Journal of Modern Rehabilitation
Year:2013 | Volume:6 | Issue:4|Papers Count:10

Background and Aim: Impairment of noun retrieval is common among aphasic patients, but some of previous studies represent differences between noun retrieval ability of various aphasia syndromes. Current study investigates and compares the picture naming ability of 4 patients with fluent and non-fluent aphasia.Materials and Methods: Present study investigated the naming ability of 2 fluent and 2 non-fluent aphasic patients with oral picture naming test. This test contains line drawing of 109 nouns. Patients were asked to name each picture with a single word. Responses were classified according to Philadelphia Naming Test scoring system as correct and semantic, formal, mixed, non-word, unrelated and others error (no response, description/circumlocution, miscellaneous error). Then, the data were investigated in terms of descriptive statistics and analyzed by Mann-Whitney U test.Results: The score of non-fluent aphasics was more than fluent ones. The percentage of semantic errors in fluent group and no responses among non-fluent patients were more than the other types. Despite of personal differences, all error types were found in responses of patients. The difference between score and error types in fluent and non-fluent patients was not significant (p>05).Conclusion: This scoring system can define a variety of word retrieval errors. The fluent aphasics have more noun retrieval problems than non-fluent patients. Although, there are differences between two groups, but error type in picture naming is not a precise factor for distinguish between various aphasia syndromes and there is similarity in impaired underling mechanisms and naming behavior of them.  

Background and Aim: The goal of this study was to search verb morphology in bilingual with specific language impairment and comparing them with normal bilingual and Persian children with special language disorder because we want to find their ability in this skills in bilingual children with specific language impairment and and evaluating Low Capacity Processing(LCP) theory.Materials and Methods: Six bilingual (Azeri-Persian) children with specific language impairment and 6 Persian were selected from clinics of Tehran. They were 7-8 years old. Children with specific language impairment were evaluated about Perception and Expression tense morpheme of verbs and then they were compared with 6 age-matched-children as control groups. Children with specific language impairment are diagnosed as exhibiting a significant delay (more than one year) in language that can not be explained by intelligence deficits, hearing loss or visual impairment. In this research we used narrative speech and specific language impairment’s test and we used Man Whitney’s test for comparing these groups.Results: Bilingual children with specific language impairment (SLI) have delay in comparison with their age-matched group in tense morphemes (p=0.020, p=0.019 ). They also have delay in tense of verbs (past, present, future) in comparison with Persian language children with special language impairment but it was not meaningful (p=0.057).Conclusion: Comparison between typical development of bilingual children and bilinguals with SLI shows that verb morphology is a good clinical marker for diagnosing and treatment of these children. Comparison between Persian language children with SLI and bilinguals with SLI shows that there is no evidence for LCP theory.

Background and Aim: Cerebral Palsy (CP) children are the most clients referred to occupational therapy settings. Hand function is important in Activities of Daily living .There is a hand dysfunction in most cerebral palsy children. Orthosis and splints are commonly used to improve the position, range of motion, quality of movement and function of a person’s arm or hand. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of static cock up c-bar splint on strength, spasticity, range of motion, and dominant hand function in spastic diplegic children with 8 to 12 years old.Materials and Methods: This interventional study is in a before-after design. Thirteen spastic diplegic cerebral palsy children with 8 to 12 years old were selected through students who studied in physical disabled schools in Tehran city and had the inclusion criteria. Patients used a static cock up c-bar splint (wrist in 10 degrees of extension and thumb in palmar abduction and opposition) for two months, 2 hours daily and 4-6 hours at night. In this study the Jebsen Taylor test was used to evaluate hand function, the Modified Ashworth Scale was used to assess spasticity of thumb, wrist and elbow, ROM of thumb, wrist and elbow were tested with goniometer and power grip was evaluated with dynamometer.Results: Results showed a significant improvement in hand function (p<0.001), in wrist’s spasticity (p<0.001), elbow’s spasticity (p<0.008), palmar abduction of thumb spasticity (p<0.002), wrist’s ROM (p<0.001), Palmar abduction of thumb ROM (p<0.001) and power grip (p<0.001). The data did not show significant improvement on elbow’s joint ROM.Conclusion: Information from present research shows that using static cock up c-bar splint for 2 months, 2 hours a day and 4 to 6 hours nightly, can be an effective method to improve power grip, hand function, thumb, wrist and elbow spasticity and range of motion of thumb and wrist of spastic diplegic CP children.

Background and Aim: The effect of rocker soles on improvement of foot plantar pressure distribution is well documented. Rockers are commonly prescribed for diabetic patients with neuropathy in order to offloading the particular area of the foot sole thereby decreasing the chance of the foot ulcers. On the other hand, these patients may experience balance problems because of the somatosensory defects due to peripheral neuropathy. There is an evidence of postural destabilizing effect of rocker soles in healthy adults. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the postural responses to the rocker sole in diabetic patients with neuropathy.Materials and Methods: Seventeen diabetic patients with neuropathy participated in this study. Canvas shoes were modified by addition of toe only rocker soles made of EVA (Ethyl Vinyl Acetate). The motor control test was conducted by the use of Neurocom system to evaluate postural stability with and without rocker sole. The Center of force displacement, response latency and response strength were measured.Results: No significant difference was observed between the toe only rocker sole and without it in center of force displacement and response latency of the patients (P>0.05). The results also indicated a significant increase in the response strength of patients by the rocker shoe, only in medium perturbations (P<0.05).Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated that the postural stability of diabetic patients with neuropathy in response to the toe only rocker shoe is the same as the shoe without any rocker profiles. However, rocker shoes increase the need for generating active force during the automatic postural response of these patients which may indicate a training effect on diabetic patients with neuropathy.

Background and Aim: Although motor difficulties are not considered as a diagnostic criterion in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: However its association with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is commonly reported. CO-OP is a problem-solving approach developed to help children with Developmental Coordination Disorder and addresses their motor-based problems. In this approach, therapist supports the children to use their cognitive strategies in a process of guided discovery to solve occupational performance problems. The objectives of CO-OP are to improve the motor performance of children with ADHD by helping them to discover various procedures to remove barriers and enhance supports by facilitating activities and participation. This study was designed to examine the influence of CO-OP on motor-based occupational performance of children with ADHD.Materials and Methods: A single case experimental design (multiple baseline) was used to examine the influence of a 12 weeks intervention of CO-OP (twice a week) on Six children with ADHD. Each child selected three different goals to practice during intervention. Outcome measures included the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM), and the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency and Performance (BOTMP). At first and prior to the intervention, the COPM was administered to the children and parents separately to obtain a rating of performance and satisfaction of the child in selective goals. The CO-OP intervention protocol was based on Polatajko and colleagues’ work in 2001. During intervention, children were taught the global problem solving strategies helping them to discover and perform domain-specific strategies. Therapist and family also supported children to achieve the performance of selected goals.Results: The results of this study demonstrated improvements in both goals and motor performance in the participants due to the intervention. These results support the use of the CO-OP with children with ADHD.Conclusion: Further research into the application of CO-OP with children with ADHD is warranted based on preliminary positive findings regarding the efficacy of this intervention to address motor-based performance difficulties.

Background and Aim: Intonation has important roles on increase in intelligibility and conveyance correct meaning especially in conversational speech. Recognition of intonation correlates with three acoustic parameters: fundamental frequency, intensity and duration. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the acoustic correlation of intonation and intelligibility of speech in children with cochlear implant (CI) and compare with normal hearing (NH) children.Materials and Methods: This study has been carried out on 25 cochlear implant children and 25 children with normal hearing in primary school age ranges. Ten pictures were shown to children and statement and question sentences were elicited from them. To investigation of intelligibility, produced sentences were perceptually judgment by seven speech therapists and were scored by five point rating value. Acoustic correlation were determined using Praat software.Results: The results showed that there were significantly difference between two groups in each of acoustic correlations (P<0.05). Intelligibility scores of CI children were significantly lower than ones of NH children (P<0.05). There were significantly correlation between intonation and intelligibility scores, also between intelligibility and duration of implant use (P<0.05).Conclusion: According to the findings of the present study, cochlear implant children's performance in using of acoustic correlation of intonation is lower than normal hearing peers that results in inappropriately intonation. Inappropriately intonation can be the cause of low intelligibility in cochlear implant children. Thus, intervention of intonation should be considered in treatment program of cochlear implant children.

Background and Aim: Aphasia is common symptom after acute stroke with a prevalence in earlier studies between 21-38% .In Iran; unfortunately no investigation has been reported on the prevalence of aphasia .So the main aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of aphasia after stroke at hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of medical sciences (TUMS).Materials and Methods: This study is a cross-sectional design and has been done on 30 patients with brain injury who admitted to TUMS hospitals during three months. The Mississippi Aphasia Screening Test (MAST) was used to screening aphasia patients.Results: The descriptive results indicated, from 22 patients with CVA five cases (22.7%) were aphasic. Mean age of aphasic patients (69.6 years) was more than non-aphasic patients (49.24 years) and of five aphasic patients, three cases (60%) were male and two of them (40%) were female. Also, regarding background diseases, four of five (80%) aphasic patients had history of high blood pressure and diabetes.Conclusion: Results of this study was consistent with prevalence of aphasia in last studies. Also results of this study confirmed other studies based on that etiology of lesion, age, and high blood pressure and diabetes history of the patients plays an important role in prevalence of aphasia.

Background and Aim: Given the biomechanical differences between over ground and treadmill walking, it is expected that the contraction of muscles should be also different, so exercise training in these scenarios may have various effects on trunk muscles. The aim of this study was to compare amplitude and duration of activation of trunk muscles during over ground and treadmill walking to prescribe a suitable exercise mode considering the special circumstances of each person.Materials and Methods: Nineteen healthy 20-40 years old male with sedentary life style were selected via simple sampling. Surface electromyography of rectus abdominis, external oblique, longissimus and multifidus muscles were recorded.Results: In each gait cycle, there was not statistically significant differences on duration of trunk muscles activity between treadmill and over ground walking. The mean amplitude of these muscles was greater on treadmill in comparison with over ground and this difference was statistically significant for rectus abdominis (P=0.005), longissimus (P=0.018) and multifidus (P=0.044) muscles.Conclusion: Stabilizing role of trunk muscles during walking causes them to be active throughout the entire gait cycle. The increased muscle amplitude on treadmill might show that more motor units may be recruited during the contraction, which is helpful in prescribing the appropriate type of exercise especially to patients who have trunk muscles weakness.

Background and Aim: Difficulties in sidedness of autistic students and their defected language and communication function can be in relationship with their educational state. This research was designed to investigate the possible relationship among sidedness, communicative function and educational state in autistic students.Materials and Methods: This is a described-analytic research and a kind of cross sectional and comparative one. For these purpose 40 autistic students with age average 10 years old and 8 months (SD=±2.5) were chosen. Communicative function questionnaire were completed by all Subjects’ parents. We used observation check list to examine handedness, footedness, and dominant eye and ear. Using of T-test, covariance analysis data were analyzed.Results:Data analysis indicated that there is not significant statistically difference between communicative function and educational state (p<0.05), but participants with weak educational state less tend to definite sidedness preference-in hand and foot not in eye and ear (p>0.05).Conclusion: These findings reveal that stability of sidedness, which obtains with interventions rehabilitation in autistic students, can perform important role in high language skills and appropriate educational state for them.

Background and Aim: This study examined the effect of empowerment programs on geriatric depression in daily rehabilitation center Farzanegan of Khorramabad city.Materials and Methods: In this interventional study, 40 elderly subjects were participated in the city of Khoramabad with a mean age of 65 years old. They were 8 men and 12 women in each group. These people have the ability to perform common tasks without dependence on others and they had no systemic and restrictive disease. Subjects randomly divided into two groups (case and control). In case group, empowerment programs was performed for 40 days and 3 hours in a day. Empowerment program included lifestyle education, rehabilitation services, support services, cultural, sports, arts, tourism and leisure services. Part of the program was general such as training of healthy lifestyle and daily exercise and another part of services was presented based on assessment and diagnosis of treatment and rehabilitation team. This program was produced by designers and experts from the office of country welfare elderly. Depression scores in both group, before the intervention and at the end of intervention was assessed by the beck depression inventory.Results: Using the empowerment program, depression scores were reduced after intervention (P£0.047), however in the control group did not make significant changes in depression scores.Conclusion: The date showed that that regular and consistent application of empowerment program can an effective and complementary method in conjunction with other treatments as well as a nondrug therapy in improving depression.