THOMAS CAMPBELL AND CHRISTINE DOLLAGHAN
Dr. Thomas Campbell, executive director of the Callier Center, and Dr. Christine Dollaghan, a professor at Callier, are lead authors of an article examining the effects of traumatic brain injury in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.
Using the percentage of consonants correct-revised (PCC-R) metric, the researchers evaluated 56 children injured under the age of 11 over 12 monthly sessions, beginning when the child produced more than10 words. At each session, odds of normal-range PCC-R were compared in children injured at younger and older ages. The researchers then calculated correlations between final PCC-R and age at injury, injury mechanism, gender, maternal education, residence, treatment, Glasgow Coma Score and intact brain volume.
The PCC-Rs varied within and between children. The odds of normal-range PCC-R were significantly higher for children injured at a later age than the younger group. Over a 12-month period, severe traumatic brain injury had more adverse effects for children whose ages placed them in the most intensive phase of speech-language development than for children injured later.
Article: "Consonant Accuracy after Severe Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury: A Prospective Cohort Study"
JANA MUELLER AND CHRISTINE DOLLAGHAN
Jana Mueller, a doctoral student and Callier research assistant, and Dr. Christine Dollaghan, a professor at the Callier Center and the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS), are authors of an article in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research reviewing the accuracy of assessments for identifying executive function (EF) impairment in adults following acquired brain injury. Executive functions, which include crucial skills such as planning, reasoning and judgment, are frequently observed in adults after head injury, but there is little agreement concerning the most accurate measures for diagnosing EF deficits.
Electronic databases were searched for studies of executive function assessments in adults with acquired brain injury (ABI) that reported any of three values: likelihood ratios (LR); standardized group mean comparisons (d); or correlations among EF tests (r2).
The searches found 1,417 citations; after full texts of 129 articles were reviewed, 34 studies were found to report at least one value of interest. Nineteen positive and negative LRs, 114 d-values, and 104 correlations concerning a wide variety of EF measures were synthesized. Though some point estimates were in the clinically informative range, all confidence intervals extended beyond it.
The researchers concluded that strong evidence is lacking concerning diagnostic accuracy and concurrent validity of EF measures for adults with ABI. They recommended more studies aimed at improving the quality of evidence concerning EF tests.
Article: "A systematic review of assessments for identifying executive function impairment in adults with acquired brain injury"
© The University of Texas at Dallas | Campus Map | Comments or Questions?
