1. {{Abstracts of the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine, 65th Annual Meeting. October 12-15, 2011. Las Vegas, Nevada, USA}}. {Dev Med Child Neurol};2011 (Oct);53 Suppl 5:1-93.
2. Acarlar F, Johnston JR. {{Acquisition of Turkish grammatical morphology by children with developmental disorders}}. {Int J Lang Commun Disord};2011 (Nov);46(6):728-738.
Background: Many children with specific language impairment, Down syndrome or autism spectrum disorder have difficulty learning grammatical morphology, especially forms associated with the verb phrase. However, except for Hebrew, the evidence thus far has come from Indo-European languages. Aims: This study investigates the acquisition of grammatical morphology by Turkish-speaking children with developmental disorders. Syntactic, perceptual and usage features of this non-Indo-European language were predicted to lead to patterns of atypical learning that would challenge and broaden current views. Methods & Procedures: Language samples were collected from 30 preschoolers learning Turkish: ten with developmental disorders, ten matched by age and ten by length of utterance. T-SALT then generated mean length of utterance, the total number of noun errors, the total number of verb errors and the per cent use in obligatory contexts for noun suffixes. Analyses also looked at the potential effects of input frequency on order of acquisition. Outcomes & Results: Turkish children in the MLU-W control group, aged 3;4, used noun and verb suffixes with virtually no errors. Children in the group with atypical language showed more, and more persistent, morphological errors than either age or language peers, especially on noun suffixes. Children in the ALD and MLU-W groups were acquiring noun case suffixes in an order that is strongly related to input frequencies. Conclusions & Implications: These findings seem to reflect the influence of salience, regularity and frequency on language learning. Typical child-adult discourse patterns as well as the canonical SOV Turkish word order make verb suffixes perceptually salient, available in working memory and frequently repeated. The findings support the view that the language patterns seen in children with atypical development will differ from one language type to the next. They also suggest that regardless of language or syntactic class, children will have greater difficulty with those features of grammar that have higher cognitive processing costs.
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3. McCool S, Stevens IC. {{Identifying speech, language and communication needs among children and young people in residential care}}. {Int J Lang Commun Disord};2011 (Nov);46(6):665-674.
Background: There are claims that elevated levels of speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) exist among looked-after children and young people, and that their needs remain largely undetected and unmet. Scarce empirical evidence exists to support these assertions. Aims: To investigate whether elevated levels of communication impairment exist among children and young people in residential care; to begin to explore the nature of any communication impairment indicated, including social and pragmatic difficulties; to consider the extent to which communication impairment may be undetected and unmet; and to consider the suitability of the Children’s Communication Checklist 2 (CCC-2) as a screening tool in this context. Methods & Procedures: In four local authority areas in Scotland residential care workers completed the CCC-2 on children and young people well known to them, and provided information about previous concerns and/or referrals regarding communication. Outcomes & Results: Results are presented for 30 children and young people ranging in age from 11;01 to 17;01 years (133-205 months, mean = 172.57, SD = 19.97 months). CCC-2 scores indicated impairment in 19 out of 30 cases. In eight of those 19 cases profiles were suggestive of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), while for the remaining eleven cases impairment was indicated in other aspects of speech, language or communication. The general trend was towards greater severity of impairment in both ASD and non-ASD profiles. Information regarding previous concerns and/or referrals was available for ten of the 19 cases whose profiles indicated impairment: in nine out of these ten cases there had been no concerns, and in the final case no referrals had been made despite concerns. Conclusions & Implications: This study indicates the presence of high levels of SLCN among individuals in residential care, much of it severe and pervasive in nature, and in large part unsuspected. The CCC-2 has the potential for use as a screening tool for this population. There is a compelling case for speech and language therapy services to address issues of awareness and access with regard to this population. This preliminary research supports the need for further investigation on a larger and wider scale.
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4. Pauc R, Young A. {{Little-known neurons of the medial wall: a literature review of pyramidal cells of the cingulate gyrus}}. {J Chiropr Med};2010 (Sep);9(3):115-120.
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the current state of knowledge of poorly understood and underresearched neuroanatomy of selected pyramidal cells of the medial wall of the cingulate gyrus. METHODS: A literature review was performed; and separate computerized literature searches of PubMed, Science Direct, Cochrane Library, Science Citation Index, SCOPUS, CINAHL, and the World Wide Web were used for each cell type using individual set time scales for the discovery of each cell. A narrative overview of the literature was developed using information from searches of computerized databases and authoritative texts. DISCUSSION: The medial walls of the cerebral hemispheres, notably the cingulate gyri, contain species-specific neuron fields that to date are not well known within the scientific community and yet have been implicated as the underlying cause of such varying conditions as dysgraphia and autism in children and obsessive-compulsive disorder and Alzheimer disease in adults. As these neurons are late to develop both phylogenetically and ontogenetically, it has been suggested that they may be particularly vulnerable to stressors that potentially could be an underlying factor in a wide range of neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders. CONCLUSION: It is considered that knowledge of these little-known pyramidal fields of the medial wall of the human brain is essential to the understanding of how the brain functions both in sickness and in health.
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5. Silva LM, Schalock M, Gabrielsen K. {{Early intervention for autism with a parent-delivered Qigong massage program: a randomized controlled trial}}. {Am J Occup Ther};2011 (Sep-Oct);65(5):550-559.
A recent randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a dual parent and trainer-delivered qigong massage intervention for young children with autism resulted in improvement of measures of autism as well as improvement of abnormal sensory responses and self-regulation. The RCT evaluated the effects of the parent-delivered component of the intervention. Forty-seven children were randomly assigned to treatment and wait-list control groups. Treatment group children received the parent-delivered program for 4 mo. Trained therapists provided parent training and support. Improvement was evaluated in two settings–preschool and home–by teachers (blind to group) and parents. Results showed that the parent-delivered program was effective in improving measures of autism (medium effect size) and sensory and self-regulatory responses (large effect size). Teacher data on measures of autism were confirmed by parent data. Results indicate that the parent-delivered component of the program provided effective early intervention for autism that was suitable for delivery at home.
