Factors Affecting Performance on a Screening Tool in Persons with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Persons with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (PALS) are at risk of developing cognitive impairments and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). This study examined the relationship between performance of the ALS-Cognitive Behavioral Screen (ALS-CBS) and the demographic parameters of sex, education, time post-ALS diagnosis, and severity of symptoms. Data were collected retrospectively from 69 participants seen at the Mayo Clinic. Correlations were conducted on the ALS-CBS total scores and subsection scores and the above listed parameters; t-tests were conducted between participant subgroups. No statistically significant relationships or differences occurred between the ALS-CBS or its subsections and the variables measured with exception of age and the attention subsection. Older participants had lower ALS-CBS attention subsection scores. Based on the ALS-CBS scores, most participants had some degree of cognitive impairments: 43 had suspected cognitive impairment, 8 had suspected FTD; 18 fell within the normal range of cognitive function. Overall, the variables of sex, education, time post-diagnosis, and severity of symptoms do not appear to influence ALS-CBS scores. It is recommended cognitive screenings be completed for all PALS due to the high risk for developing cognitive impairments and FTD. Such knowledge can help clinicians develop assessment and treatment plans.

Effectiveness of Intense Accent Modification Training With Refugees From Burma.

PURPOSE: This pilot research project sought to determine if an intensive accent modification training program that included See the Sound-Visual Phonics and prosodic gestures improved articulation, prosody, and intelligibility measures in refugees from Burma. PARTICIPANTS: Four individuals (two men, two women) aged 20-67 participated in this study, and they were recruited from a state organization supporting refugees who have resettled in the United States. METHOD: All participants completed the Proficiency in Oral English Communication (POEC) and Assessment of Intelligibility of Dysarthric Speech (AIDS) to measure pre- and posttraining changes. The duration of this study was 6 weeks and consisted of 1 week of pretesting, 4 weeks of accent modification training, and 1 week of posttesting. Participants attended a total of twelve 50-min accent modification training sessions, including eight individual sessions (twice per week) and four group sessions (once per week), which provided a functional way to practice newly acquired skills in a scripted conversational-type format. Trained and untrained articulation and prosody probes were used to establish baselines and measure change. RESULTS: All four participants showed gains across articulation and prosody (in untrained and trained items). On pre- and posttest measures, three of the four participants also made gains on the broad measures of the AIDS and the POEC. CONCLUSION: Findings support that a brief and intensive multimodality accent modification program can be beneficial.

A pilot study of performance in young and middle-aged adults on verbal recall.

The objective was to explore whether middle-aged adults (M age = 48.9 yr.; n = 26) differed on verbal recall from young adults (M age = 26.3 yr.; n = 26). Little data exist on the performance of middle-aged, healthy adults. Groups of young and middle-aged adults recalled words from the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test across six trials during a single session. The same 15 words were used for recall in Trials 1-5. Prior to the sixth trial, 15 distractor words were presented. Participants then recalled the original set of 15 words. No significant differences occurred on any of the recall trials. Although the power of this study was low, the effect of age is apparently quite small.

Influence of age and native language on immediate verbal repetition.

Objectives of this quasi-experimental study were to assess whether age of listeners and native language of the speaker affected the accurate repetition of words, sentences, and utterances, including medical vocabulary. Two experiments were conducted. In Exp. 1, 20 young adults and 20 older adults repeated 60 words and 30 sentences produced by native and nonnative English speakers. In Exp. 2, 30 young adults and 30 older adults repeated medically oriented utterances spoken by native and nonnative English speakers. Analysis showed that older adults had significantly lower repetition scores (accuracy) than the young adults on all tasks. Both groups had significantly higher repetition scores on items produced by native English speakers than nonnative English speakers. Investigations should focus on strategies which may aid native English speakers in understanding non-native English speakers.

Aphasia and accent in identifying medical sentences.

The objective of this quasi-experimental pilot study was to assess the effect that the presence of aphasia in participants and the presence of an accent in speakers had on the accurate identification of 30 medical sentences. 20 participants, 10 with aphasia and 10 age- and sex-matched adults without aphasia, pointed to printed medical sentences matching utterances produced in English by native and nonnative English speakers. Analysis showed participants with aphasia had significantly lower identification scores than participants without aphasia. Across speakers' languages, scores for sentences produced by the native English speaker were significantly higher than scores for the nonnative English speakers. No interaction effects occurred. Investigations should continue to explore the effect of acquired language disorders on the understanding of accented speech.

South Asian Adults' Performance on Executive Function Tests.

PURPOSE: This study compared the performance of South Asian and White adults on the Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome (BADS; Wilson, Alderman, Burgess, Emslie, & Evans, 1996) and the Functional Assessment of Verbal Reasoning and Executive Strategies (FAVRES; MacDonald, 2005), tests that can be used by speech-language pathologists to assess executive function (EF). METHOD: Twenty South Asian and 20 White participants were administered the BADS and FAVRES. Raw scores were converted to profile scores on the BADS and to standard scores on the FAVRES. Analysis of covariance statistics were calculated to compare EF test performance. RESULTS: South Asian and White participants did not demonstrate significant performance differences on the BADS. On the FAVRES, Whites had significantly higher accuracy scores on 2 of the 4 subtests and significantly higher rationale scores on 3 subtests. South Asian adults who completed all of their formal education in India had lower accuracy and rationale scores on 2 of the 4 subtests versus South Asian adults who completed at least some of their formal education in North America. No significant differences occurred on the Time scores for any subtest or on the overall Reasoning score. CONCLUSIONS: Performance differences on EF tests may exist between South Asian and White adults. Further research is necessary to determine the impact of cultural and linguistic differences on EF test performance in South Asian adults.

Familiarity and older adults' transcriptions of native and nonnative speech.

24 adults ages 60+ yr. transcribed 60 words and 30 sentences spoken by native speakers of English, Taiwanese, and Spanish to assess whether familiarity with the nonnative English speakers' accents improved transcription scores. The accuracy of listeners' transcription scores on the first half of the stimulus items was compared with accuracy of listeners' scores on the second half. Analysis indicated accuracy of transcriptions declined on words but improved for sentences, so familiarity and length of the stimuli may influence listeners' accurate transcribing of accented speech.

Age and understanding speakers with Spanish or Taiwanese accents.

This pilot study concerned the intelligibility of accented speech for listeners of different ages. 72 native speakers of English, representing three age groups (20-39, 40-59, 60 and older) listened to words and sentences produced by native speakers of English, Taiwanese, and Spanish. Listeners transcribed words and sentences. Listeners also rated speakers' comprehensibility, i.e., listeners' perceptions of difficulty in understanding utterances, and accentedness, i.e., how strong a speaker's foreign accent is perceived to be. On intelligibility measures, older adults had significantly greater difficulty in understanding individuals with accented speech than the other two age groups. Listeners, regardless of age, were more likely to provide correct responses if they perceived the speaker easier to understand. Ratings of comprehensibility were highly correlated with ratings of accentedness.

Dementia and identification of words and sentences produced by native and nonnative English speakers.

The accurate identification of 30 words and 15 sentences spoken by native English, Taiwanese, and Spanish speakers was compared for 16 persons with and 16 persons without dementia. Statistically significant differences for words and sentences occurred between groups of listeners.