Background: Growing attention has been paid to the possibility of supporting early numeracy in at-risk kindergartners. Furthermore, it is assumed that language proficiency is an important prerequisite in early maths skills. Aims: To examine whether remedial early numeracy education in kindergarten, which has been proven to be effective in general,…

Background: Lingual pumping (LP) is a repetitive, involuntary, anteroposterior movement of the tongue on the soft palate that is executed prior to transferring the food bolus to the pharynx, but we also observed LP when multiple swallows were taken. LP may be associated with rigidity and bradykinesia in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). This…

Background: Temporal information processing (TIP) underlies many aspects of cognitive functions like language, motor control, learning, memory, attention, etc. Millisecond timing may be assessed by sequencing abilities, e.g. the perception of event order. It may be measured with auditory temporal-order-threshold (TOT), i.e. a minimum time gap…

Background: Children with language impairment (LI) often have lags in development of print knowledge, an important early-literacy skill. This study explores impacts of a print-focused intervention for Spanish-speaking children with LI in Southeastern Mexico. Aims: Aims were twofold. First, we sought to describe the print knowledge (print-concept…

Background: The nature of speech disorders in individuals with Down Syndrome (DS) remains controversial despite various explanations put forth in the literature to account for the observed speech profiles. A high level of word production inconsistency in children with DS has led researchers to query whether the inconsistency continues into…

Background: Children who are learning English as an Additional Language (EAL) may start school with smaller vocabularies than their monolingual peers. Given the links between vocabulary and academic achievement, it is important to evaluate interventions that are designed to support vocabulary learning in this group of children. Aims: To evaluate…

Background: Non-attendance and inappropriate referrals affect the effective and efficient running of healthcare services. Non-engagement with speech and language therapy (SLT) services may lead to negative long-term consequences for children in need of SLT intervention. Currently there is a dearth of research on non-attendance and non-engagement…

Background: For the early detection of children who are at risk of communication problems, we need appropriate assessment instruments. Two Dutch-language standardised screening instruments are available: the Dutch version of the Non Speech Test (NNST) and the Dutch version of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (N-CDIs). These…

Background: The Preschool Speech and Language Program (PSLP) in Ontario, Canada, is a publicly funded intervention service for children from birth to 5 years with communication disorders. It has begun a population-level programme evaluation of children's communicative participation outcomes following therapy. Data are currently being collected for…

Background: While autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and specific language impairment (SLI) have traditionally been conceptualized as distinct disorders, recent findings indicate that the boundaries between these two conditions are not clear-cut. While considerable research has investigated overlap in the linguistic characteristics of ASD and SLI,…

Background: Quality of life (QoL) is an important construct when assessing treatment outcomes. Aims: To examine the relative contributions of functioning, psychological well-being and self-efficacy on self-perceived QoL with a sample of total laryngectomy patients in Australia who had surgery for advanced laryngeal cancer. Methods &…

Background: The assessment of intelligibility is an essential part of establishing the severity of a speech disorder. The intelligibility of a speaker is affected by a number of different variables relating, "inter alia," to the speech material, the listener and the listener task. Aims: To explore the impact of the number of…

Background: Early identification of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is currently limited by the absence of reliable biological markers for the disorder, as well as the reliability of screening and assessment tools for children aged between 6 and 18 months. Ongoing research has demonstrated the importance of early social communication skills in…

Background: Intensive treatment has been repeatedly recommended for the treatment of speech deficits in childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). However, differences in treatment outcomes as a function of treatment intensity have not been systematically studied in this population. Aim: To investigate the effects of treatment intensity on outcome…

Background Children with severe cerebral palsy (CP) (i.e. "non-speaking children with severely limited mobility") are restricted in many domains that are important to the acquisition of language. Aims To investigate comprehension of spoken language on sentence type level in non-speaking children with severe CP. Methods & Procedures…