Effect of foot reflexology on an infant with sensorineural hearing loss:A case report

BACKGROUND Our study contributes to the further understanding of the mechanism of foot reflexology.Foot reflexology has been reported to affect hearing recovery,but no physiological evidence has been provided.This lack of evidence hampers the acceptance of the technique in clinical practice.CASE SUMMARY A girl was taken to North Sichuan Medical University Affiliated Hospital for a hearing screen by her parents.Her parents reported that her hearing level was the same as when she was born.The girl was diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss(SNHL)by a doctor in the otolaryngology department.After we introduced the foot reflexology project,the parents agreed to participate in the experiment.After 6 months of foot reflexology treatment,the hearing threshold of the girl recovered to a normal level,below 30 dB.CONCLUSION Foot reflexology should be encouraged in clinical practice and for families of infants with SNHL.

The Sociology of Language——the Origin of Chinese

Languages come from lives of people and characters are the conventional text symbol system in society.There are thou⁃sands of languages around the world,only less than half of which own the corresponding characters,and Chinese is one of the lan⁃guages that has the corresponding characters.Chinese characters are not only still in use today but also are the oldest and best pre⁃served characters all over the world,which because of the close connection with Han nationality and Han culture.The paper ex⁃plores the origin of Chinese pronunciation,the origin of Chinese writing,the development of Chinese,and the connection between Chinese and Han culture.Also,it is important and significant for people to know how to protect our own languages.

Factors influencing parent satisfaction with preventive health services for the early detection of speech and language delay in preschool children

The aim of this study was to identify parent and child characteristics which could influence parent satisfaction with preventive health services designed to detect preschool children with speech and language (SL) delay. This study was conducted on 101 children aged 18 to 36 months who participated in an organized SL delay early detection program. Validated instruments were used to assess children’s and parents’ characteristics. Satisfaction was evaluated using the client satisfaction questionnaire for the three activities of the program: 1) a public information session about SL development, 2) parent training sessions for parents concerned by their child SL development, and 3) a child’s SL assessment. Multiple logistic regressions were used to identify all independent factors (p < 0.05) associated with satisfaction and to estimate the odds ratios (OR) for satisfaction. Economically disadvantaged parents were less prone to participate in the first two activities of the early detection program. Older parents were more satisfied with the public information session (OR = 1.33 for 1 year increment;p = 0.001). Distressed parents were less satisfied with both the parent training sessions (OR = 0.28;p = 0.009) and the SL assessment (OR = 0.43;p = 0.046). Parents whose child had health problems at birth were less satisfied with the public information session (OR = 0.14, p = 0.03) and the SL assessment (OR = 0.33, p = 0.036). There is a need to better adapt the delivery of preventive services for the early detection of SL delay, especially for disadvantaged and distressed parents and for those whose child had suffered from health problems at birth.

The Situation of the Indigenous African Languages as a Challenge for Philosophy

In view of the increasing demands for the rehabilitation and promotion of indigenous African languages,a philosophical answer to the question of what can and should be done to effectively counteract the continuing marginalization of languages is often required.Despite the relatively successful coexistence of African and European languages,which has produced mixed languages,all measures must be taken to ensure that the native languages of Africa are used in the future as a means of expressing Africa’s identities and worldviews.This chapter tries to show how the philosophy of convergence can contribute to overcome the language dilemma in Africa.

Congenital muscular dystrophy caused by beta1,3-Nacetylgalactosaminyltransferase 2 gene mutation:Two case reports

BACKGROUND Mutations in the beta1,3-N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase 2(B3GALNT2)gene can lead to impaired glycosylation ofα-dystroglycan,which,in turn,causes congenital muscular dystrophy(CMD).The clinical phenotypes of CMD are broad,and there are only a few reports of CMD worldwide.CASE SUMMARY This report describes the cases of two children with CMD caused by B3GALNT2 gene mutation.The main manifestations of the two cases were abnormal walking posture,language development delay,and abnormal development of the white matter.Case 2 also had unreported symptoms of meningocele and giant arachnoid cyst.Both cases had compound heterozygous mutations of the B3GALNT2 gene,each containing a truncated mutation and a missense mutation,and three of the four loci had not been reported.Nineteen patients with CMD caused by B3GALNT2 gene mutation were found in the literature.Summary and analysis of the characteristics of CMD caused by B3GALNT2 gene mutation showed that 100%of the cases had nervous system involvement.Head magnetic resonance imaging often showed abnormal manifestations,and more than half of the children had eye and muscle involvement;some of the gene-related symptoms were self-healing.CONCLUSION B3GALNT2 gene can be used as one of the candidate genes for screening CMD,cognitive development retardation,epilepsy,and multiple brain developmental malformations in infants.

Study on Chinese“Internet New Idioms”

With the development of internet and the increase of internet users,internet language develops rapidly.Many new words,new idioms and new constructions are derived from the internet,which enriches the expressional function of language and meanwhile brings difficulties to language standardization.The paper takes internet new idioms as examples to discuss the development and standardization of internet language.

Learning Literacy Difficulties

Recently,there has been a growing concern about low literacy performance levels among children and adolescents(Deshler&Hock,2007).According to the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress(NAEP)data released in 2007,34%of fourth-graders are classified as reading below baseline(Lee,Grigg,&Donahue,2007).The rate is even worse for children with learning disabilities(MD).Thus,improving literacy performance for these children was a primary concern for both teachers and researchers.Much of the current research focuses on the role of phonological instruction in improving literacy performance,however this present study explores a different choice.Since researchers have found data on children with dyslexia using morphology as a compensatory strategy in reading(Casalis,Colé,&Sopo,2004),it is important to investigate morphological interventions as a means of improving literacy performance in children with learning/reading difficulties,troubled readers and poor spelling.Although morphological awareness is more related to phonology or syntax than spelling and reading(Siegel,2008),it has received less attention from researchers and educators(Nunes,Bryant,Hurry,&Pretzlik,2006).For example,morphological instruction was not considered in the comprehensive review of the National Reading Panel published in 2000(National Institute of Child Health and Human Development,2000).With increased interest in morphological teaching,two compositions examining morphological teaching have been published in the last two years.However,they summarized the findings of the study more in a narrative rather than a statistical way.A recent synthesis by Reed(2008)examined seven published studies on morphological instruction and examined the effect of morphological instruction on three reading outcomes,including word recognition,spelling,and vocabulary development.

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.

Innovation and development of foreign language teaching in China

Foreign language teaching has been playing a dominant role in China’s curriculum reform,especially in the present globalization of Chinese society and economy.However,the insufficient research into foreign language teaching and blindly adopting western theory demand China learn from its own experience and also develop western foreign language teaching theories that innovate and promote its education system and research.

Aberrant auditory system and its developmental implications for autism

Most infants who are later diagnosed with autism show delayed speech and language and/or atypical language profile.There is a large body of research on abnormal speech and language in children with autism.However,auditory development has been relatively under-investigated in autism research,despite its inextricable relationship with language development and despite researchers'ability to detect abnormalities in brain development and behavior in early infancy.In this review,we synthesize research on auditory processing in the prenatal period through infancy and childhood in typically developing children,children at high risk for autism,and children diagnosed with autism.We conclude that there are clear neurobiological and behavioral links between abnormal auditory development and the deficits in social communication seen in autism.We then offer perspectives on the need for a systematic characterization of early auditory development in autism,and identified questions to be addressed in future research on the development of autism.

Screening For Language Disorders in Primary Care Settings

The acquisition of language ability is one of the most important milestones in early child development.The ability to communicate with others extends beyond the use of spoken words and includes tone of voice,facial expression,

Multiple Choice Items in Testing

Language testing is very important and necessary,and moreover as we all know,nowadays,in English language testing, the muhiple-choice item is most widely used and many users regard the multiple-choice item as the most flexible and probably the most effective of the objective item types.The multiple-choice item has its characteristics,advantages and disadvantages.We should bring out its strengths to make up for its weaknesses and use it appropriately.Although it has its limitations,it is suitable for large-scale tests and tests dealing with wide-range knowledge.We should correctly ap- ply testing principles and methods in order to make testing more effective and reliable.