[Study of motor skills in 5-years-old children [Semnan, 2006]]

The current study was performed to assay motor skills [rapid naming, word and phrase repetition] in 5 years old children that these skills are in close relationship with speech and reading development. The aim of this study was to identify the mean and 95% confidence interval of these developmental aspects in normal 5 years old children in order to finding the normal range of these skills, which are the basis of reading and speaking. Performing a screening test in order to diagnosis, training and treatment of abnormal motor skills in 5-year-old children was another aim of the present study. This study was a cross-sectional and descriptive study. All nursery schools affiliated to education and welfare office in Semnan were included in this study. In each nursery school, children with auditory, visual and speech disorders were excluded and 20% of those whose mother tongue was farsi or semnani were selected randomly [a total number of 2256 persons]. Statistical analysis was carried out using independent t test and Chi-square test. The means were as follows: rapid picture naming 72 words in 100 seconds, word repetition 4.97, unfamiliar phrase repetition 4.31. There was no significant difference between girls and boys with regard to the above skills. The mean of word repetition in Semnanian 5-year-old children was greater than mean of unfamiliar phrase repetition. Semnanian 5-year-old children's mean of rapid picture naming and word repetition was lower than that of 5-year-old children in Tehran, but in unfamiliar phrase repetition Semnanian 5- year-old children's scores were greater

[Visual discrimination and visual memory in 5-year-old Children of Semnan [1385]]

To learn, read and write as the most influential aspect of human civilization, a learner needs to reach to a certain levels of conceptual and sensorial skills, memory [auditory and visual] and intelligence abilities. Verbal visual skills play an important role for learning of reading and writing. The present study was performed to assay some visual skills [discrimination and memory], which are in close relationship with speech and language development in 5-year-old children. the aims of the study were to identify the mean and 95% confidence interval in normal children with respect to in these developmental aspects. The findings of this study would help us in finding the normal ranges of these skills, which are a base for reading and writing, as well as making a screening test to diagnose, train and treat abnormal skills in 5-year-old children. In this transactional and descript ional study, 20% of qualified Kindergarteners who had healthy vision, audition and speech, and speaking in Farsi or Semnani language and affiliated to the education and welfare department in Semnan city were selected randomly [total of 2256 persons]. They were evaluated by Visual Skills Test. In 5-year-old children who speaking in Farsi, mean levels of tested skills were as follows: visual memory= 3.25, shape visual discrimination= 2.12 and alphabet visual discrimination =1.62. In 5-5.5 year- old children, the mean levels of visual memory, shape visual discrimination and alphabet visual discrimination were 3.24, 2.20 and 1.65, respectively. Finally, these mean levels were respectively 3.27, 1.93 and 1.54 for visual memory, visual discrimination, and alphabet visual discrimination in 5.5- 6 year old children. 5-year-old children were more skilled in shape visual discrimination than that of alphabet visual discrimination. Since the date of birth was an effective factor on children abilities in shape visual discrimination test, the older the child the better the scores. There were no differences between girls' and boys' scores in any of tests

Study of some syntactic and inflectional indicators in the hearing loss students in Birjand

Hearing is one of the most important sensory abilities through which man can hear the people's speech after birth, and then gradually acquires the ability of understanding and expressing them. If hearing damage occurs, specially from the beginning of the birth and or before speech acquisition, with respect to the severity of damage, one will have delay in speech and language. Morphology and syntax are two important aspects of language which are usually affected in the hearing impaired students. In this study, some morphologic and syntactic indicators in speech of hearing impaired students and some non-language features were studied too. This is a descriptive study research. Sampling has been non-randomly done on the whole 29 hearing loss students without any IQ problems at the age of 10-16 in the deaf primary school with hearing loss more than 65 decibels in the Best Binaural Average Scale in Birjand. Students' file in school, picture description, and supplementary questions were tools which were used. All the cases' utterances during the test were recorded by a tape recorder and then were written on the paper. Then all the indicators were analysed. Findings containing the following descriptive information, mean of MLU of cases was 3.7 morphemes and 2.4 words. Among 1051 utterances, 17.4% of utterances were correct which among them 57.3% were sentences and 42.7% were also non-sentences. Only 24% of verbs had been inflected correctly and the rest [76%] had some problems. 66% of cases used total communication method, 10% sign method, and the rest [24%] used lip-reading and oral methods. 13.8% of all cases used hearing aid continuously, 44.8% barely and 41.4% did not use hearing aid at all. Meanwhile, 24.1% of cases had at least one hearing loss person in their family. Findings showed that mean of MLU among these people is very low;. However they used verb a lot in their speech, but they had a lot of problems in agreement of verb with subject and tense

Survey of the prevalence of the articulation disorders in primary-school children [Semnan-2004]

Articulation disorders due to the problems that create in communication with others, is a great obstacle in individual's development and may cause difficulties. Generally, 5% of school age children have articulation disorders and should be referred to the speech therapy clinics. In this research, prevalence of articulation disorders was studied in Semnan primary school children to evaluate the range of problem. In this cross-sectional study done among the primary school, 5 boy schools and five girl schools with 3013 pupils, were examined by speech therapists. Among them, those with articulation disorders were separated and the supplementary evaluations were performed on them in clinics. To analyze the data, Ratio test, Chi-square and correlation coefficient were used. Findings showed that 8.7% [95% CI: 7.7-9.7%] of the cases, suffering the articulation disorders; 8% of them having lisp, chiefly, in [s] and [z] sounds. Meanwhile, articulation disorders in males were higher than in females significantly [P=0.002]. Also there did not exist any significant relation between the kind of articulation disorder and age [P=0.55], between the severity of articulation disorder and gender [P=0.397], and also between the articulation disorder and age. Considering the high rate of lisp in the elementary school children, it is suggested that the parents and school officials should pay the special attention to these problems and try to refer them to the speech therapy clinics