Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Clinical markers of language impairment'

Developmental language impairments are neurodevelopmental disorders in which the acquisition of language, a task which children typically perform with ease, is hindered or fraught with difficulty. This work focuses on specific language impairment (SLI), a common and highly heritable language impairment in which language development is abnormal while other developmental domains are normal. Additionally, a case-study of a child with a broader linguistic and behavioural phenotype is also presented. The work described in this thesis includes both genetic and functional investigations which were aimed at identifying candidate genes for language impairment and provide insight into the genetic mechanisms that underlie language development. I performed a genome-wide association study of SLI which included child genotype effects, maternal genotype effects, parent-of-origin effects, and maternal-foetal interaction effects. This study found significant paternal parent-of-origin effects with the gene NOP9 on chromosome 14, and suggestive maternal parent-of-origin effects with a region on chromosome 5 which had previously been implicated in autism and ADHD. Case-control and quantitative association analyses of HLA genes and SLI identified several risk alleles and protective alleles. A case-control association analysis for related individuals which used an isolated population affected by SLI identified a non-synonymous coding variant in the gene NFXL1 which was significantly more frequent in affected individuals than in unaffected individuals. High-throughput sequencing of the coding regions of NFXL1 and LD blocks surrounding associated variants in ATP2C2, CMIP and CNTNAP2 (as reported in previous studies) identified novel or rare non-synonymous coding variants in NFXL1 and ATP2C2 in SLI families as well as intronic variants in all four genes that were significantly more frequent in SLI probands than in population controls. I describe a functional study of NFXL1 examining its expression in various brain regions, the presence of different splice variants across several tissues, its effect on genes it potentially interacts with, and the subcellular localisation of the protein. Finally, I present the case-study of a child with language impairment who had chromosomal rearrangements which spanned the location of FOXP2. I examine the potential influence the chromosomal rearrangements had on FOXP2 expression and describe a lincRNA gene which was disrupted by the chromosomal inversion. In conclusion, this work identified new candidate genes for language impairment, provided further support for the involvement of previously-identified candidate genes in SLI and contributed to the understanding of the molecular function of a newly-identified candidate gene for SLI.

Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2002.
"A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, May 10, 2002." Also available in print.

Accurate diagnosis of dementia syndromes can be challenging, particularly neurodegenerative disorders of language, or primary progressive aphasias (PPAs). PPAs are heterogeneous clinical and pathological entities. The two main pathological causes of PPA are frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). PPA is associated with other neurodegenerative disorders owing to common underlying pathologies, in particular behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and semantic dementia (SD), other FTLD disorders, and non-language presentations of AD. The aim of this thesis is to improve understanding of PPA and associated disorders, with the eventual goal of improving diagnostic accuracy and clinical management of PPA. The experimental section falls into two parts. In the first the clinical features of a large pathological cohort were rated against clinical criteria for PPA, AD and bvFTD. The degree to which patients with underlying FTLD pathology exhibit overlapping behavioural and language deficits was also assessed. The second part of the experimental section is a series of prospective studies of patients with clinically diagnosed PPA, SD and AD. These studies involve detailed cross-sectional cognitive assessment, predominantly of language and working memory, and neuroimaging investigations. The retrospective studies revealed that it was not possible to classify all cases of PPA and that pathologies were heterogeneous within PPA subtypes, particularly for logopenic variant PPA (lvPPA). Clinical criteria for bvFTD and AD were found to be relatively effective. Overlapping language and behavioural symptoms were found to be common in FTLD. The prospective studies demonstrated characteristic linguistic features of nonfluent variant PPA (nfvPPA) and SD. In addition, behavioural changes were common in nfvPPA and SD. The lvPPA group did not exhibit significant impairments in language and working memory in comparison to nfvPPA and AD groups. Indeed, some features included in criteria for lvPPA occurred more frequently in nfvPPA. Nevertheless discrete factors representing 'speech production and grammaticality' and 'visual working memory and calculation' were able to differentiate nfvPPA and lvPPA effectively. There were commonalities between AD and lvPPA, and the composite measures described above did not allow effective classification of patients with these two disorders. Neuroimaging metrics showed that overlapping yet slightly differing patterns of changes in grey matter, cerebral blood flow and white matter connections occur in lvPPA and nfvPPA.Current criteria for PPA are ineffective. This is particularly apparent for lvPPA whereby core features are not specific or sensitive to lvPPA. It is evident that commonalities exist between FTLD disorders i.e. nfvPPA, semantic variant PPA and bvFTD, and between AD and lvPPA. These features may aid clinical diagnosis.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) present with varying degrees of deficit in the broader areas of social communication and stereotyped behaviors, but emerging research proposes delayed motor skill and atypical sensory processing as additional factors worth closer examination. In the current study, I sought to investigate the impacts of visual motor skills and sensory differences on language ability in young children with autism. I hypothesized that young children with autism, atypical sensory processing (Short Sensory Profile, 2nd Edition), and impaired visual motor integration (Beery VMI, 6th Edition) would have the most impacted language ability scores (Differential Ability Scales, 2nd Edition). A total of 22 children, eight with autism (25% female; M age = 66 months or 5.5 years) and 14 with typical development (50% female; M age = 73 months or 6 years) between the ages of 3:0 and 9:6 and their parents completed measures for this study. Findings were significant for the relations of status (i.e., TD vs. ASD) on language ability [t(20) = 2.66, p = .015], status on visual motor integration [t(20) = 2.27, p = .035], and for status on sensory processing [t(20) = −5.35, p < .001]. Results of the three-way interaction indicated that 72% of the variance in language ability was accounted for by the key variables in this model, but this hypothesis was not supported: p = .09, B = .15, CI95 = −.031 to .33. Related hypotheses of visual motor integration on status and language, sensory processing on status and language, and between visual motor integration and sensory were also not supported. Ancillary analyses of individual moderation indicated significant status group (TD vs. ASD) differences for children with visual motor integration full form standard scores of 119 and below (p < .05) and for children with total sensory scores of 25 to 36 (p < .05). These post hoc findings are consistent with previous literature and demonstrate promise for replication in future research with a larger and more heterogeneous sample. Further research on these constructs is encouraged as it could inform meaningful pathways for early intervention.

Access to evidence-based assessment for diagnosing children with primary language impairment (PLI) in Iran is limited. This study aimed to explore diagnostic criteria employed by Iranian speech therapists for defining PLI and examine the diagnostic potential of language sample measures (LSMs) for Persian-speaking children. Thirty nine speech and language therapists (SLTs) contributed in a qualitative- quantitative study to explore the criteria currently used by Iranian SLTs to assess and diagnose Persian-speaking children with PLI. Personally-defined diagnostic procedures, based on the results of the questionnaires and focus groups were summarised to obtain a general picture of decision-making methods in identifying Iranian children with PLI. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) was used as an organising framework for establishing a consensus as to what constitutes a language impairment, since no commonly accepted reference standard currently exists in Iranian clinical practice. The assessment potential of LSMs in Persian was examined using the framework of diagnostic research and included a pre-accuracy study followed by phase I and II studies. Twenty seven pre-school children with typically-developing language (TDL) and 24 age-matched children with PLI, aged 42 to 54 months, were recruited. Language samples were recorded as each mother played with her child. None of correlations between age and the LSMs were statistically significant in either group of children (pre- accuracy phase). However, a majority of the LSMs could differentiate children at the group level (phase I). Five measures: Grammaticality/Ungrammaticality, Ungrammatical Utterances, MLUw-excluding one-word utterances, and Semantic Errors, provided good diagnostic accuracy when examined at the level of the individual child (phase II). An ICF-based reference standard for defining PLI in Iranian Pre-school children has been developed to enhance the consensus among Iranian SLTs. It was applied to recruit the children to the DA study, resulting in five LSMs which are clinically able to differentiate between children with and without PLI.

Language samples are naturalistic sources of information that supersede many of the limitations found in standardized test administration. Although language samples have clinical utility, they are often time intensive. Despite the usefulness of language samples in evaluation and treatment, clinicians may not perform language sample analyses due to the necessary time commitment. Researchers have developed language sample analysis software that automates this process. Coding schemes such as that used by the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) software were developed to provide more information regarding appropriate grammatical tag selection. The usefulness of SALT precoding in aiding automated grammatical tagging accuracy was evaluated in this study. Results indicate consistent, overall improvement over an earlier version of the software at the tag level. The software was adept at coding samples from both developmentally normal and language impaired children. No significant differences between tagging accuracy of SALT coded versus non-SALT coded samples were found. As the accuracy of automated tagging software advances, the clinical usefulness of automated grammatical analyses improves, and thus the benefits of time savings may be realized.

Mexican Americans face a significant health disparity related to the development of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) when compared to other ethnic groups. Recent work has documented the utility of utilizing blood-based biomarkers in the detection of amnestic MCI among this population. Efforts to enhance the utility of biomarkers in detecting disease through the inclusion of select neuropsychological measures, an approach termed Molecular Neuropsychology, has shown promise. The present study sought to utilize the molecular neuropsychology approach and examine biobanked serum samples as well as neuropsychological assessments from the Health and Aging Brain among Latino Elders (HABLE) study. Random Forest analyses were conducted to determine the proteomic profile of MCI. Then separate linear regression analyses were conducted to determine the variance accounted for by the biomarkers within the select neuropsychological measures. Trail Making Test Part B was identified as having the least amount of variance and was combined with top five biomarkers within the MCI proteomic profile to create a biomarker-cognitive profile for detecting disease presence. This same method was applied to the amnestic and non-amnestic forms of MCI. The overall biomarker-cognitive profile was shown to be 90% accurate in the detection of MCI, with no significant increase when demographic variables were included into the model. Among amnestic MCI cases, the detection accuracy of the biomarker-cognitive profile was 92% and increased to 94% upon inclusion of demographic variables.

The aim of the study: to evaluate the cognitive functions of patients with early-stage Parkinson‘s disease (PD) without dementia using Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB Eclipse 3.0.0), to compare the obtained results with the data of control subjects, to determine the associations of the variables of cognitive testing with biological markers and clinical non-cognitive symptoms of PD. Objectives: to examine attention, memory, visuospatial and executive functions of patients with early-stage PD without dementia using CANTAB Eclipse 3.0.0 and to compare the obtained results with the data of control subjects; to investigate the relationship between the cognitive functions of patients with early-stage PD and the severity of disease measured by UPDRS score, the echogenic properties of brainstem nigral substance (SN) examined by transcranial sonography (TCS), the striatal binding of presinaptic dopamine transporter determined by single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) with I¹²³-FP-CIT, sleep, fatigue, demographic factors and quality of life scores, the usage of medications for early-stage PD; to analize the diagnostic characteristics of particular computerised tests for evaluation of cognitive function in patients with early-stage PD. Methods. The study was performed at the Department of Neurology of Vilnius University Hospital Santariškių Klinikos. 115 patients diagnosed with clinically probable early-stage PD who met inclusion criteria and... [to full text]
Darbo tikslas: įvertinti ankstyva Parkinsono liga (PL) be demencijos sergančių asmenų pažinimo funkcijas naudojant Kembridžo kompiuterinės neuropsichologinio ištyrimo sistemos testų rinkinį, palyginti rezultatus su kontrolinės grupės asmenų duomenimis bei nustatyti kognityvinių rodiklių ryšius su biologiniais žymenimis ir klinikiniais nekognityviniais PL simptomais. Darbo uždaviniai: ištirti ankstyva PL sergančių asmenų dėmesio, atminties, regos erdvinę ir vykdomąsias funkcijas, naudojant kompiuterizuotų testų rinkinį CANTAB eclipse 3.0.0, ir palyginti juos su kontrolinių asmenų duomenimis; nustatyti pacientų kognityvinių funkcijų ryšį su UPLVS skale įvertintu ligos sunkumu, transkranijinės sonografijos (TKS) metodu nustatytu juodosios medžiagos (JM) echogeniškumu, presinapsinio dopamine transporterio koncentracija dryžuotame kūne, nustatyta radionuklidinės kompiuterinės tomografijos (RKT) su I¹²³-FP-CIT būdu, miego, nuovargio bei demografiniais veiksniais, gyvenimo kokybės rodikliais, PL gydyti skiriamų vaistų vartojimu; išanalizuoti kompiuterizuotais testais įvertintų kognityvinių funkcijų diagnostinę vertę sergant ankstyva PL. Metodai. Tyrimas atliktas Vilniaus universiteto ligoninės Santariškių klinikų Neurologijos centre. Atrinkta 115 pacientų, sergančių ankstyva kliniškai tikėtina PL, kurie atitiko įtraukimo kriterijus bei nebuvo neįtraukimo kriterijų, ir 42 pagal amžių, lytį, mokymosi trukmę atrinkti kontroliniai tiriamieji, kurie nesirgo PL ar kitomis... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

Preterm infants have multiple health complications due to their underdeveloped neurological systems. Bottle-feeding difficulties are one complication that leads to pulmonary illness secondary to aspiration. Preterm infants exhibit clinical markers when experiencing distress during bottle-feeding. Training caregivers to identify clinical markers reduces the risk for aspiration. Simulation training provides a safe learning environment without harming patients. Twenty-two speech-language pathology and pre-requisite students divided into two simulation groups, video-simulation (N=12) and in-vivo simulation (N=10), were trained to document clinical markers of distress exhibited by preterm infants and make clinical judgments about bottle-feeding. Students rated their levels of anxiety during simulation training. Results revealed that students trained using video-simulation performed with higher clinical judgment scores and lower anxiety levels than students who received in-vivo training. Students’ knowledge of and ability to identify distress markers in preterm infants during bottle-feeding significantly improved after training in both groups without group differences.

Clitic pronouns are linguistic elements which stand at the crossroads between different areas of the language faculty. They have specific morphology, syntax, and discourse functions. Use of this element requires the management of several aspects that draw from these areas of language. Clitics have been shown to appear early in typical acquisition, but to require longer for all aspects to be correctly managed, and they proved effortful in other modes of acquisition and atypical language, where they are clinical markers of impairment. In this work, we implement a comprehensive assessment of clitics aiming to investigate in what way different occurrences of this structure highlight different patterns of linguistic performance. To do so, we focus both on accuracy across conditions and on answer strategies, with an experimental protocol testing the following: comprehension of reference in binding constructions, production of clitics in two argument positions (direct object and indirect object), production of clitics in two sentence positions (preverbal and postverbal), production of clitics with different person features (1st/2nd and 3rd), and pragmatic abilities in the alternation with the lexical noun phrase and in perspective shift contexts. The assessment was tested on the following groups of native speakers of Italian: a group of pre-school and primary school typically developing children (Study 1), a group of adult heritage speakers of Italian living in the UK (Study 2), and four (pre)adolescents with a diagnosis of ASD (Study 3). Results found in this work showed that a comprehensive assessment of clitics can highlight similarities as well as differences in linguistic profiles according to different groups. Specifically, comprehension was not a discriminating factor in the populations: all populations tested showed to have access to abstract representations of clitics in binding constructions, as comprehension of simple clitics was generally unproblematic. An exception was found in the pre-schoolers, but this may have been due to task-related factors. In line with previous results on typical, atypical, and bilingual populations, production of Italian 3rd person direct object clitics with finite verbs showed different patterns across populations: in our data, typical children of all ages and ASD pre-adolescents showed to correctly produce this instance of the clitic the majority of the time, while heritage speakers of Italian showed poor production rates on this instance of the clitic. Importantly, our data shows similar results for indirect objects, showing that if the cliticization process is accessible, it is accessible regardless of the argument position occupied by the cliticised object. Another crucial result is that our studies find different patterns to be highlighted by the production of clitics on non-finite verbs as opposed to those on finite verbs: accuracy is similarly high in one high-performing ASD pre-adolescent and in the group results of 8-year-old children, but 4-year-old and 6-year-old children, as well as some ASD participants show chance or below chance performance in enclisis. The same was true for production of clitic combinations, although it was the least accurate structure across all groups, particularly in non-finite constructions. Here, heritage speakers and a few ASD speakers produce little to no instances of this construction, while those who produce it the most are the highest performing ASD participant and the oldest group of children. It is plausible to assume that the derivation of both enclitics and clitic combinations may require harder computation. These results allow us to conclude that if an individual or a population has issues on single DO and IO clitics with finite verbs, they will have issues with all other instances in the assessment. If an individual or a population shows no issues on single DO and IO clitics with finite verbs, they show typical language. In this, single clitics are coherent to their role of clinical markers. However, this study highlights the power of other instances of clitics, namely enclitics and clitic combinations, to unearth vulnerabilities to complex language. Types of non-target response also showed to be in part characterizing of different populations. The most striking result in this sense is the production of a lexical NP in place of the clitic. In typical development, this answer type only becomes the most used alternative answer in the hardest constructions, namely in enclisis; on the other hand, heritage speakers systematically use this construction as the alternative to clitics and use it more than they use clitics across all conditions. In our results, errors that are usually associated with impairment, particularly in younger participants, were marginally present in all groups. These are errors on the φ-features of the clitics, omissions, and misplacements (of which we found no instances), and they were limited to the youngest TD group, the heritage speakers, and the lowest-performing ASD participant. A recurrent alternative structure employed in conditions eliciting enclitics was the production of a simplified, finite verb structure.

Dans la littérature, relativement peu d’études ont porté sur les processus de rééducation en situation naturelle. La majorité des recherches ont été menées surtout comme une évaluation de l’efficacité de certaines méthodes d’intervention (e.g. méthode métalinguistique, guidance parentale) ou modes d’intervention (e.g. recast, imitation, modelage) sur l’acquisition d’une forme ou d’une structure linguistique ou de manière plus générale sur le développement de l’enfant. Or la compréhension des processus par lesquels les enfants se développent nécessite de travailler sur ce qui se passe pendant la rééducation sur le plan interactionnel et dans la façon dont émergent des pratiques orthophoniques dans l’interaction.L’objectif de notre étude est de comprendre la manière dont les interventions des orthophonistes soutiennent le développement langagier des enfants dysphasiques dans l’interaction. Cette étude s’inscrit dans une approche interactionniste en s’inspirant des travaux de Vygotski (1936/1997) et de Bruner (1983a).L’étude porte sur l’observation de quatre dyades orthophoniste-enfant dysphasique d’âge scolaire suivies lors de séances de rééducation pendant sept mois. Au début et à la fin de cette phase d’observation, une phase de test a été mise en place pour évaluer les compétences langagières des enfants et leur évolution. Les résultats montrent que les orthophonistes mettent en place des activités portant sur divers aspects du fonctionnement du langage. Leurs pratiques s’inscrivent dans la dynamique de l’échange et elles sont fortement influencées par les interventions des enfants et leurs difficultés à accomplir une tâche langagière. En outre, elles sont efficaces car elles permettent aux enfants de réaliser à deux ce qu’ils ne pouvaient accomplir seul. Nos analyses mettent en évidence des gestes professionnels communs aux orthophonistes relevant ainsi leur appartenance à une communauté de pratiques
The literature reports relatively few studies that focused on Speech-Language pathologists’ (SLPs) interventions in natural context. Most of the studies explored the clinical effectiveness of intervention strategies with children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) by assessing language outcomes (e.g. the acquisition of a particular form or structure, improvements on particular language measures) both studying particular features (e.g. recast, imitation, model, etc) or entire clinical methods and programs (e.g. metalinguistic approach, parental guidance, etc.). However, to better understand the processes underlying children’s development, it is necessary to analyse in detail what happens during SLP sessions at an interactional level and focus on the emergence of practices during Speech-language pathologist- child interactions. The aim of the present study was to better understand how clinical interventions support the language development of child with SLI during interactions. In line with Vygotski (1936/1997) or Bruner (1983a), we adopted a socio-interactionist approach/perspective.This study observed four school-aged children with SLI interacting with their SLP during clinical sessions. The dyads were followed-up for seven months. At the beginning and the end of the observation period, children’s linguistic, discursive and interactional abilities were assessed through standardized language tests and through the analysis of mother-child interactions.The results showed that SLPs enrolled the children in activities focusing on various aspects of language. Their practices were part of the dialogical dynamic and were strongly influenced by the accomplishment of the task (by children). In addition, the effectiveness of these practices was proven by the fact that children achieved, supported by the SLP, tasks that they were not able to accomplish by themselves. Our analyses also highlighted common professional gestures, such as discursive strategies, among all the SLP who participated in the study, showing that they belong to a community of practice

Cette thèse porte sur l’étude du corpus vidéo de données multimodales VIntAGE (Videos to study Interaction in AGEing) dont l’objectif principal est de caractériser les effets du trouble cognitive léger (TCL) évolutif sur les compétences pragmatiques et interactionnelles de 5 locutrices âgées de plus de 75 ans. Nous prenons comme observable les marqueurs pragmatiques verbaux et non-verbaux. Cette démarche, à l’interface des sciences du langage, des sciences cognitives et de l’orthophonie, s’inscrit dans un processus de recherche longitudinale en situation écologique.La première partie de la thèse donne la revue des études interdisciplinaires actualisées qui traitent du vieillissement cognitif, de la communication multimodale et de la pragmatique clinique (Chap 1 à 3). En seconde partie nous présenterons nos questions de recherche et notre méthodologie incluant différentes étapes de travail qui sont : (i) la passation des tests psychométriques en vue de sélectionner les cinq participantes de l’étude; (ii) le recueil et le traitement des conduites langagières verbales et gestuelles; (iii) l’analyse statistique quantitative et qualitative permettant l’interprétation des profils pragmatiques des locutrices (Chap 4 et 5). Les conclusions générales indiquent qu’avec l’avancée en âge, les marqueurs pragmatiques verbaux revêtent préférentiellement une fonction interactive permettant ainsi aux locutrices de VIntAGE de maintenir les relations intersubjectives avec l’interlocuteur-intime. Par ailleurs, au niveau non-verbal, les manifestations gestuelles les plus mobilisées dans le temps sont d’une part à fonction interactive et d’autre part adaptative (Chap 6 et 7).L’analyse des profils avec TCL nécessite des corpus longitudinaux : i) pour comprendre les évolutions à l’œuvre chez cette population, ii) pour renseigner l’implication de la résilience cognitive (i.e. compensation, adaptation et hétérogénéité) et des ressources pragmatiques chez chaque individu et iii) pour tirer avantage de ces paramètres comme bases de données attestées pour la recherche et l’orthophonie. Par ailleurs, nous désirons montrer quels sont les avantages des méthodes d’investigation en linguistique clinique à travers le vieillissement fragilisé sur le plan cognitif, pour les cliniciens et les aidants au quotidien
The present PhD thesis presents the multimodal video corpus VIntAGe (Videos to study Interactions in AGEing) with the principal aim to describe the effects of aging in Mild Cognitive Impairment situation on pragmatic and communicative skills. We take as observable variables the verbal pragmatic markers and non-verbal pragmatic markers. This approach, at the interface of the psycholinguistics, cognitive and the speech and language pathology is part of a longitudinal research process in an ecological situation.The first part of the manuscript details the scientific expertise and knowledge related to the cognitive aging, to the multimodal communication and to the clinical pragmatics (Chap 1 to 3). The second part describes our research questions and our methods step by step: (i) from the selection of the five female participants over 75 years old with initial and longitudinal psychometric tests; (ii) to the collect and the analysis of the multimodal data; (iii) to finish on the multidimensional and statistical data analysis and the interpretation of the results (Chap 4 to 5).Our general findings indicate that with aging, verbal pragmatic markers acquire an interactive function that allows people with Mild Cognitive Impairment to maintain intersubjective relationships with their interlocutor. In addition, at the non-verbal level, gestural manifestations are increasingly mobilized over time with a preference for non-verbal pragmatic markers with a referential function and an adaptative function. The studies focusing on people with Mild Cognitive Impairment require longitudinal corpora i) to understand their evolution, ii) to provide the implication of the cognitive resilience in each individual (i.e. compensation, adaptation and heterogeneity), and iii) to take advantage of these parameters as evidence for research and earlier rehabilitation. We aim to show the benefits of linguistic and interactional scientific investigation methods through cognitive impaired aging, for clinicians and family caregivers

Tese de doutoramento em Estudos da Criança (ramo de conhecimento em Educação Especial)
The purpose of this dissertation was to extend to European Portuguese three processing-dependent measures identified as being effective in differentiating children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) from typically developing peers: (1) Children’s Non-word Repetition Test (CNRep; Gathercole & Baddeley, 1996), (2) Competing Language Processing Task (CLPT; Gaulin & Campbell, 1994), and (3) Recalling Sentences- subtest from the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF-3; Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 1995). Given that processing-dependent measures have shown promise as nonculturally biased tasks that could be used in the identification of children with SLI, it was hypothesized that these European Portuguese versions would prove valuable in the identification of school-age children with SLI in Portugal. Three measures were developed: (1) European Portuguese Children’s Non-word Repetition Test (EP-CNRep), (2) European Portuguese Competing Language Processing Task (EPCLPT), and (3) European Portuguese Recalling Sentences Task (EP- RecSent). Participants in this research study were 150 children (75 children with SLI; 75 typically developing age-gender-matched peers), aged 7 to 11 years, from 2nd to 5th grades, in 17 state-funded schools (rural, suburban and urban contexts) in the North of Portugal (i.e., Districts of Braga and Viana do Castelo). Group differences indicated that performance on EP-CNRep, EP-CLPT, and EP-RecSent tasks was significantly lower for children with SLI when compared with their typically developing peers. In this study, analysis was performed through a strong graphic method, which studies the variation of sensitivity, specificity and likelihood ratios to different cut points. The analysis for each of the measures is described, as well as the relationship with the index area under the ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) curve. Findings demonstrate that all measures differentiated children with SLI from their typically developing peers with accuracy: EP-CNRep (.971), EP-CLPT-T/F (.703), EP-CLPT-Words Recalled (.826), and EP-CLPT-Span level (.726), and EP-RecSent (.855). ROC curve analysis revealed an excellent value for the European Portuguese Children’s Nonword Repetition Test (.971) and was therefore considered the most accurate marker to differentiate European Portuguese-speaking school-age children with SLI, followed by EP-RecSent (.855), and EP-CLPT-Words Recalled (.826). Results from this study show these processing-dependent measures (EPCNRep, EP-CLPT, EP-RecSent) to be appropriate to distinguish European Portuguese school-age children with SLI and their typically developing peers. Since all three measures had good sensitivity/specificity values at different cut points, further clinical and educational feasibility can be determined by combining results from these measures in identifying children with SLI in Portugal.
O objectivo desta dissertação consistiu em desenvolver quatro provas no âmbito do processamento cognitivo-linguístico, previamente identificadas como sendo eficazes na diferenciação entre crianças com e sem Perturbações da Linguagem (PL) em Idade Escolar. O Teste de Não-palavras, uma versão adaptada do Children´s Non-word Repetition Test (CNRep; Gathercole & Baddeley, 1996), a Tarefa de Processamento da Linguagem, uma versão adaptada de Competing Language Processing Task (CLPT; Gaulin & Campbell, 1994) e a Tarefa de Rechamada Frásica adaptada do Teste Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-3 (CELF-3; Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 1995). As provas foram adaptadas à realidade portuguesa e analisadas em termos psicométricos. A sua aplicação decorreu em 17 escolas da rede pública em contextos urbanos, suburbanos e rurais nos Distritos de Braga e Viana do Castelo. A amostra consistiu em 150 crianças, dos 7 aos 11 anos de idade: 75 crianças identificadas com PL e 75 pares aleatórios da mesma idade cronológica e género. Os resultados do estudo comparativo indicam que existem diferenças significativas entre os grupos para as quatro provas, havendo também evidência de que o factor idade apresenta uma correlação positiva e forte no desempenho dos grupos. O desempenho das crianças com e sem PL nas quatro provas aumenta à medida que a idade cronológica também aumenta. Para todas as provas estudadas, foi realizada uma análise criteriosa de sensibilidade, especificidade, ratio de máxima verossimilhança (Likelihood Ratio) e curva ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) de modo a conseguir investigar o poder discriminante para diferentes valores de corte relativamente aos dois grupos de crianças. Os resultados indicaram que as provas mostram valores considerados bastante razoáveis para os parâmetros de análise ao teste e com valores preditivos elevados na discriminação das crianças com e sem Perturbações da Linguagem. O Teste de Não-palavras apresenta a curva ROC com o valor mais elevado (.971) sendo considerada a prova com maior poder discriminativo e, consequentemente com maior potencial de identificação de crianças com Perturbações da Linguagem em Idade Escolar.
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - SFRH/BD/19604/2004

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a multi-faceted disease that affects individuals on physical, cognitive and emotional levels. The specific aims of this research are to explore the prevalence of depression and the relationship between depression, neuropsychological performance and clinical variables in a cohort with TBI. This is accomplished through the retrospective review of 75 neuropsychological reports containing information on clinical variables, performance on neuropsychological measures and Beck Depression Inventory- Second Edition (BDI-II) scores of individuals who had sustained a TBI. The neuropsychological domains assessed via the standardized neuropsychological measures were the domains of attention, concentration, memory, learning, non-verbal and abstract reasoning, manual dexterity, verbal recall, working memory, perception, psychomotor performance, incidental learning, concept formation and verbal fluency. These results were statistically analysed to determine relationships with depression and clinical variables. The investigations undertaken in this study signified particularly pertinent relationships in the interactions among the variables of interest. Higher education level was found to be extremely critical in assisting retention of cognitive abilities following a TBI. Primary language was also a significant differentiator of performance among tests. Age had contrasting effects, with increasing age being favourable on the Similarities Test and related to poorer performance on the Letter Cancellation Test. Increasing GCS scores were related to slower performance on the Letter Cancellation Test and decreased performance on the RAVLT Free Recall Test. Longer PTA duration was related to worse performance on the Matrix Reasoning Test. These results indicate that these indicators of injury severity did not correlate with cognitive performance in this sample after TBI. The high incidence of depression in this study confirms that major depression is a very common occurrence after TBI. This has widespread implications for patient and family counselling, and psychotropic interventions in treatment planning after TBI. Further research on the emotional and cognitive aspects of TBIs within the South African population is needed to supplement the lack of information currently available. It is recommended that further studies build on the current study by exploring larger samples, and using more stratification specificity in terms of the type of injury sustained as well as functional outcomes. Copyright
Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2010.
Psychology
unrestricted

Diploma thesis Assessment of language skills of specific language impaired children deals with children with specific language impairment in preschool and early school age (6-8 years). The thesis is to map the resources that are dealing with this issue and define the concept of specific language impairment in our country and foreign environment, because it is a very problematic term The theoretical part describes the status of speech therapy and special education diagnosis of children with specific language impairment in Czech Republic and foreign countries. It maps out how this developmental disorder speech therapists and special educators diagnose, what tools to use and what diagnostic criteria used in their practices. The aim of our research activities in the framework of this thesis is to determine whether and what value could have a Battery of tests of phonological skills (Seidlová Málková, Caravolas 2013) for the diagnostic process of specific language impairment. And also try to detect whether the battery includes tests to detect potential child with specific language impairment and thus contribute to the differential diagnosis. Keywords: Specific language impairment, language assessment, diagnostic markers, Battery of tests of phonological skills

This Masters thesis focuses on issues of Specific Language Impairment - SLI of children of pre-school age. It monitors and evaluates development of their communication and motor skills during their time in kindergarten. The theoretical part focuses on defining basic terms which relate to communication and communication disorder with the emphasis on SLI. The psychomotor and communicational development of child from birth to entering school is described too. Also how this all affected creating the Framework Educational Programme for preschool education. The aim of the empirical part was to observe four children with SLI during their attendance at a pre-school for children with specific needs. Speech and psychomotor development of these children and its changes in connection to their teachers' intervention was observed. Part of the research included interviews with children's parents and those are also evaluated. The survey was done by the qualitative method. We get four case histories. At the end was evaluated the aims of the survey and answered questions asked and summarized the results of my investigation.