| 1. |
- Nakeva von Mentzer, Cecilia, et al.
(författare)
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Reading Ability and Working Memory in School-Age Children Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing Using Cochlear Implants and/or Hearing Aids : A 3-Year Follow-Up on Computer-Based Phonics Training
- 2020
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Ingår i: Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups. - : American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. - 2381-473X. ; 5:6, s. 1388-1399
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- PurposeThe aim of the current study was to investigate reading ability in children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) using cochlear implants (CI) or hearing aids (HA) 3 years after computer-assisted phonics intervention. Reading ability was examined in relation to cognitive and audiological aspects and compared to a reference group of children with typical hearing (TH).MethodParticipants were 73 Swedish primary school children (Mdn = 9 years). Fifty-five of the children were TH, and 18 children were DHH using CI (n = 10) or HA (n = 8). Twenty-seven of the children (all children who were DHH and nine of the children with TH) had participated in computer-based phonics intervention 3 years earlier. Children were assessed on word and nonword decoding, reading comprehension, and three working memory (WM) tasks. Age at diagnosis, age of amplification, and duration of unaided hearing loss formed the audiological variables.ResultsComparable word decoding skills and reading comprehension were observed in all three groups (CI, HA, and TH). Children with CI showed strong and significant correlations between two aspects of WM capacity (phonological and complex WM) and all aspects of reading. For children with TH, similar but weaker correlations as in children with CI was observed, and correlations with visual WM were also evident. In children with HA only, complex WM correlated strongly and significantly with nonword decoding. Duration of unaided hearing loss was the single audiological variable that was significantly associated with reading.ConclusionsThis 3-year follow-up showed overall positive reading results at the group level in children who are DHH. However, some children still lag behind their peers with TH. Early hearing experience and intervention are stressed as crucial factors in preventing negative outcomes in these children.
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| 2. |
- Socher, Michaela, et al.
(författare)
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Comparing the semantic networks of children with cochlear implants and children with typical hearing: Effects of length of language access
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Communication Disorders. - : Elsevier. - 0021-9924 .- 1873-7994. ; 99
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- PurposeKenett et al. (2013) report that the sematic networks, measured by using an oral semantic fluency task, of children with cochlear implants (CI) are less structured compared to the sematic networks of children with typical hearing (TH). This study aims to evaluate if such differences are only evident if children with CI are compared to children with TH matched on chronological age, or also if they are compared to children with TH matched on hearing age.MethodThe performance of a group of children with CI on a verbal fluency task was compared to the performance of a group of chronological-age matched children with TH. Subsequently, computational network analysis was used to compare the semantic network structure of the groups. The same procedure was applied to compare a group of children with CI to a group of hearing-age matched children with TH.ResultsThe children with CI perform on the same level on an oral semantic verbal fluency task as the children with TH matched on hearing age. There are significant differences in terms of the structure of the semantic network between the groups. The magnitude of these differences is very small and they are non-significant for a proportion of nodes included in the bootstrap analysis. This indicates that there is no true difference between the networks. Hearing age, but not age at implantation was found to be significantly positively correlated with semantic verbal fluency performance for the children with CI.ConclusionsThe results from the current study indicate that length of language exposure is an important factor for the structure of the semantic network and the performance on a semantic verbal fluency task for children with CI. Further studies are needed to explore the role of the accessibility of the language input for the development of semantic networks of children with CI.
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| 3. |
- Socher, Michaela, 1989-, et al.
(författare)
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Comparison of Expressive Spoken Language Skills in Children With Cochlear Implants and Children With Typical Hearing
- 2020
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Psychology. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 1664-1078. ; 11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- When children start formal education, they are expected to be able to express complex thoughts. However, in order to do so, they need to be able to use both complex grammatical structures and a variety of words. One group that is at risk of having a delay in terms of their expressive language ability is children with cochlear implants (CI). In this study, we evaluated whether children with CI perform comparably to children with typical hearing (TH) on a standard expressive spoken grammar and a standard expressive spoken vocabulary task when the groups were matched on non-verbal intelligence and working memory capacity. It was found that the children with CI in this study performed more poorly on a standard expressive spoken vocabulary task but not on a standard expressive spoken grammar task when compared to the children with TH. Differences in terms of expressive spoken vocabulary do not seem to be explained by differences in cognitive ability. In addition, the variation in terms of expressive spoken language ability was larger in the children with CI compared to the children with TH. This might be explained by additional confounding factors, like the time of language deprivation or by a greater influence of cognitive differences for the acquisition of spoken language for children with CI.
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| 4. |
- Socher, Michaela, 1989-
(författare)
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Reasons for Language : Language and Analogical Reasoning Ability in Children with Cochlear Implants and Children with Typical Hearing
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The usage-based model of language acquisition assumes that language is learned by its usage. General cognitive processes, especially analogical reasoning ability, are assumed to lead to the understanding of words and grammatical structures. It has been argued that the time of language or auditory deprivation children with cochlear implants (CIs) often experience early in life, might affect both their language and their cognitive abilities. Children with CIs have disadvantages in terms of language acquisition as they start receiving language input later than peers with typical hearing (TH), and the perceptual quality of the input is reduced. However, they might have additional difficulties in language acquisition if their analogical reasoning ability is negatively influenced by the language or auditory deprivation early in life. The results found in this thesis show that the language delays often seen in children with CIs are not explained by differences in analogical reasoning ability. Results indicate that analogical reasoning ability has a limited influence on language acquisition for the tested age-group. However, language abilities affect the performance on analogical reasoning tasks which are either verbal or can be supported by verbal strategies. This needs to be taken into consideration when comparing analogical reasoning ability of children with CI sand children with TH. In addition, the results from this thesis indicate that the structure of the mental lexicon is associated with the communication skills of children with CIs. The structure of the mental lexicon is most likely influenced by the amount of language input a child receives. The main implication of the results is that emphasis should be put on reducing the duration of language deprivation and to improve the quality of the language input for children with CIs.
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| 5. |
- Socher, Michaela, et al.
(författare)
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The relationship between reasoning and language ability : comparing children with cochlear implants and children with typical hearing
- 2022
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Ingår i: Logopedics, Phoniatrics, Vocology. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1401-5439 .- 1651-2022. ; 47:2, s. 73-83
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- PurposeLanguage has been suggested to play a facilitating role for analogical reasoning tasks, especially for those with high complexity. This study aims to evaluate if differences in analogical reasoning ability between children with cochlear implants (CI) and children with typical hearing (TH) might be explained by differences in language ability.MethodsThe analogical reasoning ability (verbal; non-verbal; complex non-verbal: high relational integration demand) of children with CI (N = 15, mean age = 6;7) was compared to two groups of children with TH: age and language matched (TH-A+L, N = 23, mean age = 6;5), and age matched (TH-A, N = 23, mean age = 6;5).ResultsChildren with CI were found to perform comparable to Group TH-A+L on non-verbal reasoning tasks but significantly more poorly on a verbal analogical reasoning task. Children with CI were found to perform significantly more poorly on both the non-verbal analogical reasoning task with high relational integration demand and on the verbal analogical reasoning task compared to Group TH-A. For the non-verbal analogical reasoning task with lower relational integration demand only a tendency for a difference between group CI and Group TH-A was found.ConclusionsThe results suggest that verbal strategies are influencing the performance on the non-verbal analogical reasoning tasks with a higher relational integration demand. The possible reasons for this are discussed. The verbal analogical reasoning task used in the current study partly measured lexical access. Differences between the children with CI and both groups of children with TH might therefore be explained by differences in expressive vocabulary skills.
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| 6. |
- Struckmann, Wiebke, et al.
(författare)
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Unchanged cognitive performance and concurrent prefrontal blood oxygenation after accelerated intermittent theta-burst stimulation in depression : a sham-controlled study
- 2021
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Psychiatry. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 1664-0640. ; 12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aim: Intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) delivered over the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) has shown promise as a treatment for anhedonia and amotivation in patients with depression. Here, we investigated whether this protocol modulates cognitive performance and concurrent prefrontal blood oxygenation. We also examined whether depressed patients exhibit cognitive dysfunction and prefrontal hypoactivity at baseline compared to healthy controls.Methods: This sham-controlled study comprises 52 patients randomized to either active or sham accelerated iTBS over the DMPFC (applied twice daily) for 10 consecutive treatment days, and 55 healthy controls. Cognitive performance was assessed at baseline and once again 4 weeks later using a cognitive test battery targeting attention, inhibitory control, and numerical, verbal, and visual working memory. Concurrent prefrontal oxygenated hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) was captured with functional near-infrared spectroscopy.Results: Active iTBS over DMPFC did not affect cognitive performance or concurrent oxy-Hb change compared to sham iTBS in patients with depression. Compared to controls, patients at baseline showed impaired performance in the Trail Making Test,the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, the Animal Naming Test, and the Digit Symbol Substitution Test, however no difference in prefrontal oxy-Hb was observed.Conclusion: Patients with treatment-resistant depression displayed cognitive deficits, however without prefrontal hypoactivity, compared to healthy controls at baseline. iTBS treatment did not alter cognitive performance, nor concurrent prefrontal blood oxygenation, in patients. Taken together, iTBS can likely be considered a cognitively safe treatment option in this sample of patients.
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| 7. |
- Stålnacke, Helena, 1973-
(författare)
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Fonologisk utveckling hos barn med otitbenägenhet : En longitudinell studie i åldrarna 3;6 – 5;6 år
- 2020
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: Hearing loss can act as a risk factor to poor linguistic development. One type of hearing loss is caused by fluid in the middle ear, a common consequence of acute otitis media (AOM). A number of children have ≥3 episodes of AOM within a 6-month period and are thus classifiedas otitis prones. Otitis proneness can result in fluctuation of the hearing experience that is believed to create inconsistency of the perceived speech signal and, thus, difficulties for the child to identify, categorize and produce speech sounds.Objective: The aims of the current study are to investigate, longitudinally the phonological development, concerning phonological production and phonological awareness, in children with otitis proneness and to compare their results with the results of the children without otitis proneness.Method: In total, 25 children with and 21 children without otitis proneness were involved in the study. Tests on phonological production (age 3;6 and 4;6) and phonological awareness (age 5;6) were performed onannual basis.Result: The comparisons between the study and the control group at the age 3;6, 4;6 and 5;6 years, reveal few significant results for either phonological production nor phonological development. For phonological production differences were seen at segmental level. The longitudinal development of phonological production indicate typical phonological development between age 3;6 and 4;6 for both test group and control group.Conclusion: Otitis proneness before 2;6 years of age does not appear to be an indicator of affected linguistic development at the ages 3;6 to 5;6 years, neither for phonological production nor concerning phonological awareness. However, there are great variations in the results, indicating that some children have greater difficulties than others do.
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