Telling Personal Narratives: Comparing Stories Told by 10-Year-Old Speakers of Cypriot Greek Dialect and of Standard Modern Greek.

INTRODUCTION: Cypriot Greek is the variety of Greek language used for oral communication by the Greek Cypriot people, while Standard Modern Greek is the official language. Cypriot Greek differs from Standard Modern Greek in various aspects, including lexicon, phonetics, phonology, morphosyntax, and pragmatics. This study examines whether there are differences between children who are native speakers of the Cypriot Greek dialect and those who are native speakers of Standard Modern Greek in narrative measurements obtained in a personal narrative context. METHODS: Thirty-nine ten-year-old children (19 Cypriot Greek speakers and 20 Standard Modern Greek speakers) participated in the study. The Global TALES protocol was used to elicit personal narratives across 6 emotion-based prompts. Measures of microstructure (mean length of utterance, number of different words) and macrostructure (plot elements) are examined. RESULTS: Analysis showed no differences in macrostructure between Cypriots Greek speakers and Standard Modern Greek speakers in response to the prompts. In contrast, group differences were found in syntactic complexity, with the Standard Modern Greek speakers producing longer sentences. CONCLUSION: This is the first study to compare the characteristics of personal narratives spoken by 10-year-old children who are speakers of Cypriot Greek and Standard Modern Greek. The results from this initial comparison highlight that children who are speakers of two varieties of the same language share similar narrative elements. However, they may differ in their linguistic profiles, such as in syntax. Understanding these differences is important for researchers, educators, and speech therapists. A detailed understanding of developmental milestones and a clear understanding of each variety's characteristics are crucial from a research, pedagogical, and speech therapy perspective.

Correlation Between a Self-Voice Assessment and Objective-Voice Evaluation Outcomes in Speech Language Pathology Students.

AIM: The aims of this study is to explore the correlation between the Voice Disorder Index (VDI) score and acoustic and phonatory respiratory voice parameters in speech language pathology (SLP) students with and without self-perceived voice disorders. METHODS: The Voice Disorder Index (VDI) and the Lingwaves 3 "Voice Protocol" were administered to each participant in order to assess his/her self-perceived severity of his/her voice problem, as well as, acoustic and phonatory respiratory measurements. The correlation coefficients were used to evaluate and quantify the degree of a linear relationship between VDI scores and acoustic and phonatory respiratory voice measures in students with and without self-perceived voice disorders. RESULTS: Relatively strong, strong and strong positive correlations were revealed when comparing the VDI physical subscale with the Dysphonia Severity Index (r(11) = 0.56, P = 0.048), mean loudness when reading in English (r(11) = 0.70, P = 0.008) and mean loudness when reading in Greek (r(11) =0.69, P = 0.009) respectively. CONCLUSIONS: SLP students may be more aware of the impact of their laryngeal discomfort and voice output characteristics on their daily activities that can predict certain acoustic parameters than the emotional and functional impact on their daily activities.

Risk Factors for Voice Disorders in Undergraduate Speech Language Pathology Students.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this research study is to determine the risk factors for voice disorders in SLP students in order to help us develop specific goals for a vocal hygiene education program specifically for SLP students. METHODS: An online questionnaire was completed by 121 undergraduate SLP students. Participants were divided into two groups, students with no self-perceived voice disorders (NVD group) and students with self-perceived voice disorders (VD group). The Fisher Exact test (FET) was used to explore the differences in responses for each voice risk factor and the academic and occupational consequences between students with and without self-perceived voice disorders. RESULTS: Students in the VD group were more likely to experience vocal fold problems, hearing problems and throat clearing than in the NVD group. More students in the VD group reported to "sometimes' and "often" take medications that impact their voice, hear a "moderate" amount of noise generated from the passage of planes and the road and hear a "moderate" and "large" amount of noise generated within and outside the building than in the NVD group. Moreover, students in the VD group were more likely to limit their ability to perform certain tasks at school (eg, participating in lectures) and clinical practicum (eg, administering therapy sessions) and reduce their interactions annually due to voice problems. CONCLUSIONS: Health, voice use, lifestyle, and environmental factors are risk factors for voice disorders that were presented more frequently in SLP students with self-perceived voice disorders.

Predictive Risk Factors and Occupational Impact of Self-Perceived Voice Problems in Preschool-Kindergarten versus First- to Sixth-Grade Teachers.

AIM: The aim of this investigation was to complete a further analysis of existing data to compare risk factors of voice problems as well as create a hierarchical ranking of risk factors in preschool-kindergarten and 1st- to 6th-grade teachers in order to develop a voice hygiene program and prioritize its goals for each group of teachers. METHODS: An online survey was completed by 148 preschool-kindergarten and 301 1st- to 6th-grade public school teachers. Participants were divided into four groups, preschool-kindergarten and 1st- to 6th-grade teachers with no self-perceived voice disorders and preschool-kindergarten and 1st- to 6th-grade teachers with self-perceived voice disorders. A χ2 test and a multivariate logistic regression model were used to examine the differences in answers between the preschool-kindergarten teachers with and without voice disorders and the 1st- to 6th-grade teachers with and without voice disorders and to identify the most important predictors. RESULTS: The significant predictors for preschool-kindergarten teachers are frequently or sometimes continuing to talk after a breath cycle and being exposed to an excessive or a lot of noise generated in the classroom. The significant predictors for 1st- to 6th-grade teachers include having short breaks between classes and continuing to talk frequently after a breath cycle. CONCLUSIONS: Job-related risk factors in preschool-kindergarten and in 1st- to 6th-grade teachers may vary. Therefore, a preventative vocal hygiene education program specifically tailored for each population of teachers is suggested.

Dynamic Linguistic Interconnectedness and Variability in Toddlers.

This investigation examined the existence of interconnectedness between developing linguistic subsystems. Spontaneous speech samples were collected from 31 typically-developing Greek-speaking toddlers across two age levels, at 28 and 36 months. Correlational analyses were performed synchronically and predictively, revealing significant positive relationships among all language skills within ages. Phonetic and grammatical skills also showed predictive value for later skills. In addition, a cluster analysis on the basis of performance on each individual skill revealed variable linguistic profiles: Low performers showed multiple interactions within and across ages, while High performers showed minimal such interactions. The current results revealed complex interdependencies among the different language skills with children exhibiting variable linguistic profiles, as supported by dynamic systems theory approaches to language acquisition.

Neuronavigated theta burst stimulation for chronic aphasia: two exploratory case studies.

The present study reports the findings of a 10-day neuronavigated continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) over the right pars triangularis for two individuals with chronic aphasia after a single left hemispheric stroke. Baseline language and quality of life measures were collected prior to the treatment study, post-treatment and at 3-month follow up. Therapy was tolerated well by both participants and no side effects were noticed during and after treatment. Results from one individual showed potential for positive change in performance in comprehension and expressive language both post-treatment and at the follow-up stage. Also, a trend towards improvement post-treatment was noticed in discourse and sentence productivity, and grammatical accuracy. In the follow up stage, grammatical accuracy showed a trend towards improvement; discourse productivity decreased and; sentence productivity skills showed mixed results. Results from the other participant showed potential for positive change in comprehension post-treatment, that was maintained at the follow-up stage. However, a decline in expressive language post-treatment and at follow-up, stronger post-treatment, was noticed. Regarding quality of life measurements, participant one appeared to have improved as his performance increased in the overall, physical and communication domains, but decreased slightly in the psychosocial domain. The second participant improved in the physical and communication domains and declined overall and in the psychosocial domains. Findings from this study indicate that cTBS over the right pars triangularis may have the potential to improve various language skills in patients suffering from chronic aphasia post-stroke. However, the potential benefits of this fast, non-invasive brain stimulation protocol on improvement of language abilities post-stroke need further exploration.

Risk Factors for Voice Disorders in University Professors in Cyprus.

AIMS: The purpose of this study was to investigate risk factors for voice pathologies in university professors to determine the need for a preventative vocal hygiene education program that could improve the quality of life of university faculty. METHODS: An online questionnaire was completed by 196 professors from 12 universities in Cyprus. The questionnaire elicited data regarding risk factors that may lead to voice disorders on parameters including general health, voice use, lifestyle, and environment and the self-perceived severity of a subject's voice problem. Subjects were divided into two groups based on their Voice Disorder Index (VDI) score: professors with VDI ≤5 and professors with VDI >5. The chi-square test was used to examine the differences in responses for each voice risk factor between the VDI ≤5 and the VDI >5 groups. RESULTS: The VDI >5 group was more likely to frequently or sometimes experience respiratory infections, coughing, throat clearing, and stress, teach above students talking, and speak over their natural breath cycle than the VDI ≤5 group. Professors in the VDI >5 category were also more likely to have taught in very or moderately noisy environments than the VDI ≤5 group. CONCLUSIONS: Health, voice use, lifestyle, and environmental factors may contribute to the development of voice disorders in university professors in Cyprus. Therefore, a preventative vocal hygiene education program is recommended.

An omnibus CUSUM chart for monitoring time to event data.

A non-parametric method is proposed for monitoring time-to-event data. A cumulative sum chart is constructed that is able to detect an unknown out-of-control state. This method exploits the absolute differences between the Kaplan-Meier estimator and the in-control distribution over specific time intervals. The efficiency of the algorithm is studied via a simulation and a real data study. The new method is also tested via the simulation study against existing methods.