Personalization of Visual Scene Displays: Preliminary Investigations of Adults With Aphasia, Typical Females Across the Age Span, and Young Adult Males and Females

xlomafota13 shared this article with you from Inoreader Personalization of Visual Scene Displays: Preliminary Investigations of Adults With Aphasia, Typical Females Across the Age Span, and Young Adult Males and Females Via Topics in Language Disorders - Current Issue Visual scene displays (VSDs) are becoming an increasingly popular method of message representation within augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) supports; however, design factors can influence the effectiveness of these images as communication supports. One issue that has come to light in recent years is the fact that selecting personalized VSDs, which depict the person with complex communication needs or an individual with whom they are familiar, is preferred over generic VSDs, which depict unfamiliar individuals. Although personalization is likely an important factor in the usability of VSDs, th ese images may be difficult for clinicians to obtain. As such, compromises must be identified. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of controlling personal relevance factors (i.e., age and gender of the people depicted in generic VSDs) on the image preference patterns of adults with and without aphasia. Results from three very preliminary study summaries indicate that gender and age are both mitigating factors in image preference, as males tended to indicate preference for VSDs containing males over those containing females. In addition, females tended to indicate preference for females of a similar age depicted in VSDs. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Personalized AAC Intervention to Increase Participation and Communication for a Young Adult With Down Syndrome

xlomafota13 shared this article with you from Inoreader Personalized AAC Intervention to Increase Participation and Communication for a Young Adult With Down Syndrome Via Topics in Language Disorders - Current Issue Many adults with Down syndrome (DS) experience difficulty with speech production, and intelligibility challenges and communication breakdowns are common. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention can provide important supports for persons with these complex communication needs but must be customized to address the goals, strengths, and needs of the individual. This article provides a description of a personalized AAC intervention for a young adult with DS whose speech was frequently unintelligible. The AAC intervention made use of a video visual scene display (VSD) approach and was inves tigated in 2 separate studies in 2 key community settings: An inclusive post–secondary education program (a single-case reversal ABAB design), and a community shopping activity (a nonexperimental AB case study design). The participant demonstrated sharp increases in successful communication and participation in both settings following the introduction of the video VSD, and both the participant and the key stakeholders viewed the intervention positively. The results provide preliminary evidence that personalized AAC intervention, including the use of a video VSD approach, can provide important supports for communication and participation in community settings for adults with DS and complex communication needs. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Personalization of Restorative and Compensatory Treatments for People With Aphasia: A Review of the Evidence

xlomafota13 shared this article with you from Inoreader Personalization of Restorative and Compensatory Treatments for People With Aphasia: A Review of the Evidence Via Topics in Language Disorders - Current Issue Speech–language pathologists serving individuals with aphasia must make many decisions regarding assessment and intervention practices to support comprehension and expression of language. Each of these decisions can influence the effectiveness of therapy and long-term functional outcomes for individuals with aphasia. One factor that must be considered is the impact of personalizing therapy techniques to match the unique strengths and challenges of a client as well as incorporating personally relevant stimuli and methodologies into therapy. Research indicates that treatment customization can have a positive impact on service provision quality and can potentially lead to positive outcomes in therapy. The purpose of this article is to provide a broad overview of how personalization ca n be achieved across a variety of interventions. Furthermore, we explore factors (e.g., client motivation, cognitive resources) that influence therapeutic outcomes and discuss the benefits, challenges, and rationale for therapy customization. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Personalized Early AAC Intervention to Build Language and Literacy Skills: A Case Study of a 3-Year-Old With Complex Communication Needs

xlomafota13 shared this article with you from Inoreader Personalized Early AAC Intervention to Build Language and Literacy Skills: A Case Study of a 3-Year-Old With Complex Communication Needs Via Topics in Language Disorders - Current Issue Personalized augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention refers to an approach in which intervention is tailored to the individual's needs and skills, the needs and priorities of the individual's family and other social environments, the evidence base, and the individual's response to intervention. This approach is especially relevant to AAC intervention for young children with complex communication needs given their unique constellations of strengths and challenges, and the qualitative and quantitative changes that they experience over time as they develop, as well as the diversity of their families, schools, and communities. This article provides detailed documentation of personalized AAC intervention over a 6-month period for a 3-year-old girl with developmental delay and complex communication needs. The article describes (1) personalization of multimodal AAC supports to provide this child with the tools to communicate; (2) personalized intervention to build semantic and morphosyntactic skills; and (3) personalized instruction in literacy skills (i.e., letter sound correspondences, sound blending, decoding, sight word recognition, reading simple stories, reading comprehension, and encoding skills). Specific goals, instructional materials, and procedures are described; data on speech, language, and literacy outcomes are presented. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Personalization of Patient–Provider Communication Across the Life Span

xlomafota13 shared this article with you from Inoreader Personalization of Patient–Provider Communication Across the Life Span Via Topics in Language Disorders - Current Issue People with disabilities are more likely to be hospitalized and use health care services than people without disabilities. They also report negative experiences interacting with health care providers during these encounters, placing them at risk for preventable adverse medical events, poor quality of life, and dependence on others. Fortunately, providers and people with communication disabilities can take steps to improve these interactions by personalizing and implementing communication supports to empower people with communication disabilities to actively participate in these interactions and impr ove outcomes. The purpose of this article is to describe strategies that health care providers can use to develop and implement personalized communication supports for children and adults with communication disorders during health care interactions. Additional strategies are provided to guide people with disabilities as well as their community/school providers and families to prepare for health care interactions. Case examples are provided to illustrate use of these strategies in acute care, inpatient rehabilitation, and outpatient settings. The use of emerging training tools (e.g., video visual scene displays) and augmentative or alternative communication partner training formats (e.g., just-in-time training) are also presented as future directions to expedite learning and implementation of communication supports in fast-paced and time-limited health care interactions. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

“Topical pentoxifylline can be an effective and safe adjunctive therapy to NBUVB therapy in treating vitiligo: a split‐side clinical trial”

xlomafota13 shared this article with you from Inoreader "Topical pentoxifylline can be an effective and safe adjunctive therapy to NBUVB therapy in treating vitiligo: a split‐side clinical trial" Via Experimental Dermatology View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Antimicrobial peptides and proteins: Interaction with the skin microbiota

xlomafota13 shared this article with you from Inoreader Antimicrobial peptides and proteins: Interaction with the skin microbiota Via Experimental Dermatology Abstract The cutaneous microbiota comprises all living skin microorganisms. There is increasing evidence that the microbiota plays a crucial role in skin homeostasis. Accordingly, a dysbiosis of the microbiota may trigger cutaneous inflammation. The need for a balanced microbiota requires specific regulatory mechanisms that control and shape the microbiota. In this review we highlight the present knowledge suggesting that antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) may exert a substantial influence on the microbiota by controlling their growth. This is supported by own data showing the differential influence of principal skin-derived AMPs on commensal staphylococci. Vice versa we also illuminate how the cutaneous microbiota interacts with skin-derived AMPs by modulating AMP expression and how microbiota members protect themselves from the antimicrobial activity of AMPs. Taken together, the current picture suggests that a fine-tuned and well-balanced AMP-microbiota interplay on the skin surface may be cr ucial for skin health. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.