Students' Evaluation of Simulation-Based Training in a Communication Sciences and Disorders Program.

The current study aimed to evaluate simulation-based medical education (SBME) training and its contribution to the learning process of students in a communication sciences and disorders (CSD) program. The training was integrated in different stages of the program, over 4 years, with different students. The content and complexity of each of the simulation activities targeted specific skills, tailored to the students' learning phase. Students completed a nine-item survey at the end of the first and second semesters of the second year, evaluating the simulation training program structure and students' self-efficacy relating to the building of relationships between care givers and patients. A total of 246 questionnaires were analyzed. Students reported significantly increased self-efficacy in a range of clinical skills and perceived the inclusion of simulated patients (SPs) into a clinical skills program as valuable. Our data suggest that scenarios that reflect real-life situations (environment, atmosphere, equipment, etc.) have the strongest impact on the students' ability to implement professional and communication skills. A strong positive correlation was found between the video-based debriefing and students' perception of the improvement in their professional and communication skills. These findings suggest that this is a feasible and powerful training approach that can be applied in the CSD curriculum.

Picture naming and verbal fluency in children with cochlear implants.

PURPOSE: In the present study, the authors examined lexical naming in children with cochlear implants (CIs). The goal was to determine whether children with CIs have deficits in lexical access and organization as revealed through reaction time in picture-naming and verbal fluency (VF) experiments. METHOD: Children with CIs (n = 20, ages 7-10) were compared with 20 children with normal hearing (NH) matched for age and nonverbal IQ. Lexical abilities were examined using two naming tasks: a timed picture-naming task and a phonological and semantic VF naming task. Picture naming taps into lexical access capabilities and the VF task elucidates lexical organization. RESULTS: No group differences were found between children with CIs and children with NH on the timed picture-naming task. Children with CIs generated significantly fewer words than the children with NH on the VF tasks. Larger group differences were found for the phonological VF task compared with the semantic VF task. CONCLUSIONS: Limited early linguistic and auditory experiences may affect lexical representations and organization (lexical-semantic connections) in school-age children with hearing loss who use CIs. Further analyses and studies should continue to examine these underlying linguistic deficits. The present results suggest a need to emphasize not only increasing the size of children's vocabularies during therapy, but also expanding and increasing the semantic and phonological richness of their lexical representations.

Semantic organization in children with cochlear implants: computational analysis of verbal fluency.

PURPOSE: Cochlear implants (CIs) enable children with severe and profound hearing impairments to perceive the sensation of sound sufficiently to permit oral language acquisition. So far, studies have focused mainly on technological improvements and general outcomes of implantation for speech perception and spoken language development. This study quantitatively explored the organization of the semantic networks of children with CIs in comparison to those of age-matched normal hearing (NH) peers. METHOD: Twenty seven children with CIs and twenty seven age- and IQ-matched NH children ages 7-10 were tested on a timed animal verbal fluency task (Name as many animals as you can). The responses were analyzed using correlation and network methodologies. The structure of the animal category semantic network for both groups were extracted and compared. RESULTS: Children with CIs appeared to have a less-developed semantic network structure compared to age-matched NH peers. The average shortest path length (ASPL) and the network diameter measures were larger for the NH group compared to the CIs group. This difference was consistent for the analysis of networks derived from animal names generated by each group [sample-matched correlation networks (SMCN)] and for the networks derived from the common animal names generated by both groups [word-matched correlation networks (WMCN)]. CONCLUSIONS: The main difference between the semantic networks of children with CIs and NH lies in the network structure. The semantic network of children with CIs is under-developed compared to the semantic network of the age-matched NH children. We discuss the practical and clinical implications of our findings.