فهرست مطالب talieh zarifian

Reading impairments are the most prevalent problem at school. It is vital to have a valid and reliable test to assess the student’s reading skills. This study aims to develop the KHANA test as a valid and reliable test to evaluate reading skills in Persian-speaking students and study the accuracy, rate, and reading comprehension in different grades and genders

This study included 87 students from second to seventh grade (75 typically developing students [TDS] and 12 students with reading impairments [SRI]). First, two preliminary parallel forms of student books, A and B, were prepared, both including 12 reading passages organized based on increasing difficulty as the student moved from one passage to the next. All the passages contain five comprehension questions. Then, the content and face validity, descriptive statistics, construct validity, and reliability, including test re-test, inter-rater, and the correlation between passages A and B were measured. 

Based on the results, all the passages and questions were valid. The passages can make significant differences in reading skills between different grades, while gender differences are limited. However, according to the test re-test analysis, the inter-rater reliability, and the correlation between the two passages, KHANA is a reliable tool and can discriminate SRI from TDS.

According to the results, KHANA seems a valid and reliable test to assess reading skills in Persian-speaking students from second to seventh grade.

Grammar is a key element of language knowledge and a factor in predicting language learning and success. Early diagnosis of grammatical errors in children before entering school is very important. So far, no tool has been designed to evaluate the Azerbaijani language grammar comprehension in Iran. The present study aims to design the Azerbaijani language grammar comprehension test for Iranian children aged 4-6 along and assess its validity.

This is a mixed-method (qualitative-quantitative) study. After searching in various databases and reviewing available articles, 42 grammatical structures of the Azerbaijani language were extracted, of which 8 were removed after preliminary examination by experts. Then, 204 items were formulated for the remaining 34 grammatical structures. To determine the content validity, the test was sent to 11 experts in the field of Azerbaijani language grammar to evaluate the items. According to their opinions, two more suitable items were selected from among four items for each grammatical structure and included in the initial version for the pilot study. The initial test version was conducted on 30 children aged 4-6 years with normal language development.

After calculating the content validity ratio (CVR), two grammatical structures were removed, and 32 structures with 128 items having CVR≥0.59 remained. After calculating the content validity index (CVI), the items with CVI≥0.79 were selected. The initial version had 32 grammatical structures and 64 items. None of the items were removed in the pilot phase, and only 10 items were modified. The CVR and CVI of the test were 0.91 and 0.87, respectively, indicating good content validity.

The Azerbaijani language grammar comprehension test has good content and face validity and can be used to evaluate the grammar comprehension of children with Azerbaijani language aged 4-6 years.

Reviewing the literature related to the use of polysyllabic words in the assessment of speech sound disorders (SSD) in children have indicated the necessity of using these words for providing additional information such as prognostic information. Despite strong literature in other languages, there is scant research on examining the production of these words in the Persian language among children aged 4-7 years. Therefore, this study aims to design and assess the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the polysyllabic words test (PWT) for measuring production skills in Iranian preschool children.

In this cross-sectional study, First, 532 polysyllabic words with 3, 4, 5, and 6 syllables were selected from preschool children's books, which was reduced to 66 words after agreement among authors in three rounds. The content validity of the items was examined according to the opinions of five experts in typical speech development and SSD in terms of four criteria: Appropriateness for producing polysyllabic words, appropriateness for children aged 4-7 years, imageability, and cultural fit. After selecting pictures, face validity of items was examined by implementing the test on eight 4-7-year-old children (at least one child from each age group). Finally, 40 items were considered as the final words of PWT. For measuring psychometric properties, 120 children with normal development (60 males, 60 females), and 20 children with SSD (10 males, 10 females) participated. The control children were divided into 6 age groups with a 6-month interval (10 males and 10 females in each age group). Their inclusion criteria were age 4-7 years, not being bilingual, and passing the Persian diagnostic evaluation of articulation and phonology test (DEAP; Zarifian, 2014) and informal language screening test successfully. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of most schools, the sampling of control children was done using a convenience method from two cities (Tehran and Karaj). The inclusion criteria for SSD children were: Inability to pass the DEAP test, not being bilingual, and having SSD. Their sampling was also done using a convenience method. For evaluating construct validity, the differences among six age groups, between males and females, and between control and SSD children were examined in terms of total score, percent consonants correct (PCC), percent vowels correct (PVC), and percent phonemes correct (PPC). Test-retest reliability was determined using 20 children at a one-week interval, and inter-rater reliability was determined by investigation of relations between scores of two independent raters for 20 children using the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). The internal consistency was determined by measuring the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, independent t-test, Tuckey’s post hoc test, were used for data analysis in SPSS software, version 26.

In comparing the age groups, the results showed a significant difference in terms of total score, PCC and PPC (P<0.001), but not significant difference was found in PVC (P=0.23). No significant differences were found between males and females in total score, PCC, PPC, or PVC. In comparing control and SSD children, the results showed a significant difference between the two groups in total score, PCC, PPC (P<0.001), and PVC (P=0.02). The ICC was reported 0.98 for test-retest reliability and 0.79 for intra-rater reliability. The internal consistency was 0.75 for 3-syllable words, 0.65 for 4-syllable words, and 0.63 for 5-syllable words.

The Persian PWT can be used as a valid and reliable instrument for measuring speech production ability of Iranian children with SSD aged 4-7 years in clinical settings or for research. This test is consistent with other tests such as Baker (2013)’s test in terms of considering methodological principles such as inclusion words with different lengths, phonetic forms, and stress patterns, high imageability, using common words for preschool children, and providing opportunities for eliciting common error patterns of the target language.

Deafness is one of the most complex sensory disorders that leads to a major decline in auditory and verbal skills. Research shows that reading books has provided patterns of communication and preverbal skills to deaf children. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of online parent-child dialogic book reading on pre-verbal and listening skills of deaf children under three years of old.

In this one-group quasi-experimental study with pre-test-post-test design, 10 hearing parents with deaf children under 3 years old with a child from the Deaf Family Association of Iran and the Deaf Center of Iran participated. The group of 10 people (parent and child) was first purposefully identified (based on inclusion criteria) and then from all the people with criteria, the people who declared their readiness to participate in the study were selected as study samples. Before starting the distance parent-child conversation reading program, the pre-verbal skills test (which included pointing, shared attention, imitation, and timing) and listening skills (small corners) were administered as a pre-test. Online reading sessions were held. For 20 sessions, three days a week, parents went online at a specific time (10 a.m. on Saturdays, Mondays, and Wednesdays), and each day a book with pictures and story-related content, book descriptions, and questions, and more WhatsApp activities. Created, placed. After the distance parent-child conversation book reading program, the test of pre-verbal skills and listening skills (small corners) were performed as a post-test for the sample group. Paired t-test was used to analyze the data.

The results of this study showed that the online parent-child dialogic book reading program caused a significant increase (p <0.005) in the post-verbal skills test score (imitation, shared attention, pointing and turning) and listening skills (p <0.005). 005) In comparison with the pre-test score of the sample group.

Parent-child dialogic book reading is one of the parent-centered programs that are important for deaf toddlers. The results showed the applicability of parent-child dialogic book reading in improving listening skills and preverbal skills of deaf children.

 Procedural memory is a key component of long-term memory that can be assessed in different modalities, such as verbal and motor. Learning through procedural memory occurs in three stages: initial learning, consolidation, and retention. Several tasks evaluate procedural memory, but none have concurrently studied procedural learning in various modalities and learning stages. Besides, according to the declarative-procedural model, there may be an association between the performance of individuals in procedural learning and their state of the grammar of a language. Therefore, this study aimed to design a Serial Search Task (SST) for the simultaneous evaluation of procedural memory in motor and verbal modalities during three stages of learning and determine its reliability. Moreover, the relationship between procedural memory and grammar skills was examined.

 This study is methodological research in the first stage and descriptive analytics in the second stage. First, based on the literature review and the opinions of three speech-language pathologists, some words with appropriate psycholinguistic features were chosen from the Persian picture naming set. Then, corresponding pictures were determined. The task was designed using Java programming language. The face validity of the task was evaluated, then after revisions, the reliability was determined. Face validity was assessed in 10 normal children, and the test-retest reliability was evaluated in 15 normal children aged 7-9 years; all of them were chosen using the convenience sampling method. In the second stage, to assess the relationship between grammatical skills and the SST, 20 normal children aged 7-9 years were selected by a mixed sampling method. Every child had exposed to a verbal modality in three stages: initial learning, consolidation (24 hours later), and retention (one week later). Then the same stages were performed in the motor modality. Each child's language skills were determined using the test of language development-primary (TOLD-P3), and the relationship between the two skills was determined. Statistical methods included the Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients and repeated measures analysis of variance.

The correlation values between two performances in the initial learning stage for the reaction time variable in verbal (r=0.84, P<0.001) and motor (r=0.80, P˂0.001) modalities and the variable of response accuracy in verbal (r=0.81, P=0.011) and motor (r=0.77, P=0.026) modalities were obtained. In the consolidation and retention stages, the correlation values for the reaction time variable in verbal (r=0.737, P=0.002) and motor (r=0.743, P=0.001) modalities and the variable of response accuracy in verbal (r=0.624, P=0.013) and motor (r=0.916, P<0.001) modalities were obtained. The relationship between grammar and procedural learning in the verbal modality was significant in the consolidation stage (P=0.045, CI:0.016-0.797, r=0.491).

SST is a reliable task to assess different stages of procedural memory in both verbal and motor modalities. Therefore, this task can be used to evaluate procedural memory in normal children aged 7-9 years. The current study's findings confirmed the predictions made by the declarative-procedural model during the consolidation stage in the verbal modality.

Context: 

One aspect of spoken language skills is vocabulary, which provides a basis for acquiring other language aspects. Assessing a child's vocabulary knowledge aids in identifying the child's language strengths and weaknesses and predicts reading ability and academic success. Speech-language pathologists frequently employ various procedures in clinical and research settings to assess the children's language skills and help make decisions about diagnosis, eligibility for services, and intervention.

This systematic review investigated currently available vocabulary tests developed or adapted for Iranian Persian-speaking children.

Data Sources: 

Based on the PRISMA guideline, electronic searches of three national (SID, Irandoc, and Magiran) and four international (ScienceDirect, ProQuest, PubMed, and Google scholar) databases were carried out from 2000 to 2022 to identify Persian vocabulary assessment tools. Study Selection: Search in the reference lists of papers, unpublished theses, and content of related journals also supplemented the database searches. Data Extraction: The psychometric properties of these tests were reviewed based on specific criteria used in the literature. The papers and test manuals were examined according to these criteria.

Eight tools have been developed or adapted for assessing vocabulary knowledge in Iranian Persian-speaking children. Reviewing the content and psychometric properties of the included tools indicated that the Test of Language Development- Primary:3 (TOLD-P:3) is the only accessible published tool with the most reported psychometric evidence. It measures language development in children; however, it is a multi-modal test that includes vocabulary subtests.

This review revealed that most of the reviewed tools were in the primitive stages of test development or adaptation procedures and did not examine many psychometric properties. As a result, vocabulary is a field that requires more attention because there is no accessible, standardized tool with adequate psychometric properties.

Reasons for dysphagia in patients with at-risk respiratory systems duringthe COVID-19 pandemic include muscle weakness. During this time, therehabilitation program becomes a critical problem. The current narrativereview purposed to answer the question, “What is the modified management of dysphagia in patients with COVID-19 by speech-language pathologists (SLPs)?” Medline, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus databases were searched for information about COVID-19 and dysphagia using search terms such as “COVID-19 and dysphagia,” “speech therapy and COVID-19,” “COVID-19 and dysphagia speech and language pathologist.” As this narrative review concentrated on the intervention of dysphagia throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, the reference lists of articles identified in the search were also examined, and those we considered relevant in keeping with the selected keywords were accepted. Among the 83 articles selected in the first round, 27 were considered for this review. The number of clinical or original articles fitting our criteria was very limited. The main topics in most of the published papers were dysphagia intervention, COVID-19 transmission risk, swallowing assessment and therapy in patients with COVID-19 by SLPs, dysphagia screening tools, swallowing treatments and sensory stimulation in patients with COVID-19, and swallowing exercises and maneuvers conducted by SLPs in COVID-19 cases. An instrumental evaluation of swallowing should be narrowed during the COVID-19 pandemic. SLPs should find different ways to appropriately manage patients with suspected dysphagia. Generally, dysphagia intervention should be reserved for tele-health.

According to the declarative/procedural model, the semantic aspect of language depends on the brain structures responsible for declarative memory. The word pairs task is a common tool for evaluating declarative memory. The current study aimed to design a valid and reliable task for evaluating declarative memory in Persian children at learning and retention stages and to investigate its relationship with the semantic aspect of language.

A panel of experts agreed on the content validity of the proposed task.  The reliability of the task was determined using internal consistency and test-retest reliability. A total of 31 typically developing children aged 7-9 years of age participated in this study.

The content validity of all the 42 word pairs calculated as one. The test-retest reliability showed a correlation coefficient of .825 (P < 0.001). The task showed acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha 0.880). The results of correlation analysis showed no significant relationship between declarative memory and semantic aspect. The regression analysis, however, showed that the retention stage could explain 24.2% of the variation of semantic aspect.

It seems that the word pairs task has good validity and reliability for evaluating declarative memory. The task applied to evaluate the semantic aspect can be one of the potential causes for the lack of a relationship between semantic aspect and declarative memory. The participant score in the retention stage can be predicted concerning his/her performance at the semantic aspect.

The present research aims to identify the assessment and treatment processes used by Iranian Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) for Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) and investigate the impact of their knowledge level and experience on their choice of assessment and treatment.

This research is a cross-sectional study using a survey design conducted on 260 SLPs with a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree and at least one year of experience of working with preschoolers. The CAS assessment and treatment were measured by a validated questionnaire, which was completed in person or online. 

The tests of Diadochokinesis (DDK) (66%), single-word speech sampling (58.1%), oral-motor assessment (54.6%), and connected speech sample analysis (53.1%) were the popular tests chosen by the participants. The treatment approaches indicated that Oral Motor Exercises (OMEs) (57.7%) were the only treatment for which over half of the participants voted. The experts chose phonologically-based treatments and Integrated Phonological Awareness (IPA), but the less-experienced participants were more interested in PROMPT (prompts for restructuring oral muscular phonetic targets). The majority of the participants (70.8%) believed that children with CAS make very slow progress and 21.9% declared that speech problems of such children persist through the school years.

The participants’ choice of assessment tasks is in line with the results of recent studies. However, opting for outdated treatments such as OME indicates a gap between the clinicians’ knowledge and experience in using evidence-based treatments.

The intelligibility context scale (ICS) is the first screening tool for the intelligibility of speech. The ICS assesses parents’ perceptions of their child’s speech clarity in real situations when talking with different people and has been adapted into more than 60 languages. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the ICS-Persian in preschool Persian-speaking children.

 This is a validation and instrumentation research study. The parents of 118 children aged 4 to 6 years with and without speech sound disorders (SSD) from 10 kindergartens in Isfahan were recruited to the study through a clustered randomized sampling method. A speech therapist evaluated all children to confirm their overall health. Their parents completed the ICS-Persian, and the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) was completed for each child to determine the convergent validity of the ICS. In the test-retest study, 54 parents re-filled the ICS-Persian after 3 weeks. Statistical methods included Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, Pearson correlation, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and paired t-test.

Internal consistency and test-retest values were good and calculated as 0.89 and 0.82, respectively. The mean scores of children with and without SSD were statistically significant (P

 Acquisition skill in sentence producing is one of the criteria for speech development. By developing and increasing the age, we are witnessing the emergence of compound sentences in speech. Clinical treatments for language disorders in Iran are mostly based on the experiences of Speech Language Therapists or in accordance with English language norms. We need to examine how the length of utterance and compound sentences develop in Persian. The study aimed to report the development of compound sentences and Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) for a Persian-speaking child from 15 to 34 months.

In this longitudinal case report, based on Developmental-Descriptive model, MLU and emergence of simple compound sentences of a Persian speaking girl sampled and described from 15 to 34 months by daily scripting. R software version 4.0.2 was used for data analysis. Correlation of age with linguistic variables through Pearson correlation coefficient was evaluated.  Ethical Considerations: In this paper, the principles of publication ethics were considered.

 At the age of 21 months and 13 days, the child uttered her first simple two-word sentence, and at the age of 26 months and 29 days, she used a four-word compound sentence. With the emergence of compound sentences, the increase in the MLU has gained considerable speed. In a few days, we see the addition of a unit to the length of the sentence (word). There was a significant relationship between the MLU and age (r=‌0.925, P=‌0.001), Mean length of sentence and number of words in Persian speaking child (r=‌0.910, P=‌0.002) and total number of words and age (r=‌0.928, P<0.001). 

Although several longitudinal studies have been conducted on the development of MLU and number of words in other languages, similar studies are rare in Persian. It is important to conduct studies of this type in order to make cross-linguistic comparisons and to study the linguistic universality and language specificity. By increasing age, we see an increase in the number of words in a child's vocabulary, the emergence of compound sentences, and an increase MLU. At 27 to 28 months, there is a dramatic change in the development expressive language as the compound sentences appear. It seems that emergence of compound sentences in the language output, also plays a significant role in increasing the MLU and can be considered in clinical language assessments.

This study aimed at investigating the effects of speech intervention on Non-Oral Cleft Speech Characteristics (NCSCs), intelligibility, and Quality of Life (QoL), as well as the relationship between speech variables and QOL-related variables in intensive speech therapy among children with cleft palate.

This single-group pre-test and post-test clinical trial study was performed on 12 Persian-speaking children with cleft palate and NCSCs aged 3-7 years. For this purpose, we used 30 sessions of speech therapy and the Persian version of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PPedsQL). The pre-test and post-test assessments included perceptual assessment using the CAPS-A and QoL assessment using the Parent Proxy of the Persian version of the PPedsQL. The Wilcoxon’s test was applied to analyze group differences in the NCSCs, the intelligibility of speech, the total score of PPedsQL, physical, emotional, social, and school functions before and after providing the speech therapy.

The obtained results indicated that the frequency of NCSCs, the intelligibility of speech, the total score of PPedsQL, and its subscales significantly improved after the intervention (P<0.001). However, physical function presented no significant change after intensive treatment (P= 0.15). Additionally, the frequency of NCSCs had a significant negative c with a total score of PPedsQL and subscales. The intelligibility of speech was significantly and positively related to the total score of PPedsQL and its subscales.

This study demonstrated that intensive speech therapy was an effective approach in improving the intelligibility of speech and QoL in children with cleft palates. moreover, this study revealed that speech variables were significantly related to QoL variables.

Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) provides a means of effective communication to individuals with severe impairments in speech comprehension and production. The present study aimed to examine the awareness of Iranian Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) of AAC services.

In total, 111 SLPs who were selected by convenience sampling method participated in this cross-sectional study. Using a researcher-made questionnaire, information on SLPs’ familiarity with the term AAC and its methods; patients who can benefit from AAC methods; the kind of AAC method that could be used per patient, and the effectiveness of each method were obtained. This research was conducted at rehabilitation clinics in Tehran City, Iran.

The obtained results revealed that only 8.1% of the respondents were familiar with the concept of AAC; however, 92.8% of SLPs had contact with Patients With Communication Problems (PWCP). Only 0.9% of SLPs were familiar with high-tech devices. Additionally, 88.3% of the respondents were willing to further educational opportunities concerning AAC.

Iranian SLPs had little familiarity with AAC and the target population of these services. Overall, there appeared to be a lack of AAC expertise within the profession in Iran. Therefore, training these professionals, both theoretically and clinically, is essential.

Different treatment approaches have been introduced for children with Speech Sound Disorders (SSD). Minimal pair intervention, Metaphon therapy, and parents and children together approach as linguistically-based approaches are routinely utilized in this population and both of them shared minimal pairs as a common component. The purpose of the current study was to develop and investigate the validity of the material for this treatment approach for Persian-speaking children.

To develop the minimal pairs’ package, 10 phonological processes were selected based on the literature. Several minimal pairs were generated for each phonological process and their content validity was determined by the content validity ratio. In the next step, the appropriate pictures were selected. In the final step, the package was administrated to 45 monolingual Persian-speaking children.

Based on the experts’ opinions, 293 minimal pairs out of 303 pairs, obtained appropriate content validity values (content validity ratio >0.62) and 10 minimal pairs were excluded at this step. Finally, 256 minimal pairs remained after the administration of the package on the subjects.

Based on the results of the current project, it seems that the Persian photo minimal pairs’ package is a valid material for use in related speech treatment in children with SSD.

The auditory experience is important because makes a major contribution to the development of speech, language, cognitive and social skills. Knowledge of the lexicon grows and develops throughout human-being's life. Input factors, Linguistic and metalinguistic knowledge are effective factors in the acquisition of definitional skills. This study aims to investigate definitional skills in cochlear-implanted (CI) children and their typically developing (TD) peers.

 A total of 46 children in third-grade primary-school (16 with cochlear implants and 30 their matched typically normal) were recruited. Verbal definitional task included    14 common high-frequency nouns and 11 common high-frequency verbs. All definitions were scored for both content (semantic) and grammatical form. Statistical analysis was conducted to compare definitional skills between two groups.  

 There were significance difference between CI children and their TD peers for word definition skills in both categories of content and form (p<0.001). The results showed the mean scores of content and form related aspect of word definition in the TD group were approximately twice higher than the CI ones (respectively: M±SD=133±28 ; M±SD= 78±23).

 Children with CI may have trouble in definitional skills. It seems potential cause for lower scores of CI children in definitional skills was lack of auditory experience. Implication for assessment of and intervention for definitional skills in CI children is suggested.

 Communication can affect the personal and social life of people. According to International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), communication is one of the most important components of social participation and can have different functions such as behavior regulation (regulating the behavior of others to achieve a particular goal), social interaction (drawing attention of others to the self) and joint attention (attracting the attention of others to an event or particular object). Having knowledge of the development of communicative functions is so important in assessment, diagnosis, prognosis, and early intervention. Despite the importance and effect of communicative functions in language and communication development, no study has been conducted yet that examines the communicative function development of normal Persian-speaking toddlers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of communicative functions in normal Persian-speaking children from 12 to 18 months of age, regardless of communicative expressions (such as gestures, vocalization, and words).

This is a longitudinal observational study. The communicative function of 11 monolingual Persian-speaking 12-month-old children (7 boys and 4 girls) living in Tehran, Iran was investigated for 7 months. Sampling was done by using purposive and snowball non-probability sampling methods. All children had healthy medical history and normal growth, were from a family with a moderate socioeconomic status, and their parents had at least a high school diploma. The participants’ developmental status was assessed by Ages and Stages Questionnaire. A demographic form with acceptable content validity was also used to determine their demographic characteristics. For 7 months (once a month, each session for one hour), the examiner filmed the child-mother interaction during a semi-structured play with a set of toys at the child’s home. Afterwards, the recorded videos were coded according by the researcher and then entered into the SPSS V. 22 software. Descriptive statistics including mean and standard deviation were used to describe the data. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to determine the normality of data distribution, and repeated measures ANOVA (within-subject comparison) was used to analyze the data. Two raters were taught about the coding and rating of the communicative functions. To verify the validity of the data coding, 20% of the recorded samples were given to them to code communicative functions. The coding validity was determined by calculating the Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC).

 The mean frequency of behavior regulation and social interaction was constant from 12 to 18 months of age (P<0.05), while the mean frequency of joint attention was constant from 12 to 15 months of age (P<0.05) and then significantly increased at months 16 (P= 0.019), 17 (P= 0.023) and 18 (P= 0.003) compared to the 12th month. The ICC value as the criterion for coding validity was reported 90%.

 The mean frequency of joint attention increased significantly from 12 to 18 months of age, while it was constant for behavior regulation and social interaction. Our findings are consistent with the ICF’s social participation, stating that a child uses a particular type of communicative function to increase its participation in the society.

The ability to communicate through speech is one of the unique abilities of human beings. People who have lost their ability to speak for any reason cannot communicate effectively. The Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) methods have been proposed as a suitable solution to help these people. The aim of the present study was to investigate the level of awareness of the rehabilitation team at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences with regard to Augmentative and Alternative Communication services.

In the current cross-sectional study, the awareness of 31 specialists of rehabilitation team working in hospitals and rehabilitation centers of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences was studied using a researcher-made questionnaire. The content validity of the questionnaire was 76.31.To describe the data, SPSS software (version 22) was used.

The results showed that 38.7 percent of respondents did not have any kind of familiarity with Augmentative and Alternative Communication or had little familiarity with these services. Only 6.4% of respondents had so muchfamiliarity with this term. The participants were most familiar with a simple communication system, including paper and pencil (80.6%).

According to the results, the specialists had limited familiarity with Augmentative And Alternative Communication services and the target community of these services; Therefore, these specialists need to be trained in this field, both theoretically and in practice.

One way to examine a child's ability to think about language is by word definition. Word definition is a meta-linguistic skill representing the aspect of the lexical knowledge of a person about the nature and function of language. The success of a person in defining the word is indicative of the fact that he is aware of the use of language as a symbolic system and a tool for transferring information about the world around him and his own inner states, ideas, and purposes. The studies about word definition skill consider two content and form aspects within the development of vocabulary skill. ‘Content’ is the expression of the semantic features of a word that is expressed in a definition, and ‘Form’ is the syntactic structure of a definition and how it is formulated to transfer the best information which exists about a word in mind. Considering the importance of hearing sense on learning and use of language and meta-linguistic skill, the delay or problem in obtaining word definition skills in children with hearing loss is predictable, however, this question may arise that how is the quality of word definition skills in children with hearing impairment. The study aimed to compare the skill of noun definition in terms of content and form in children with Cochlear Implant (CI) and Typically Developing (TD) children.

In this descriptive-analytic study, samples included 16 students (8 girls and 8 boys) with CI in the third grade of primary school (8-9 years old) by available sampling from Tehran Cochlear Implants based on inclusion criteria including education in regular schools, 100 Cochlear Implant training sessions, resolution Intermediate Speech was selected according to the Speech and Language Pathologist's viewpoint, not having a mental disability, passing a pre-school entrance examination, and failing a passing grade in previous years. All children before the age of 3 received Cochlear Implants and had hearing aid in their other ear and, according to their parents' statements, used hearing aids as prescribed by experts after their hearing loss was identified. Thirty normal children (15 girls and 15 boys) were randomly selected based on the following criteria: no hearing, speech, and language problems (being normal), no failing score in previous years, no psychological problems, and no lack of mental disability. Exclusion criteria in this study were the child or parental unwillingness to continue the test during the study. In this study, Mohammadi’s Noun Definition Test, which was designed and validated for Persian-speakings, was used. This test evaluates the skill of word definition of students in seven categories including animals, occupations, fruits, places, body organs, foods and transport items. The validity of Name Definition Test was estimated in the content aspect (r=81%) and in the form aspect (r=91%) estimated by correlating the scores of two independent evaluators. Data were analyzed using SPSS-24 software by Shapiro-Wilk and Mann-Whitney tests. All comparisons were considered significant at α=0.05 level. 

The findings indicated that the mean scores of content and form aspects of Noun Definition Test were significantly lower in children with CI than their TD peers (P<0.001). The children with CI used significantly more concrete and functional responses in the content aspect, and had significantly less transitional and Aristotelian forms in the form aspect in comparison with their TD peers (P<0.001), while hearing children used significantly more Combination I and II responses in the content aspect, and had significantly more Clause, Transitional and Partial Aristotelian forms in the form aspect.

The significance of the means obtained in comparing the content and structural aspects of noun definitions indicates that children with CI have lower performance in both content and structure of the nouns than hearing children. It seems that the content and structural growth pattern of the definition of CI in children is almost similar to that of younger hearing-children. According to the results of this research, developing a coherent program to teach the noun definition skills in cochlear implant children with CI seems necessary.

Speech and language pathologists should include connected speech assessment as part of their evaluation for children with speech sound disorders. The purpose of the present study was to design and validate an instrument for assessment of articulation by story-retelling for Persian children. 261 typically developing children, aged 4-5 years old in Iran, Tehran, in 2016-2017, were recruited in the current study. First, two stories were designed. Next, the expert panel reviewed those two stories and selected one story for assessment. The strengths of the test for discriminating between the two age groups (48-54 months and 55-60 months) and between boys and girls were investigated for construct validity. Test-retest was performed for 15 children. Also, inter-rater reliability was evaluated via calculating the correlation between the two examiners’ scores. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 24, was used for statistical analysis. The significance level was set at (P<0.05). There was 80% or more agreement in experts’ response to questions regarding content validity. All of the reliability values were higher than 0.85. No significant difference was observed between boys and girls (P=0.77), but there was a significant difference between the two age groups (P<0.001). There was a significant correlation between this test and phonetic test of the Persian version of diagnostic articulation and phonology (r=0.62, P=0.002). The Persian story for the assessment of speech sound production is a reliable and valid instrument that can be used to evaluate the articulation of Persian children.

Hearing sensation is necessary for a child to acquire speech and language. Reading is one of the essential skills one should acquire in childhood. Previous studies have shown that children with hearing loss have lower reading skills as compared with the hearing children. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of cued speech training on improving the reading of the first grade hearing impaired students in elementary schools.
In the current quasi-experimental study, 10 children with profound hearing impaired and 9 hearing children comprised the experimental and control groups, respectively. For data collection, reading diagnostic test was used. At first, the data as the baseline was collected. Then, the experimental group received 30 sessions each lasting for about 45 minutes. Data was analyzed using repeated measures with SPSS, version 22.
The findings showed that the educational method had a positive effect on the accuracy (p=0/01) but did not have any effect on reading comprehension (p=0/096).
According to the results, training cued speech to first-grade students with profound hearing loss can improve their reading skills.

Background and Bilingualism is a common phenomenon in many countries which could increase consonant errors in the speech produced by bilingual children. The aim of this study was to evaluate phonological skills such as occurrence proportion, and the frequency and type of phonological processes in Persian-Arabic speaking children in Ahvaz, Iran. A descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study was performed in 28 children aged 36-48 months. The subjects were randomly selected from nurseries in Ahvaz and were divided into two groups (n=14 per group), according to being Persian monolingual or Persian-Arabic bilingual. We used the Persian Phonological Test (PPT), a subtest of Persian Diagnostic Evaluation Articulation and Phonological test which includes 54 one-four phoneme words. The phonological processes were investigated in two groups: structure and substitution processes. Data were analyzed in SPSS applying Mann-Whitney U test. The results showed that occurrence proportion of substitution process was significantly different between the two groups (P=0.05), but the type of phonological processes did not show any significant difference between the two groups. Frequency of phonological processes was found to be higher in bilingual children. In this study bilingualism was found to have no effect on type of phonological processes, but could be effective on frequency of processes. The type of phonological processes in bilingual children is similar to that of monolingual children, so the phonological system in Persian-Arabic bilingual children is similar to that of the monolingual children

Human beings can use gestures such as pointing and reaching to communicate with others before they have the ability to use verbal communication to produce speech. Given the importance of children's communication development and the key role of gestures development in communicating, the main purpose of this study is to analyze the normal development of pointing and reaching gestures and their relationship in 12-16-month-old children speaking Farsi.
Methods and materials: In this prospective, observational and longitudinal study the gestures of 11 monolingual Farsi- speaking children (7 boys and 4 girls) were evaluated via non-randomized sampling method. Child-mother interactions were videotaped monthly in a semi-structured context to capture the emergence and consistent use of targeted gestures. Afterwards, the data was coded and statistically analyzed for this purpose Repetitive measured, independent T-Test and Pearson correlation were used.
The mean of the pointing gesture increased significantly from 12 to 16 months (p0.05). Moreover, there was no relationship between pointing and reaching gestures (p>0.05).
The findings of this study suggest that pointing gestures increase with age from 12-16 months in Farsi-speaking children. However, reaching gestures stay the same between 12-16 months of age. The Results are compatible with the other surveys in this area. The study provided rich details of common gestures that children use to signal their intentions before verbal communication.

Given the positive effects of stimulation with maternal breast milk odor and non-nutritive sucking on premature infants’ feeding skills, the present study was conducted to examine the effect of combining two stimuli, including non-nutritive sucking and maternal breast milk odor, on the time of achieving independent oral feeding in premature infants.
The present clinical trial was conducted at Mahdieh and Shohada-e Tajrish Hospitals of Tehran in 2016. A total of 32 neonates with a fetal age of 28-32 weeks for whom gavage feeding was started entered the study and were divided into a group of non-nutritive sucking combined with olfactory stimuli and another group of non-nutritive sucking only. The stimulations were performed in both groups at the first five minutes of gavage, three times per day, over ten consecutive days. Weight gain, the time of achieving frequent oral feeding and chronological age at the time of discharge from the hospital were recorded as measures of the effectiveness of the interventions. The results of the interventions were analyzed and compared in SPSS-18.
Findings and Non-nutritive sucking combined with maternal breast milk odor leads to a lower post-menstrual age at the first oral feeding, independent oral feeding and discharge from the hospital in premature infants, but has no effects on their daily weight gain and weight at the time of discharge. These results show the effectiveness of combining maternal breast milk odor and non-nutritive sucking as two separate stimuli in achieving oral feeding and earlier discharge from the hospital.

In linguistic studies, the word definition task is used for surveying organization of concepts in the mental lexicon. The aim of the present study was to review the literature related to the developmental processing of concepts and organization of them using word definition task.
Published articles on the subject of the development of word’s definition in children were surveyed using the folowing keywords: word definition, definitional skills, and children within the timeframe of 1965-2014. Databases of ScienceDirect, Springer, GoogleScholar, Elsevier, PubMed, ASHA, and related Iranian studies were used.
In the word definition task, the children were asked to define words. The answers expressed in this task are scored based on content and form. Age, literacy, and meta linguistic awareness are effective factors at presenting the best kind of definition. As the age increases, noun definitions are developed from functional and concrete responses into more abstract and conceptual responses, and also using superordinate terms increases. Increased use of super ordinate terms in definitions indicates that by increasing the age, concepts are organized into hierarchies of connections and superordinates have connection with subordinates.

The present research aims to study the normal development of Percentage of Consonant Correct (PCC) in Kurdish-speaking children, with Middle Kurmanji-Mukryani Dialect as an Articulation Competency Index (ACI). PCC was examined in terms of the manner of articulation and position of sound in the word.
In this descriptoanalytical cross-sectional study, 120 Kurdish-speaking children aged 3-5 years were evaluated by a Kurdish phonetic test. Participants were selected randomly from health centers and nursery schools in Bukan City, Iran. Nonparametric statistical tests of Kruskal-Wallis and Mann–Whitney U were used to analyze data through SPSS software (version 19).
The percentage of accuracy of Kurdish language consonants gradually increased from 3 to 5 years. The results did not show any significant difference between the girls and boys (P>0.05), although girls showed better performance than boys. Kurdish-speaking children were more accurate in the pronunciation of nasal, glide, lateral, stop and flap than fricative, affricative and trill consonants. Consonants in the initial position were produced better and were more precise than consonants in the medial and final position.
PCC is an important and helpful index for speech and language pathologists, who are involved in assessment and treatment of Kurdish-speaking children. The results of this study showed that the PCC in Kurdish-speaking children with Middle Kurmanji-Mukryani Dialect increased with age and it was related to the manner of articulation and the position of sound in words.