Tracking Home Language Production and Environment in Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

2021 ◽  
pp. 019459982110137
Author(s):  
Ana Marija Sola ◽  
Kara D. Brodie ◽  
Jihyun Stephans ◽  
Chiara Scarpelli ◽  
Dylan K. Chan

Objective To use an automated speech-processing technology to identify patterns in sound environments and language output for deaf or hard-of-hearing infants and toddlers. Study Design Observational study based on a convenience sample. Setting Home observation conducted by tertiary children’s hospital. Methods The system analyzed 115 naturalistic recordings of 28 children <3.5 years old. Hearing ability was stratified into groups by access to sound. Outcomes were compared across hearing groups, and multivariable linear regression was used to test associations. Results There was a significant difference in age-adjusted child vocalizations (P = .042), conversational turns (P = .022), and language development scores (P = .05) between hearing groups but no significant difference in adult words (P = .11). Conversational turns were positively associated with each language development measure, while adult words were not. For each hour of electronic media, there were significant reductions in child vocalizations (β = −0.47; 95% CI, −0.71 to −0.19), conversational turns (β = −0.45; 95% CI, −0.65 to −0.22), and language development (β = −0.37; 95% CI, −0.61 to −0.15). Conclusions Conversational turn scores differ among hearing groups and are positively associated with language development outcomes. Electronic media is associated with reduced discernible adult speech, child vocalizations, conversational turns, and language development scores. This effect was larger in children who are deaf or hard of hearing as compared with other reports in typically hearing populations. These findings underscore the need to optimize early language environments and limit electronic noise exposure in children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 48-54
Author(s):  
Meliha Povlakić Hadžiefendić ◽  
◽  
Esad H. Mahmutović ◽  

Slow speech-language development and reduced communication skills can affect weaker experiences in different activities. The aim of the research was to determine interests and aspirations for sports of deaf and hard-of-hearing students. The sample consisted of 94 examinees, divided into two groups. The first group consisted of 47 deaf and hard-of-hearing students, and the second, control group, the same number of their hearing peers, both sexes, average age of 16 ± 1.27 years. The test used for research was Test for Interests and Aspirations of Students of 20 Assertions - Indicators of attitudes about participation and opportunities provided by eight different activities, of which sport is one of them. The obtained data were processed with descriptive analysis, and the differences between the groups tested with the t-test. Deaf and hard-of-hearing students recognize the importance of dealing with sports, but feel that they do not participate enough. The examinees without hearing impairments pleaded more favorably about participation in sport activities than examinees with hearing impairment, and the statistically significant difference was established. Statistically significant difference was not determined in the case of pleading about the possibilities provided by sport. Deaf and hard-of-hearing students believe that sport can have significant impact on better socialization, wherefore it is necessary to include these persons in sport activities at an early age.


2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Yoshinaga-Itano

Abstract It is possible for children who are deaf or hard of hearing to attain language development comparable to their hearing peers, but these outcomes are not guaranteed. The population of children with hearing loss is a diverse population and although the variable of the age of identification is less variable, there are numerous variables that could potentially and have historically impacted language outcomes of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Variables such as hearing loss, maternal level of education, and maternal bonding can overcome the benefits of earlier identification and intervention.


Author(s):  
Dani Levine ◽  
Daniela Avelar ◽  
Roberta Michnick Golinkoff ◽  
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek ◽  
Derek M. Houston

Copious evidence indicates that, even in the first year of life, children’s language development is beginning and is impacted by a wide array of cognitive and social processes. The extent to which these processes are dependent on early language input is a critical concern for most deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children, who, unlike hearing children, are usually not immersed in a language-rich environment until effective interventions, such as hearing aids or cochlear implants, are implemented. Importantly, some cognitive and social processes are not dependent on the early availability of language input and begin to develop before children are fitted for hearing aids or cochlear implants. Interventions involving parent training may be helpful for enhancing social underpinnings of language and for maximizing DHH children’s language learning once effective hearing devices are in place. Similarly, cognitive training for DHH children may also provide benefit to bolster language development.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 844
Author(s):  
Laís Ferreira ◽  
Piotr Henryk Skarzynski ◽  
Magdalena Beata Skarzynska ◽  
Milaine Dominici Sanfins ◽  
Eliara Pinto Vieira Biaggio

(1) Background: In neonates and infants, the physiological modifications associated with language development are reflected in their Frequency Following Responses (FFRs) in the first few months of life. (2) Objective: This study aimed to test the FFRs of infants in the first 45 days of life in order to evaluate how auditory maturation affects the encoding of a speech syllable. (3) Method: In total, 80 healthy, normal-hearing infants, aged 3 to 45 days old, participated in this study. The sample was divided into three groups: GI, 38 neonates from 3 to 15 days; GII, 25 infants from 16 to 30 days; and GIII, 17 infants from 31 to 45 days. All participants underwent FFR testing. Results: With age, there was a decrease in the latency of all FFR waves, with statistically significant differences among the groups studied for waves V, A, E, F, and O. The mean amplitudes showed an increase, with a statistically significant difference only for wave V. The slope measure increased over the 45 days, with a statistically significant difference between GIII and GI and between GIII and GII. (4) Conclusions: The encoding of a speech sound changes with auditory maturation over the first 45 days of an infant’s life.


Author(s):  
Yue Ma ◽  
Laura Jonsson ◽  
Tianli Feng ◽  
Tyler Weisberg ◽  
Teresa Shao ◽  
...  

The home language environment is critical to early language development and subsequent skills. However, few studies have quantitatively measured the home language environment in low-income, developing settings. This study explores variations in the home language environment and child language skills among households in poor rural villages in northwestern China. Audio recordings were collected for 38 children aged 20–28 months and analyzed using Language Environment Analysis (LENA) software; language skills were measured using the MacArthur–Bates Mandarin Communicative Developmental Inventories expressive vocabulary scale. The results revealed large variability in both child language skills and home language environment measures (adult words, conversational turns, and child vocalizations) with 5- to 6-fold differences between the highest and lowest scores. Despite variation, however, the average number of adult words and conversational turns were lower than found among urban Chinese children. Correlation analyses did not identify significant correlations between demographic characteristics and the home language environment. However, the results do indicate significant correlations between the home language environment and child language skills, with conversational turns showing the strongest correlation. The results point to a need for further research on language engagement and ways to increase parent–child interactions to improve early language development among young children in rural China.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. e000084
Author(s):  
Amanda Farah Khan ◽  
Matthew Kenneth MacDonald ◽  
Catherine Streutker ◽  
Corwyn Rowsell ◽  
James Drake ◽  
...  

ObjectivesWe aim to determine what threshold of compressive stress small bowel and colon tissues display evidence of significant tissue trauma during laparoscopic surgery.DesignThis study included 10 small bowel and 10 colon samples from patients undergoing routine gastrointestinal surgery. Each sample was compressed with pressures ranging from 100 kPa to 600 kPa. Two pathologists who were blinded to all study conditions, performed a histological analysis of the tissues. Experimentation: November 2018–February 2019. Analysis: March 2019–May 2020.SettingAn inner-city trauma and ambulatory hospital with a 40-bed inpatient general surgery unit with a diverse patient population.ParticipantsPatients were eligible if their surgery procured healthy tissue margins for experimentation (a convenience sample). 26 patient samples were procured; 6 samples were unusable. 10 colon and 10 small bowel samples were tested for a total of 120 experimental cases. No patients withdrew their consent.InterventionsA novel device was created to induce compressive “grasps” to simulate those of a laparoscopic grasper. Experimentation was performed ex-vivo, in-vitro. Grasp conditions of 0–600 kPa for a duration of 10 s were used.ResultsSmall bowel (10), M:F was 7:3, average age was 54.3 years. Colon (10), M:F was 1:1, average age was 65.2 years. All 20 patients experienced a significant difference (p<0.05) in serosal thickness post-compression at both 500 and 600 kPa for both tissue types. A logistic regression analysis with a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 84.6% on a test set of data predicts a safety threshold of 329–330 kPa.ConclusionsA threshold was discovered that corresponded to both significant serosal thickness change and a positive histological trauma score rating. This “force limit” could be used in novel sensorized laparoscopic tools to avoid intraoperative tissue injury.


2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Przemysław Tomalski

Abstract Apart from their remarkable phonological skills young infants prior to their first birthday show ability to match the mouth articulation they see with the speech sounds they hear. They are able to detect the audiovisual conflict of speech and to selectively attend to articulating mouth depending on audiovisual congruency. Early audiovisual speech processing is an important aspect of language development, related not only to phonological knowledge, but also to language production during subsequent years. Th is article reviews recent experimental work delineating the complex developmental trajectory of audiovisual mismatch detection. Th e central issue is the role of age-related changes in visual scanning of audiovisual speech and the corresponding changes in neural signatures of audiovisual speech processing in the second half of the first year of life. Th is phenomenon is discussed in the context of recent theories of perceptual development and existing data on the neural organisation of the infant ‘social brain’.


2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roksolana Mykhaylyk ◽  
Elinor Ytterstad

Aims and research questions: This paper presents a new study addressing the issue of cross-linguistic influence in acquisition of referring expressions. The main research question is how to predict directionality of this influence in a dual language development. Methodology: The method is an elicited production task. We consider the phenomenon of direct object referring choices, i.e. noun, pronoun and null element, in a ‘null-object’–‘overt-object’ language pair (Ukrainian and English). Data and Analysis: Participants of the experiment are 4–6-year-old Ukrainian–English bilinguals (N20) and Ukrainian monolinguals (N21). The data are analyzed in the statistical program R, utilizing the R-library function lme4. The results are presented as odds ratios (ORs) of each direct object type. Findings: Our data reveal that while there is no significant difference in Ukrainian object types in most of the age groups, there is a considerable amount of null object usage in English at the ages of four to five. Originality: The innovative nature of this study lies in: (i) the consideration of a licit object omission at a later stage of language development (from 4 to 6 years of age); (ii) the examination of an under-investigated language combination (i.e. English and Ukrainian); and (iii) the innovative approach to linguistic data analysis (e.g. comparing OR values). Implications: Our findings suggest that the directionality of influence in dual language acquisition depends on the developmental stage, language-specific means of syntax–pragmatics interaction, and extra-linguistic input-related factors. At the early stages of development, the null-object language is likely to influence the overt-object language, especially under conditions of limited exposure to the latter.


2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 261-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael W. Hubble ◽  
Michael E. Richards

AbstractIntroduction:Colleges and universities are experiencing increasing demand for online courses in many healthcare disciplines, including emergency medical services (EMS). Development and implementation of online paramedic courses with the quality of education experienced in the traditional classroom setting is essential in order to maintain the integrity of the educational process. Currently, there is conflicting evidence of whether a significant difference exists in student performance between online and traditional nursing and allied health courses. However, there are no published investigations of the effectiveness of online learning by paramedic students.Hypothesis:Performance of paramedic students enrolled in an online, undergraduate, research methods course is equivalent to the performance of students enrolled in the same course provided in a traditional, classroom environment.Methods:Academic performance, learning styles, and course satisfaction surveys were compared between two groups of students. The course content was identical for both courses and taught by the same instructor during the same semester. The primary difference between the traditional course and the online course was the method of lecture delivery. Lectures for the on-campus students were provided live in a traditional classroom setting using PowerPoint slides. Lectures for the online students were provided using the same PowerPoint slides with prerecorded streaming audio and video.Results:A convenience sample of 23 online and 10 traditional students participated in this study. With the exception of two learning domains, the two groups of students exhibited similar learning styles as assessed using the Grasha-Riechmann Student Learning Style Scales instrument. The online students scored significantly lower in the competitive and dependent dimensions than did the on-campus students. Academic performance was similar between the two groups. The online students devoted slightly more time to the course than did the campus students, although this difference did not reach statistical significance. In general, the online students believed the online audio lectures were more effective than the traditional live lectures.Conclusion:Distance learning technology appears to be an effective mechanism for extending didactic paramedic education off-campus, and may be beneficial particularly to areas that lack paramedic training programs or adequate numbers of qualified instructors.


2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 154-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seung-Hwan Lee ◽  
Young-Cho Chung ◽  
Jong-Chul Yang ◽  
Yong-Ku Kim ◽  
Kwang-Yoon Suh

Background:The neurobiological mechanism of auditory hallucination (AH) in schizophrenia remains elusive, but AH can be caused by the abnormality in the speech perception system based on the speech perception neural network model.Objectives:The purpose of this study was to investigate whether schizophrenic patients with AH have the speech processing impairment as compared with schizophrenic patients without AH, and whether the speech perception ability could be improved after AH had subsided.Methods:Twenty-four schizophrenic patients with AH were compared with 25 schizophrenic patients without AH. Narrative speech perception was assessed using a masked speech tracking (MST) task with three levels of superimposed phonetic noise. Sentence repetition task (SRT) and auditory continuous performance task (CPT) were used to assess grammar-dependent verbal working memory and non-language attention, respectively. These tests were measured before and after treatment in both groups.Results:Before treatment, schizophrenic patients with AH showed significant impairments in MST compared with those without AH. There were no significant differences in SRT and CPT correct (CPT-C) rates between both groups, but CPT incorrect (CPT-I) rate showed a significant difference. The low-score CPI-I group showed a significant difference in MST performance between the two groups, while the high-score CPI-I group did not. After treatment (after AH subsided), the hallucinating schizophrenic patients still had significant impairment in MST performance compared with non-hallucinating schizophrenic patients.Conclusions:Our results support the claim that schizophrenic patients with AH are likely to have a disturbance of the speech perception system. Moreover, our data suggest that non-language attention might be a key factor influencing speech perception ability and that speech perception dysfunction might be a trait marker in schizophrenia with AH.


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