stories, forming the dependent variable across baseline, intervention, and maintenance conditions. Written stories were analyzed for story structure and language complexity using a narrative scoring flow chart based on current academic standards.

Results

Corresponding to the onset of oral narrative instruction, all but 1 student showed meaningful improvements in story writing. All 4 students, for whom improvements were observed and maintenance data were available, continued to produce written narratives above baseline levels once the instruction was withdrawn.

Conclusions

Results suggest that narrative instruction delivered exclusively in an oral modality had a positive effect on students' writing. Implications include the efficiency and inclusiveness of oral language instruction to improve writing quality, especially for young students.

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Decoding: It's Not All About the Letters

Purpose

Reading requires the ability to decode and comprehend. Impairments in working memory (WM) are often implicated in students who are poor decoders. It is unclear whether this is a domain-specific issue or a task-specific issue. Therefore, this study examined how auditory–verbal (AV) WM, visual–spatial (VS) WM, and cognitive load affected the decoding skills of students identified as poor readers.

Method

Twenty-five 2nd-grade and 23 fifth-grade students completed 3 different measures requiring various levels of cognitive demand for each domain of WM, and their decoding skills were assessed with word identification and word attack measures.

Results

AV WM measures with moderate and high cognitive demands were correlated with 2nd-grade students' abilities to decode words. AV WM measures also predicted their performance on decoding tasks. For 5th-grade students, the AV WM measure with simple cognitive load was correlated with ability to decode words. The VS WM measures were not correlated with word identification or word attack at either level.

Conclusions

This study has implications for training instruction in reading. Because the AV WM measures and not the VS WM measures predicted decoding performance in second graders, a greater emphasis on language-rich reading programs could be beneficial in scaffolding early academic achievement and reading performance.

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