The International Classification of Function, Disability and Health-Children and Youth Version (ICY-CY), (WHO, 2007) provides an important framework for the holistic consideration of children with communication disorders such as cleft lip and palate. It allows for understanding the effects of a cleft lip and palate on a child’s ability to communicate in structured and natural contexts, going beyond a focus on body structures and functions in order to examine the ways that environmental and personal factors influence the child. Over the years, a number of researchers have applied the ICF-CY framework to children with communication impairments such as speech sound disorders, language impairments, and stuttering. While there is an emerging body of research and literature on this topic, the ICF-CY does not yet appear to be widely applied clinically to children with cleft lip and palate. The aim of the study was to conduct a comprehensive narrative review of the application of the ICF-CY to children with cleft lip and palate, in order to illustrate its use in this population, to identify research needs, and to make recommendations for clinical application to assessment and intervention and integrating the ICF-CY in cleft palate curricula. A systematic search of the literature was conducted by following a specific search strategy and a systematized selection of publications for review to limit researcher bias. Computer searches of electronic data bases, as well as hand searches, were conducted to identify publications and sources that addressed the ICF-CY or ICF in children with cleft lip and palate. Publications and sources that met the inclusion criteria were selected for review. Each source was summarized according to the author(s) and publication year, and a qualitative description of each was made according to structured review procedures and templates. Applications of the specific ICF-CY components to children with cleft lip and palate were mapped, and recommendations for clinical application and future research were described. It is suggested that the ICF-CY framework should be included in cleft palate curricula to provide future speech-language pathologists with a holistic perspective on children with cleft lip and palate and to extend their thinking about the impact of speech impairment associated with cleft lip and palate. Training to adopt the ICF-CY framework will also facilitate collaborative interdisciplinary care of children with cleft lip and palate. Using the ICF-CY framework in the assessment of children in this population will focus intervention on the ultimate goal of improvement of the child's ability to communicate in natural settings. This narrative review will also serve as the theoretical underpinning for a planned survey of the clinical assessment practices of speech-language pathologists treating children with cleft lip and palate.

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Routine clinical distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) tests use monaural sequential presentation of primary tones. To reduce testing time, multiple DPOAEs (mDPOAEs) can be measured by stimulating the ear with two tone pairs simultaneously. Moreover, both ears can be tested at the same time with a portable device, Sentiero (PATH medical GmbH), equipped with two sound probes. The purpose of the study was to evaluate whether mDPOAE measurements can be done in both ears simultaneously without mutual influence of primary tone pairs in the ipsilateral and the contralateral ear. Data were collected in 20 normal-hearing young adults. The DP-grams were obtained for seven f2- frequencies varying in the 1.5-8-kHz range with the level L2 set at 65 and 45 dB SPL, whereas the level L1 was adjusted according to the scissor paradigm. For each subject, a set of DP-gram data was collected using single- and multi-frequency presentations of the primaries for both monaural and binaural conditions. The mean DPOAE and noise levels collected with mDPOAE and binaural presentation conditions were highly reproducible when compared to those obtained with the single-frequency monaural paradigm. Thus, multi-frequency and binaural measurements could be applied to reduce DPOAE testing time considerably.

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Excerpt: Over the past 15 years, dramatic developments have occurred in the field of audiology in Poland. Three major factors have influenced the ongoing changes: development of new programs for treatment and prevention of hearing loss, a substantial improvement of qualifications of audiologists and related specialists, and the rapidly growing availability of advanced technology and treatment methods. These developments are now being accelerated by a dramatic growth in research and development in hearing science and clinical audiology in Poland.

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When compared to their non-musician peers, adult musicians demonstrate enhanced speech-in-noise perception (Parberry-Clark et al, 2013), verbal memory (Chan et al, 1998), phonological skills (Deg & Schwarzer, 2011), and reading (Tierney & Kraus, 2013). Recent evidence from auditory brainstem responses suggests that early musical training primes neural plasticity that facilitates listening in degraded environments (Strait et al., 2012). Our study examined the hypothesis that neural enhancements, subsequent to preadolescent musical training, improves binaural speech processing and temporal processing that are known to contribute significantly to speech understanding in complex listening environments (Hirsh, 1950; Snell & Frisina, 2000). We tested middle-school aged (10 - 14 years) children with and without musical training based on years of experience (< 6 months = non-musician; > 1 year = musician) and musical aptitude (Intermediate Measures of Music Audiation; rhythm subtest) on tests of spatial listening (Listening in Spatialized Noise-Sentences Test, Dillon, 2007) and auditory temporal processing (Adaptive Test of Temporal Resolution, Lister et al., 2011). We also measured working memory and visual processing efficiency (picture pattern memory and processing speed; NIH Tool Box) to understand the potential influence of multimodality higher-order cognitive skills over modality-specific enhancements in auditory perceptual processing secondary to musical training.

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