Speech and language therapy for aphasia following subacute stroke

The aim of this study was to investigate the time window, duration and intensity of optimal speech and language therapy applied to aphasic patients with subacute stroke in our hospital. The study consisted of 33 patients being hospitalized for stroke rehabilitation in our hospital with first stroke but without previous history of speech and language therapy. Sixteen sessions of impairment-based speech and language therapy were applied to the patients, 30-60 minutes per day, 2 days a week, for 8 successive weeks. Aphasia assess- ment in stroke patients was performed with Giilhane Aphasia Test-2 before and after treatment. Compared with before treatment, fluency of speech, listening comprehension, reading comprehension, oral motor evaluation, automatic speech, repetition and naming were improved after treatment. This suggests that 16 seesions of speech and language therapy, 30-60 minutes per day, 2 days a week, for 8 successive weeks, are effective in the treatment of aphasic patients with subacute stroke.

A Rule Based System for Speech Language Context Understanding

Speech or Natural language contents are major tools of communication. This research paper presents a natural language processing based automated system for understanding speech language text. A new rule based model has been presented for analyzing the natural languages and extracting the relative meanings from the given text. User writes the natural language text in simple English in a few paragraphs and the designed system has a sound ability of analyzing the given script by the user. After composite analysis and extraction of associated information, the designed system gives particular meanings to an assortment of speech language text on the basis of its context. The designed system uses standard speech language rules that are clearly defined for all speech languages as English, Urdu, Chinese, Arabic, French, etc. The designed system provides a quick and reliable way to comprehend speech language context and generate respective meanings.

Efficacy of acupuncture as an adjuvant to speech and language therapy for aphasia after ischemic stroke:a protocol of systematic review and meta-analysis

Background:Aphasia is one of the common complications of stroke.Speech and language therapy is a conventional treatment for aphasia following stroke.However,rehabilitation often remains unsatisfactory after speech and language therapy alone.Acupuncture may be effective for aphasia after stroke.We designed this systematic review to assess the efficacy and safety of acupuncture as an adjunct to speech and language therapy for aphasia following ischemic stroke.Methods:An extensive search will be performed in databases including Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials,PubMed,Web of Science,EMBASE,China National Knowledge Infrastructure,Sinomed,Wei Pu Date and Wan Fang Data.No limitation will be set in language,publication date or status of the study.The primary outcomes include scores of Western Aphasia Battery and Aphasia Quotient.The secondary outcomes include Scales of Clinical Rehabilitation Research Center Aphasia Examination,Communicative Abilities in Daily Living,Aphasia Battery of Chinese,Chinese Functional Communication Profile,adverse reactions,etc.Results:All of the data will be processed with Review Manager software.Cochrane‘risk of bias’tool will be used to assess the risk of bias.Conclusion:This study will contribute to the selection of appropriate therapies for aphasia after ischemic stroke and the development of clinical guidelines on this topic.

Syntax Development in Language Education of Children Who Are Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing by Usage of Modem Technology

The aim of the study was to determine the development of syntax in language development of children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, who are taught to new dynamic linguistic features with the help of computers. The sample consisted of 70 children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, aged 7-17 years. To assess language development were applied following variables： total number of words used, the total number of different words used, the correct and incorrect statements （sentences） of the respondents. We calculated the basic statistical parameters on which it was found that the experimental program computer teaching children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing gave better results in the development of syntax. Also, canonical discriminate analysis revealed a statistically significant difference in the applied variables between the control and experimental groups the level of statistical significance ofp = 0.000. The results showed a significant improvement of the experimental group and that dynamic computer programming activities, which were challenged participants of the experimental group, contribute to a better linguistic competence of children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

Traditional and Computer-Based Evaluation of Preschoolers＇ Oral Language in Greek A Review of the Literature

The purpose of this study is to examine and present the procedures and the tools that are described in the literature for observing preschool children＇s communication competence. Informal and formal standardised testing activities are included and a distinction is made on traditional and computer-based screening and diagnosis. The results of study illustrate the current trends of the literature and discuss the possibility of the computer-based screening and diagnosis to partially make up for the expert-personnel shortage

SATB2-associated syndrome caused by a novel SATB2 mutation in a Chinese boy:A case report and literature review

BACKGROUND Special AT-rich sequence binding protein 2(SATB2)-associated syndrome(SAS;OMIM 612313)is an autosomal dominant disorder.Alterations in the SATB2 gene have been identified as causative.CASE SUMMARY We report a case of a 13-year-old Chinese boy with lifelong global developmental delay,speech and language delay,and intellectual disabilities.He had short stature and irregular dentition,but no other abnormal clinical findings.A de novo heterozygous nonsense point mutation was detected by genetic analysis in exon 6 of SATB2,c.687C>A(p.Y229X)(NCBI reference sequence:NM_001172509.2),and neither of his parents had the mutation.This mutation is the first reported and was evaluated as pathogenic according to the guidelines from the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics.SAS was diagnosed,and special education performed.Our report of a SAS case in China caused by a SATB2 mutation expanded the genotype options for the disease.The heterogeneous manifestations can be induced by complicated pathogenic involvements and functions of SATB2 from reviewed literatures:(1)SATB2 haploinsufficiency;(2)the interference of truncated SATB2 protein to wild-type SATB2;and(3)different numerous genes regulated by SATB2 in brain and skeletal development in different developmental stages.CONCLUSION Global developmental delays are usually the initial presentations,and the diagnosis was challenging before other presentations occurred.Regular follow-up and genetic analysis can help to diagnose SAS early.Verification for genes affected by SATB2 mutations for heterogeneous manifestations may help to clarify the possible pathogenesis of SAS in the future.

Clinical observation of scalp acupuncture plus speech rehabilitation for Broca's aphasia after cerebral stroke

Objective：To explore the clinical efficacy of scalp acupuncture plus speech rehabilitation in treating Broca＆#39;s aphasia after cerebral stroke, for providing novel evidences for the treatment. Methods：Ninety-one eligible patients with Broca＆#39;s aphasia after cerebral stroke were randomized into an observation group and a control group. Forty-six cases in the observation group were intervened by scalp acupuncture plus speech rehabilitation, while 45 cases in the control group were treated by speech rehabilitation alone. The aphasia battery of Chinese （ABC） and Boston diagnostic aphasia examination （BDAE） were adopted to evaluate the clinical efficacy. Results：After the treatment, the scores of oral expression, reading and writing and global score in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group （allP〈0.05）. There was a significant difference in comparing the BDAE grading between the two groups after the treatment （P〈0.05）. After intervention, the basically-recovered plus markedly-effective rate was 45.7% in the observation group versus 24.4% in the control group, and the between-group difference was statistically significant （P〈0.05）. Conclusion：Scalp acupuncture plus speech rehabilitation is effective in treating Broca＆#39;s aphasia after cerebral stroke, and worth promoting.

A Unified Framework for Multilingual Text-to-Speech Synthesis with SSML Specification as Interface

This paper describes the design of a unified framework for a multilingual text-to-speech （TTS） synthesis engine - Crystal. The unified framework defines the common TTS modules for different languages and/or dialects. The interfaces between consecutive modules conform to the speech synthesis markup language （SSML） specification for standardization, interoperability, multilinguality, and extensibility. Detailed module divisions and implementation technologies for the unified framework are introduced, together with possible extensions for the algorithm research and evaluation of the TTS synthesis. Implementation of a mixed-language TTS system for Chinese Putonghua, Chinese Cantonese, and English demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed unified framework.