Language and reading in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and comorbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder + developmental language disorder.

Background: The current study sought to examine whether psycholinguistic assessments could discriminate children and adolescents with developmental language disorder (DLD) from those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; combined or inattentive subtype) and comorbid DLD + ADHD.

Methods: The Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Screening Test (CELFST; Wiig et al., 2013), the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing ( subtest; Wagner et al.

Predictors of cochlear implant outcomes in pediatric auditory neuropathy: A matched case-control study.

Objectives: Current evidence supports the benefits of cochlear implants (CIs) in children with hearing loss, including those with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD). However, there is limited evidence regarding factors that hold predictive value for intervention outcomes.

Design: This retrospective case-control study consisted of 66 children with CIs, including 22 with ANSD and 44 with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) matched on sex, age, age at CI activation, and the length of follow-up with CIs (1:2 ratio).

Infant vocal category exploration as a foundation for speech development.

Non-random exploration of infant speech-like vocalizations (e.g., squeals, growls, and vowel-like sounds or "vocants") is pivotal in speech development.

Stakeholders' experiences with school-based immunization programs during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Canadian Maritimes: A qualitative study.

Background: School-based immunization programs (SBIP) support access to routine vaccines for adolescents. Across Canada, the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent public health measures affected SBIP and vaccine uptake. The objectives of this study were to explore 1.

Subtle Patterns of Altered Responsiveness to Delayed Auditory Feedback during Finger Tapping in People Who Stutter.

Differences in sensorimotor integration mechanisms have been observed between people who stutter (PWS) and controls who do not. Delayed auditory feedback (DAF) introduces timing discrepancies between perception and action, disrupting sequence production in verbal and non-verbal domains. While DAF consistently enhances speech fluency in PWS, its impact on non-verbal sensorimotor synchronization abilities remains unexplored.

Efficacy of LSVT LOUD on Phonatory Control and Voice Quality in Patients with Primary Progressive Apraxia of Speech: Case Studies.

Primary progressive apraxia of speech (PPAOS) is a neurodegenerative syndrome characterized by the progressive and initially isolated or predominant onset of difficulties in the planning/programming of movements necessary for speech production and can be accompanied by dysarthria. To date, no study has used an evidence-based treatment to address phonation control in patients with PPAOS. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of LSVT LOUD as a treatment for phonatory control in speakers with PPAOS.

Outcomes for potentially Resectable patients undergoing primary chemoradiation treatment for T1-T2 HPV Negative oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.

Background: Transoral surgical resectability (TOS) is a prognostic factor for patients with HPV+ T1-2 oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) disease undergoing radiotherapy (RT), but it is unclear whether this holds for HPV-negative (HPV-) patients. We aimed to compare outcomes of potential TOS-candidates vs. non-TOS candidates, among patients who underwent RT/CRT for early T-stage HPV- OPSCC.

Validity of Acoustic Measures Obtained Using Various Recording Methods Including Smartphones With and Without Headset Microphones.

Purpose: The goal of this study was to assess various recording methods, including combinations of high- versus low-cost microphones, recording interfaces, and smartphones in terms of their ability to produce commonly used time- and spectral-based voice measurements.

Method: Twenty-four vowel samples representing a diversity of voice quality deviations and severities from a wide age range of male and female speakers were played via a head-and-thorax model and recorded using a high-cost, research standard GRAS 40AF (GRAS Sound & Vibration) microphone and amplification system. Additional recordings were made using various combinations of headset microphones (AKG C555 L [AKG Acoustics GmbH], Shure SM35-XLR [Shure Incorporated], AVID AE-36 [AVID Products, Inc.

Examining Force Level Output of Skin-Drive Bone Conduction Hearing Devices in Adults With Simulated Conductive Hearing Loss.

Purpose: Bone conduction hearing devices (BCDs) that deliver sound across the skin (i.e., transcutaneous) are suitable for some individuals who have conductive or mixed hearing losses.

Thick Liquids and Clinical Outcomes in Hospitalized Patients With Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias and Dysphagia.

Importance: Oropharyngeal dysphagia is common in hospitalized patients with Alzheimer disease and related dementias (ADRD). Although the use of thick liquids in patients with dysphagia has been shown to reduce aspiration on direct visualization, there is no clear evidence that this practice translates into improved clinical outcomes.

Objectives: To determine whether a diet of thick liquids compared with thin liquids is associated with improved outcomes in hospitalized patients with ADRD and dysphagia.

Predicting Social Competence in Autistic and Non-Autistic Children: Effects of Prosody and the Amount of Speech Input.

Purpose: Autistic individuals often face challenges perceiving and expressing emotions, potentially stemming from differences in speech prosody. Here we explore how autism diagnoses between groups, and measures of social competence within groups may be related to, first, children's speech characteristics (both prosodic features and amount of spontaneous speech), and second, to these two factors in mothers' speech to their children.

Methods: Autistic (n = 21) and non-autistic (n = 18) children, aged 7-12 years, participated in a Lego-building task with their mothers, while conversational speech was recorded.

"We were the best people to do the job": Caregivers' reported outcomes of a virtual caregiver-delivered program for autistic preschoolers.

Background And Aims: Caregiver-delivered programs are a recommended best practice to support young autistic children. While research has extensively explored children's outcomes quantitatively, minimal qualitative research has been conducted to understand caregivers' perspectives of program outcomes for themselves and their children. Hearing directly from caregivers is an important step in ensuring these programs are meeting the needs of those who use them.

Sarcopenia as a Predictor of Feeding Tube Placement in Individuals with Oropharyngeal Cancer.

Purpose: In oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC), systemic loss of skeletal muscle mass (SMM), or sarcopenia, is a strong prognostic predictor of survival outcomes. However, the relationship between sarcopenia and nutrition-related outcomes is not well understood. This investigation evaluated the prognostic significance of sarcopenia for feeding tube (FT) placement in a cohort of OPSCC patients.

Unraveling attrition and retention: A qualitative study with rehabilitation professionals.

Background: Health human resources are scarce worldwide. In occupational therapy (OT), physical therapy (PT), and speech-language pathology (S-LP), attrition and retention issues amplify this situation and contribute to the precarity of health systems.

Objective: To investigate the phenomena of attrition and retention with OTs, PTs and S-LPs who stayed in, or left their profession.

Adherence to Non-Pharmacological Interventions in Parkinson's Disease: A Rapid Evidence Assessment of the Literature.

Background: Low adherence to non-pharmacological interventions can impact treatment effectiveness. Yet, there is limited information on adherence barriers and facilitators to non-pharmacological interventions in Parkinson's disease (PD).

Objective: 1) To examine the quality of adherence reporting and 2) to identify key determinants of adherence to PD non-pharmacological interventions.

Responding to parental concern about children's reading.

Objectives: This study explored if parents are accurate in their reading concerns, with implications for paediatric practice.

Methods: Parents of school-aged children in 34 schools in Ontario, Canada responded to a questionnaire about their children's academic development (27% response), and their children participated in standardized, norm-referenced tests of word reading and an oral sentence recall task. Parental concern status was retrospectively cross-referenced with reading difficulty status (<25th percentile on the word reading tests) for grade 2 children with complete data (n = 294); diagnostic accuracy was evaluated.

From emotional signals to symbols.

The quest for the origins of language is a diverse enterprise, where research from a variety of disciplines brings area-specific ideas and area-specific terminology to bear. This variety often results in misunderstandings and misconceptions about communication in various species. In the present paper, we argue for focus on emotional systems as the primary motivators for social signals in animals in general.

Can Videoconferencing Be a Viable Method to Measure Speech Perception?

Purpose: Telehealth has proven effective for service delivery to remote and rural locations and was helpful during lockdowns when patients were unable to see clinicians in person. To assure the reliability of clinical services, the aim of the present study was to evaluate a telehealth protocol to measure speech perception skills through virtual meeting applications such as Zoom.

Method: A total of 20 participants with normal hearing and cognition participated in the study.

Hearing in categories aids speech streaming at the "cocktail party".

Our perceptual system bins elements of the speech signal into categories to make speech perception manageable. Here, we aimed to test whether hearing speech in categories (as opposed to a continuous/gradient fashion) affords yet another benefit to speech recognition: parsing noisy speech at the "cocktail party." We measured speech recognition in a simulated 3D cocktail party environment.

Viscoelastic hydrogels regulate adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells for nucleus pulposus regeneration.

Low back pain is a leading cause of disability worldwide, often attributed to intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration with loss of the functional nucleus pulposus (NP). Regenerative strategies utilizing biomaterials and stem cells are promising for NP repair. Human NP tissue is highly viscoelastic, relaxing stress rapidly under deformation.

The STRAT-PARK cohort: A personalized initiative to stratify Parkinson's disease.

The STRAT-PARK initiative aims to provide a platform for stratifying Parkinson's disease (PD) into biological subtypes, using a bottom-up, multidisciplinary biomarker-based and data-driven approach. PD is a heterogeneous entity, exhibiting high interindividual clinicopathological variability. This diversity suggests that PD may encompass multiple distinct biological entities, each driven by different molecular mechanisms.

Impact of patient attributes on the relationship between hearing handicap and readiness to pursue audiologic rehabilitation.

Objective: This study explored whether select patient attributes were significant predictors of readiness to pursue hearing aids (HAs) and estimated the impacts of hearing aid self-efficacy (HASE) and emotional states, on the relationship between perceived hearing handicap and readiness to pursue HAs.

Design & Study Sample: Sixty-two adults with self-reported hearing difficulties and no previous experience with HAs self-reported their hearing handicap, HASE, personality, emotional states in varying contexts, and readiness to pursue HAs.

Results: Individuals with greater hearing handicap and who had experienced hearing loss for a shorter duration were more ready to pursue HAs.

Toward Enhanced Voice-Related Self-Reports: Translation, Cross-Cultural Adaptation, and Validity.

Purpose: This article provides a commentary on voice-related self-reports and presents various shortcomings endemic in the development and validation of these measures. Emphasis is placed on issues of construct validity, translation, and cross-cultural adaptation. Finally, a demonstration is provided to elucidate the importance of cross-cultural adaptation.

Speech-Language Outcomes in the COVID-19 Milieu for Multilingual Jamaican Preschoolers and Considerations for Telepractice Assessments.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to characterize the communicative participation and functional speech intelligibility (i.e., how children use communication and how well they are understood across everyday life) of typically developing (TD) bilingual Jamaican preschoolers and those with functionally defined speech sound disorders (fSSDs) in the COVID-19 milieu.