Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR
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J. Speech Lang. Hear. Res. · Jun 2007
Examining the language performances of children with and without specific language impairment: contributions of phonological short-term memory and speed of processing.
This study investigated the effects of processing speed and phonological short-term memory (PSTM) on children's language performance. ⋯ Processing speed and PSTM measures covaried with chronological age. Processing speed was associated with offline language performance only through association with PSTM. Processing speed contributed to online language performance, suggesting that speed is associated with processing more familiar language material (i.e., lexical content and structure) than less familiar material (e.g., various content on the CELF-R).
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J. Speech Lang. Hear. Res. · Apr 2007
Predicting language outcomes for internationally adopted children.
Language and speech are difficult to assess in newly arrived internationally adopted children. The purpose of this study was to determine if assessments completed when toddlers were first adopted could predict language outcomes at age 2. Local norms were used to develop early intervention guidelines that were evaluated against age 2 outcomes. Patterns of language emergence were also analyzed. ⋯ Newly adopted children with delays on prelinguistic and vocabulary comprehension measures were highly likely to have slow language development at age 2. Initial assessments of these abilities should be used to make early intervention decisions.
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J. Speech Lang. Hear. Res. · Apr 2007
Assessing cortisol reactivity to a linguistic task as a marker of stress in individuals with left-hemisphere stroke and aphasia.
In this study, the authors explore a method of measuring physiologic and perceived stress in individuals with aphasia by investigating salivary cortisol reactivity and subjectively perceived stress in response to a standardized linguistic task. ⋯ Adults with aphasia perceived greater stress than did healthy controls; however, this paradigm did not stimulate salivary cortisol reactivity in the aphasia group. A potential reason for this may be differences in the type or degree of psychosocial variables that are important in modulating stress in this population. Other considerations when developing methods for assessing physiologic stress include habituation and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysregulation related to the neurological changes poststroke.
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J. Speech Lang. Hear. Res. · Jun 2006
Action naming in Spanish and English by sequential bilingual children and adolescents.
Verb processing in early sequential Spanish-English bilinguals was investigated. Primary study goals were to identify potential patterns of development in relative levels of verb processing efficiency in a 1st (L1) and 2nd (L2) language and to investigate factors influencing cognitive control of the dual-language system in developing bilinguals. ⋯ These general patterns of verb processing across age, language, and processing conditions replicated and enriched previous findings of noun processing in similar populations (K. J. Kohnert, E. Bates, & A. E. Hernandez, 1999). However, verb processing was considerably slower and less accurate than noun processing. Theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed.
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Speech perception in participants with auditory neuropathy (AN) was systematically studied to answer the following 2 questions: Does noise present a particular problem for people with AN? Can clear speech and cochlear implants alleviate this problem? ⋯ Participants with AN most likely derive the clear speech advantage from enhanced temporal properties in clear speech and improved neural synchrony with electric stimulation. Although the present result supports cochlear implantation as one treatment choice for people with AN, it suggests that the use of innovative hearing aids may be another viable option to improve speech perception in noise.