Auditory and Vestibular Research
Volume:22 Issue: 1, 2013

There is a relation between language skills and science learning in educational approach. Hearing-impairment and delay in learning of language skills influence the progress of learning. The aim of this research was to study the effect of educational level elevation on growth of mathematical skill. Therefore، third grade hearing-impaired students of secondary school، and forth grade hearing-impaired and normal-hearing students of elementary school were compared in terms of mathematical skill. The research was cross-sectional and the internationally standardized mathematics questions (2007) were selected as the tools of the test. The sample included 31 students of 4th grade elementary and third grade of secondary school with sever hearing loss from exceptional schools، and 17 normal-hearing students were randomly selected from ordinary schools next to the exceptional schools in Robatkarim، Karaj، and Shahriyar cities، Iran. According to data analysis there was a meaningful difference between hearing-impaired students of forth and third grades and normal-hearing students in the three fields of knowledge، application and argument (p<0. 05). There was a significant difference between the two hearing-impaired groups in knowledge (p<0. 05)، but they had no meaningful differences in the fields of application and argument (p>0. 05). No significant improvement was seen in the mathematical skill of hearing-impaired students by educational level elevation. Writing mathematical books for the pre-elementary courses، revision of teaching methods، and increasing teaching hours are necessary in mathematics.

Stress is the source of many problems in human-kind lives and threatens people''s life constantly. Having hearing-impaired child، not only causes stress in parents، but also affects their marital satisfaction. The purpose of this study was comparing the stress and marital satisfaction status between the normal and hearing-impaired children''s parents. This was a causal-comparative study. Eighty parents of normal children and 80 parents of hearing-impaired children were chosen from rehabilitation centers and kindergartens in city of Tabriz، Iran by available and clustering sampling method. All parents were asked to complete the Friedrich''s source of stress and Enrich marital satisfaction questionnaires. Parents of hearing-impaired children endure more stress than the normal hearing ones (p<0. 001). The marital satisfaction of hearing-impaired children''s parents was lower than the parents of normal hearing children، too (p<0. 001). Having a hearing-impaired child causes stress and threatens the levels of marital satisfaction. This requires much more attention and a distinct planning for parents of handicap children to reduce their stress.

The ability of conversational repair is a subset of pragmatic language. When the listener does not understand the speaker''s intention، and the speaker cannot find a way of repairing the conversation to make his/her massage clear، communication will fail. This study aims to examine and compare the conversational repair skill in two groups of three and five year old children، to determine different conversational repair strategies and compare these skills among these groups. One hundred and twenty Persian speaking children of three and five years of Ahwaz، Iran، were selected. The study tools were two series of pictures. During the retelling of the pictures the examiner created a situation to elicit a conversational repair strategy. Percentages of the usage of different kinds of conversational repair in each group were calculated and compared using student''s t-test. The usage of repetition and inappropriate response is decreased in the group of five year olds compared to the three year olds، but cue-repair and repetition method is increased. The addition method has remained relatively constant. There was a significant difference between average percentage of using repetition (p=0. 04) and cue-repair (p=0. 001) of the two groups. The percentage of application of repetition method in three year olds and cue-term method in five year olds were significantly higher than other conversational repair strategies. With the increase in age and development of language skills the probability of using more complex and difficult strategies، like the cue-repair method، increases.

Hearing-impairment leads to problems in language perception which in turn results in difficulties in language production. The present study investigated hearing-impaired children''s ability to discriminate Persian vowels. It aimed to describe the extent to which children have difficulty comprehending and discriminating phonetic features of vowels. To fulfill this aim، a researcher-made test، which was based on the Auditory Perception Test 2001، investigated the phonetic discrimination of vowels in Persian-speaking and hearing-impaired children aged five to eight years. The test has two sections، auditory-visual and just auditory discrimination of vowels، which included five subtests assessing discrimination of front and back vowels. Through this test، the phonetic discrimination ability of 22 hearing-impaired children was evaluated. The gathered data were analyzed using matched t-test and repeated measures ANOVA. The findings showed that there is a significant difference between correct responses to the sections on front and back vowels (p<0. 05). The audio-visual test showed that the /â/ vowel is easier to discriminate than other back vowels. Moreover، in the auditory test the /â/ vowel had the highest mean. The audio-visual test showed that the /i/ vowel is easier to discriminate than the other front vowels (/e/ /æ/). However، the discrimination of front vowels in the auditory test was the same. The results revealed that back vowels were more easily discriminated than front vowels by hearing-impaired children.

The majority of people experience problems and stressors، such as job layoffs and illnesses during their lives. However، the way people cope with stress varies. According to previous research، use of effective coping strategies can significantly reduce stress and tension. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of stress coping strategies on hearing-impaired students.

This is a quasi-experimental study with pre-test، post-test، and control group. The sample consisted of 40 hearing-impaired male students of guidance and high schools of the city of Sari، Iran، in the years 2010 and 2011. They were randomly selected and assigned to two experimental and control groups (n=20). The data collection tool was the General Health Questionnaire-28. The experimental group was administered eight sessions of stress coping strategies based on cognitive-behavioral techniques two hours weekly. Data were analyzed using statistical indices including mean، standard deviation، and two-way analysis of variance.

There was a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores in the subscales of somatic symptoms، anxiety and insomnia، depression، and social function (p<0. 05). Moreover، after the eight sessions the rate of general health of the experimental group was higher than the control group.

Stress coping strategies based on cognitive-behavioral techniques increased the general health of hearing-impaired people. Therefore، stress management training should be developed and expanded as an appropriate intervention.

Phonological processing skills include the abilities to restore، retrieve and use memorized phonological codes. The purpose of this research is to compare and evaluate phonological processing skills in 6-7 year old blind and sighted Persian speakers in Tehran، Iran. This research is an analysis-comparison study. The subjects were 24 blind and 24 sighted children. The evaluation test of reading and writing disorders in primary school students، linguistic and cognitive abilities test، and the naming subtest of the aphasia evaluation test were used as research tools. Sighted children were found to perform better on phoneme recognition of nonwords and flower naming subtests; and the difference was significant (p<0. 001). Blind children performed better in words and sentence memory; the difference was significant (p<0. 001). There were no significant differences in other subtests. Blind children''s better performance in memory tasks is due to the fact that they have powerful auditory memory.

Studies have shown that most children before age 4 are able to comprehend and express wh-question. In the Persian language، a case study has confirmed these results. The aim of this study is to evaluate the ability of 4-6 year olds to comprehend and express wh-question.

Seventy two 4-6 year-old Persian-speaking children were selected randomly. Wh-words consist of: what، where، who، why، and when. In the part of comprehension subjects answered questions about two pictures، and in the part of expression they asked questions elicited by a speaking puppet about four pictures. Descriptive analysis and student''s t-test were used for data analysis.

In comprehension 4-6 year-old children gained the complete score (2) with SD=0 in all wh-words. However، 4-5 year old children gained the score of 1. 89 with SD of 0. 32 for the word when. In expression، independent t-test showed the maximum score of 3. 52 with SD of 0. 84 related to questions with who. 5-6 and 4-5 year old subjects had significant differences in questions with what (p=0. 005)، where (p=0. 003)، who (p=0. 012)، and when (p<0. 001). Most errors were expressed in question with when.

Subjects of this study had the ability to comprehend and express wh-words. Comprehension of wh-words is easy for 4-6 year-old children; they are able to use them in questions، but have some application errors.

Reading is the most important human need for learning. In normal-hearing people working memory is a predictor of reading comprehension. In this study the relationship between working memory and reading comprehension skills was studied in hearing-impaired children، and then compared with the normal-hearing group. This was a descriptive-analytic study. The working memory and reading comprehension skills of 18 (8 male، 10 female) sever hearing-impaired children in year five of exceptional schools were compared by means of a reading test with 18 hearing children as control group. The subjects in the control group were of the same gender and educational level of the sample group. The children with hearing loss performed similarly to the normal-hearing children in tasks related to auditory-verbal memory of sounds (reverse)، visual-verbal memory of letters، and visual-verbal memory of pictures. However، they showed lower levels of performance in reading comprehension (p<0. 001). Moreover، no significant relationship was observed between working memory and reading comprehension skills. Findings indicated that children with hearing loss have a significant impairment in the reading comprehension skill. Impairment in language knowledge and vocabulary may be the main cause of poor reading comprehension in these children. In hearing-impaired children working memory is not a strong predictor of reading comprehension.

Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is one of the most frequent epileptic syndromes in adults. Some patients with epilepsy، especially TLE، have central auditory disorders، such as temporal processing، even though they have normal peripheral auditory function. The Gaps-in-Noise (GIN) test is one of the new tests for assessing auditory temporal resolution. The aim of this study was to evaluate temporal resolution ability in patients with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy. In this cross-sectional and descriptive-analytic study، 25 subjects with temporal lobe epilepsy (11 patients with right temporal lobe epilepsy and 14 patients with left temporal lobe epilepsy) and 18 normal control subjects of 15 to 50 years of age were assessed by the GIN test. Parameters of GIN test were analyzed by one-way ANOVA and compared between the three groups. There was a significant difference in the mean of approximate threshold and percentage of correct answer in GIN test in the right ear، left ear، and mean of both ears between patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and normal subjects (p<0. 05). However، difference between right and left temporal lobe epilepsy groups were not significant (p>0. 05). The lower percentage of correct answer and higher approximate threshold in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy in comparison with the normal control group revealed temporal processing deficiencies especially in temporal resolution abilities. This may be due to involvement of structures related to temporal processing.

Sustained attention refers to the ability to maintain attention in target stimuli over a sustained period of time. This study was conducted to develop a Persian version of the sustained auditory attention capacity test and to study its results in normal children. To develop the Persian version of the sustained auditory attention capacity test، like the original version، speech stimuli were used. The speech stimuli consisted of one hundred monosyllabic words consisting of a 20 times random of and repetition of the words of a 21-word list of monosyllabic words، which were randomly grouped together. The test was carried out at comfortable hearing level using binaural، and diotic presentation modes on 46 normal children of 7 to 11 years of age of both gender. There was a significant difference between age، and an average of impulsiveness error score (p=0. 004) and total score of sustained auditory attention capacity test (p=0. 005). No significant difference was revealed between age، and an average of inattention error score and attention reduction span index. Gender did not have a significant impact on various indicators of the test. The results of this test on a group of normal hearing children confirmed its ability to measure sustained auditory attention capacity through speech stimuli.

Pragmatics refers to speech interactions and the social aspect of communication in language contexts. Due to the crucial role of hearing in language skill development، hearing-impaired children have problems with all aspects of language، including pragmatics. These skills are crucial in children''s daily life. There is a lack of Persian studies on hearing-impaired children. Therefore، the purpose of the present study is to describe some pragmatic skills of hearing and hearing-impaired children. This descriptive case study was conducted on five hearing-impaired and two normal-hearing 6 year old children. Their pragmatic language skills were studied by the Persian story retelling test. in a quiet room. The children''s re-told story was recorded، analyzed، and scored. There was no difference between the scores of hearing and severe hearing-impaired children. However، children with severe hearing loss and cochlear implant، and hearing children were different in maintaining the subject and sequence of events. Children with profound hearing loss and hearing aid، and hearing children had a significant difference in all aspects except main information. All subjects used conjunctions correctly. The pragmatic skills of hearing-impaired children are weaker than hearing children. There are also differences between hearing-impaired children''s abilities. This difference in pragmatic skills shows the difference in amount of hearing loss، kind of assistive device، effective use of remaining hearing، onset and quality of aural rehabilitation program، and other factors. Therefore، a research with a greater sample size is necessary to explain these differences.