Christine Sheard

Florida Apraxia Battery–Extended and Revised Sydney (FABERS): Design, description, and a healthy control sample

There exist few clinical assessments for limb apraxia, a disorder of learned, purposeful action, that enable clinicians to distinguish pathological from normal variance in limb praxis performance. We describe a theoretically motivated, comprehensive assessment battery for limb apraxia and present control comparison scores for 16 older healthy normal individuals on subtests designed to distinguish the integrity of components of the praxis system.

Disentangling the Web: Neologistic Perseverative Errors in Jargon Aphasia

Abstract This article explores the relationship between the neologisms and perseverative errors produced by KVH, a man with severe neologistic jargon aphasia. Detailed examination of KVHs level of language processing breakdown revealed mild difficulties with phonological encoding and severe difficulties accessing the lexical form of the word. Many of KVHs neologisms contained phonemes perseverated from previous neologisms, suggesting an integral relationship between the production of neologisms and the perseveration of phonemes. Furthermore, KVHs patterns of whole word (total) and phonological (blended) perseverations reflected his proposed underlying language processing deficits, consistent with recent literature on perseveration (e.g., Cohen and Dehaene, 1998). However, the simple binary distinction of total and blended perseveration is proposed to be somewhat limited for understanding the underlying nature of KVHs complex neologistic errors. Possible explanations regarding the mechanisms underlying the production of KVHs neologistic and perseverative errors also are discussed.

''I'm Sitting Here Feeling Aphasic!'' A Study of Recurrent Perseverative Errors Elicited in Unimpaired Speakers.

In this study, the recurrent perseverative errors produced by 44 speakers without impairment were examined in picture naming and reading aloud tasks under a fast response deadline. The proportion of perseverative relative to non-perseverative errors was greater in picture naming, the more error-prone task, than in reading aloud. Additionally, although perseverative errors were less likely to be related to the target than non-perseverative errors, the overall distribution of perseverative and non-perseverative errors in each task was similar. It is concluded that the perseverative errors produced by the participants reflected both the degree and level at which language processing efficiency was reduced in each task. This is consistent with a more recent account of perseveration as a result of normally existing persistent activation overcoming weakened activation of a target at any level of language processing. These results are compared with recent studies of recurrent perseverative errors produced by people with aphasia in light of the cognitive neuropsychological assumption that speakers with and without impairment utilise a common language processing system.

Chips, cheeks and carols: A review of recurrent perseveration in speech production

Background: Recurrent perseverative errors involve either the complete or partial repetition of a prior response to a new stimulus. They are commonly produced by speakers with aphasia and are difficult to remediate. During the preparation of this paper, Dr Lyndsey Nickels was funded by an Australian Research Council QE2 Fellowship. Aims: This paper reviews research on recurrent perseverative errors with a focus on different theoretical accounts. Main Contribution: Comparisons are drawn between the literature on perseveration in the non‐language‐impaired population and in aphasia. In addition, theories that relate perseverative errors to underlying levels of language processing breakdown are described and contrasted with those that propose that they are primarily caused by impaired inhibition of recent memory traces. Conclusions: Most recent studies have demonstrated systematic links between patterns of recurrent perseverative errors and underlying levels of language‐processing breakdown in individual speakers with aphasia. For the comprehensive investigation of recurrent perseverative errors the examination of both whole word (i.e., total) and phonological (i.e., blended) perseverations is important, as is the use of case series rather than group designs.

Communication Impairment in the AIDS Dementia Complex (ADC): A Case Report.

UNLABELLED This article details three examinations of communication impairment over 13 months in a man with AIDS dementia complex (ADC) and compares his performance on standardised language testing with that of two control participants. He had mild language impairments as measured on standardised tests but was severely impaired in pragmatic language skills. When compared with control participants, he was particularly impaired in the skills of topic maintenance and informational redundancy and equally impaired as matched controls with AIDS on the items of non-specific vocabulary and excessive revisions. This mans communication impairment as a result of ADC, which was characterised by poor conversation skills in the absence of frank aphasia or dysarthria, may be related to non-linguistic cognitive impairment. LEARNING OUTCOMES Readers will be able to: (i) identify and recognise a general process of central nervous system changes and symptoms in ADC; (ii) recognise and describe changes in the language and communication skills in people with dementias resulting from diffuse neuropathology including in those with ADC; (iii) consider any changes in the communicative pragmatic style of people with ADC, in the light of hypothesising their possible links with cognitive changes in the executive functions of the brain e.g. attention and short term memory.

Pragmatic skills in people with HIV/AIDS

Purpose. Carers and health professionals who work with people with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are reported to think that the communication skills of people with HIV are “odd” and a range of difficulties with communication have been identified. However, little research has examined the “pragmatic” skills of people with HIV. Method. Five men living with AIDS were assessed on a battery of measures of componential language to exclude aphasia. Their pragmatic appropriateness as judged using the the Pragmatic Protocol was then rated by ten experienced raters from representative portions of a semi-structured interview. Results. All cases were rated by some raters as inappropriate on: Lexical selection specificity/accuracy. 4/5 cases had problems with: fluency, turn taking quantity, turn taking interruption/overlap and vocal quality. 3/5 were scored by some raters as having problems with: intelligibility, lexical selection: cohesion, prosody, turn taking pauses, turn taking repair/revision and vocal intensity. Conclusions. Several pragmatic behaviours consistent with what might be expected in people with mild diffuse or subcortical brain impairment were clearly observed. Whilst the cause of their perceived pragmatic inappropriateness cannot be established, the results suggest that cognitive-communication problems might be a feature of language use in people with HIV-AIDS even when AIDS-related dementia has not been diagnosed.

What Do Speech Pathologists Know About HIV

Speech pathologists have reported assessing and treating patients with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) but there has been little research into the nature or frequency of such communication or swallowing disorders. All speech pathologists with adult patients in the State of New South Wales, Australia, were surveyed about their exposure to patients with HIV. Of 148 replies, 24% had seen patients they knew to have HIV. These patients were referred for a range of disorders including dysphagia, dysarthria, aphasia and language impairment, voice, vocational rehabilitation, augmentative communication, saliva management, and AIDS dementia complex.The knowledge that the speech pathologists had about possible communication and swallowing impairments arising from HIV was also surveyed. Clinicians were generally unsure of the disorders that might arise from infection with HIV and the frequency of such disorders. There was a significant difference between the knowledge of respondents who had seen patients they ...

Are Instructions to Manipulate Specific Parameters of Laryngeal Function Associated with Auditory-Perceptual Ratings of Voice Quality in Nondisordered Speakers?

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS This preliminary study investigated whether auditory-perceptual judgments of voice quality by experienced speech language pathologists were associated with instructions given to speakers to manipulate specific laryngeal postures. STUDY DESIGN Experimental, within-subject design. METHODS Nine speakers were instructed and trained to manipulate three vocal parameters implicated in functional voice disorders-false vocal fold constriction, vocal fold mass, and larynx height-while reading a standard passage. Experienced judges rated these standard passages in terms of the widely used perceptual voice qualities breathiness, roughness, vocal strain, glottal fry, tone onset, tone color, loudness, and pitch. RESULTS Between-subject factorial analysis of variance, controlling for judge unreliability, revealed some evidence that perceptual judgments are strongly associated with underlying laryngeal muscle activity that can then serve clinical planning of goals for intervention. Eta2 effect sizes were large for all dependent measures, ranging from 0.39 for pitch to 0.77 for strained. CONCLUSIONS Although these results are encouraging, they were obtained under ideal conditions. Further research is warranted.

Assessment and management of aphasia in a linguistically diverse society

Abstract This paper reports the results of a survey conducted in metropolitan Sydney, Australia, which was designed to look at the assessment and treatment practices adopted by speech-language pathologists when working with individuals with aphasia from language backgrounds other than English. The results of the survey high-light a number of areas of concern for speech-language pathologists. These include the need for a range of appropriate assessment and treatment materials, as well as the need to improve the way that speech-language pathologists and interpreters work cooperatively in the assessment and treatment of aphasia in a linguistically diverse environment. The study also revealed that many speech-language pathologists wish to improve aspects of their own knowledge and skills relevant to their work with individuals who come from a variety of language and cultural backgrounds. These needs, some of the ways in which they might be addressed, and their implications in terms of further research are discussed in detail.