Background: Mean length of utterance (MLU) is one of the most important measures in estimating language acquisition in children. The study of how language develops in these patients can be useful in providing effective treatment strategies. This study aims to investigate the developmental process of MLU in children with ASD and compare them with normal children. Methods: This study is a descriptive, cross-sectional-quantitative one. The statistical society is all 3-6 years of children with ASD in Tehran, and the sample has been selected via cluster sampling among welfare organizations in region 6 (Mantaghe 6). The participants included 10 monolingual Persian children with ASD aged 3-6. In this research, the spoken utterances of children were recorded and transcribed in 30 minutes of free play sessions. The control group included 10 monolingual Persian children aged 2-5, with no previous linguistic and psychological disorders. Two groups were matched based on nonverbal IQ and gender. Results: Based on the findings, the mean and standard deviation of MLU in autistic children were 2. 5 and 1. 24, respectively and the mean and standard deviation of MLU in normal children were 3. 74 and 1. 03, respectively. The results of T-test analysis showed a statistically significant difference between two groups with regard to the MLU (t (18)=-2. 41, Pvalue=0. 02). The results also indicated a statistically significant correlation between MLU and age in children with ASD (Pvalue=0. 01, r=0. 95) and in normal children (Pvalue=0. 000, r=0. 95). Conclusions: The study showed that after controlling for vocabulary knowledge, non-verbal IQ and talkativeness, MLU was significantly lower in children with ASD than in normal children. The results also showed that MLU increases with increase of age in both groups.

Ahmad Shâ mlu is considered as the founder of the “ White poetry” in Persian literature. A wide range of themes are treated in his poetry, from love and woman to liberty and egalitarianism, as well as death and existential issues. Charles Baudelaire is not only known to be the pioneer of a school called “ Decadence” but also a forerunner of Symbolism in French poetry. The principal themes used in his works are city and urban life, woman and love, death and spleen, liberty and modernity. Despite a hundred years dividing Shâ mlu and Baudelaire, we could still search some similarities between their works and personalities. In this paper, based on a comparative study, we will try to study some examples of these essential topics. Besides that, through this research, we shall try to point out to the resemblances and the differences between the conceptual approaches of the Iranian and the French poet in regards to these themes. The method used in this research is a thematic one, borrowed from the approach of Philippe Chardin in his article “ Thé matique comparatiste” (published in Pré cis de litté rature comparé e, Paris, PUF, 1989). We will treat three issues in poetry of Shâ mlu and Baudelaire: in the first part, we shall study women and love in work of each poet; secondly, we will focus on themes such as death and spleen respectively in their poetries; last but not least, we shall concentrate on liberty and social values in imaginary of Baudelaire and Shâ mlu.

Objectives: Regarding the impact of hearing loss on language development and metalinguistic skill and being language development different from metalinguistic skill in bilingual children, studying of these skills in different bilingual children and comparing them with normal bilingual children can help us understand more about language development in children and the factors involved in it. The present study aims at Investigating and Comparing linguistic and metalinguistic skills of bilingual (Azari-Persian) children with cochlear implant and their normal hearing peers. Method: The present follow-up study was conducted on six children with cochlear implant and six normal hearing peers that was randomly selected from preschool students of Zanjan city in the school year of 97-98. We compared these children in Mean Length of Utterance, lexical richness, lexical awareness and syntactic awareness. To investigate language development, continuous speech, and to investigate metalinguistic awareness, lexical awareness (including content and structural analysis of word definition) and syntactic awareness tests was used. Results: Data analysis revealed that developing language and metalinguistic skills in bilingual preschool children with hearing loss in Azari-Persian were delayed. (P <0. 05). But in Persian language, of the indices of language growth, only the Mean Length of utterance (mean number of morphemes per word) is delayed (P <0. 05). There was no significant difference in any of the content and structural aspects of word definition in hearing loss children (P>0. 05). Conclusion: The low ability level of subjects’ in metalinguistic skills in Azari language can be ascribed to the formal teaching of Persian in schools. In addition, Spearman's correlation coefficient indicated that there is a positive and significant correlation between indices of language growth, lexical awareness of bilingual (Azari-Persian) children with hearing loss and normal hearing peers in both Persian and Azari.

Background and purpose: Although congenital hypothyroidism is a preventable cause of mental disabilities, less than 10% of newborns are diagnosed based on clinical symptoms in the first month. If the diagnosis is not made based on screening programs, it would be delayed and irrepairable cerebral and auditory complications will occur. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of congenital hypothyroidism in the Mazandaran province.Materials and methods: The study is a descriptive (screening) survey. From infants born from January 2007 to January 2008 in Mazandaran province heel blood samples on filter paper were obtained. TSH values were measured by ELISA method and TSH>5 mlu/L was considered as the recall criterion. Diagnosis of neonatal hypothyroidism was made based on TSH>10 and T4<6.5. Treatment was performed based on the results of second tests. Except in cases where the initial TSH was greater or equal to 20 -where the treatment was started from the beginning- if the second test results were reported normal, treatment was discontinued and the case was considered as a transient hypothyroidism.Results: Out of 45218 infants studied, 49% were female and 51% were male.4.6% of newborns (2109) were recalled, among whom 1885 had 5<TSH<10 mlu/L and 185 had 10<TSH<20 mlu/L and 39 had TSH ³20.73 infants were diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Thus, the prevalence of neonatal hypothyroidism was 1.6/1000 in live births in Mazandaran province. Also prevalence of transient neonatal hypothyroidism was 1 in every 2500 live births.Conclusion: Given the high prevalence of hypothyroidism in the province, more screening programs are essential.

Objectives: Persian is a pro-drop language with canonical Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) word order. This study investigates the acquisition of word order in Persian-speaking children.Methods: In the present study, participants were 60 Persian-speaking children (30 girls and 30 boys) with typically developing language skills, and aged between 30-47 months. The 30-minute language samples were audio-recorded during free play with an examiner and during description of pictures.Results: Object-Verb (OV) and subject-verb (SV) sentence structures were the most commonly used in two-component simple sentences. SOV was the most common three-component structures used by Persian-speaking children.Discussion: Despite the fact that the spoken-Persian language has no strict word order, Persianspeaking children tend to use other logically possible orders of subject (S), verb (V), and object (O) lesser than the SOV structure.

Background and purpose: We can examine the language abilities of a person through five parameters of speech quality including speech fluency, speech complexity, speech exactness, speech rate and lexical accessibility. These parameters are examined by the secondary parameters including mean length of utterance (MLU), mean length of five long utterances, mean number of verb in sentence, mean number of bound clause in sentence and richness of vocabulary. We have examined four parameters except the speech exactness in normal Persian children of 4-5 years old in Semnan, Birjand and Tonekabon cities. These parameters were then compared between children. Materials and methods: 90 children were selected nurseries through testing and they were divided into three groups including 30 subjects from. After examining the children’s speech, they were analyzed and secondary parameters were determined. Finally we compared the results through statistical tests. Results: Semnani children’s MLU of descriptive speech exceeds tonekaboni children. Semnani children’s mean length of five long utterances of free speech exceeds Birjandi children. Semnani children’s mean number of verb in sentence of free speech exceeds Birjandi children, Birjandi and Toneckaboni children’s mean number of bound clause in sentence of descriptive speech exceeds Semnani children. Birjandi children’ richness of vocabulary of free speech exceeds Semnani and Toneckaboni children. Birjandi children’s speech rate of free and descriptive speech exceeds Semnani and Toneckaboni children. Conclusion: Dialect contributes to speech quality parameters therefore we must consider them in assessment, diagnosis and treatment of language disorders in children with different dialects.  

Background: Congenital hypothyroidism is one of the most common endocrine diseases. Moreover, it is one of the major causes of congenital mental disability in neonates which could be prevented by early diagnosis and treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the recalling and prevalence of congenital hypothyroidism in Borujerd. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted using existing documents in the health centers of Borujerd. According to the national protocol, all neonates were called to the sampling centers of Borujerd within 3 and 5 days after birth. At this stage, infants with TSH>5 were recalled. According to the national guidelines for the screening with regard to congenital hypothyroidism, neonates with a TSH> 10 mlu/L and T4˂ 6. 5 μ g/dL were viewed as patients. Results: Of 13741 screened neonates, 1257 newborns were recalled. The recall rate was estimated to be 9. 14%, of which 1114 infants had TSH ranging from 5 to 9. 9 mlu/L, 120 infants had TSH ranging from 10 to 19. 9 mlu/L, and 23 infants had TSH≥ 20 mlu/L. congenital hypothyroidism was diagnosed in 22 neonates. Hence, the prevalence of congenital hypothyroidism in Borujerd was 1. 6 in 1000 live births. Conclusion: The prevalence of congenital hypothyroidism in Borujerd is higher than the global standard. Hence, it is necessary to investigate the factors associated with the prevalence of this disease.

urban Land use planning activities investigate how a land is allocated to a specific function. Over the past few decades, development of the Mixed Land Use (MLU) application has become an essential planning model in developed countries and has considered as a key component in Smart Growth and New Urbanism. MLU works perfect only when done under a carefully planned program. Geographic Information System due to its great analysis of spatial issues can help us have a better understanding of this new concept. In this study, a conceptual framework for analysis of urban MLU on the basis of the spatial indicators and analysis is introduced. Criteria of the interest are: Accessibility, Intensity, Land per Capita, Clustering and diversity. According to the conceptual model, the mentioned criteria are applied for evaluating MLU levels in horizontal dimension in the 7th regional municipality of Tehran city. Results, obtained from aggregation of various criteria, demonstrate that the model can detect effects of MLU as well as specify limits and capabilities of every district in relation to the mentioned criteria. According to the results, Shahid Ghandi, Andisheh, Kaj and Niloufar’s neighborhoods as well as 3th 4th districts are in the better conditions based on the urban MLU indicators.

Background: Since most clinical treatments of Persian children’s language impairments are based on either the therapist, clinicians’ experiences (mostly), or English language norms (sometimes), comparing two minor indices of speech quality, namely “mean Length of Utterance” (MLU) and “mean length of five phrasal utterances” (MLFPU) between different age groups of children, would be unequivocally efficient to help diagnose and treat Farsi-Speaking Children with language impairments.Methods: To compare the two mentioned indices of 2 to 5-year-old normal Farsi-speaking children, the speech samples of 500 children were scrutinized by elicitation, transcription, and statistically analyzing their language samples.Results: The net results prove that as the children’s ages grow from 2 to 5, the two mentioned indices increase and extend as well.Conclusion: The influence of chronological age on the indices varies, regarding the type of language samples. Hence, the analysis of speech quality indices in assessment of children’s language ability has to be performed based on the language sampling methods.