Revista de Logopedia, Foniatria y Audiologia最新文献

The main aim of this study was the translation into Spanish of The Pragmatics Profile scale (Dewart y Summers, 1995) and its adaptation to be used as a questionnaire, as well as the analysis of its psychometric properties. This questionnaire was administered to 185 children between the ages of 6 and 48 months. The results of the Discriminant Analysis and Exploratory Factorial Analysis showed a high reliability of the scale, a great capacity to classify children from different age groups, and an essentially unifactorial structure. Measurements are provided by age, and the lack of correlation between the original three-axis theoretical model and the essentially unifactorial model obtained from Factorial Analysis is discussed.

Introduction

Vocal overload causes a series of effects in the vocal folds, where injuries and functional symptoms stand out. However, its effects on perilaryngeal tissues are poorly known. This prevents the complete understanding of phenomena arising from their damage, such as odynophonia.

Objective

To describe the pressure threshold of the perilaryngeal tissues before and after vocal overload.

Material and method

A sample composed of 35 women was analysed, whose average age was 24.1 ± 2.06 years. The investigation consisted of three parts, where the pressure thresholds of the perilaryngeal tissues were evaluated before and after vocal overload.

Results

The pressure thresholds of the perilaryngeal tissues prior to the task of vocal overload ranged between 1140 and 1857 grams, and between 1105 and 1802 grams after it. The existing changes in each of the evaluated structures were significant (p < .05).

Conclusions

The pressure thresholds of the perilaryngeal region are lower than other tissues from the stomatognathic system, such as the masseter muscle. In addition, the vocal overloading tasks reduced them in a significant way.

The nosology and terminology of specific language impairment (SLI) has been considered by many professionals not only confused, but also out of step with current available knowledge and data. This impression is shared by many families and social institutions. To help clarify SLI in the Catalan speaking population we undertook a Delphi project. Ten known experts in the field set up the project, and there were 24 participants. Forty propositions were presented on the situation (diagnosis and management), characterization and nosology, together with the terminology in use.

The proposal of (descriptive) nosology for a new diagnostic characteristics scheme was accepted but consensus was not reached. Consensus was reached on its symptomatic description: high level of severity, improvement in communication, but persistent structural difficulties of language, with serious functional, social and educational consequences in adaptation. The most important result was the consensus for each particular nosological specification, although not for the whole as an expression of language disorders: SLI as specific and principal, either isolated or associated with the presence of some biomedical (causal) differentiation, or with co-morbidities (correlated) or with the presence of risk factors (individually associated). The results show no consensus on the terminology proposals; however, there was no opposition to a progressive change to another name such as developmental language disorders (DLD). Consensus was also reached on most issues related to situations of detection, evaluation and speech and language therapy intervention.

The objective of this study was to determine the immediate effects of transcutaneous electrical nervous stimulation (TENS) and semi-occluded vocal tract (SOVT) exercises on acoustic parameters in teachers in the city of Chillán. The study was based on a quantitative methodological perspective, with a comparative descriptive scope and a quasi-experimental longitudinal design. The sample was composed of 30 teachers belonging to the Reyes de España School, who were evaluated using Praat software, pre and post treatment. The teachers were divided into 2 groups; control group (semi-occluded vocal tract therapy) and experimental group (semi-occluded vocal tract therapy and electrostimulation) who were treated during a single session of approximately 10 min. The values of the acoustic parameters were then compared [Jitter, Shimmer, Harmonic to Noise Ratio (HNR) and Maximum Phonation Time (MPT)] between both groups. The acoustic analysis showed statistically significant post-intervention changes in all the parameters evaluated for both study groups, however, in the experimental group the means showed a greater difference, with a p value less than .01. Semi-occluded vocal tract exercises in resonance tubes combined with TENS have immediate positive effects on TMF, Jitter, Shimmer and HNR acoustic parameters in teachers without vocal pathology.

Objective

To assess whether children with mixed developmental language disorders (DLD) understand verb tense through the conceptual metaphor «time is space» (future ahead, past behind).

Method

An induced plasticity experiment was used which comprised moving tokens from one container to another using a forward or backward movement, and then forming a judgement of semantic coherence in past and future sentences.

Results

The overall performance of the children with DLD was lower compared to typically developing (TD) children, attaining fewer hits in past sentences than future sentences. The interaction between the conceptual domains of the metaphor (movement direction and verb tense) when measuring response time, showed an interference effect compatible with the metaphor in the DLD and the TD children. When measuring the hit rate, the results showed an interaction between direction, tense, and group, showing a facilitation effect compatible with the metaphor in the children with DLD and an interference effect in the TD children. All the results depended on sustained attention.

Conclusions

This research study shows the relationship between the spatial dominance of the forward/backward axis and understanding of verb tense in children with DLD and children with normal language development. The results are explained through the theory of conceptual metaphor and corporeal theories and are relevant for future research and new proposals for intervention in DLD.