American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology最新文献

Purpose: The Bilingual Input-Output Survey (BIOS)-Home (Peña et al., 2018) is used to provide speech-language pathologists (SLPs) with an estimate of children's exposure to two languages. The current hour-by-hour approach of the BIOS can be time consuming to administer and calculate. The current study seeks to improve the efficiency of the BIOS-Home by replicating Calandruccio et al.'s (2021) finding that the BIOS can be shortened by time periods around children's routines and extending these findings by preliminarily exploring the relationship of the shortened BIOS with results of a bilingual screener.

Method: The current study includes 1,337 Spanish-English bilingual children from two data sets. Children's ages ranged from 49 to 71 months (M = 60.58, SD = 4.96). BIOS-Home data were collected by trained bilingual research assistants and SLPs who interviewed caregivers on their children's language input and output hour by hour. Principal components analysis (PCA) was conducted using caregiver-reported BIOS-Home data from both data sets to determine the smallest number of time chunks that could be used to measure language exposure. To explore the validity of the shortened BIOS-Home, bivariate correlation analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between children's semantics and morphosyntax scores and the original and shortened versions of the BIOS-Home.

Results: PCAs using the two data sets identified three time periods (morning, afternoon, and late afternoon/evening) for weekday receptive language and three time periods (morning, afternoon, and evening) for weekend receptive language. Language test score correlations comparing the hour-by-hour and the shortened approaches are highly similar, supporting the validity of the shortened approach.

Conclusion: Consolidating the BIOS-Home questionnaire is a viable approach that can save time and elicit valid information about children's bilingual input and output.

Purpose: Parental recodes, a form of responsivity, help facilitate language development in children with Down syndrome (DS). However, little is known about the complexity and referents of recodes or differences between mothers and fathers and how this relates to child language.

Method: This study included 15 children with DS (M_age = 39.67 months, range: 24-61 months) and their mothers and fathers. Mother-child and father-child play interactions were recorded in the home.

Results: We found no differences between mothers' and fathers' use of recodes. A moderate positive association existed between child receptive language and total combined recodes from mothers and fathers. A weak positive association was found for expressive language and mothers' recodes.

Conclusions: Our preliminary findings highlight the need for further research into how mothers and fathers recode their children's communicative acts in ways that support later language development. We discuss the clinical implications of incorporating recodes into parent-mediated communication interventions for young children with DS.

Supplemental material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.30946781.

Purpose: This study aimed to (a) identify the incidence of acute post-traumatic language disturbance (aPTLD) and types of aphasia in adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in an inpatient neurorehabilitation setting, (b) investigate the relationship between aPTLD and inpatient neurorehabilitation length of stay (LOS), and (c) document rates of recovery from aPTLD from admission to discharge.

Method and procedure: This study is a retrospective analysis of adults with TBI admitted to inpatient neurorehabilitation between 2016 and 2018 who completed the Boston Naming Test-Second Edition (BNT-2) and subtests of the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised (WAB-R).

Results: Almost 70% of the patients, who were level V or higher on the Rancho Los Amigos Levels of Cognitive Function Scale, demonstrated impaired BNT-2 scores. Patients with impaired BNT-2 scores experienced significantly longer total and rehabilitation LOSs. Of the patients who had WAB-R subsections for aphasia typing, the majority had fluent aphasia. More than half of the patients with admission and discharge BNT-2 scores remained impaired on this assessment at the end of their rehabilitation stay.

Conclusions: Naming impairment was common during the inpatient rehabilitation period after TBI. Given the reliance of cognitive assessments on verbal output, the presence of aPTLD represents an important confound on the assessment of cognition after TBI. Assessment of language disturbance using the BNT-2 and WAB-R during subacute neurorehabilitation is feasible and provides valuable insight into the cognitive-communication status of persons with TBI.

Purpose: This study evaluated eye movements (i.e., regressions, fixations, and saccades) in a variety of reading contexts in school-age children with and without reading disorders (RDs).

Method: This study used an experimental design with two groups: peers with RDs and typically developing (TD) peers. A Tobii Pro Spectrum system was used to capture eye movement data for all participants during the reading tasks under the following conditions: (a) single words without cognitive demand, (b) single-word reading with cognitive demand, and (c) grade-level paragraph reading text.

Results: The results indicated significant differences between the groups in the duration of fixation and number of regressions. In addition, participants in the RD group exhibited significantly more saccades while reading than their TD counterparts.

Conclusions: Although reading is a language-based skill involving five areas of language (morphology, phonology, syntax, pragmatics, and semantics), this study offers a unique perspective and objective measurement while highlighting the role of eye movements in reading. The results of this study showed distinctive eye responses in school-age children with RDs. These findings underscore the value of eye tracking as a diagnostic and research tool, offering an objective window into the complex interplay among visual, linguistic, and cognitive processes that underlie reading.

Purpose: This viewpoint addresses the complexity of the nomenclature of progressive speech-language disorders, which often exists at the intersection of descriptive symptoms, clinical syndromes, and underlying neuropathology. Using primary progressive apraxia of speech (PPAOS) as an example, we explore how overlapping diagnostic frameworks employed by speech-language pathologists, neurologists, and other clinicians and researchers can lead to different diagnostic labels that may evolve throughout disease progression. These discrepancies and changes can complicate patient understanding, clinical care, and affect eligibility for clinical trials. We highlight the importance of diagnostic specificity, flexibility, and multidisciplinary collaboration in improving patient counseling, prognostication, treatment planning, and clinical research alignment, particularly in the context of the growing number of clinical trials and specialized, multidisciplinary clinics.

Conclusions: This viewpoint explores how symptom-based, syndrome-based, and pathology-based diagnoses can work together to support patient care and research. Accurate and specific diagnosis of speech-language disorders has important implications for patient understanding of their condition, identity, prognostic accuracy, access to care, clinical trial enrollment, and treatment planning and efficacy. Misdiagnosis or vague labeling can result in inappropriate interventions, delayed support, and skewed research findings. We argue that multidisciplinary collaboration and flexibility in recognizing evolving symptom-based and syndrome-based labels over the disease course-and as the fields learn more-is essential to empower patients with accurate, actionable information. Embracing both the specificity and the complexity of progressive speech-language disorders can both enhance communication and facilitate research.

Purpose: The current study examined the impact of cross-linguistic and cultural differences on an animal fluency task between Korean- and English-speaking persons with aphasia (PWA) and neurologically intact older adults (OAs). Specifically, we investigated the influence of zodiac animals on word retrieval, given their cultural familiarity in East Asia, hypothesizing that Korean speakers have a higher likelihood of producing zodiac animals compared to English speakers.

Method: Sixty-seven PWA (30 English-speaking, 37 Korean-speaking) and 30 OAs (15 per language group) completed an animal fluency task. Analyses focused on three approaches: total correct responses, culturally specific responses (zodiac animals and ratio of zodiac animals), and an item-level comparison of language-general and language-specific items to identify animal items that could differentiate between the language groups.

Results: Korean speakers, both with and without aphasia, produced a greater proportion of zodiac animals compared to English speakers. Conversely, English speakers demonstrated greater semantic diversity in animal responses than Korean speakers.

Conclusions: Both PWA and OA groups demonstrated differential patterns in producing zodiac animals, depending on their language and the culture. These findings shed light on the importance of considering cultural and linguistic diversity during aphasia assessment of word retrieval difficulties.

Supplemental material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.28942022.

Purpose: This study aims to establish objective verb clustering criteria in action verbal fluency (VF) using hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) based on the Lancaster sensorimotor norms. We explored age-related differences in switching and cluster diversity (word retrieval strategies) between younger and older adults and correlations among age, education, working memory (WM) capacity, action VF performance, and word retrieval strategies for each group.

Method: Sixty-two native Korean speakers participated in the study, with 31 young adults (M_age = 27.39) and 31 older adults (M_age = 70.45). Participants completed a 1-min action VF task, and generated verbs were classified into 15 clusters based on the Lancaster sensorimotor ratings using HCA. We analyzed switching (shifts between clusters) and cluster diversity (number of unique verb clusters) to assess word retrieval strategies. WM capacity was measured through word-forward and word-backward (WB) tasks.

Results: Older adults demonstrated significantly fewer switchings and lower cluster diversity compared to younger adults, indicating restricted word retrieval strategies. WB task scores in older adults positively correlated with word retrieval strategies and action VF performance. Older individuals with younger age and higher education employed more word retrieval strategies. Both groups exhibited positive correlations between word retrieval strategies and action VF performance.

Conclusions: The novel HCA approach, based on the Lancaster sensorimotor norms, successfully classified verb clusters that revealed aging-related differences in word retrieval strategies and the relationship between WM and these strategies. These results highlight the potential of using the HCA method for verb clustering analyses, particularly in providing qualitative insights into action VF tasks.

Supplemental material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.29396300.

Purpose: Aphasia-friendly modifications generally make texts more accessible. However, because religious texts are often held in a special regard, some aphasia-friendly modifications may not be appropriate for them. The purpose of the current study was to explore aphasia-friendly religious text adaptations within the context of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Method: Five adults with aphasia who consider themselves members of The Church of Jesus Christ participated in the current study. These participants indicated preferences using a 7-point scale between paired samples of religious text formatted using common aphasia-friendly text adaptations. These quantitative data were analyzed for preference trends. Additionally, qualitative data were collected through ethnographic interviews focused on adaptation preferences as well as the effect of aphasia on religious experiences more generally. Transcripts of these interviews were examined using a qualitative descriptive analysis approach.

Results: The results show common preferences for larger font size, 1.5 line spacing, and illustrated text, with realistic illustrations preferred over stylized illustrations. Participants were also more likely to prefer adaptations presented on a computer or tablet compared to in print. Qualitative analysis revealed commonalities such as aphasia's impacts on scripture reading, the context dependence of adaptation preferences, and the perceived target audience of certain adaptations.

Conclusions: This small exploratory study helped to further knowledge about how adaptations for aphasia can best be applied to religious texts of the Church of Jesus Christ. These findings may prove helpful for clinicians working with people with aphasia in the Church of Jesus Christ who are interested in engaging with religious texts. Because this study included participants from one religious denomination, further research may consider members of other faiths with their respective religious texts. Different types or combinations of aphasia-friendly text adaptations could also be studied.

Purpose: Speech-language pathologists and people with aphasia recognize the importance of social conversation (Wallace et al., 2017; Worrall et al., 2011). However, linguistic analysis of conversation is time intensive and difficult to clinically implement. Perceptual rating scales are a potential method that could increase the clinical feasibility of evaluating linguistic aspects of conversation. In this study, a perceptual training and rating protocol were created, and validity, reliability, and rater confidence were explored.

Method: A protocol was developed to train four linguistic measures of conversation and practice perceptual ratings of those measures. The four measures included percent Correct Information Units, percent utterances with subject + verb structure (+SV Utterances), Communicative Success, and Global Coherence. Thirteen research assistants (RAs) completed the training and then five test ratings in which they rated 3-min conversation samples on the four linguistic measures. RAs also rated their confidence and provided feedback on the training.

Results: Trained RAs rated the four linguistic measures within 20% of the established utterance-by-utterance lab-coded values on average, but with variable performance on individual conversations. Communicative Success and + SV Utterances demonstrated good interrater reliability based on intraclass correlation coefficients. A significant weak negative correlation was found between RA rating confidence and the difference between coded values and perceptual ratings for +SV Utterances and Communicative Success.

Discussion: These findings suggest that further development and refinement are required before this training procedure can be implemented in a clinical setting. Valuable insight was gained that will help refine the training for future research.

Supplemental material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.29594606.

Purpose: Despite the high prevalence of depression and anxiety among people with aphasia (PWA), their mental health needs are often overlooked. Behavioral activation is an effective cognitive behavioral therapy technique for depression that may be well suited for PWA. The current study aimed to (a) assess the feasibility and acceptability of a speech-language pathologist (SLP)-administered psychosocial intervention that is primarily composed of behavioral activation and (b) examine preliminary effects of this intervention on depression and anxiety symptoms of PWA.

Method: Eleven participants with poststroke aphasia participated in this mixed-methods pilot study. A brief behavioral intervention was developed by an SLP and a clinical psychologist for the target population and administered to all participants by an SLP. Aphasia-friendly communication supports were created by the SLP to facilitate implementation of the intervention components. Participants were given a battery of psychosocial assessments at baseline, post-intervention, and at a 1-month follow-up. The primary outcome measures were (a) feasibility measured by retention (quantitative) and thematic interview responses (qualitative), (b) acceptability (measured qualitatively), and (c) depression and anxiety symptoms. All qualitative interviews were conducted with participants at the post-intervention session.

Results: All participants completed every session, suggesting high feasibility. Post-intervention qualitative interviews indicated that participants found the intervention acceptable and helpful. Despite low power, paired-samples t tests showed a statistically significant reduction in depression, but not anxiety, from pre- to post-intervention. Despite initial improvements from pre- to post-intervention, statistically significant reductions in depression symptoms were not maintained at the 1-month follow-up.

Conclusions: Early evidence from this pilot study suggests that this SLP-administered intervention is feasible and acceptable to PWA, but that a higher dose may be warranted to ensure durability. Fully powered research is needed to further examine the benefit of this intervention for PWA.

Supplemental material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.29344943.