Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Promoting Reading Achievement In Children With Developmental Language Disorders: What Can We Learn From Research On Specific Language Impairment And Dyslexia?, Suzanne M. Adlof

Faculty Publications

Purpose Specific language impairment (SLI; see also developmental language disorder) and dyslexia are separate, yet frequently co-occurring disorders that confer risks to reading comprehension and academic achievement. Until recently, most studies of one disorder had little consideration of the other, and each disorder was addressed by different practitioners. However, understanding how the two disorders relate to each other is important for advancing theories about each disorder and improving reading comprehension and academic achievement. The purpose of this clinical focus article is to integrate research on SLI and dyslexia as well as advocate for the consideration of comorbidities in future research …

Zika Virus Infection Causes Widespread Damage To The Inner Ear, Kathleen T. Yee, Biswas Neupane, Fengwei Bai, Douglas E. Vetter

Faculty Publications

Zika virus (ZIKV) has been recently recognized as a causative agent of newborn microcephaly, as well as other neurological consequences. A less well recognized comorbidity of prenatal ZIKV infection is hearing loss, but cases of hearing impairment following adult ZIKV infection have also been recognized. Diminished hearing following prenatal ZIKV infection in a mouse model has been reported, but no cellular consequences were observed. We examined the effects of ZIKV infection on inner ear cellular integrity and expression levels of various proteins important for cochlear function in type I interferon receptor null (Ifnar1^−/−) mice following infection at …

The Relation Between Linguistic Awareness Skills And Spelling In Adults: A Comparison Among Scoring Procedures, Victoria S. Henbest, Lisa A. Fitton Ph.D., Krystal L. Werfel, Kenn Apel

Faculty Publications

Purpose: Spelling is a skill that relies on an individual’s linguistic awareness, the ability to overtly manipulate language. The ability to accurately spell is important for academic and career success into adulthood. The spelling skills of adults have received some attention in the literature, but there is limited information regarding which approach for analyzing adults’ spelling is optimal for guiding instruction or intervention for those who struggle. Thus, we aimed to examine the concurrent validity of four different scoring methods for measuring adults’ spellings (a dichotomous scoring method and three continuous methods) and to determine whether adults’ linguistic awareness skills …

Everyday Communication Challenges In Aphasia: Descriptions Of Experiences And Coping Strategies, Tyson G. Harmon

Faculty Publications

Background: Everyday communication often occurs in situations that pose high attentional and social demands. People with aphasia have reported perceiving greater challenge communicating in these situations, but more specific information about these challenges could help clinicians and researchers work toward more meaningful intervention outcomes and increased life participation.

Aims: To explore the everyday communication experiences of people with aphasia based on their own perspectives and to identify how they report coping with everyday communication challenges.

Method: Twenty-one participants with mild or moderate aphasia completed semi-structured interviews that immediately followed the experimental arm of a larger project. Interview questions solicited descriptions …

Inhibition Deficits Are Modulated By Age And Cgg Repeat Length In Carriers Of The Fmr1 Premutation Allele Who Are Mothers Of Children With Fragile X Syndrome, Jessica Klusek, Jinkuk Hong, Audra Sterling, Elizabeth Berry-Kravis, Marsha R. Mailick

Faculty Publications

Individuals who carry a premutation (PM) allele on the FMR1 gene may experience executive limitations associated with their genetic status, including inhibition deficits. However, poor understanding of individualized risk factors has limited clinical management of this group, particularly in mothers who carry the PM allele who have children with fragile X syndrome (FXS). The present study examined CGG repeat length and age as factors that may account for variable expressivity of inhibition deficits. Participants were 134 carriers of the PM allele who were mothers of children with FXS. Inhibition skills were measured using both self-report and direct behavioral assessments. Increased …

Acquisition And Development Of Verb/Predicate Chaining In Hebrew, Ruth Aronson Berman, Lyle Lustigman

Faculty Publications

The study considers development and use of verb/predicate chaining constructions by Hebrew speakers from early childhood to adolescence, based on analysis of authentic conversational and narrative corpora. Three types of constructions are analyzed, ordered hierarchically by degree of cohesivity and obligatoriness of chaining: (1) monoclausal complex predicates (the “extended predicates” of traditional Hebrew grammars); (2) coreferential interclausal predicate chaining; and (3) discursively motivated topic chaining. Relevant typological features of Modern Hebrew are reviewed as accounting for the absence of canonical clause chaining in the language (the paucity of non-finite constructions in everyday usage, absence of an uninflected basic form of …