This study investigated three questions: Is it realistic to expect age-appropriate spoken language skills in children with cochlear implants (CIs) who received auditory-oral intervention during the preschool years? What characteristics predict successful spoken language development in this population? Are children with CIs more proficient in some areas of language than others? We analyzed language skills of 153 children with CIs as measured by standardized tests. These children (mean age 5 5 years and 10 months) attended programs in the United States (N 5 39) that used an auditory-oral educational approach. Age-appropriate scores were observed in 50% of the children on measures of receptive vocabulary, 58% on expressive vocabulary, 46% on verbal intelligence, 47% on receptive language, and 39% on expressive language. Regression analysis indicated that, after controlling for the effects of nonverbal intelligence and parent education level, children who received their implants at young ages had higher scores on all language tests than children who were older at implantation. On average, children with CIs performed better on certain language measures than others, indicating that some areas of language may be more difficult for these children to master than others. Implications for educators of deaf children with CIs are discussed.

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Growth curves indicate that children who are implanted by the age of 2 yr can achieve receptive vocabulary skills within the average range for hearing children.

Abnormal gait caused by stroke or other pathological reasons can greatly impact the life of an individual. Being able to measure and analyze that gait is often critical for rehabilitation. Motion analysis labs and many current methods of gait analysis are expensive and inaccessible to most individuals. The low-cost, wearable, and wireless insole-based gait analysis system in this study provides kinetic measurements of gait by using low-cost force sensitive resistors. This paper describes the design and fabrication of the insole and its evaluation in six control subjects and four hemiplegic stroke subjects. Subject-specific linear regression models were used to determine ground reaction force plus moments corresponding to ankle dorsiflexion/plantarflexion, knee flexion/extension, and knee abduction/adduction. Comparison with data simultaneously collected from a clinical motion analysis laboratory demonstrated that the insole results for ground reaction force and ankle moment were highly correlated (all >0.95) for all subjects, while the two knee moments were less strongly correlated (generally >0.80). This provides a means of cost-effective and efficient healthcare delivery of mobile gait analysis that can be used anywhere from large clinics to an individual's home.

A new low-cost system for rehabilitation of the impaired upper limb for stroke survivors is presented. A computer game was developed specifically for this purpose and the user's impaired upper extremity is tracked using a downward-pointed Kinect, an inexpensive motion capture system commercially available from Microsoft. A Kalman filter was implemented to reduce data jittering. Patients are required to move their impaired arm, sliding it on top of a transparent support, in order to play the game. The game is personalized to the patient through specific settings that adapt to the patient's range of motion and motor control at the start of the game as well as performance during the game. The final score is proportional to the arm's movement speed. A feasibility study was carried out with one stroke survivor. The game was played for ten days and usability surveys were answered before and after the study. The patient was engaged with the game, found it easy to understand and reported willingness to use it in the home environment and enjoyment of the use in the clinic.

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Contrary to results in other populations, the addition of eccentric training to standard exercises did not result in significantly greater lower extremity strength gains in this group of individuals with MS. Further this training was not as effective as standard exercise alone in improving balance or the ability to ascend and descend stairs. Following data collection, reassessment of required sample size indicates we were likely underpowered to detect strength differences between groups.

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