مجله پژوهش در علوم توانبخشی
سال پنجم شماره 1 (بهار و تابستان 1388)

Research results have shown that Back School instruction is an effective method to change the level of knowledge of the workers. The aim of this study was to survey the Effect of Back School program education and decrease of low back pain and alteration in spine curves. Participants in this study were workers of Iran-Khodro Company in three different workplace posts with mean age 31 ± 6.6 years old. First, lumbar lordosis, thoracic kyphosis and back pain evaluated. Then participants divided into two groups and Back School program administered for experimental group. One sample t-test and Paired t-test used for statistical analysis. The Paired t-test results showed that lumbar lordosis (p=0.672), thoracic kyphosis (p=0.517) and back pain (p=0.399) in Back-School group didn’t have significant changes and were approximately the same as another group with respect to the initial amounts. We concluded that the work situation is an influential factor in occurrence of lumbar lordosis, thoracic kyphosis and back pain amounts and Back School programs is one of the best programs in optimal posture maintenance program in workplace.

There are extensive studies about the effects of backpack carrying on the posture and musculoskeletal system but there are a few studies about this effect on the lung function. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of three different methods of backpack carrying with 15% of body weight on the respiratory volumes. Seventy healthy subjects (aged 18 to 24 years, mean 20.47 ± 1.55) participated in this study. At first respiratory volumes (FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC) were measured without carrying a backpack. Then respiratory volumes were measured while the subjects were carrying backpack in three different methods. Oxycon Spirometer was used to measure the respiratory volumes. Paired t-test was used for statistical analysis. The comparison between FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC in no backpack condition with those of three different methods of backpack carrying (single strap, double strap, cross chest) showed no significant differences. Also, differences in respiratory variables among the three methods of carrying were not statistically significant. Carrying a backpack with 15% of body weight did not cause significant differences in respiratory volumes and no significant differences between the three methods of carrying. Therefore it seems that backpack carrying with less than 15% of body weight has probably no effect on respiratory system.

Speech intelligibility is the measure of the effectiveness of speech. The Speech intelligibility has important clinical implication including the following: Determining if intervention is needed, setting intervention goals and evaluating effectiveness of intervention. The goal of this study was to measure Speech intelligibility in 4-5 year old children. It was a descriptive analytic –cross sectional study. The research group consistent of 70 children (35 girls, 35boys(, that were selected by simple random method among five districts of Isfahan. Two kindergartens from each district were selected accidentally and speech samples of seven children from each kindergarten were analyzed to determine Speech intelligibility. Mean of Speech intelligibility percentage was 97.53 (SD =2.4) and its range was 90 to 100. Mean of Speech intelligibility percentage in boys was 97.9 and in girls was 97.9. T-test showed no significant differences (P = 074)in Speech intelligibility between boys and girls. According to the result, speech intelligibility in 4-5 years old children was roughly similar to the adult.

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of lordotic and kyphotic deformities among different age groups. 349 subjects (male and female) from three different classes of age, namely, the adolescent (n=141), the young (n=114) and the adult (n=94) participated in this study. Flexi curve ruler and the Cobb method were used to measure the spinal column curves and determine the angles, respectively. The obtained data were statistically analyzed by Chi-square method. the prevalence of lower back deformities among the aforementioned age groups was as follows: normal subjects; 34.1%, flat back; 10.6%, lordosis; 25.8% and hyperlordosis; 29.5%. These amounts were significantly different (P≤0/05). Adolescents had the highest prevalence of lordosis (42%) which was significantly different from the prevalence of this deformity in the young and adult groups (P≤0/05). With regard to the gender of subjects, the highest and lowest prevalence of lordosis were observed among female adolescents and adults respectively (22.3% vs. 11.9%). lordosis and hyperlordosis was the most prevalent among the young (38.8%) and adult (, 48.7%) females. There were not significant differences between all groups (P>0/05). The results of present study also showed that the prevalence of spinal deformities including, flat back (3.4%), kyphosis (27.2%) and hyperkyphosis (14.1%) and the differences between them were significant (P≤0/05). There were not significant differences in kyphosis between adolescent (29.85%), young (29.85%) and adult (40.3%) subjects (P>0/05). Adult men have the highest prevalence of kyphosis (31.9%) which was significantly difference from the other groups (P≤0/05). we concluded that the highest prevalence of lordosis belonged to adolescent women and adults had the highest prevalence of kyphosis. In advanced countries, screening tests are conducted to determine the prevalence of deformities and then, according to the resultant data, the most appropriate program is chosen to prevent occurrence of deformities in future. Therefore, administrating such tests in our own country and among all age groups seems to be an appropriate action for prevent more and complex deformities in the elderly age

Low back pain is the second reason for seeking medical advice and is the first one as a cause of disability in people with an age under 45 years. According to the follow-up researches on disk herniation surgery, inappropriate selection of surgery candidates may cause failure in the operation. It was a descriptive cross- sectional study conducted in surgery wards of Alzahra, Amin and Kashani hospitals (Isfahan, Iran) on 46 patients (mean age: 40 years(. All patients signed a formal consent. After completing the questioner about personal information and pain characteristics, the examiner determined the pain and sciatica intensity by means of VAS and SLR. These data, in addition to those obtained through the MRI reports, were analyzed by SPSS software (ver.13) According to surgery criteria, 13 % of cases had no any radicular pain. In 85% of clients, lesser than 6 months had been passed from the beginning of radicular pain. Corsets were the most effective conservative treatment in 29 % of patients. Medication)18%), rest (17%) and physiotherapy (10%) were of the next standings. Most of patients in the study experienced surgery unnecessarily and they had not received sufficient conservative treatments despite the prolonged low back pain. The efficacy of conservative treatments is poor and it is especially the case for physiotherapy, although the importance of PT has been emphasized in the literature.

Children say the first words in the end of their first year of life. As children grow, the number of words and phonemes in their phonetic inventory increases.The first appearing consonants in the children's phonetic inventory are nasal, plosive, fricative, labial and lingual phonemes. The older a child, the more his/her usage of various types of consonants.In order to make a decision about the appropriateness of children's speech, speech and language pathologists need the evidence that comes from the studies focusing on different aspects of speech development. The aim of the present study was to determine the acquisition age of consonants in Farsi- speaking children. The present research was a cross-sectional descriptive - analytic study. Speech samples of 96 2-6 year-old Farsi-speaking children who lived in Tehran (Iran) were recorded and then analyzed. Through 44 pictures, 22 consonants of Farsi were studied in final and first positions of mono and two syllabic words. Nasal and plosive bilabial consonants /b/, /p/, and /m/ were the first consonants pronounced correctly in both positions of words by 2-2/5 year-old children. The fricative and affricative consonants /ž/ and /ĵ/ were the last ones emerged correctly in both positions, that is to say, after the 4th year of life. According to the Regression test results, this hypothesis that the number of children's consonantal errors decreases as they grow, was confirmed. By the 4th year of their life, Farsi-speaking children can correctly produce all consonants in both final and first positions of mono and two syllabic words except /ž /, /ĵ/. These findings are consistent with the similar studies done in English language. Fricatives are also the most difficult consonants in English language

The birth of a child with disability is an event that has a dramatic impact on the whole family and its interactions. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate about family functions in such situations. There is compelling evidence that some families can never cope with this event. Since knowing about familie's experiences of having a child with disability helps caregivers to have a deep understanding of family status, individual and social relations of the affected members, the results of this study will be beneficial to caregivers dealing with this population. This study was a qualitative one and because it dealt with human experiences, the research method was descriptive phenomenological. 12 subjects who were members of families with a disabled child taken care of in Rehabilitation Centers, selected through the goal-oriented sampling. The research data was obtained via audio-taped interviews. Researchers used in-depth and unstructured Interview which involved open and exhaustive questions. Data was statistically analyzed by Collaizi method. Data was compiled and subsequently transcribed from 18-hour audio-taped interviews with the 12 subjects participated in this study. Then researcher formulated the meanings of each significant statement into 74 codes and organized the formulated meanings into following 5 clusters of themes: 1- protective structure 2- adjustment 3-interactions 4- child characteristics and 5- Psychological stress. The results indicated that having a disabled child in family leads to psychological problems and large changes in all aspects of all family member's lives, so affects their interaction. Family members use many ways to make adaptation or to return to normal life. Despite all psychological problems and conflicts, family wants to support the child with special disability as a member. The social, psychological and economical problems that family with children with disabilities experienced could lead to conflicts in the family and might lead to changes in the performance of individuals and their roles in the family.

The majority of children with articulation disorders attending speech therapy centers typically don’t demonstrate the well-known pathologic signs of articulation disorders (such as oral structural abnormity, environmental deprivation, mental retardation, hearing loss, etc). With regard to the fact that there is strong evidence for co-occurrence of articulation disorders and oral apraxia in the literature, it is reasonable to assume the presence of oral apraxia in this population. Therefore, to diagnose oral apraxia in children with articulation disorders, an efficient tool is required.Methods and materials: At first, an oral apraxia checklist with 20 tasks which were frequently recommended for the assessing this disorder in the related literature was developed and its validity and reliability were detected. Then from the population of 4-to-5 year old children, a sample of 74 normal subjects was selected to examine their performance over the above-mentioned tasks and to determine the cut-off point for the checklist. The inclusion criteria was a normal medical history and the ability to successfully pass two tests, namely an phonetic test which assessed the normality and appropriateness of articulator skills and a oropharyagial test which aimed to detect any sensory–motor problems in the oral and facial areas. The cut-off point was established on the basis of the false positive and specificity amounts obtained from the raw data. Performing only 15 tasks of the checklist’s 20 tasks was found to be the cut-off point. This means that every child with an age ranging from 4 to 5 years old, who pass only 15 or less tasks successfully, is affected by oral apraxia. At the cut-off point of 15 tasks, the amount of specificity was 94.5% and false positive was 5.4%. According to the results of this study, the oral apraxia can be validly diagnosed in 4-5-year old children using this newly developed test. Co-occurrence of oral apraxia with articulation disorder implicates planning an efficient intervention management which takes its presence into account.