Journal of Modern Rehabilitation
Volume:4 Issue: 3, 2011

Intonation perception mainly relies on fundamental frequency changes perception that is not available for individual with profound to severe hearing loss. The aim of the present study is to investigate the perception of intonation in cochlear implanted children and compare with normal hearing children.

This study has been carried out on 25 cochlear implanted children and 50 children with normal hearing. An adult who her first language was Persian, expressed some questions and statement sentences. These sentences were playing for child and was asked him/her to determine whether it was in a question form or statement one.

The results showed that perception of question and statement sentences intonation had significantly differences between two groups (P<0.05). Perception of question and statement sentences intonation had significantly correlation with age at implantation and duration of implant use (P<0.05).

According to the findings of the current study and previous studies, cochlear implant has some deficits in facilitating the perception of intonation. However, this limitation has been compensated partly for early surgery. Thus, speech language pathologists should consider intervention of intonation in treatment program of cochlear implanted children.

Muscular fatigue is common problem that an athlete faces repeatedly during sport competition or therapeutic exercise. Undoubtedly¸ fatigue affects the precision of subject's performance and limits the range of physical and sport activities. Muscle fatigue advantages and disadvantages have been reviewed in many previous studies. To challenge this controversy fatigue evaluation requires reliable, stable and precise methods of analysis itself. Researches on muscle strength and subject's perception of fatigue have been done in many studies. Therefore; researchers in this study focus on temporal stability of both subjective perception of fatigue and produced muscle torque after fatigue. Fifteen healthy female between 20-30 years of age, who at least had some non-professional light sporting activities once a week, volunteered in this research. Each of volunteers was evaluated in 3 different sessions. The first session was to familiarize the volunteers with the Isokinetic tests. For the main test, each of the volunteers was evaluated once and then after one week interval. At each session after warm up, perceived fatigue was measured using Visual Analog Scale. Then Average peak torque and average power maximal concentric Isokinetic of quadriceps were measured at the velocity of 60 degrees per second. To perform the fatigue protocol, subjects were asked to perform successive maximal quadriceps contractions until the three subsequent quadriceps torque output drop below 50 percent of maximal torque output. Afterwards, for re-measurement average peak torque, average power and perceived fatigue were evaluated similarly. The interaclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of average peak torque¸ average power and visual analog scale before performing fatigue protocol were calculated %81.6, %87.4 and %47.9 respectively. The repeated ICC after fatigue has estimated %59.9 ¸%64.4 and %96.6 respectively. This research demonstrated that Isokinetic temporal stability parameters were high before fatigue. In other words, both torque and power are reliable in two repetition times in a session, as well after one week interval between. After fatigue; the stability rate of torque and power recorded by Isokinetic were repeatable and this repeatability has been moderate to high. However; VAS showed a completely opposite results, in which before fatigue the stability of imagined local fatigue perception has been very low and was not significant, although after fatigue the VAS showed high repeatability.

Neck pain is one of the common diseases (66.7%), which contains different age's groups such as youn. Results of researches indicate prevalence of women neck pain is higher than men, so experiment in neck disease in female is more necessary. The aim of this study is to evaluate changes of postural stability in patient with muscular neck pain.

Twenty patients and fifteen healthy subjects contribute in this study. Postural sway in quiet standing was assessed in both limb stance (BLS), one limb stance (OLS) of dominant side, on a force platform with open eyes (rigid-open); and standing on a force platform with closed eyes (rigid-closed); and standing on the foam (10.5 cm-thick) with open eyes (foam-open) without shoes. All of above conditions were done with dual task. Mean changes of logarithmic displacement in medial-lateral and for- aft directions were calculated.

There are significant differences between two groups, especially following dual task, and difficult conditions of OLS and standing on the foam.

Patients with neck pain have difficultly in postural control that need to attending in treatment and prevention of following damages.

Knee osteoarthritis is one of the most common musculoskeletal problems, can affect on patient's daily activity and produce dependency in their daily activity and functional disability; The aim of present study is to compare static balance in patients with knee osteoarthritis and healthy subjects using force plate. Postural stability in knee OA patients and healthy subjects (each group 20 subjects) were measured by force plate. Two positions were selected double stance with closed or opened eyes. Range of fore/aft (Rfa) and Range of side ways (Rsw), were measured as static postural stability. Rsw increased significantly in the double stance position in patients group (P<0.05). Also in both groups, Rsw and Rfa in the double stance with closed eyes were more than of open eyes position (P<0.05). Postural control deficits and increase of center of pressure's sway were identified in participants with knee osteoarthritis. Therefore, one of the most important goals of rehabilitation is to improve balance control in knee OA patients.

Dyslexia is a language learning disorder which leads to some impairment in written language including reading and spelling. Children with dyslexia are mostly suffering in areas like Morphology, Phonology, semantic and pragmatic. Thus the main purpose of this study is to investigate the morphological awareness, as a significant aspect in reading components (Speed, accuracy and understanding) in which the children are impaired.

In the current study, 27 dyslexic students and 57 normal students in second grade of primary school participated. Existence of dyslexia was determined through administrating a reading test of "Nama", and in order to be sure that none of the students of normal group has language deficit, the language development test "TOLD" was administrated on normal students. In order to assess morphological knowledge of participants, a morphological awareness test was administrated too. In addition to determine the reading speed, accuracy and comprehension, the "NAMA" subtests were employed. Data obtained, were analyzed with the help of inferential statistical methods such as linear Pearson correlation coefficient test, Spearman test, Normal Kolmogrov - Smirnov test, T-test and linear regression test (ANOVA).

Correlation coefficient between morphological awareness and reading speed in whole sample was calculated to be -0.9158, that of morphological awareness and reading accuracy was 0.9514, and that of morphological awareness and reading comprehension was 0.926. This shows significant correlation among morphological awareness and components of reading skill. While the same correlation coefficients, in dyslexic children were respectively -0.689, 0.1403 and 0.1062. It shows that there was not significant relationship in dyslexic children. The T-test also indicated that morphological awareness, reading comprehension skills, reading speed and reading accuracy skills had significant meaningful differences between two groups.

morphological awareness, reading speed, accuracy and comprehension, were in a lower level among dyslexic children in comparison with normal children, and this can be regarded as one linguistic aspect that can be effectual in reading speed, accuracy and comprehension. However among the dyslexic children whose difficulties were limited to the word level (e.g. dyslexic group sample), morphological awareness did not have any influence on their reading skills.

Low Birth Weight (2499 gr ≥ Birth Weight≥1500gr) is one of the most serious health problems in children of the world today. LBW prevalence in our country has been reported 10%. Many researches show that LBW infants who stay alive, may suffer from long-term and short-term physical, mental and social problems 2 or 3 times more than appropriate birth weight infants. The present study was done to determine effect of tactile-kinesthetic stimulation (TKS) in weight gaining of LBW neonates. This research was a clinical trial study that 40 LBW neonates were randomly allocated into test (20) and control (20) groups. TKS was provided for three 15 minute periods per day for10 consecutive days to the test group, with the massages consisting of moderate of pressure strokes in supine and prone positions and kinesthetic exercises consisting of flexion and extension of limbs. All measurements were taken before and after completion of the study with the same equipment and by the same person. Results indicated that weight gain in the intervention group was not significantly higher than that in the control group after the 10 days TKS. TKS is not an effective intervention in weight gaining of LBW neonates. Comparing this result with those of other researches, it seems to need more studies in this field.

This study was aimed to examine the reliability of a developed device measuring "arch height ratio" index. 40 feet (the right and left foot of 20 subjects) were measured. Foot length was measured from posterior aspect of calcaneus to the tip of longest toe and dorsum height was measured at the midpoint of total foot length. All measurements were assessed in three weight bearing conditions of 10, 50 and 90 percent of total body weight on three occasions (10 minutes and five days after the first measurement) by a single rater. Finally the arch height ratio index was calculated. The ICC values in different conditions of 10, 50 and 90 percent of total body weight in 10 minutes after the first measurement were calculated 0.96, 0.97 and 0.92 and in five days after the first measurement were calculated 0.97, 0.97 and 0.91. Minimal detectable change values of arch height ratio index in all conditions of measurement were 0.01. Simplicity of usage, low cost and high reliability of this device is highly recommended for clinical and research use.

Cerebral palsy is a non progressive disorder and the most common movement problem in children. Many children with cerebral palsy are of hemiplegic type. One of the important problems of this children is unilateral upper limb dysfunction, that not using the affected side causes forgetfulness and more problems on this side. In this study, effectiveness of Constraint-Induced Therapy(CIT) and the maintainance of this technique on spasticity and performance of upper extremity in hemiplegic cerebral palsy children 6 to 12 years old have been investigated. In this pretest - posttest quasi experimental study, 20 cerebral palsy hemiplegic children 6 to 12 years old (15 boys and 5 girls) with 8.7 years mean age were selected. Interventions were performed about 8 weeks and patients were followed for 4 weeks. Spasticity on the affected side in wrist and elbow were tested by Modified Ashworth Scale and upper extremity function by the Box & Block test. The data were analyzed with the Wilcoxon and paired t- tests. Constraint-Induced Therapy in the affected limb decreases significantly the spasticity of wrist (p = 0.00) and elbow (p = 0.005) and significantly increases performance score (p = 0.00), and the recovery significantly maintained one month after the interventions. Constraint-Induced Therapy of affected upper extremity could possibly decrease limb spasticity and increase function with two mechanisms: Fierstly, The reduction of not using the plegic side and secondly, neuroplasticity in CNS. This improvement may remain viable in the affected limb.

Biomechanical conditions of limbs can affect on motor unit recruitment (MUR) markedly. Surface Electromyography (SEMG) is an approach for evaluation of muscle activities and onset time during different functions. The purpose of this study is to use SEMG for detection of central motor control in different functions of knee extensor muscles. Ten healthy subjects contributed in this study. They were done five repetitions of knee flexion/extension in open and close chain separately during recording of SEMG simultaneously. Integrated EMG (iEMG) of three middle repeated cycles were detected according to chain (open- close) and kind of contraction (concentric- eccentric).then the Average of three slope of iEMG compared to each other. There were not significant differences in MUR of three extensor muscles for concentric and eccentric contractions in open chain but vastus medialis and lateralis muscles showed significant changes in close chain (P<0.05). Result showed that there were significant differences of MUR for two kind of muscle contractions between open and close chains (P<0.05). Recruitment of motor units has not shown difference in open chain between concentric and eccentric contractions. This process indicates representative similarity of control pattern in two kind of contraction in open chain. Concentric contraction at close chain cycle has more MUR in comparison with eccentric contraction. It is equal to more interference of contractible compartment in concentric to eccentric contraction. This happens due to the nature of two kind of contraction particularly in close chain cycle. Comparison between two chains indicated that more motor units contribute in close chain (concentric and eccentric). It means that motor unit recruitment increased due to effect of increase of load in close chain.

The role of function of upper extremity in activity of daily living is critical and any impairment of function could cause major problems for diplegic spastic cerebral palsy (CP) patients. So, the application of rehabilitation protocols that could regain the hand function is very important.The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of simultaneous activation of exteroception and proprioception on function of upper extremity in children with diplegic spastic CP, 3-7 years old.

Thirteen CP patients (3-7 years; mean: 4.92 years; 4 boys and 9 girls) were participated in this study. Simultaneous activation of exteroception and proprioception were done 3 times a week (for 8 weeks). Function of upper extremity was evaluated by Quest Test and the degree of spasticity in wrist was evaluated by Modified Ashworth Scale.

The results of this study showed that after simultaneous activation of exteroception and proprioception, function of upper extremity was significantly improved (P<0.001). In addition, degree of spasticity in wrist muscles was significantly decreased (P<0.022).

Based on results of current study, it might be suggested that simultaneous activation of exteroception and proprioception could improve the function of upper extremity and decrease of spasticity. This in respect could reduce the disabilities of patients. So, the application of current protocols for the patients is suggested.