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The statistical information that estimates the magnitude of communication disorders among Egyptian children is scarce. At Mansoura University, a prospective study was performed to identify communication disorders among nursery school children in Dakahlia governorate, Egypt to estimate the problem's size among Arabic-speaking Egyptian children (Gad-Allah et al., 2012). A cross-sectional descriptive research design was used to include 852 nursery school children (out of 59000 regularly attending the nursery school) aged between three and less than six years from urban and rural areas and governmental and private nurseries. Two structured questionnaire sheets were designed to identify different types of communication disorders from caregiver and teacher perspectives. [The page range cited (pp. 100-106) on the .pdf is incorrect. The correct page range is pp. 99-105.]

The academic achievement of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students depends on the interaction of many factors, including student and family characteristics and experiences inside and outside school. Several questionnaires have previously been designed for evaluating the listening skills of deaf English-speaking children in school environments. This study's objective was to validate an Arabic questionnaire to evaluate deaf Egyptian Arabic-speaking children's listening skills. The Arabic questionnaire for listening skills in the school environment was adapted by translating items from an English questionnaire into Arabic. The questionnaire was administered to 70 Arabic-speaking Egyptian children 7-12 years, including 30 children with typical hearing, 30 deaf children fitted with hearing aids, and ten deaf children with cochlear implants. Typical hearing children demonstrated the best performance with a non-significant difference between children who use cochlear implants and hearing aids. The degree of hearing loss and language therapy duration were the best predictors of deaf Egyptian children's listening skills. The adapted Arabic questionnaire is a valid and reliable functional assessment tool that can be used to evaluate and monitor Arabic-speaking deaf students' listening skills in the school environment.

Background: Deafness is the most common sensory impairment in human beings, with significant social and psychological implications. Several questionnaires were designed to evaluate the social and emotional abilities of English-speaking deaf children. This study's objective was to create Arabic questionnaires to assess the social abilities of Arabic-speaking Egyptian deaf children. Methods: Two Arabic questionnaires targeting social abilities were designed by selecting items from two English-based questionnaires and translating them into Arabic. The questionnaires were administered to 140 Egyptian children aged 3-12 years who were arranged into two age groups. They included 60 children with typical hearing, 60 deaf children fitted with hearing aids, and 20 children with cochlear implants. Results: Children with typical hearing showed the best performance with non-significant differences between cochlear implanted and hearing aided children. The best predictors of the social abilities of Egyptian deaf children were language age and severity of hearing loss. Conclusion: The designed Arabic questionnaires are valid and reliable functional assessment tools that can be used to evaluate and monitor the social performance of deaf children.

Purpose: This study aimed to develop a new bedside scoring system scale that assesses preterm infants' oral feeding skills (OFS) in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Methods: A literature review and critical appraisal of available oral feeding assessment tools/scores were performed. Subsequently, we developed the "Mansoura Early Feeding Skills Assessment" (MEFSA) scale, an 85-item observational measure of oral feeding skills with three main sections. Forty-one preterm infants who did not receive oral feeding but were clinically stable enough to initiate oral feeding were included in the study. Next, we applied and interpreted the MEFSA to describe and score their feeding skills. Results: Applying the MEFSA resulted in a smooth feeding transition, early start of oral feeding, full oral feeding, and discharge with a shorter period of tube feeding in preterm infants. Conclusion: The MEFSA is a successful bedside scoring system that assesses the OFS of preterm infants in the NICU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Pharyngeal residue, defined as the material remaining in the pharynx post-swallow, is a sign of swallowing biomechanical impairment and a clinical predictor of aspiration. This study investigates the correlation between pharyngeal residue severity using the Mansoura FEES Residue Rating Scale (MFRRS) and penetration/aspiration scores using the penetration-aspiration scale (PAS) on FEES. Methods: Two hundred ten (210) swallows were obtained during standard FEES assessments of thirty patients with poststroke dysphagia. Residue, in both vallecula and the pyriform sinuses' locations, and penetration/aspiration were scored using MFRRS and PAS, respectively. The Spearman's rank-order correlation was used to assess the correlation between residue and PAS scores. The significance of the obtained results was judged at the (p < 0.05) level. Results: Significant strong positive correlations were demonstrated between PAS scores and each vallecular residue score (rs = 0.663, p = 0.000) and pyriform residue score (rs = 0.688, p = 0.001). Conclusion: There is a significant strong positive correlation between residue severity and penetration/aspiration in each anatomical site evaluated (valleculae and pyriform sinuses). Our results do not designate one site as riskier than the other because either can contribute to aspiration, but rather demonstrate penetration/aspiration to better correlate with the overall severity of the residue, perhaps as a better marker for pharyngeal inefficiency. This study offers insight into the association of residue severity with swallowing safety and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Deafness is the most common sensory impairment in human beings, with significant social and psychological implications. Several questionnaires were designed to evaluate the social and emotional abilities of English-speaking deaf children. This study's objective was to create Arabic questionnaires to assess the social abilities of Arabic-speaking Egyptian deaf children. Methods: Two Arabic questionnaires targeting social abilities were designed by selecting items from two English-based questionnaires and translating them into Arabic. The questionnaires were administered to 140 Egyptian children aged 3–12 years who were arranged into two age groups. They included 60 children with typical hearing, 60 deaf children fitted with hearing aids, and 20 children with cochlear implants. Results: Children with typical hearing showed the best performance with non-significant differences between cochlear implanted and hearing aided children. The best predictors of the social abilities of Egyptian deaf children were language age and severity of hearing loss. Conclusion: The designed Arabic questionnaires are valid and reliable functional assessment tools that can be used to evaluate and monitor the social performance of deaf children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The academic achievement of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students depends on the interaction of many factors, including student and family characteristics and experiences inside and outside school. Several questionnaires have previously been designed for evaluating the listening skills of deaf English-speaking children in school environments. This study's objective was to validate an Arabic questionnaire to evaluate deaf Egyptian Arabic-speaking children's listening skills. The Arabic questionnaire for listening skills in the school environment was adapted by translating items from an English questionnaire into Arabic. The questionnaire was administered to 70 Arabic-speaking Egyptian children 7–12 years, including 30 children with typical hearing, 30 deaf children fitted with hearing aids, and ten deaf children with cochlear implants. Typical hearing children demonstrated the best performance with a non-significant difference between children who use cochlear implants and hearing aids. The degree of hearing loss and language therapy duration were the best predictors of deaf Egyptian children's listening skills. The adapted Arabic questionnaire is a valid and reliable functional assessment tool that can be used to evaluate and monitor Arabic-speaking deaf students' listening skills in the school environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this work was to design an anatomically based scale for judging post-swallow residue in the pharyngeal cavities, for use during the fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) in patients with dysphagia, and to assess its feasibility. Methods: Two 7-point ordinal scales (one for vallecular residue and one for pyriform sinus residue), were developed using detailed anatomic landmarks to denote residue levels. Hard copy color images of a specified frame, from 210 videos of 30 adult FEES evaluations demonstrating the range of all possible residue patterns, were selected (n = 56 valleculae, 62 pyriform sinuses). Half of these images were used to train 4 raters. The remaining half of the images were randomly ordered and rated by the trained raters. Two weeks later the same images were randomized again, and each rater re-analyzed them. The inter- and intra-rater reliability and criterion validity were determined using the kappa statistics and their standard errors. The internal consistency of the items in MFRRS was examined. Results: MFRRS showed strong inter-rater reliability (valleculae, κ = 0.832 ± 0.038; pyriform sinus, κ = 0.855 ± 0.034), almost perfect intra-rater reliability (valleculae, κ = 0.964 ± 0.018; pyriform sinus, κ = 0.962 ± 0.02), almost perfect concurrent validity (valleculae, κ = 0.968 ± 0.020; pyriform sinus, κ = 0.0971 ± 0.017), and excellent internal consistency (valleculae, Cronbach's α = 0.990; pyriform sinus, Cronbach's α = 0.985). Conclusion: MFRRS is a feasible and reliable, anatomically based tool that can provide more accurate pharyngeal residue judgments. The optimized description of residue accumulation patterns can contribute to a better overall description of the functional problem and future description of dysphagia phenotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phonological awareness (PA) is one of the most important components in the development of normal reading ability. It refers to the ability to detect and manipulate the sound structure of words independently of their meaning. The current study aimed to assess Arabic PA skills and the relation to word reading abilities in Egyptian Arabic-speaking children. The designed assessment was applied to 80 typically developing children, divided into two subgroups ranging in age from 5 years 6 months to 8 years 6 months. The design of assessment involved six PA tasks covering three levels: rhyme awareness, syllabic awareness, and phonemic awareness, as well as the assessment of reading abilities that include real word and nonsense word reading tasks. Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation), Student’sttests, and Pearson correlation coefficient tests were used to analyze the data. The reliability of the test was proven using the test–retest procedure. Validity of the test was estimated through internal consistency validity. The results revealed that the Arabic PA assessment test (APAAT) proved to be a reliable and valid tool for assessing Arabic reading skills. Findings from the study provided important insights into the developmental patterns of Arabic PA. In addition, the findings revealed a strong relationship between phonological awareness skills and the proficiency in word reading abilities in Arabic school-aged children. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]