No description available.

Afhandling, Linköpings universitet, 2007.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1984 S323 / Master of Arts

Thesis (M Speech Path)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Narrative skills have found to be a predictor of academic success with clear correlations to later reading and writing abilities in children. The quality of narratives and the language disorders displayed in specific clinical populations has also been correlated, making narratives a useful diagnostic tool. To be able to know what is atypical, one has to know what is normal. Normative based assessment materials are very limited in South Africa. Commercially available assessments are often inappropriate because of the complex nature of narratives and the influence of socio-economic, linguistic and cultural factors. There is therefore a need not only to develop appropriate assessment materials but also to obtain normative data for use in the South African context. The main research question this study attempted to answer is: What are the patterns of narrative development in normally developing children? A total of 62 typically developing children from schools in a middle class residential area was selected. Three different age groups were identified: Grade R (5 to 6 years), Grade 1 (6 to 7 years) and Grade 3 (8 years 6 months to 9 years 6 months) based on their different exposure to literate language. It was assumed that they would display distinct patterns of narrative development, with an increase in the complexity of narrative features with age. A wordless picture book, regarded as appropriate for the South African context, was developed and used to elicit a narrative from each participant. Narratives were analysed using a comprehensive narrative assessment protocol. Assessment areas included macrostructure, microstructure, use of literate language and the use of abstraction. Results were compared in terms of group differences and developmental trajectories. The assessment protocol showed similar story lengths in all age groups, suggesting that when the developed wordless picture book was used as elicitation stimulus, any significant differences between groups could be of diagnostic value. Results showed clear developmental trajectories in terms of macrostructural measures. The group differences between Grade R and Grade 1 in terms of microstructural measures were not significant. There was, however, a significant increase in terms of syntactic complexity and lexical diversity from Grade R to Grade 3. No significant development was observed in terms of the use of literate language features across the year groups and a group effect was offered as a possible explanation. In contrast to concrete statements, children as young as 5 years old used mainly abstractions in their generated narratives. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Narratiefvaardighede is nie net ‘n voorvereiste vir akademiese sukses nie, maar korreleer ook met lees- en skryfvaardighede in kinders. Weens die korrelasie tussen die kwaliteit van narratiewe en die taal van kinders met spesifieke taalgestremdhede, het narratiewe ook diagnostiese waarde. Om te weet wat atipies is, moet ‘n mens weet wat normaal is. Normatiewe evaluasiemateriaal is baie beperk in Suid-Afrika. Die evaluasies wat kommersieël beskikbaar is, is dikwels ontoepaslik weens die kompleksiteit van narratiewe en die invloed van sosioekonomiese, linguistiese en kulturele faktore. Dit is daarom belangrik om geskikte evaluasie materiaal te ontwikkel en normatiewe data te bepaal vir gebruik in die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks. Met hierdie studie is daar gepoog om die volgende navorsingsvraag te beantwoord: Hoe ontwikkel narratiewe in normaal ontwikkelende kinders? ‘n Totaal van 62 tipies-ontwikkelende kinders is geselekteer uit hoofstroomskole in ‘n middelklas residensiële omgewing. Drie verskillende ouderdomsgroepe is geteiken op grond van hulle blootstelling aan geletterdheidstaal: Graad R (5 – 6 jaar), Graad 1 (6 – 7 jaar) en Graad 3 (8 jaar 6 maande – 9 jaar 6 maande). Daar is aangeneem dat die groepe baie spesifieke patrone in narratiefontwikkeling sou toon, met ‘n toename in die kompleksiteit van narratiewe met toename in ouderdom. ‘n Woordlose prenteboek, wat beskou is as toepaslik binne die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks, is ontwikkel en gebruik om ‘n narratief van elke deelnemer te ontlok. Narratiewe is ontleed met behulp van ‘n omvattende evaluasieprotokol. Areas vir ontleding het makrostruktuur, mikrostruktuur, gebruik van geletterdheidstaal en die gebruik van abstraksie ingesluit. Resultate is vergelyk ten opsigte van groepsverskille en ontwikkelingspatrone. Die storielengte van die verkillende ouderdomsgroepe het ooreengestem en suggereer dat wanneer die woordlose prenteboek as ontlokkingstimulus gebruik word, enige beduidende verskille tussen groepe van diagnostiese waarde is. Die resultate het duidelike ontwikkelingspatrone getoon ten opsigte van makrostrukturele meetings. Groepsverskille tussen Graad R en Graad 1 was onbeduidend ten opsigte van mikrostrukturele metings. Daar was egter ‘n beduidende toename ten opsigte van sintaktiese kompleksiteit en leksikale diversiteit van Graad R tot Graad 3. Geen beduidende ontwikkeling is waargeneem ten opsigte van die gebruik van geletterdheidstaal oor die jaargroepe nie en ‘n groepseffek is as moontlike verduideliking gegee. Kinders so jonk as 5 jaar oud het hoofsaaklik abstrakte taal teenoor konkrete taal in hul narratiewe gebruik. Kliniese implikasies vir spraak- en taalterapeute is bespreek.

Introduction: Differentiating between normal language variation and abnormal language development can be difficult for clinicians working with young children who present with slow language development, so-called “late talkers”. Although the language difficulties of many late talkers resolve spontaneously, there is clearly a group of children whose problems persist, either for a long period or possibly permanently (after the age of five, often referred to as children with specific language impairment: SLI). There is a lack of research examining potential markers of language difficulties in young children which may enable the early detection of children at risk of SLI. The aim of this thesis was to determine the most suitable measure, or combination of measures, that can predict which late talkers at age 3;0 to 4;0 will be likely to have SLI at age 4;0 to 5;0. Methods Forty seven late talkers and 47 children with typical language development (TLD) aged from 3;0 to 4;0 were assessed on a number of language, IQ and marker tasks (baseline assessment). The children were recruited from 13 nurseries and one family centre in Aberdeen city. The children were reassessed one year later on a number of language, IQ and marker tasks (follow-up assessment). Results: Characteristics of the child or family examined were not associated with membership of the expressive language delay group at follow-up. Within the late talker group only, the Preschool Language Scale-3 Expressive Communication (PLS-3 EC) and Recalling Sentences scores at baseline were the best predictors of persistent expressive language delay at follow-up. Late talkers performance on the PLS-3 EC and Recalling Sentences tasks at age 3;0 to 4;0 has potential as predictors of persistent expressive language delay (children likely to have SLI) at age 4;0 to 5;0. Conclusions: A sizeable proportion of children identified as late talkers at age 3;0 to 4;0 have persistent language problems a year later at follow-up. The language measure PLS-3 EC has the potential to differentiate between late talkers who are going to have more persistent problems from those who recover. The marker task Recalling Sentences also has the potential to differentiate between late talkers who are going to have more persistent problems from those who recover. Given the simplicity of Recalling Sentences, this task has the potential to be a useful screening test in clinical practice although this needs to be evaluated in further research.

Although most people have experienced word-finding difficulty at one time or another, there are no clinical instruments able to reliably distinguish normal age-related effects from pathology in word-finding impairment. Two experiments were conducted to establish a modified version of the Boston Naming Test (BNT) that includes latency times, the Boston Naming Test of Latencies (BNT-L), in order to improve the instrument's sensitivity to mild to moderate word-finding impairment. Experiment 1: Latency times on the 60-item BNT (Goodglass et al., 2001) for 235 healthy adults' ages 18-89 years were collected on a representative sample. Qualitative features of the BNT items, statistical analyses, IRT, and demographic considerations of age, gender, education, vocabulary, race and culture, helped create a reduced BNT-L version with 15 of the most discriminating items. Statistically sound and sophisticated normative tables are provided that adjust for unseen covariates. Response latencies did not indicate earlier age-related decline in an optimally healthy sample. Experiment 2: Twenty-three patients referred for neuropsychological testing were administered the BNT-L. Patients referred for evaluation of mild cognitive impairment or possible dementia produced significantly different response BNT-L latencies from the healthy sample whereas patients referred for mild brain injury evaluation did not. Normal word-finding problems were discussed in terms of serial stage models of lexical access, as well as in terms of automatic and controlled cognitive processes in younger and older adults. Statistical process for creating a psychometric instrument using latencies is illustrated.

The purposes of this investigation were to identify, via the Pragmatic Protocol, the incidence of pragmatic disorders within public school articulation and language caseloads and a control group of normal students and to specify the pragmatic areas, i.e., utterance propositional, and/or illocutionary/perlocutionary act categories in which deficits occur.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Education, 1999. / The rationale for this study was to match the remedial needs of children with appropriate programmes. The aims were (1) To test the usefulness of screening instruments modelled on subtestr of the Naglieri-Das Cognitive Assessment System in identifying South African children with specific learning disabilities. (2) To study the effects of the PASS Remedial Programme (PREP) in addressing the needs of children with deficits in successive processing. (3) To study the effects of a programme based on Whole Language (WL) principles when used with children with reading problems due to extrinsic factors. Screening instruments were used to identify seven children with a successive processing deficit for the PREP experimental treatment group. Seven children who showed a general delay in beginning reading skills were selected for the WL experimental group. A PREP control group and a WL control group were also identified. Both treatment groups received twenty-four intervention sessions. When the PREP and WL experimental groups were compared, there were significant differences in gains in successive processing for the PREP group but gains in word reading skills were statistically the same for the two groups. This was an indication that the remedial programmes were suited to the needs of the children in the groups. General implications for specialised education programmes in South Africa and future directions for research on remediation are also presented.

Dificuldades pragmáticas podem ocorrer em diferentes transtornos da comunicação, desde aqueles em que a dificuldade vai além da comunicação social e afeta habilidades para manter relacionamentos e interesses variados, como no Transtorno do Espectro Autista (TEA), até alterações que afetam a compreensão e expressão linguística sem prejuízo intelectual ou sensorial, como no Distúrbio Específico de Linguagem (DEL). O estudo teve como objetivo investigar a eficácia de questionário sobre habilidades pragmáticas e comunicação social APLSC - na identificação de alterações pragmáticas de crianças com transtornos de comunicação. Foram selecionadas 40 crianças entre 3;0 e 6;11 anos, 10 com TEA, 10 com DEL e 20 com desenvolvimento típico de linguagem DTL (grupo comparativo). Os sujeitos foram seus pais e professores. Foi aplicado o questionário APLS (Assessment of Pragmatic Language and Social Communication: Parent and Professional Report Beta Research Version) sobre comunicação social e linguagem pragmática em pais e professores. Os 80 questionários foram submetidos à análise estatística descritiva, também foi utilizado o teste t paramétrico e os testes não-paramétricos de Kruskal-Wallis e de Mann-Whitney U, além da aplicação do One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test para verificar se os dados obedeciam à distribuição normal. Ainda. Os resultados indicaram pior desempenho das crianças com TEA em relação ao grupo comparativo, com diferença significante tanto na percepção dos pais como dos professores. Não houve diferença significante entre os grupos DEL e DTL, mas o grupo com DEL teve pior desempenho em relação aso seus pares comparativos. As respostas dos pais das crianças com TEA e DEL foram comparadas, havendo diferença significante. Quanto às respostas dos professores, o grupo DEL apresentou maior pontuação em relação ao grupo TEA. A comparação das respostas dos pais e dos professores das crianças com TEA, DEL e DTL não indicou diferença significante. Concluindo, crianças com TEA apresentaram prejuízos mais significativos nas habilidades pragmáticas e sociais em relação às crianças DEL, e tanto as com TEA como as com DEL apresentaram maiores limitações nestas habilidades em relação aquelas com desenvolvimento típico de linguagem. Desta forma, o questionário APLSC mostrou-se sensível à investigação pragmática de acordo com o esperado para cada grupo de sujeitos. Considerando as perguntas feitas para pais e professores do questionário, a percepção de ambos se mostrou semelhante. / Pragmatic language impairments may occur in different communication disorders. They include from those cases as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in which the difficulty extrapolates the social communication and affects skills concerning maintaining relationships and various interests to cases which alterations affect the understanding and linguistic expression without intellectual disability or sensory impairments as Specific Language Impairment (SLI).The study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of questionnaires about pragmatic language and social communication skills, known as APLSC, concerning the identification of pragmatic alterations in children with communication disorders. In this benchmarking research, 40 children between the ages of three to six years and 11 months old were selected comprising 10 cases with ASD, 10 cases with SLI and, 20 cases with Typically Developing Language (TDL) as reference group. There was the application of APLS questionnaire (Assessment of Pragmatic Language and Social Communication: Parent and Professional Report Beta Research Version) to parents and teachers as investigations subjects. The 80 questionnaires were submitted to the analysis based on descriptive statistics. Besides, the parametric t-test, the non-parametric tests developed by Kruskal-Wallis and by Mann-Whitney U and the application of One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test were used to verify whether the data followed the normal distribution. The results indicated that children with ASD presented worse performance in relation to the reference group showing significant difference both in terms of the parents and teachers perception. There was no significant difference between SLI and TDL groups. However, the group with SLI presented worse performance in relation to their pairwise comparison. The answer of parents of children with ASD and those parents of children with SLI were compared and showed significant difference. Concerning the answers from teachers, the SLI group presented higher score compared to the ASD group. There was no significant difference regarding the comparison of answers elaborated by parents and by teachers of children with ASD, SLI and TDL. In conclusion, children with ASD presented disorders more significant in pragmatic and social skills in relation to the children with SLI. Besides, both the ASD and the SLI group presented more limitations concerning these skills than the results presented by the group with Typically Developing Language. Therefore, the APLSC questionnaire proved its responsiveness to the pragmatic investigation according to the results expected to each groups of subjects. Regarding the questions asked to the investigations subjects of this questionnaire, there were similarities of perception between parents and teachers.

As alterações primárias de linguagem (APL) são alterações fonoaudiológicas de manifestação primária relacionadas às defasagens no desenvolvimento de linguagem em qualquer aspecto: fonológico, sintático, morfológico, semântico e/ou pragmático; são muito prevalentes na população infantil, entre 2 e 19%, ao redor do mundo. As alterações auditivas também são bastante prevalentes em crianças, especialmente as perdas auditivas temporárias, causadas por alterações de orelha média, resultando em prejuízos ao desenvolvimento infantil. Não há concordância na literatura quanto ao impacto das perdas auditivas transitórias no desenvolvimento da linguagem. Neste estudo pretendeu-se: caracterizar as crianças atendidas no Setor de Fonoaudiologia do Centro de Saúde Escola Samuel Barnsley Pessoa, entre 1985 e 2009, quanto às alterações primárias de linguagem (APL) - alteração no desenvolvimento de linguagem (ADL), transtorno fonológico (TF) e alteração de leitura e escrita (ALE), bem como seu perfil demográfico e perfil audiológico; verificar a existência de associação entre as APLs e as variáveis demográficas; verificar a existência de associação entre as APLs e as alterações audiológicas. Para tanto, realizou-se levantamento de prontuários e registros do Setor de Fonoaudiologia do CSE Samuel Barnsley Pessoa, coletando-se os dados de diagnóstico fonoaudiológico e audiológico de todos os pacientes, que realizaram avaliação fonoaudiológica completa, totalizando 2424 indivíduos. Destes, 1524 (62,87%) apresentaram APL, sendo que 1047 (68,70%) tinham dados de avaliação audiológica. Inicialmente, os resultados obtidos por variável estudada foram submetidos à análise descritiva. Para verificação da existência de associação entre audição e linguagem, foi criada uma variável que representasse o perfil audiológico, formada pela junção das variáveis que compuseram a avaliação audiológica (audiometria tonal, curva timpanométrica e pesquisa de reflexos acústicos). Esta variável foi dicotomizada em: sim (normal para todos os testes) e não (alterada em pelo menos um teste). Para a análise das variáveis estudadas, usou-se o teste de comparação intergrupos, o teste chi-quadrado de Pearson e medidas de associação (para cálculo do risco e das razões de prevalência). Para todas as análises, foi adotado o nível de significância de 5%. Quanto às APL, verificou-se as seguintes prevalências: TF - 58,84%, ADL - 30,75% e ALE - 10,41%, com predominância no sexo masculino (64,19%) e da faixa etária até 6 anos (67,15%). A suspeita inicial da alteração de linguagem dividiu-se entre: família (31,23%), instituições de ensino (30,75%) e profissionais de saúde (29,13%). Quanto ao perfil audiológico, para a audiometria tonal, houve predominância de limiares auditivos dentro da normalidade (81,34%), seguido por perdas auditivas condutivas (15,47%). A curva timpanométrica mais prevalente foi do tipo A (56,24%), seguida pelo tipo B e C (21,84% e 18,16%, respectivamente). Os reflexos acústicos estavam presentes na maioria dos sujeitos (51,7%). Foi encontrada associação estatisticamente significativa para o fato de pertencer ao grupo de 7 a 12 anos e apresentar TF, pertencer ao grupo de idade até 6 anos e ter ADL, e pertencer ao grupo de idade mais avançada e apresentar ALE. Houve associação estatisticamente significativa entre sexo masculino e ADL. Na verificação da associação entre APL e alteração no perfil audiológico, não houve significância estatística. Entretanto, os indivíduos com o perfil audiológico alterado apresentaram quatro vezes mais chance de ter APL em relação àqueles que apresentaram perfil audiológico normal. Apesar de não haver resultados estatisticamente significantes que suportem a associação entre alteração do perfil audiológico e APL, na presente pesquisa, eles sugerem que o fato de o indivíduo apresentar algum teste auditivo alterado seria um fator de risco para APL. Desta forma, estes achados caracterizam-se como fundamento para o acompanhamento audiológico e fonoaudiológico de crianças, sendo importante para o planejamento de ações de promoção e prevenção, assim como para o desenvolvimento e aplicação de programas de intervenção / Primary language impairments (PLI) are primary manifestations of speech-language disorders related to delays in language development in any aspect: phonological, syntactic, morphological, semantic and / or pragmatic; they are very prevalent in children, between 2 and 19% around the world. Hearing disorders are also very prevalent in children, especially temporary hearing losses caused by middle ear diseases, resulting in damage in children development. In literature, there is no agreement on the impact of transient hearing loss on language development. In this study, children seen at the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Service in Samuel Barnsley Pessoa Health Center, between 1985 and 2009, were characterized regarding primary language impairments (PLI): language development impairment (LDI), phonological disorder (PD) and reading and writing impairment (RWI); as well as demographic and audiological profile; association between PLI and demographic variables; and association between PLI and hearing disorders. Thus, data from all the patients who undergone comprehensive speech-language and audiological assessment was collected from medical records of the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Service in Samuel Barnsley Pessoa, totaling 2424 individuals. 1524 (62.87%) presented PLI, and 1047 (68.70%) had audiological evaluation data. Initially, data obtained on each studied variable was subjected to descriptive analysis. To verify the association between hearing and language, a variable formed by the reunion of the variables that composed the audiological evaluation (pure tone audiometry, tympanometry and acoustic reflexes) was created to represent the audiological profile. This variable was dichotomized into: yes (normal for all tests) and no (abnormal in at least one test). For the analysis of the studied variables, the intergroup comparison test, the Pearson\'s chi-square test and measures of association (for the risk and odds ratio calculation) were used. For all analyzes, a significance level of 5% was used. Concerning the PLI, the following prevalences were observed: PD - 58.84%, LDI - 30.75%, RWI - 10.41 %, with a predominance of males (64.19%) and the group aged up to 6 years (67.15 %). The initial assumption of the language impairment was divided among family (31.23%), educational institutions (30.75%) and health professionals (29.13%). Regarding the audiological profile, audiometric thresholds predominated within the normal range (81.34%), followed by conductive hearing loss (15.47%). The tympanogram type A was more prevalent (56.24%), followed by types B and C (21.84% and 18.16%, respectively). Acoustic reflexes were present in most of the subjects (51.7%). Statistically significant association was found between belonging to the group aged 7-12 years and having PD, belonging to the age group up to 6 years and presenting LDI, and belonging to the older group and presenting RWI. Statistically significant association between male and LDI was found. Verifying the association between PLI and abnormal audiological profile, statistical significance was not observed. However, individuals with abnormal audiological profile were four times more likely to present PLI than those who had normal audiological profile. Although no statistically significant results that support the association between abnormal audiological profile and PLI were found in this study, it is suggested that presenting any abnormal hearing test would be a risk factor for PLI. Hence, these findings can serve as a basis for children hearing and speech-language monitoring, and as an important tool for the planning of health promotion and prevention actions, as well as the development and implementation of intervention programs