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NEWS:
Poll Shows Increases in Hearing, Speech, and Language Referrals,More Communication Challenges in Young Children
A new national poll of audiologists and speech-language pathologists who work with children ages birth to 5 years reveals that most respondents have experienced an increase in referrals for concerns about hearing, speech, and language delays or disorders over the past 2 years—a time marked by pandemic-related transformations in the lives of many young children. The poll was conducted by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), which is releasing its results today as Better Hearing and Speech Month begins.
“In addition to more requests for evaluations, our members have seen an increasing number of children with behavioral, social, and language difficulties—as well as more children with hearing loss that has gone undetected,” said 2023 ASHA President Robert Augustine, PhD, CCC-SLP. “However, we want to assure families that if they have concerns about their child’s communic
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New Study Shows Critical Importance of Hearing Care
The American Academy of Audiology endorsed the Medicare Audiology Access Improvement Act of 2023, bipartisan legislation introduced by U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Rand Paul (R-KY) and Charles Grassley (R-IA) that will provide seniors with more timely and robust access to services provided by audiologists.
The importance and timeliness of the re-introduced bill was reaffirmed this past week by an important study in the Lancet and a recent advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General (May 2023) about consequences of social isolation and loneliness. The study, Hearing intervention versus health education control to reduce cognitive decline in older adults with hearing loss in the USA (ACHIEVE): a multicentre, randomized controlled trial, showed that hearing intervention—hearing care by an audiologist along with the use of hearing aids in older adults at greater risk for dementia due t
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MU Researcher Finds Factors Linked With Chronic School Absenteeism
More than 7 million school-age children, or 16% of the student population, in the United States are missing at least 15 days of school during an academic year — an issue known as chronic absenteeism.
To identify the most common factors linked with chronic school absenteeism, Knoo Lee, a postdoctoral fellow in the University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing, analyzed survey results from the Minnesota Student Survey, which included responses from more than 120,000 Minnesota students in eighth, ninth and 11th grade.
In this anonymous, statewide, school-based survey, which is distributed to more than 100,000 public school students in Minnesota every three years, a myriad of questions broadly cover various topics, including the frequency of students missing school, school climate, bullying, out-of-school activities, emotional health and connections with school and family.
Using data-
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A Little Of This Goes A Long Way
Feeling guilty about taking that afternoon nap? Don’t be. Napping may be good for the brain, according to a new report.
The study, from researchers at University College London and the University of the Republic in Uruguay, found that regular napping may slow the rate at which the brain shrinks as we age. A larger brain volume is associated with better memory and thinking skills and a lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
For the study, published in the journal Sleep Health, researchers analyzed medical data from 378,932 men and women who were part of the UK Biobank, a large and ongoing health study of people in Britain. They ranged in age from 40 to 69.
The researchers used a technique called Mendelian randomization that helps to pinpoint the cause of a specific health outcome, in this case the effects of napping on the brain. They identified 97 snippets of DNA that predispos
