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Echolalia is a typical feature of children with epilepsy and autism, but whether it is pathological is still controversial. This article aims to explore the contentious issue of echolalia based on data from three selected Chinese children with epilepsy and autism. Through discourse analysis, we explored two types of echolalia: immediate echolalia and delayed echolalia. It was found that the two types of echolalia were used to achieve interactional function, interpersonal function, and experiential function. Our research also found that the echolalia phenomenon reflected the participants' pragmatic awareness when dealing with new information. This article will contribute to understanding echolalia in children with epilepsy and autism and provide intervention methods for children with language impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: At the beginning of the 21st century, international adoptions of children with cleft lip and/or palate increased dramatically in Sweden. Many children arrived partially or totally unoperated, despite being at an age when palatoplasty has usually been performed. To date, the speech development of internationally adopted (IA) children has been described up to age 7–8 years, but later development remains unstudied. Aims: To investigate speech development between ages 5 and 10 years in children born with cleft lip and palate (CLP) adopted from China and to compare them with non‐adopted (NA) children with CLP. A secondary aim was to compare the frequencies of secondary palatal surgery and number of visits to a speech and language pathologist (SLP) between the groups. Methods & Procedures: In a longitudinal study, 23 IA children from China were included and matched with 23 NA children born in Sweden. Experienced SLPs blindly reassessed audio recordings from routine follow‐ups at ages 5 and 10 years. Velopharyngeal function (VPF) was assessed with the composite score for velopharyngeal competence (VPC‐Sum) for single words and rated on a three‐point scale (VPC‐Rate) in sentence repetition. Target sounds in words and sentences were phonetically transcribed. Per cent correct consonants (PCC) were calculated at word and sentence levels. For in‐depth analyses, articulation errors were divided into cleft speech characteristics (CSCs), developmental speech characteristics (DSCs) and s‐errors. Information on secondary palatal surgery and number of visits to an SLP was collected. Outcomes & Results: VPF differed significantly between the groups at both ages when assessed with VPC‐Sum, but not with VPC‐Rate. Regardless of the method for assessing VPF, a similar proportion in both groups had incompetent VPF but fewer IA than NA children had competent VPF at both ages. IA children had lower PCC at both ages at both word and sentence levels. More IA children had CSCs, DSCs and s‐errors at age 5 years, and CSCs and s‐errors at age 10. The development of PCC was significant in both groups between ages 5 and 10 years. The proportion of children receiving secondary palatal surgery did not differ significantly between the groups, nor did number of SLP visits. Conclusions & Implications: CSCs were more persistent in IA children than in NA children at age 10 years. Interventions should target both cleft and DSCs, be comprehensive and continue past the pre‐school years. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: What is already known on this subject: At the beginning of the 21st century, IA children with cleft lip and/or palate arrived in Sweden partially or totally unoperated, despite being at an age when palatoplasty has usually been performed. Studies up to age 7–8 years show that adopted children, compared with NA peers, have poorer articulation skills, demonstrate both cleft‐related and developmental articulation errors, and are more likely to have velopharyngeal incompetence. Several studies also report that adopted children more often require secondary palatal surgery due to fistulas, dehiscence or velopharyngeal incompetence compared with NA peers. What this paper adds to existing knowledge: This longitudinal study provides additional knowledge based on longer follow‐ups than previous studies. It shows that the proportion of children assessed to have incompetent VPF was similar among IA and NA children. It was no significant difference between the groups regarding the proportion that received secondary palatal surgery. However, fewer IA children were assessed to have a competent VPF. Developmental articulation errors have ceased in most IA and all NA children at age 10 years, but significantly more adopted children than NA children still have cleft‐related articulation errors. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?: Speech and language therapy should target both cleft‐related and developmental articulation errors. When needed, treatment must be initiated early, comprehensive, and continued past the pre‐school years, not least for adopted children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Language dysfunction is a frequently reported symptom in Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, computer-assisted analysis of spontaneous speech in AD and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is rarely used to date.Objective: To characterize the language impairment in AD and amnestic MCI (aMCI) with computer-based automatic analysis via the "Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) software for cognitive impairment V1.3".Methods: A total of 64 subjects, including 20 AD patients, 20 aMCI patients, and 24 healthy controls were recruited. All subjects underwent neuropsychological tests, and spontaneous speech samples were recorded through the description of the "Cookie-Theft Picture" and then analyzed by the computerized software. Subsequently, we compared the speech parameters between the subjects and the controls.Results: We identified seven spontaneous speech parameters (percentage of silence duration, average duration of phrasal segments, average duration of silence segments, number of speech segments, number of long pauses, ratio of hesitation/speech counts and ratio of short pause/speech counts) demonstrating significant differences between the three groups (p < 0.05). All seven speech parameters significantly correlated with cognitive performance, with average duration of silence segments demonstrating the best correlation to cognitive performance on stepwise multiple linear regression analysis.Conclusion: Computer-assisted automated analysis of speech/silence segments demonstrated the potential to reflect the intrinsic linguistic impairment associated with MCI and AD. It has a promising prospect in the early detection of AD and assessment of disease severity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millions of Chinese-speaking people who have the most severe speech disorders could potentially benefit from using Speech Generating Devices (SGDs) to help them participate in society. Entering Chinese text into computer systems is complex, and the process itself requires a translation system from the small selection set of keys to Chinese characters, thus adding to the complexities of adaptive access to computers often required by people who rely on them for spoken and written communication. This paper examines two types of input method: those relying on phonetic principles, and those relying on logographic principles. It evaluates the potential pros and cons of each input method to specific populations with complex communication needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In recent years, there has been increasing awareness on the importance of mental health services for persons with disability in China, but data on mental health of persons with speech disability (PwSD) are scarce. This study examined prevalence and correlates of major depressive disorder (MDD) among Chinese PwSD, as well as their perceived need for and utilization of mental health services.Methods: A total of 227 community-residing adult PwSD were successfully recruited by using multi-stage sampling approach, and interviewed with the Mini-international Neuropsychiatric Interview 5.0. Depressed PwSD's perceived need for and utilization of mental health services were also measured.Results: 29.5% of the PwSD suffered from MDD during the month before the interview and, of the depressed PwSD, 44.8% perceived a need for mental health care but only 1.5% had sought help from mental health specialists. Factors significantly associated with MDD included female gender (OR=2.42), marital status of "non-married" (OR=2.27), having the disability during childhood (OR=4.60) and adulthood (OR=10.99) (vs. at birth), co-occurring other types of disabilities (OR=2.29), major medical conditions (OR=2.62), and impaired ability of activities of daily living (OR=3.23).Limitations: Findings can only be generalized to PwSD who register with the Disabled People's Federation (DPF) in China, because the sampling frame was based on the registration system of DPF.Conclusions: There is a large unmet need for mental health services among Chinese PwSD. It is urgently needed to integrate the management of MDD and other common mental disorders into the services system for PwSD in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Although sleep is one of the most important health-related factors, the association of sleep duration with incidence of myocardial infarction or all-cause death has not been fully understood, especially in the general Chinese population. The objective of this study was to explore the relationship between sleep duration and risk of myocardial infarction and all-cause death in China.Methods: Out of the 101,510 participants who were originally included into the Kailuan prospective cohort study and followed up for an average of 3.98 years, 95,903 participants were actually sampled to evaluate the impacts of sleep duration on myocardial infarction and all-cause death. Sleep duration was categorized as ≤5, 6, 7, and 8 hours/night, and ≥9 hours per night. Cox proportional hazards models were used to analyze the association of sleep duration with the incidence of myocardial infarction and all-cause death.Results: After a mean follow-up period of 3.98 years, 423 participants developed myocardial infarction and 1793 participants died. A U-shape association between sleep duration and all-cause death was found. The age- and gender-adjusted hazard ratios (95% confidence interval [CI]) of all-cause death (with seven hours of daily sleep being considered for the reference group) for individuals reporting ≤5, 6, and 8 hours, and ≥9 hours were 1.29 (1.08-1.55), 0.97 (0.82-1.14), 1.11 (0.97-1.27), and 1.77 (1.31-2.38), respectively, with a p ≤ 0.01. However, no significant association was seen between sleep duration and myocardial infarction.Conclusion: Both short and long duration of sleep might be potential predictors/markers for all-cause death, but not for myocardial infarction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The study of properties of speech sound systems is of great significance in understanding the human cognitive mechanism and the working principles of speech sound systems. Some properties of speech sound systems, such as the listener-oriented feature and the talker-oriented feature, have been unveiled with the statistical study of phonemes in human languages and the research of the interrelations between human articulatory gestures and the corresponding acoustic parameters. With all the phonemes of speech sound systems treated as a coherent whole, our research, which focuses on the dynamic properties of speech sound systems in operation, investigates some statistical parameters of Chinese phoneme networks based on real text and dictionaries. The findings are as follows: phonemic networks have high connectivity degrees and short average distances; the degrees obey normal distribution and the weighted degrees obey power law distribution; vowels enjoy higher priority than consonants in the actual operation of speech sound systems; the phonemic networks have high robustness against targeted attacks and random errors. In addition, for investigating the structural properties of a speech sound system, a statistical study of dictionaries is conducted, which shows the higher frequency of shorter words and syllables and the tendency that the longer a word is, the shorter the syllables composing it are. From these structural properties and dynamic properties one can derive the following conclusion: the static structure of a speech sound system tends to promote communication efficiency and save articulation effort while the dynamic operation of this system gives preference to reliable transmission and easy recognition. In short, a speech sound system is an effective, efficient and reliable communication system optimized in many aspects. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study reports the results of an investigation of knowledge and public awareness of stuttering among laypersons in Shanghai, China. A total number of 1968 respondents answered a questionnaire including questions about prevalence, onset, gender distribution and occurrence in different cultures, cause, treatment, intelligence and heredity of stuttering. Stuttering appears to be a disorder that most people in the Shanghai area are familiar with, and for several aspects a considerable number of respondents held views that are in line with current knowledge about stuttering. For some aspects though knowledge is limited, indicating a need for disseminating scientific information on stuttering. The results of the present study are compared with a similar Belgium study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The speech error patterns of seven Putonghua-speaking children with speech difficulties, who received no clinical intervention, were assessed twice over an interval of about 11 months. Qualitative measures (phonetic inventory, phonemic inventory, and phonological process use) and quantitative measures (severity score and inconsistency rating) were used. One child's phonology was within normal limits initially, but showed characteristics of delayed development at the second assessment. Of the three children presented with delayed acquisition at the initial assessment, one child had attained age-appropriate phonology at the second assessment, while the other two children remained delayed. Two children who consistently used phonological error patterns atypical of normal development and one child whose speech was characterized by inconsistency showed little change in the number and type of errors made. The theoretical and clinical implications of these results are discussed. It is argued that children with different underlying deficits might follow different paths of development. Delayed phonological development may occur at any stage of children's phonological acquisition and spontaneously resolve later, while disordered phonological development may start at speech onset and be resistant to changes, due to deficits in the speech processing chain. The data support the need for differential diagnosis and treatment of children with speech disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]