RESUMEN
Reading is a complex process that requires various simultaneous brain processes. One of the most common types of reading disorders is developmental dyslexia, and one of the objectives of speech therapy sessions for children with developmental dyslexia is to increase their auditory discrimination. One of the most commonly used Auditory Discrimination Tests (ADTs) is Wepman's Auditory Discrimination Test (WADT). It includes minimal pair words categorized by characteristics of vowels and consonants. The goal of this research is to design and implement a tactile stimulation device based on Wepman's test to increase auditory discrimination in children with developmental dyslexia in therapy sessions, so that while playing each word for the children, vibrational cues are presented to their left palm and fingers. The vibrational cues provided by 23 vibration motors can notify the child of the difference or similarity between the words. First, the device was evaluated by being applied on six female participants aged 6 to 8 with no hearing disabilities and no developmental dyslexia. Scores obtained from the healthy children showed that they can perceive the tactile function of the device. Then, function of the device was tested on 8-year-old twin girls with developmental dyslexia. The test was conducted as a controlled experiment. One of the twins participated in speech therapy treatment, while the other practiced with the device. During the study, three sessions were allocated to determine the baseline of auditory discrimination, three sessions to the intervention, and two sessions (the first, one week and the second, three weeks after the intervention sessions) to determine the children's auditory discrimination (follow-up). The analysis of trend variations and changes in mean showed that both the speech therapy and the intervention based on practicing with the device were effective in increasing children's auditory discrimination (Percentage of Non-overlapping Data = 100%). The results were stable three weeks after the intervention sessions. Therefore, using the device in speech therapy sessions can be useful and effective in improving auditory discrimination.
Asunto(s)
Discriminación en Psicología , Dislexia/rehabilitación , Retroalimentación Psicológica , Estimulación Física/instrumentación , Percepción del Habla , Niño , Enfermedades en Gemelos , Dislexia/psicología , Diseño de Equipo , Femenino , Mano , Humanos , Fonética , Estimulación Física/métodos , Lectura , Espectrografía del Sonido , Logopedia , VibraciónRESUMEN
In this study using Bayesian network method to learn the structure of effective connectivity among brain regions involved in a functional MRI. The approach is exploratory in the sense that it does not require a priori model as in the earlier approaches, such as the Structural Equation Modeling or Dynamic Causal Modeling, which can only affirm or refute the connectivity of a previously known anatomical model or a hypothesized model. The conditional probabilities that render the interactions among brain regions in Bayesian networks represent the connectivity in the complete statistical sense. This method is applicable even when the number of regions involved in the cognitive network is large or unknown. In this study, we demonstrated the present approach using synthetic data and fMRI data collected in attention to motion in the visual system task.