Persian-speaking Children Research Articles

Form-based and Content-oriented Noun Definition in Persian Speaking Children With Cochlear Implant in Compare With Their Normal Peers

Form-based and Content-oriented Noun Definition in Persian Speaking Children With Cochlear Implant in Compare With Their Normal Peers

Developing a Persian test battery of prereading skills for screening Preschool-aged children.

Background: The lack of screening test battery has made it difficult for early identification and intervention of Persian-speaking children with risk of reading problems prior to formal education. The purpose of this study was to develop and introduce a Persian prereading test battery based on the multidimensional reading perspective for screening preschool children. Methods: First, the predicators of reading skill and dyslexia along with the subscales of each predictor were identified through literature review and holding expert’s panel. The batteries of tests were performed on 48 typically-developing children (5.6–6.6 years old) selected using the random (cluster) method. The Pearson correlation coefficient, item analysis and then reliability were measured. Results: The 5-component test battery with 8 subtests was formed. Findings indicated there were moderate and significant correlations between subtests (all r>0.4, p<0.001). Internal consistency reliability for the subscales was 0.51 to 0.89. Conclusion: The Persian test battery of prereading skills including phonological awareness, identification of first and closing phonemes, visual discrimination skill, rapid automatic naming and phonological working memory may identify children who are at risk. A longitudinal study is warranted to evaluate its detailed psychometric properties.

Speech characteristics of childhood apraxia of speech: A survey research

PurposeThere has not been any valid method for the clinical diagnosis of Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) up to now, and the golden standard for diagnosis is the expert's opinion. The current research was conducted to obtain criteria used by the Iranian Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) to establish speech characteristics and co-occurring problems of CAS based on their knowledge and clinical experience. MethodsThis research used a questionnaire-based survey design for data collection. The questionnaire was filled out by 260 anonymous participants, both physically and online. ResultsThe nine top speech characteristics reported with 75.6% agreement as the core symptoms of CAS included: inconsistency (86.9%), consonant sequencing problems (75%), low intelligibility (75%), groping (72.7%), slow diadochokinetic (DDK) (72.3%), articulatory configuration problems (66.2%), difficulty with multisyllabic words (62.7%), suprasegmental disturbances (56.2%) and metathesis (53.5%). The consent of the Iranian practicing SLPs was consistent with the American Speech–Language–Hearing Association (ASHA) diagnostic criteria, Strand's 10-point checklist, and Ozanne's cluster model. More than half of the respondents have been identified with fine motor deficit and language impairment as the most common co-occurring problems of CAS. ConclusionsThe results of this study are in accordance with the findings of previous practicing SLPs' surveys in different languages. Carrying out researches on the speech characteristics of Persian-speaking children suspected of CAS and compare with the results of clinicians’ surveys will help us to find a reliable standard for differential diagnosis of Persian-speaking children in Iran.

Assessment of Speech Sound Production by Story-retelling in Persian Speaking Children: Introducing a New Instrument.

Background: Speech and language pathologists should include connected speech assessment as part of their evaluation for children with speech sound disorders. The purpose of the present study was to design and validate an instrument for assessment of articulation by story-retelling for Persian children. Methods:261 typically developing children, aged 4-5 years old in Iran, Tehran, in 2016-2017, were recruited in the current study. First, two stories were designed. Next, the expert panel reviewed those two stories and selected one story for assessment. The strengths of the test for discriminating between the two age groups (48-54 months and 55-60 months) and between boys and girls were investigated for construct validity. Test-retest was performed for 15 children. Also, inter-rater reliability was evaluated via calculating the correlation between the two examiners’ scores. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 24, was used for statistical analysis. The significance level was set at (P<0.05). Results:There was 80% or more agreement in experts’ response to questions regarding content validity. All of the reliability values were higher than 0.85. No significant difference was observed between boys and girls (P=0.77), but there was a significant difference between the two age groups (P<0.001). There was a significant correlation between this test and phonetic test of the Persian version of diagnostic articulation and phonology (r=0.62, P=0.002). Conclusion:The Persian story for the assessment of speech sound production is a reliable and valid instrument that can be used to evaluate the articulation of Persian children.

Validity and reliability of the Persian ABILHAND-Kids in a sample of Iranian children with cerebral palsy

Aim: To develop a Persian version of ABILHAND-Kids and to determine its reliability and validity in Persian-speaking children with cerebral palsy (CP).Method: The ABILHAND-Kids questionnaire was translated into Persian language and cross-culturally adapted following guidelines. The Persian ABILHAND-Kids was administered to 50 parents of CP children. Among the 50 parents of CP children, 30 of them participated in a test–retest reliability phase. Fifty parents of healthy children participated for discriminative validity.Results: The Rasch analysis indicated the unidimensionality, reliability, and global invariance of the Persian ABILHAND-Kids. The internal consistency reliability was high (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.96). Floor and ceiling effects were insignificant (4%). The Intraclass Correlation Coefficients of test–retest reliability were 0.96 and 0.70 for item difficulties and children’s measures, respectively. The standard error of measurement and smallest detectable change for CP measure were 11.21 and 31.07%, respectively. The discriminative validity of the Persian ABILHAND-Kids was demonstrated by statistically significant lower ABILHAND-Kids measures in CP children than in healthy children (p < 0.001). Cross-cultural validity between the Persian and original version was established for 19 out of the 21 ABILHAND-Kids items.Interpretation: The Persian ABILHAND-Kids questionnaire is reliable and valid for assessing manual ability in Persian speaking children with CP.Implications for rehabilitationThe Persian version of ABILHAND-Kids is developed and presented as a valid and reliable instrument for use by Persian-speaking clinicians and researchers.It is now possible for the Persian-speaking researchers to participate in international investigations and to compare Persian data with those from other countries.

Preliminary standardization of consonant-vowel in noise test in normal Persian speaking children

Background and Aim: Children have more dif­ficulty in understanding speech in noisy envi­ronment than adults. Different tests are available for evaluation of speech perception ability in noise in children, each examines different levels of auditory system. The present study aimed to obtain normative data for consonant-vowel in noise test for 8–12 years old Persian-speaking children. Methods: A hundred and sixty children were selected in five age range groups of 8 to 12 years old (32 children in each age range) with normal hearing from school students in Tehran. The audiometry test was performed in octave interval between 500–4000 Hz. Then the con­sonant-vowel test was first performed in silence and then in signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of +12, +6, 0, −6, −12, at the listening comfort lev­el and randomly in children ears. Results: There were significant differences bet­ween age range of 8 and 9 years with other age groups in the SNR of −12. There was a signi­ficant difference in all children between the scores of left and right ears in −12, −6, 0 SNRs (p &lt; 0.05). However, there was no specific pattern in each age group. The results showed that with increasing SNR, the scores of rec­ognition of the syllables increased. Sex had no effect on consonant-vowel recognition in the presence of noise. Conclusion: Recognition of the consonant-vowel in high SNR in both ears is stable before age 8, and this stability in the low signal-to-noise ratio is higher at around the age of 10.

Basic and advanced theory of mind in school-aged children with cochlear implants

Background and Aim: Theory of Mind (TOM) refers to the ability for attributing mental states and beliefs to ourselves and others, and understanding that the others’ mental states can be different from ours. However, this ability seems to be delayed in children with the history of hearing impairment. Based on the evidence, there is a mutual association between language development and social experiences. The present study aimed to assess TOM and the effect of speech therapy in 8- to 9-year-old children with cochlear implants (CIs).Methods: The present study was descriptive and cross-sectional in design. A total of 18 Persian-speaking children with CIs and 18 normal children aged 8-9 years participated in the current study. Children with CIs were selected through convenience method from Amir Alam Hospital and normal peers from their play-ground. The participants had no history of sensory, anatomical, neuronal, and speech disorders. The basic and advanced TOM was assessed with Ghamarani TOM test and a comparison was done between normal children and children with CIs. The obtained data were analyzed by SPSS 21.Results: The performance of the two groups with regard to the basic and advanced TOM was significantly different (p&lt;0.001). Moreover, there was a significant positive correlation between the duration of speech therapy and TOM abilities (r=0.46, p=0.041).Conclusion: Hearing impairment affects the ability of TOM in children with CIs. The duration of speech therapy has a positive effect on the development of TOM.

Efficacy of phonemic training program in rehabilitation of Persian-speaking children with auditory processing disorder: a single subject study

Background and Aim: One of the most prevalent problems in auditory processing disorder (APD) is in decoding. This problem is at the phonemic level and can difficulties in spelling, reading, speech processing disorder, responding delay, phonemic identification, memory, and manipulation. One of the training approaches for decoding problems is the phonemic training program. Considering high prevalence of decoding problems and lack of evaluation of the Persian version of the phonemic training program, this study investigated its efficacy in a child with APD.Methods: This is a single-subject interventional study. A child with APD was selected and evaluated with Persian version of Phonemic Synthesis Test and staggered spondee words test at baseline, training, and monitoring phase. Data were analyzed by single-subject study statistics.Results: All results showed absolute efficacy of the training.Conclusion: The phonemic training program was effective in a child with auditory processing disorder.

Single word test for the assessment of speech sound production in Persian speaking children: Development, validity and reliability

ObjectivesSingle word tests are used frequently to determine clients' speech sound errors. These tools are user-friendly and popular for speech and language pathologists. The aim of this study was to design and validate a single word test for the assessment of speech sound production for Persian speaking children. MethodsThe present study included two phases. In phase I, test material was developed. Psychometric properties were evaluated in phase II. In the next phase, 525 typically developing Persian-speaking children with the age range of 3–5 years old were studied. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, version 24.0 (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL) was used for statistical analysis of this study. The significance level was set at (p < 0.05). Pilot study was performed by administrating the test on 25 typically developing children, construct validity: by administrating the test on 400 typically developing children and the comparison of performance of the children in 4 age groups (discriminative validity regarding age and by administration of this test and phonetic subtest of Persian version of diagnostic evaluation of articulation and phonology on 100 children (convergent validity)). Inter-rater reliability was performed by transcription and scoring of samples of 25 children and calculation of Intra Correlation Coefficient (ICC) was calculated. Test-retest was completed by administrating the test two times on 30 children with two weeks intervals. Internal consistency was achieved by the calculation of the correlation of the items of test. ResultsThe final version of the test includes 70 target words for assessment of the consonants in three positions, vowels in medial position and consonant clusters (CVCC). There was 80% or more than it for the percentage agreement between experts for the content validity. There wasn't any significant difference between experts' responses about items of the test. 4 pictures were revised based on children's responses for the pilot study. All of the reliability values (test-re test, internal consistency and inter-rater reliability) were higher than 0.85. There was a significant difference between the four age groups for the mean value of Persian single word test for speech sound production (p < 0.0001). There was a high correlation between the score of this instrument and the scores of participants in the Phonetic sub-test of the Persian version of Diagnostic evaluation of articulation and phonology(r = 0.934, p < 0.0001). ConclusionIt seems that the Persian Speech sound Production Test is a reliable and valid tool that can be used to measure speech sound errors for Persian speaking children.

The Effectiveness of Educational Intervention of Phonological Awareness on the Increase of Phonological Awareness among the Persian-Speaking Students with Cochlear Implant in First Grade of Primary Schools in Ahvaz City, Iran

Introduction : Deaf children have lost part of their language learning course due to the lack of auditory input, and in most cases, they will face with many problems in their language-learning growth. One aspects of the language is phonological awareness that can be seen as an introduction to the development of future reading; moreover, training in phonological awareness is effective on development of decoding skills. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of an educational intervention of phonological awareness, on the increase of phonological awareness among the Persian-speaking students with cochlear implant in first grade of primary schools in Ahvaz City, Iran. Materials and Methods : 28 Persian-speaking children with cochlear implant were randomly assigned to equal groups of experimental and control. The students’ parents signed the formal consent form; then, the phonological awareness skill test was administered in both groups. The experimental group received the phonological awareness training, and the phonological awareness skill test was administered again in both groups. Results : After the intervention, the mean score of phonological awareness skill increased significantly in experimental group (P = 0.001). Moreover, the mean score of each phonological awareness subskill was significantly more increased in the experimental group compared to the control group (P < 0.050 for all). The intervention was most effective on segmentation skill, and least effective on awareness of the rhyme. Conclusion : The results of the study showed that the proposed phonological training program improved phonological awareness skills in children with cochlear implant. Application of this program is recommended.

Speech intelligibility after repair of cleft lip and palate.

Background: Intelligibility refers to understandability of speech; and lack of it can negatively affect children’s overall communication effectiveness. Children with repaired cleft lip and/or cleft palate (CL/P) may experience poor speech intelligibility. This study aimed at evaluating speech intelligibility in children with repaired CL/P who had not been referred to speech-language pathology clinics for early intervention. Methods: Sixty-four monolingual Persian-speaking children, 32 children with repaired CL/P, and 32 controls aged 3 to 5 years participated in this survey. Their speech intelligibility was evaluated through the Persian Speech Intelligibility Test and was normalized on children 3 to 5 years. Each speech sample was heard by a speech and language pathologist (SLP), as well as 2 nonprofessional listeners. Two objective measures of speech intelligibility including Percentage of Consonants Correct (PCC) and Percentage of Intelligible Words (PIW) were used in this research. Results: Children with CL/P were significantly outperformed by their peers in PCC (p= 0.0001) and PIW (p= 0.0001). More than half of the case group had compensatory errors and 40.6% had obligatory errors. The PCC and the PIW were statistically different in children with different rates of hyper nasality (p= 0.001). Conclusion: Speech intelligibility of children with CL/P is impaired due to their articulation disorders (obligatory and compensatory errors). This survey documents the necessity for speech therapy for increasing speech intelligibility in this population.

Identification of High-Frequency Morphosyntactic Structures in Persian-Speaking Children Aged 4-6 Years: A Qualitative Research

Syntax has a high importance among linguistic parameters and the prevalence of syntax deficits is relatively high in children with language disorders. As such, independent examination of syntax in language development is of paramount importance. In this regard, Iranian language pathologists are faced with the lack of standardized tests. The present study aimed to determine the most frequent and essential morphosyntactic structures of the Persian-speaking children aged 4-6 years, as an initial step in the design of a test to assess their expressive morphosyntactic features. The present descriptive qualitative study was designed and conducted in two phases in Tehran (Iran) during 2014-2015. The first phase involved an extensive review of the Persian grammar sources, language development texts, modeling a test called SPELT-3, and morphosyntactic analysis of samples of spontaneous speech from 30 Persian-speaking children aged 4-6 years. In this phase, 30 structures were extracted as the most frequent morphosyntactic features used by children aged 4-6 years. The second phase of the research involved directed content analysis via in-depth and semi-structured interviews with 10 specialists in the fields of linguistics, language, and speech pathology. In total, 30 morphosyntactic structures were extracted in the first phase of the study as the most frequent morphosyntactic structures of the Persian-speaking children aged 4-6 years. The overall validity of these structures was estimated at 70%. Based on the results, the selected morphosyntactic structures could be the foundation for morphosyntactic assessments in Persian-speaking children aged 4-6 years.

Working memory span in Persian-speaking children with speech sound disorders and normal speech development

ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to compare working memory span in Persian-speaking preschool children with speech sound disorder (SSD) and their typically speaking peers. Additionally, the study aimed to examine Non-Word Repetition (NWR), Forward Digit Span (FDS) and Backward Digit Span (BDS) in four groups of children with varying severity levels of SSD. MethodsThe participants in this study comprised 35 children with SSD and 35 typically developing (TD) children -matched for age and sex-as a control group. The participants were between the age range of 48 and 72 months. Two components of working memory including phonological loop and central executive were compared between two groups. We used two tasks (NWR and FDS) to assess phonological loop component, and one task (BDS) to assess central executive component. Percentage of correct consonants (PCC) was used to calculate the severity of SSD. ResultsSignificant differences were observed between the two groups in all tasks that assess working memory (p < 0.001). In addition, the comparison of the phonological loop of working memory between the various severity groups indicated significant differences between different severities of both NWR and FDS tasks among the SSD children (p < 0.001). Nevertheless, comparison of the central executive between various severity groups, which was assessed with the BDS task, did not show any significant differences (p > 0.05). The result showed that PCC scores in TD children were associated with NWR (p < 0.001), FDS (p = 0.001), and BDS (p < 0.001). Furthermore, PCC scores in SSD children were associated with NWR and FDS (p < 0.001), but not with BDS (p > 0.05). ConclusionThe working memory skills were weaker in SSD children, in comparison to TD children. In addition, children with varying levels of severity of SSD differed in terms of NWR and FSD, but not BDS.

Word Order Acquisition in Persian Speaking Children

Word Order Acquisition in Persian Speaking Children

Evaluation of Formant Frequencies in Persian Speaking Children with Different Degrees of Hearing Loss

Background: This study compared formant frequencies in vowel productionamongchildren with different degrees of hearing loss (HL) and normal hearing. Methods: This study was carried out on 40 children with different degrees of HL (moderate, moderate to severe, severe, and profound). Forty age (7 to 9 years old) and gender (22 males and 18 females) matched children with normal hearing were included. After collecting acoustic data during vowel production (/a/i/,/u/) for 3 seconds, the mean of the F1 and F2 were selected using the Praat software. The data were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Dunnett’s Post Hoc test. Results: Several differences in formant frequencies were confirmed with ANOVA tests. The results from Dunnett’s post hoc test showed that the F2 value of /a/ and /i/ in the control group were significantly different from all groups with HL (P < 0.05). However, the F1’s of the control group in all 3 vowels were significantly different only from the profound group. Conclusions: There was little distinction between vowels of HL children, and their vowel space had become centralized presumably due to limited auditory feedback, relative invisibility of the articulatory gestures needed for vowel production, and similar tongue position for all vowels. The second formant tended to be affected more than the first formant because less audibility and the difficulty of its learning through vision.

The Relationship between Premature Birth and the Size of Expressive Lexicon in18-36-month-old Children

Introduction: The acquisition of speech and language constitutes a dynamic part of two-year-old children’s growth. Expressive lexicon is a key indicator of language ability in these children. Premature birth, birth before gestational week 37, is one of the most common risk factors associated with learning skill development. A review of literature suggests inconsistent results on the relationship between preterm birth and the size of expressive lexicon in children. Objective: The present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between preterm birth and the size of expressive Lexicon in 18-36-month-old Persian-speaking children. Materials and Methods: The present controlled analytical cross-sectional study recruited 18-36-month-old children presenting to 17 Shahrivar Hospital in Rasht, Iran. The study children were divided into the term and preterm groups. Before beginning the sampling, the children were assigned to three age groups of 13 each, including 18-24 months, 24-30 months and 30-36 months. The data collection tools comprised the 688-itemMacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI, form II), which was completed by the parents. Moreover, all the words were divided into four groups of social terms, common nouns, grammatical words and predicates, and the scores obtained for each category were compared among the groups. The data obtained were assessed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation, and analytical t-test. P<0.05 was set as the level of statistical significance. Results: The overall mean size of expressive lexicon was found to be 352.48 ± 177.11in the term children and 240.28 ± 135.93 in preterm ones, suggesting significant differences between the two groups (P=0.002). Significant differences were also observed between the term and preterm 18-36-month-old children in terms of common nouns as a dimension of the tool (P=0.01). Conclusion: Parents seem to play a key role in reducing preterm-birth associated lexicon differences at higher age by teaching their children.

Speech Intelligibility in Persian Hearing Impaired Children with Cochlear Implants and Hearing Aids.

The aim of present study is to evaluate and compare speech intelligibility in hearing impaired children with cochlear implants (CI) and hearing aid (HA) users and children with normal hearing (NH). The sample consisted of 45 Persian-speaking children aged 3 to 5-years-old. They were divided into three groups, and each group had 15, children, children with CI and children using hearing aids in Hamadan. Participants was evaluated by the test of speech intelligibility level. Results of ANOVA on speech intelligibility test showed that NH children had significantly better reading performance than hearing impaired children with CI and HA. Post-hoc analysis, using Scheffe test, indicated that the mean score of speech intelligibility of normal children was higher than the HA and CI groups; but the difference was not significant between mean of speech intelligibility in children with hearing loss that use cochlear implant and those using HA. It is clear that even with remarkabkle advances in HA technology, many hearing impaired children continue to find speech production a challenging problem. Given that speech intelligibility is a key element in proper communication and social interaction, consequently, educational and rehabilitation programs are essential to improve speech intelligibility of children with hearing loss.

An Investigation of Language Impairment in Persian-Speaking Autistic Children

Abnormalities of language and other forms of communication are among the significant characteristics of autistic children. The goal of the present research is to investigate and compare linguistic properties of Persian-speaking autistic children with their normal counterparts. To this aim, 10 autistic children with age 3-6 years were compared with 10 typically developing children matched on non-verbal IQ and gender. In a 30 minutes free-play session, the speech of each child was recorded and then was analyzed for the phonetic, phonological and morpho-syntactic properties. The findings of the present research showed that there was a statistically significant difference between autistic and normal children in consonant deletion, consonant substitution, the use of stress on inappropriate syllable, atypical intonation, incorrect use of grammatical tense, incorrect use of preposition, inappropriate use of plural nouns and the use of complex sentences (p&lt;0/05), While their differences were not statistically significant in sound epenthesis, metathesis, subject-verb agreement, having difficulty with making the verbs negative, and using demonstratives (p&gt;0/05). The results of this research showed that autistic children in compare to normal ones have more problems in phonetic, phonological, morphological and syntactic features of speech. Therefore, appropriate treatment programs are required to tackle these problems.

Story retelling skills in Persian speaking hearing-impaired children

ObjectivesSince the pragmatic skills of hearing-impaired Persian-speaking children have not yet been investigated particularly through story retelling, this study aimed to evaluate some pragmatic abilities of normal-hearing and hearing-impaired children using a story retelling test. Methods15 normal-hearing and 15 profound hearing-impaired 7-year-old children were evaluated using the story retelling test with the content validity of 89%, construct validity of 85%, and reliability of 83%. Three macro structure criteria including topic maintenance, event sequencing, explicitness, and four macro structure criteria including referencing, conjunctive cohesion, syntax complexity, and utterance length were assessed. The test was performed with live voice in a quiet room where children were then asked to retell the story. The tasks of the children were recorded on a tape, transcribed, scored and analyzed. ResultsIn the macro structure criteria, utterances of hearing-impaired students were less consistent, enough information was not given to listeners to have a full understanding of the subject, and the story events were less frequently expressed in a rational order than those of normal-hearing group (P < 0.0001). Regarding the macro structure criteria of the test, unlike the normal-hearing students who obtained high scores, hearing-impaired students failed to gain any scores on the items of this section. ConclusionsThese results suggest that Hearing-impaired children were not able to use language as effectively as their hearing peers, and they utilized quite different pragmatic functions.

Meaningful Words and Non-Words Repetitive Articulatory Rate (Oral Diadochokinesis) in Persian Speaking Children

Repetitive articulatory rate or Oral Diadochokinesis (oral-DDK) shows a guideline for appraisal and diagnosis of subjects with oral-motor disorder. Traditionally, meaningless words repetition has been utilized in this task and preschool children have challenges with them. Therefore, we aimed to determine some meaningful words in order to test oral-DDK in Persian speaking preschool children. Participants were 142 normally developing children, (age range 4–6 years), who were asked to produce /motæka, golabi/ as two meaningful Persian words and /pa-ta-ka/ as non-word in conventional oral-DDK task. We compared the time taken for 10-times fast repetitions of two meaningful Persian words and the tri-syllabic nonsense word /pa-ta-ka/. Praat software was used to calculate the average time that subjects took to produce the target items. In 4–5 year old children, hbox {mean}pm hbox {SD} of time taken for 10-times repetitions of /pa-ta-ka, motæka, golabi/ were 7.72pm 1.02, 6.58pm 1.68, and 6.65pm 1.13 seconds respectively, and in 5–6 year old children were 7.57pm 0.95, 6.35pm 1.38, and 6.30pm 1.01 seconds respectively. Findings showed that the main effect of type of words on oral diadochokinesis was significant ({p},{<},0.001). Children repeated meaningful words /motæka, golabi/ faster than the non-word /pa-ta-ka/. Sex and age factors had no effect on time taken for repetition of oral-DDK test. It is suggested that Speech Therapists can use meaningful words to facilitate oral-DDK test for children.