Cognitive epidemiology investigates cognitive predictors of health and disease outcomes. Post-operative cognitive impairment is a common complication of surgery but has been neglected as a health outcome in cognitive epidemiology research. This is despite the fact that knowledge of cognitive predictors of post-operative cognitive impairment can be…

Background: There is a growing body of evidence that speech and language therapy (SLT) intervention is effective in improving communication ability for individuals with non-progressive acquired apraxia of speech (AOS). However, there is no universally agreed diagnostic standard for AOS, and diverging opinions on its diagnostic features. This has…

This paper summarizes, integrates and evaluates the literature on adventitious deafness. Issues explored include: a comparison of congenital and adventitious deafness, psychiatric problems among late-deafened individuals, effects of acquired deafness on identity and personal control, and adventitious deafness among the elderly. (Author/PB)

The article reviews diagnosis and treatments for facially disfigured children including craniofacial reconstruction and microsurgical techniques. Noted are associated disease processes that affect the social and intellectual outcomes of the afflicted child. (Author/DB)

Meta-analysis of the literature (47 studies) comparing spatial task performance of blind and sighted subjects found that early onset (of blindness) groups generally showed poorer performance than either the late onset or the sighted groups. (Author/DB)

This paper describes four syndromes of acquired dyslexia in adults: deep (phonemic) dyslexia, surface (semantic) dyslexia, phonological dyslexia, and letter-by-letter reading (word-form dyslexia). Each description inquires whether reading performance is (1) sensitive to dimensions of words; (2) affected by experimental manipulations; and (3)…

This literature review found that 23 of the 27 works examined emphasized the impact of society or a combination of societal and personal factors, rather than solely the personal experience of blindness, on emotional and psychological reactions to adventitious blindness. Implications for rehabilitation services are noted. (Author/DB)

Word finding in relation to brain injury is discussed for children and adolescents with unilateral congenital malformations of the brain, early hydrocephalus, childhood-acquired left hemisphere stroke, and acquired traumatic head injury. Studies examining the recovery of word-finding deficits after brain injury are discussed, along with…

This review describes the history, clinical features, methods of diagnosis, and treatment of (1) large vestibular aqueduct syndrome (LVAS), a condition involving congenital hearing loss that is purely sensorineural or mixed in nature, and (2) progressive stepwise hearing losses following minor head trauma. Emphasis is on prevention of further…

This paper, discussing use of electrical stimulation by postlingually deafened adults to supplement speechreading, focuses on: information conveyed by vision, acoustic information needed to resolve visual confusions, basic psychophysical abilities of cochlear implant patients, auditory-alone and audiovisual perception by cochlear-implant patients,…

This overview provides basic information on the causes of deaf-blindness and the particular challenges faced by individuals with deaf-blindness. Causes of deaf-blindness include various syndromes, multiple congenital anomalies, prematurity, congenital prenatal dysfunction, and various postnatal causes. Differences between people deaf-blind from…

A review of the literature on the spatial functioning of the blind, the results of a questionnaire of 75 sighted college students and their parents, and results of a study of 87 blind and seeing adults' performance on three spatial tasks are presented. The review suggested that adventitiously blind individuals perform better than congenitally…

A review of literature on the incidence and nature of injuries to young athletes is presented on the topics of: (1) physiological characteristics of preadolescents, adolescents, and young adults; (2) musculo-skeletal changes in the growing athlete; (3) epiphyseal injuries and their potential for resulting in temporary or permanent impairment; (4)…

Acquired severe communication disorders may result from physical impairment, language impairment, cognitive impairment, or combination of impairments. This paper reviews the demographics and characteristics of communication-disordered adults based on etiology, introduces models of assessment and intervention, highlights intervention strategies and…