language disorder

The relationship between brain and language has always been one of the most important questions in the field of neurology. Most of these studies emphasize the importance of the cerebral cortex in language processing. Importantly, due to limited studies on the importance of subcortical structures in the representation of language, further clinical studies are necessary in this regard. The purpose of this study was to compare the syntactic comprehension and illness severity in Persian-speaking patients with Parkinson's disease.

This cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study was performed using the MMSE questionnaire, Bilingual aphasia test (BAT) and the UPDRS Parkinson's illness severity checklist and Modified Hoehn and Yahr Staging checklist. Participants in this study included 20 patients with Parkinson's disease and 20 normal elderly and data were analyzed using SPSS 20 software.

The findings of this study indicate that there is a significant difference between the two groups of Parkinson's and normal people in syntax comprehension. There was also a statistically significant difference between mean scores of syntactic comprehension in different stages of the disease.

In this study, it was found that as the disease progression, the syntactic comprehension of the patient is reduced.

Objective Speech and language disorders¡ when happening during childhood will ultimately lead to important negative outcomes in the life of the child. The farther we move from this critical period¡ that is¡ the first 3 years of life¡ the less will be the positive effects of environmental stimuli on the development of speech and language. Early detection of children at risk for or in the preliminary phases of developmental delays and provision of early intervention services for them is of utmost importance. The objective of this research was to compile and produce protocols for early intervention in childhood speech and language developmental disorders in Iranian children.
Materials & Methods This study was conducted in two main phases: review phase and qualitative phase. In the review phase¡ all accessible search engines and databases¡ especially those for systematic reviews and guidelines were searched. In the qualitative study phase¡ several focus group discussions and rounds of Delphi were carried out with 20 experts in 7 subgroups¡ who were selected purposively.
Results The result of this study is presented as 7 intervention packages¡ including the following domains of disorders: prelingual lingual speech and language hearing impairment¡ speech sound¡ dysphagia¡ stuttering¡ and dysarthria
Conclusion Most studies have confirmed the effectiveness and need for early interventions for children with speech and language impairment. However¡ most do not explain the details of these interventions. Before the present study¡ no systematic and evidence-based protocol existed for early intervention in childhood speech and language impairments¡ in Iran; and due to language differences¡ as well as possible differences in the speech and language developmental process of children of different communities¡ making direct use of non-Persian references was not possible and effective. Thus¡ there was a clear demand for the production of such a protocol.

Students with borderline intelligence quotient experience types of language disorders that are seen in their narratives, too. This research aimed to investigate the linguistic characteristics of picture-elicited narratives in school-aged children with borderline intelligence quotient. In a cross-sectional study, 30 students with borderline intelligence quotient and 25 typically developing children at the age of 6-13 years were randomly selected from a population of four schools. Narrative discourse was elicited with description of pictures of one storybook. Students with borderline IQ were weaker than typically developing children in complex (p<0.001), compound sentences (p<0.001) and produced more ungrammatical sentences (p=0.007). Students with borderline intelligence quotient produced fewer related (p<0.001) but more unrelated information (p=0.033); and types of cohesive (p=0.010) and "HAM" conjunction (p=0.022) was fewer in them. Students with borderline intelligence quotient showed more linguistic impairment in description of story.

Discourse-based interventions were studied less in speech therapy. This study aimed to investigate the effects of discourse-based intervention on language disabilities in school-aged children with borderline intelligence quotient (IQ). In an experimental study، 33 students at the age of 6-13 years with borderline intelligence quotient (17 students for intervention and 16 students for control group) were selected with available sampling. The intervention lasted 14 sessions (every session: 45 minutes) that focused on the structure and content of discourse. Personal narrative was elicited with explanation of the same topic (go to a trip) for pre- and post-test. Mean scores of intelligence quotient، age and education had no difference between the two groups. The intervention caused the increase of compound sentences (p=0. 038)، types of cohesive conjunctions (p=0. 003)، and related information (p=0. 008) and decrease of ungrammatical sentences (p=0. 031). Our findings indicate that participation in the intervention program has a clinically significant effect on the participants'' abilities to produce personal narrative.