ABSTRACT
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 and 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 hearing impairment, speech sound disorders, 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
Subject(s)
Humans , Child , Guideline Adherence , Early Intervention, Educational , Speech Disorders , ChildABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to provide a valid Persian version of the Ages and Stages Questionnaires, in order to compensate the lack of developmental screening tools in Iran. Forward and backward translation, face and content validity determination, and cultural and linguistic adaptation of the questionnaires were performed, consecutively. Next, a pilot study was carried out on 100 Iranian parents of 4- to 60-month-old children, recruited by consecutive sampling in Tehran, Iran during the year 2006 to determine the degree of clarity for each item and explore cultural adaptations. In order to determine inter-rater reliability, we had parents of 38 children complete the questionnaires. For determining the psychometric properties of the tests, we later recruited a representative sample of 555, 4- to 6-year-old children by consecutive sampling from health care centers in five main geographical areas in Tehran. Performing cultural and lingual adaptations, our expert team made some inevitable changes to the questionnaires. Almost in all age groups older than 10 months, cultural or linguistic changes were made in items in the "communication" domain. Overall, the questionnaires' Cronbach alpha was 0.79. The constructive validity of the tests was also satisfactory. Another important finding was determination of the children's developmental mean scores. The culturally adapted Persian copies of the Ages and Stages Questionnai-res have proper validity and reliability for being used as developmental screening tools for children in Tehran
ABSTRACT
Tardive Dyskinesia [TD], is one of the important problems of the patients with schizophrenia. The emergence of these side effects depends on so many factors such as the patients' age and the duration of antipsychotic treatment. By discovering new drugs [Atypical], there has been an outstanding decrease in the emergence of these side effects. The present study investigates the symptoms of TD in the Patients with schizophrenia who were under treatments for more than 6 months. The sample of this study was 200 Patients with schizophrenia of four wards in Razi hospital [two acute and two chronic wards] who were hospitalized in the winter of 2006 and were qualified for this study. The subjects were 101 males and 99 females who were younger than 60 and had received antipsychotic drugs for at least 6 months. After psychiatric interview and filling the demographic questionnaire by the patients, the required information about the drugs and the intensity of the symptoms was acquired. Then clinical and physical examinations of tardive dyskinesia were done. Next, the tardive dyskinesia disorders' check list [AIMS] was used. Findings of this cross-sectional, descriptive study were analyzed by SPSS. There was a high ratio of 95% between TD and the age factor [P=0.05]. There was no relationship between symptoms frequency and duration of treatment [P=0.68]. Facial muscles and oral zones were mostly involved in T.D disorder [72%]. No significant difference was observed between nine fold symptoms of T.D in patients who were using traditional drugs and those who were using the new ones [typical and atypical]. Findings showed that in the intensity of the symptoms, gender does not play a major role