Impaired naming difficulty is common in normal elderly as well as in patients with neurological impairment. The 60-item Korean version-Boston Naming Test(K-BNT) is one of the most commonly used test for measuring confrontational naming ability. However, age-related cognitive decline may make the elderly difficult concentrating during the 60-item test, therefore, item reduction of the K-BNT would improve test validity and reliability. Thus, the purpose of this study was to develop a short form of the K-BNT based on Item Response Theory(IRT). Considering item-fit index, sex factor, and item difficulty through Rasch analysis, the 15-item K-BNT(i.e., K-BNT-15) was developed. Via administration of the K-BNT-15, we observed age-related decline in naming ability and significantly different performance between the normal elderly and patients with mild cognitive impairment. This study demonstrates the utility of IRT for developing a short-form language evaluation tool. The K-BNT-15 can be effective as a language screening tool to differentiate between normal aging and pathological diseases.
Traumatic brain injury(TBI) is a brain damage caused by an external physical force. TBI patients have disturbances of functioning including attention, memory, reasoning,, executive function, and pragmatic language. The aim of this study was to develop the cognitive-pragmatic language ability assessment protocol for traumatic brain injury(CAPTBI) and to evaluate reliability and validity. This study was also conducted to investigate domains that contributed to differentiate between the normal and TBI groups. The CAPTBI data were obtained from 226 normal adults and 62 TBI patients (mean age=43.95±11.92, 46.37±11.87, M:F=110:116, 48:14). The CAPTBI had high item internal consistency, test-retest reliability, construct validity, and concurrent validity. The normal group performed significantly better than the TBI group in all domains of the CAPTBI and the separate scores for 9 domains. All 9 domains were found to be significant variables to discriminate between the two groups. The most powerful variable was executive function followed by memory, organization, pragmatic language, problem-solving, attention, orientation, reasoning, and visuoperception in order. The CAPTBI could discriminate between the two groups accurately by 95.5%. This result demonstrated that 97.3% of normal adults and 88.7% of TBI patients could be discriminated by CAPTBI. In conclusion, The CAPTBI is appropriate for evaluating and identifying cognitive-pragmatic language disorders in TBI patients.
Objectives: Since 1988, when the Department of Speech-Language Pathology was first established at a university, a large number of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have been trained. As of March 2018, there are 87 programs in 50 schools offering associate's degree, bachelor's degree, and/or master's/doctoral degree. In order to support the continued growth of the SLP programs, we believe it is necessary to assess the present operation status of all SLP programs. In this study, therefore, we surveyed the current curriculum of each program, and tried to lay out future direction that the SLP programs need to pursue. Methods: We sent out the questionnaires twice to all the programs. The questionnaires included the following: information about the program (e.g., number of faculty members), the status of the existing curriculum during the period of 2015-2017 academic years, and the curriculum improvement proposals from the program faculty members. After excluding the schools that did not respond or filled the questionnaire incorrectly, the contents of the first and second questionnaires were analyzed on 43 programs and 33 programs, respectively. Results: The questionnaire responses revealed that there were relatively larger number of curriculum subjects in associate's degree programs than bachelor's degree programs because the associate's degree programs tended offer other certification courses in conjunction with the SLP program. It was also found that some SLP programs limited number of students in a class to offer better student support and offered different sets of electives and mandatory courses. In the analysis of the curriculum improvement proposals, it was found that the most common keywords included 'school age' , 'elderly/aging' , 'augmentative and alternative communication' , and 'IT (information technology)' . Conclusion: In this study, we provide the picture of the current SLP programs in Korea. The results of this study could be used as the basis for the SLP programs' continued improvement in the future.
Aging is related to anatomical and physiological changes in respiratory and phonation organs. These changes influence articulation which leads to inaccurate speech and slow articulatory diadochokinesis(DDK). DDK indicates the range, rate, regularity, accuracy, and agility of articulation that reflect motor speech function. The purpose of this study is to investigate the rates and regularities of DDK in healthy Korean elderly through passive acoustic analysis (Praat). Thirty subjects between the ages of 65 and 94 participated in this study. Rate was observed for 5 seconds, while regularity was calculated based on the standard deviation on the following: 1) syllable duration of each task; 2) gap duration between syllables. Then, simple regression analysis was conducted in order to examine the effect of age on performance. The result showed that the slow rate was not a significant factor in terms of advancing age. Furthermore, regularity indicated a significant difference in the following: 1) /pʌ/, /kʌ/ and /pʌtʌkʌ/ in syllable duration; 2) /kʌ/ duration in the gap between syllables. In conclusion, articulatory coordination is reduced with the onset of aging. In particular, /kʌ/ would be a sensitive task for articulatory coordination.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.