Auditory and Vestibular Research Journal
Year:2014 | Volume:23 | Issue:3|Papers Count:8

Background and Aim: The different studies in normal children and those with developmental language disorders showed the relationship between language and development of theory of mind (ToM). But, there is not agreement between authors about role of language aspects (lexicon, semantic, syntax, and pragmatics) in development of theory of mind. The aim of this review article was the study of relationship of aspects of language and development of theory of mind in normal children and those with developmental language disorder.Methods: This study was a narrative review. The Persian and English published articles during 1995 to 2012 were searched from different websites [Cochreane library, Proquest, Springer, Ebsco, Sciencedirect, PubMed, Magiran and Scientific Information Database (SID)]. Keywords included theory of mind, language, syntax, syntactic complement, semantic, lexicon and pragmatics. Then, the titles and abstracts of the related articles about relationship between language and theory of mind were selected and studied.Conclusion: The language is the most important factor and predictor of theory-of-mind development. Although, lexicon, semantics, pragmatics and general language were important in development of theory of mind, but most of the articles had stressed the role of syntactic complements (sentences with mental or communicative verbs) in its development in normal children and children with developmental language disorders. As syntactic complements are necessary prerequisites for development of theory of mind, particularly for false belief concept, it is predicted that focus on training these aspects in children with developmental language disorders can influence on both theory of mind development and language complexity.

Background and Aim: Speech-evoked auditory brainstem responses were used in the assessment of subcortical encoding of the speech stimuli in the English language. These processes are affected by language background and experiences. Considering the language specific acoustic differences, the aim of current study was establishing the response norms in adult Persian-speakers and comparing the encoding of the speech syllable /da/ between Persian and English languages.Methods: Auditory brainstem responses to speech syllable /da/ in the right ear, gained from 48 normal adults (25 women and 23 men) with the mean age of 22.70 with SD 2.05 years were recorded. After characterizing the onset elements, transition from consonant to vowel, the periodic portion and offset of response, the Persian dataset were compared with 95% confidence interval norms in the age range of 18-28 years.Results: The response to speech syllable /da/ was successfully recorded in all of the subjects and main features of response were highly overlapped with published English norms.Conclusion: Normative values for speech-evoked auditory brainstem responses in adult Persian speakers are presented in the current survey. Our findings suggest that the recommended procedure and more importantly, the scoring method based on English norms can be used in Persian speakers without replacing the original synthetic vowel /da/.

Background and Aim: During speech development in normal children, cluster reduction is one of the natural phonological processes. Children begin to produce some consonant clusters from the age of 2 years but ability to produce all consonant clusters continues up to 9. The main objective of this investigation was assessing the ability of Persian-speaking children in production of consonant clusters in mono-syllable CVCC words.Methods: In this cross-sectional and comparative study, production of 19 clusters with stop, fricative, affricate, nasal, and glide consonants in 38 words were tested in 200 Persian-speaking children at the age of 3 to 6 years in kindergartens of Tehran, Iran. Content validity indexes of 38 words were above 0.80 and Cronbach's alpha of split half was 0.91.Results: More than 75% of 3-years-old children were able to produce /xl/, /bz/, /rs/, and /xm/ clusters. Age was positively correlated with correct production scores of words (p=0.001) and was negatively correlated with cluster reduction scores (p=0.001). Conclusion: Three-years-old normal Persian-speaking children may use cluster reduction in words with consonant clusters but this phonological process decreased by increasing of age; so, most of the 6-years-old children could produce consonant clusters correctly. Place of articulation more than manner of articulation affect on correct production of consonant clusters.

Background and Aim: Setting of candidates for a word with similar beginnings is known as the Cohort size. Despite the importance of the number and properties of candidates in word recognition, so far, in none of the tests made for Persian language, the Cohort size is considered. The purpose of current study was the introduction of importance of Cohort size in word recognition and calculation of Cohort size for the list of Persian high-frequency spondee words.Methods: The spondee words extracted from high-frequency Persian word store. Then, total spondee words with same first syllable in Amid Persian dictionary recorded and Cohort size calculated for each spondee word. Thus, the list of high-frequency spondee words with their Cohort size composed of 4121 words obtained.Results: The Cohort sizes of word had a wide range from 0 to 87. In the half of the words, the Cohort sizes were less than 14 and in the rest were more than it.Conclusion: The Cohort size affects the time course and precision of decision making about words. Persian words are not equal in Cohort size. For having more controlled test materials to develop and design different types of auditory tests, it is possible to consider the Cohort size of words along other effective factors.

Background and Aim: Hearing impairment can have an impact on adolescents’ quality of life and can lead to their isolation and depression. The main purpose of this research was to study the effectiveness of a mental rehabilitation program based on positive thinking skills training on increasing happiness in a group of hearing impaired girls and boys.Methods: In this experimental study, pre-and post-test plan with a control group was used. All of the hearing impaired students (girls and boys) in all high schools of southern parts of Tehran, Iran, in year 2012-13 were our statistical research community.48 hearing impaired girls and boys were selected by multistage sampling including stratified, purposive, and random sampling. They were randomly divided into two groups of experimental and control. Each group consists of 12 boys and 12 girls. Positive thinking skills were trained to experimental groups during eight 45-minutes sessions, twice a week. We used the Oxford happiness questionnaire to assess the level of happiness.Results: Using analysis of covariance showed that positive thinking skills training had meaningful and positive effect on increasing happiness of hearing impaired boys and girls in the experimental groups (p<0.01). Also, the mean happiness scores of boys and girls were meaningfully different (p<0.01).Conclusion: Positive thinking skills training increases the happiness scores of hearing impaired adolescents. So, the approach taken in this study can be considered as an appropriate method for psychological-education interventions, counseling and treatment in hearing impaired adolescent.

Background and Aim: Auditory and visual processing along with phonological and visual spatial working memory are the problems that patients with dyslexia struggle with. So, the aim of this project was to investigate the effectiveness of computerized cognitive training on the working memory performance of children with dyslexia.Methods: The study conducted under the quasi-experimental method with pre- and post-test along with the control group.25 children with dyslexia aged 7 to 12 years in grades 1-5 assigned to the experimental (15) and control (10) groups; the experimental group received 30 sessions of the Brain Ware Safari intervention program. NAMA scale and Working Memory Test Battery for Children (WMTB-C) were conducted to assess reading and working memory performance of the subjects. MANCOVA, ANCOVA and effect sizes were utilized to analyze the data.Results: There were significant differences between pre-and post-tests of the experimental and control groups on the forward and backward block recall subtests of WMTB-C and not the mazes memory. Regarding the subscales of NAMA scale, we found no significant differences in the reading performance; but analysis of effect sizes showed positive effects at least on the 6 subscales.Conclusion: The Brain Ware Safari computerized cognitive training can improve visual spatial working memory of children with dyslexia and probably may affect the reading performance.

Background and Aim: The ways in which words are phonologically stored and organized change with maturation. Hence, most researchers agree on the issue of phonological representations abilities evolve over time. This study aimed to determine the quality of phonological representations in normal Persian-speaking boys and girls.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, quality of phonological representations of 240 normal children at the age of 54 to 77 months was investigated using descriptive-analytical methods. The subjects were randomly selected among the children in kindergartens and preschoolers in Arak city, Iran. The study tool was a researcher-made quality of phonological representations test.Results: Significant differences were found between age groups in the scores of quality of phonological representations (p<0.01). Subjects in the first (aged 54 to 59 months) and fourth (aged 72 to 77 months) age group had the lowest and highest scores, respectively. The differences in mean scores between 54 to 59 month-and 66 to 71 month-old and between 66 to 71 month-and 72 to 77 month-old children were not significant. There were significant differences in other group mean scores (p<0.001). In all groups of syllables (i.e., words with two, three and four syllables), older children have better performance. The mean scores of quality of phonological representations in the two groups of boys and girls in any of the age groups were not significantly different from each other.Conclusion: It seems that subjects' performances have improved with increase in age and gender does not affect the quality of phonological representations.