Oral and non-oral sensorimotor interventions enhance oral feeding performance in preterm infants.

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine whether oral, tactile/kinaesthetic (T/K), or combined (oral+T/K) interventions enhance oral feeding performance and whether combined interventions have an additive/synergistic effect.

Method: Seventy-five preterm infants (mean gestational age 29 wk; standard error of the mean [SEM] 0.3 wk; mean birthweight 1340.

Breast-feeding and deleterious oral habits in mouth and nose breathers.

Aim: Breast-feeding promotes several benefits in childhood, among them favoring the nasal breathing. In the present study, the relationship between breathing pattern and the history of breast-feeding and of deleterious oral habits was determined.

Study Design: clinical with transversal cohort.

Detecting language disorders in 4-year-old French children. An application of the ERTL-4.

This paper discusses the development of the ERTL-4 (Epreuve de repérage des troubles du langage lors du bilan medical de l'enfant de quatre ans), a measure developed in Nancy, France specifically for the purpose of identifying children with language difficulties in the 3.9-4.6 years age range.

Group therapy for spouses of aphasic patients.

The setting, course, and results of a counseling and a therapeutic group for relatives of chronic aphasic patients are reviewed. Generally, providing and discussing information on the illness, its consequences, and medical and social services are greatly appreciated by group members. Counseling and group psychotherapy, as conducted by us, did not result in measurable improvements of relatives' perceptions of personal, social, and familial burdens.

The diversity of speech and language therapy services for aphasic adults in the United Kingdom.

Data on aphasia management were collected by questionnaires to UK speech and language therapists. Returns representing over 90% of health districts were obtained. Variation amongst districts is evident in levels of staffing for the adult neurological case load, and in speed of response to referral, frequency and types of treatment available, and in other forms of support for patients and carers.

An aphasia group intensive efficacy study.

The response of five adults with chronic aphasia to a 4-week intensive treatment course is presented. Using four language tests, pre-intervention stability was demonstrated over the month preceding the treatment programme. Following the intervention period, two subjects showed improvement in one test, and more widespread changes occurred in three subjects.

The use of hypnosis in speech therapy: a questionnaire study.

Speech therapists trained in the use of hypnosis were asked to identify the client groups with whom hypnosis was used and the main benefits of hypnosis in the management of these clients. Thirty-six (42%) of the questionnaires produced usable data. The majority of respondents use hypnosis in the treatment of voice or fluency disorders although hypnosis is used in the treatment of acquired neurological disorders too.

Modelling assembled spelling: convergence of data from normal subjects and "surface" dysgraphia.

A model of assembled spelling proposed by Barry and Seymour (1988, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology), based upon normal subject's spelling of nonwords, is presented. Predictions concerning surface dysgraphic spelling are derived from this model, and are compared against the performance of the patient recently reported by Baxter and Warrington (1987, Cortex). Although the model's expectations are broadly confirmed, Baxter and Warrington's data suggest that an adequate model of assembled spelling requires further specification, particularly in two areas: how sound-to-spelling correspondences are established, and how context-sensitivity constraints (or multiple unit correspondences) operate.

Variables affecting stutterer's initial reactions to delayed auditory feedback.

Twenty male stutterers (7-18 years) described pictures under delayed auditory feedback (DAF). Delay was varied from 0 to 300 msec in 50 msec steps. There was a significant interaction between delay time, age and initial disfluency in terms of disfluent words but not speech rate.