No abstract

Background:Identification of children with specific language impairment (SLI) has been viewed as both necessity and challenge. Investigators and clinicians use different tests and measures for this purpose. Some of these tests/measures have good psychometric properties, but it is not sufficient for diagnostic purposes. A diagnostic procedure can be used for identification a specific population with confidence only when its sensitivity and specificity are acceptable. In this study, we searched for tests/measures with predefined sensitivity and specificity for identification of preschool children with SLI from their typically developing peers.Materials and Methods:A computerized search in bibliographic databases from 2000 to August 2015 was performed with the following keywords: “specific language impairment” or SLI” and “primary language impairment” or ‘PLI’ with at least one of the followings: “diagnosis,” “identification,” “accuracy,” “sensitivity,” and “specificity.” In addition, the related citations and reference lists of the selected articles were considered.Results:The results of reviewing 23 included studies show that the index measures used in studies vary in accuracy with the sensitivity ranging from 16% to 100% and the specificity ranging from 14% to 100%.Conclusion:These varieties in sensitivity and specificity of different tests/measures confirm the necessity of attention to the diagnostic power of tests/measures before their use as diagnostic tool. Further, the results indicate there are some promising tests/measures that the available evidence supports their performances in the diagnosis of SLI in preschool-aged children, yet the place of a reference standard for the diagnosis of SLI is vacant among investigations.

Introduction:Children with cochlear implants experience problems at all language domains, and have more problems in morpho-syntactic skills than others domains. Considering the importance of morphology and syntax in developing of communication skills of children, this study compared the use of high-frequency morpho-syntactic structures among 4-6 years old children with cochlear implants and typically developing children by use of Photographic Expressive Persian Grammar Test (PEGT). Materials and Methods:The participants were 25 children with cochlear implants and 25 typically developing children aged 4-6 years, who were monolingual speakers of Persian. Children with cochlear implants and the typically developing children were recruited from the three Rehabilitation Centers and Kindergartens of Mashhad city (Iran), respectively. Then, PEGT was performed on each child.Results: A significant difference was observed in mean total test scores between two groups )P<0.05). Also, there were significant differences in all grammatical structures except conditional statement, genitive case and demonstrative pronouns between the two groups (P<0.05). Conclusion:It can be concluded that children with cochlear implants are weaker than typical children in expression of the high frequency morpho-syntactic skills.

Objectives: Some children are at risk of middle ear infections; however, the impact of the fluctuating hearing sensations on cognitive systems and immature central auditory is not fully recognized. Therefore, we reviewed and discussed the impact of early-otitis media on the cognitive skills of affected school-aged children. Methods: A computerized search of the databases was conducted between January 2000 and December 2020 using the following keywords, including “otitis media” and “cognition” or “attention” or “memory” or “working memory” or “short term memory”. Results: After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria and appraising the quality, seven studies were included and the data were extracted. Some of the articles reported a relationship between otitis media with effusion (OME) and cognitive deficits in 5 years old children and the other studies did not yield significant association. Discussion: It seems that children with OME experience difficulties in attention and memory; though, the relationship between early childhood OME and cognitive skills in children at school ages is not yet definitive and need more comprehensive and well-organized studies.