Effects of a phonics intervention in a randomized controlled study in Swedish second-grade students at risk of reading difficulties.

Teaching phoneme awareness to children at risk for early reading difficulties has been recognized as successful in several studies. In this randomized controlled trial (RCT)-study, we add to this research by optimizing core procedural as well as teaching components in a phonics-directed intervention and extend the RCT reading intervention research into a semi-transparent language context. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of a novel Swedish intensive phonics program.

A structural equation mediation model captures the predictions amongst the parameters of the ease of language understanding model.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to assess the validity of the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model through a statistical assessment of the relationships among its main parameters: processing speed, phonology, working memory (WM), and dB Speech Noise Ratio (SNR) for a given Speech Recognition Threshold (SRT) in a sample of hearing aid users from the n200 database.

Methods: Hearing aid users were assessed on several hearing and cognitive tests. Latent Structural Equation Models (SEMs) were applied to investigate the relationship between the main parameters of the ELU model while controlling for age and PTA.

Intersectional perspectives on the employment rate in Supported Employment for people with psychiatric, neuropsychiatric, or intellectual disabilities: A scoping review.

Background: Supported Employment (SE) has shown better results in the employment rate for persons with disabilities than other methods within vocational rehabilitation, but how SE affects the employment rate for subgroups in the interventions needs further attention.

Objective: To examine previous research regarding the influence of intersecting statuses on the employment rate in SE for people with psychiatric, neuropsychiatric, or intellectual disabilities according to type of diagnosis, sex, race/ethnicity, age, level of education and previous work history.

Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted in nine databases including peer-reviewed articles from 2000 to April 2021.

The structure of executive functioning in 11 to 14 year olds with and without special educational needs.

The structure and development of executive functioning (EF) have been intensively studied in typically developing populations, with little attention given to those with Special Educational Needs (SEN). This study addresses this by comparing the EF structure of 132 adolescents (11-14 years-old) with SEN and 138 adolescents not requiring additional support (Non-SEN peers). Participants completed verbal and non-verbal assessments of key components of EF: inhibition, working memory and switching.

Is Having Hearing Loss Fundamentally Different? Multigroup Structural Equation Modeling of the Effect of Cognitive Functioning on Speech Identification.

Objectives: Previous research suggests that there is a robust relationship between cognitive functioning and speech-in-noise performance for older adults with age-related hearing loss. For normal-hearing adults, on the other hand, the research is not entirely clear. Therefore, the current study aimed to examine the relationship between cognitive functioning, aging, and speech-in-noise, in a group of older normal-hearing persons and older persons with hearing loss who wear hearing aids.

Decoding Abilities in Adolescents with Intellectual Disabilities: The Contribution of Cognition, Language, and Home Literacy.

Decoding abilities in individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) are substantially lower than for typical readers. The underlying mechanisms of their poor reading remain uncertain. The aim of this study was to investigate the concurrent predictors of decoding ability in 136 adolescents with non-specific ID, and to evaluate the results in relation to previous findings on typical readers.

Investigating Reading Comprehension in Adolescents with Intellectual Disabilities: Evaluating the Simple View of Reading.

Reading comprehension difficulties are common in individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID), but the influences of underlying abilities related to reading comprehension in this group have rarely been investigated. One aim of this study was to investigate the Simple View of Reading as a theoretical framework to describe cognitive and linguistic abilities predicting individual differences in reading comprehension in adolescents with non-specific ID. A second aim was to investigate whether predictors of listening comprehension and reading comprehension suggest that individuals with ID have a delayed pattern of development (copying early grade variance in reading comprehension) or a different pattern of development involving a new or an unusual pattern of cognitive and linguistic predictors.

Neonatal Imitation, Intersubjectivity, and Children With Atypical Development: Do Observations on Autism and Down Syndrome Change Our Understanding?

Almost all studies on neonatal imitation to date seem to have focused on typically developing children, and we thus lack information on the early imitative abilities of children who follow atypical developmental trajectories. From both practical and theoretical perspectives, these abilities might be relevant to study in children who develop a neuropsychiatric diagnosis later on or in infants who later show impaired ability to imitate. Theoretical in the sense that it will provide insight into the earliest signs of intersubjectivity-i.

Navigating change - managers' experience of implementation processes in disability health care: a qualitative study.

Background: Effective implementation processes play a central role in health care organizations and affect the care of patients. Managers are pivotal in facilitating the use of new practices, but their experience and how it affects the implementation outcome are still largely unknown. In the field of disability health care in particular, managers experiences have scarcely been investigated.

Experiences of stakeholder collaboration when promoting participation in physical activity among adolescents with autism spectrum disorder.

Purpose: Various stakeholders contribute to the development of healthy physical activity habits in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Parents and stakeholders seek collaborative actions but little is still known about such efforts. The purpose of this study was thus to explore how professionals from different services experience stakeholder collaboration when promoting participation in physical activity for these adolescents.

Definitions and Operationalization of Mental Health Problems, Wellbeing and Participation Constructs in Children with NDD: Distinctions and Clarifications.

Children with impairments are known to experience more restricted participation than other children. It also appears that low levels of participation are related to a higher prevalence of mental health problems in children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). The purpose of this conceptual paper is to describe and define the constructs mental health problems, mental health, and participation to ensure that future research investigating participation as a means to mental health in children and adolescents with NDD is founded on conceptual clarity.

The lived experiences of work and health of people living with deaf-blindness due to Usher syndrome type 2.

: This study aimed to explore lived experiences with working life from the perspective of people with deafblindness due to Usher syndrome type 2 (USH2). : A limited number of studies have explored working life of people with Usher syndrome. One study of individuals with USH2 showed that work active reported significantly better psychological health compared to non-working individuals.

Evidence of an Effect of Gaming Experience on Visuospatial Attention in Deaf but Not in Hearing Individuals.

Auditory cortex in congenitally deaf early sign language users reorganizes to support cognitive processing in the visual domain. However, evidence suggests that the potential benefits of this reorganization are largely unrealized. At the same time, there is growing evidence that experience of playing computer and console games improves visual cognition, in particular visuospatial attentional processes.

Congenital chloride diarrhea and Pendred syndrome: case report of siblings with two rare recessive disorders of SLC26 family genes.

Background: Congenital chloride diarrhea (CLD; OMIM 214700) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder caused by pathogenic variations in the solute carrier family 26 member A3 (SLC26A3) gene. Without salt substitution, this chronic diarrheal disorder causes severe dehydration and electrolyte disturbances. Homozygous variants in the nearby gene SLC26A4 disrupt anion exchange in the inner ear and the thyroid, causing Pendred syndrome (PDS; OMIM 274600), which is the most frequent form of syndromic deafness.

Feasibility of an Intervention for Patients with Cognitive Impairment Using an Interactive Digital Calendar with Mobile Phone Reminders (RemindMe) to Improve the Performance of Activities in Everyday Life.

The aim of this study is to increase evidence-based interventions by investigating the feasibility of an intervention using an interactive digital calendar with mobile phone reminders (RemindMe) as support in everyday life. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from participating patients ( = 8) and occupational therapists ( = 7) from three rehabilitation clinics in Sweden. The intervention consisted of delivering the interactive digital calendar RemindMe, receiving an individualized introduction, a written manual, and individual weekly conversations for two months with follow-up assessments after two and four months.

Life strategies of people with deafblindness due to Usher syndrome type 2a - a qualitative study.

: To explore life strategies in people with Usher syndrome type 2a. : There are no studies on life strategies in people with Usher syndrome. People with deafblindness are often described in terms of poor health and low quality of life, or as being vulnerable.

Suitability of English Language Internet-Based Information for Voice Disorders.

Purpose: The study was aimed at assessing the suitability of English-language Internet health information related to vocal hygiene, vocal health, and prevention of voice disorders. We also examined the relation between suitability, readability, and quality of Internet health information.

Method: Suitability of 77 websites from Dueppen et al was assessed using the Suitability Assessment of Materials tool.

Content validity and readability of patient-reported questionnaire instruments of hearing disability.

This study evaluates the content validity (i.e. domains assessed) and readability levels of patient-reported questionnaire instruments using internationally recognised procedures and tools.

Risk Markers for Not Returning to Work Among Patients with Acquired Brain Injury: A Population-Based Register Study.

Purpose The aim of this study is to investigate person-related, injury-related, activity-related and rehabilitation-related risk markers for not return to work among patients with acquired brain injury (ABI). Methods Retrospective data from the Quality register, WebRehab Sweden, on an ABI cohort of 2008 patients, was divided into two groups: those who had returned to work (n = 690) and those who had not returned to work (n = 1318) within a year of the injury. Results Risk ratio analyses showed that several factors were risk markers for not returning to work: personal factors, including being a woman, being born outside of Sweden, having a low education level, and not having children in the household; injury-related factors, including long hospital stay (over 2 months), aphasia, low motor function, low cognitive function, high pain/discomfort, and high anxiety/depression; activity-related factors, including low function in self-care, inability to perform usual activities, and not having a driver's license; and rehabilitation-related factors, including being dissatisfied with the rehabilitation process and the attentiveness of the staff having limited influence over the rehabilitation plan, or not having a rehabilitation plan at all.

Benefit of Higher Maximum Force Output on Listening Effort in Bone-Anchored Hearing System Users: A Pupillometry Study.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare listening effort, as estimated via pupillary response, during a speech-in-noise test in bone-anchored hearing system (BAHS) users wearing three different sound processors. The three processors, Ponto Pro (PP), Ponto 3 (P3), and Ponto 3 SuperPower (P3SP), differ in terms of maximum force output (MFO) and MFO algorithm. The hypothesis was that listeners would allocate lower listening effort with the P3SP than with the PP, as a consequence of a higher MFO and, hence, fewer saturation artifacts in the signal.

Cognitive hearing science and ease of language understanding.

Objective: The current update of the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model evaluates the predictive and postdictive aspects of speech understanding and communication.

Design: The aspects scrutinised concern: (1) Signal distortion and working memory capacity (WMC), (2) WMC and early attention mechanisms, (3) WMC and use of phonological and semantic information, (4) hearing loss, WMC and long-term memory (LTM), (5) WMC and effort, and (6) the ELU model and sign language. Study Samples: Relevant literature based on own or others' data was used.

Prosodic aspects of repetition in Swedish-speaking children with developmental language disorder.

: To examine repetition of stress and tonal word accents in real words and non-words in Swedish-speaking children with developmental language disorder (DLD), and to investigate the relation of prosodic repetition to measures of language ability.: A cross-sectional study was undertaken with 30 monolingual Swedish-speaking children with DLD, mean age 4;11 (years;months) and 29 age-matched controls, mean age 5;1, who repeated words and non-words with systematically varying prosody. Group differences for the repetition of prosodic features, and correlations between repetition and phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, were explored.

Problems and Life Effects Experienced by Tinnitus Research Study Volunteers: An Exploratory Study Using the ICF Classification.

Background: Tinnitus is one of the most distressing hearing-related symptoms. It is often associated with a range of physiological and psychological complications, such as depression, anxiety, and insomnia. Hence, approaching tinnitus from a biopsychological perspective may be more appropriate than from purely a biomedical model.

Patterns in the social representation of "hearing loss" across countries: how do demographic factors influence this representation?

This study aims to understand patterns in the social representation of hearing loss reported by adults across different countries and explore the impact of different demographic factors on response patterns. The study used a cross-sectional survey design. Data were collected using a free association task and analysed using qualitative content analysis, cluster analysis and chi-square analysis.

Quality and Readability of English-Language Internet Information for Tinnitus.

Background: Because of the wealth of information available on the internet and increasing numbers of individuals relying on websites as a primary source of information for health-related questions, it is important that the readability of their content is within the comprehension level of most readers.

Objective: The study evaluated the quality and readability of English-language Internet information for tinnitus.

Research Design: Analysis of Internet websites on tinnitus.