Biomedical subjects

J M Bebko

Publications and source records attributed to J M Bebko.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1998

Language proficiency and the prediction of spontaneous rehearsal in children who are deaf.

This study was an investigation of the role of language proficiency and automatization of language skills in the use of spontaneous rehearsal strategies by children who are deaf. Thirty-one profoundly deaf children, 7 to 13 years old, were given a serial recall task, a test of language proficiency (the Language Proficiency Profile-I), and a rapid automatized naming (RAN) task. Similar to previous studies, when the data were examined by age, an apparent developmental lag was observed in the children's spontaneous use of a cumulative rehearsal strategy. Logistic regression analyses further demonstrated that age was actually a nonsignificant predictor of rehearsal use, but that both language proficiency and the automatization of language skills were highly significant predictors. In subsequent hierarchical analyses, automatized language was a partial mediator of the language proficiency --> rehearsal use relation. These results provided support for the view that automatization of language skills is an important and perhaps necessary contribution to the relation between language proficiency and rehearsal use, but that other additional aspects of language proficiency also affect the child's use of a strategy. These findings were discussed in relation to Cummins' (1984) model of language proficiency.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1996

Multiple method validation study of facilitated communication: II. Individual differences and subgroup results.

Potential individual variations in the effectiveness of a shared communication method, facilitated communication (FC), were examined among 20 students with autism and related disorders. To minimize the limits or disadvantages of a single method, we used multiple methods, including auditory or visual input, and simple pointing responses to pictures or words, as well as typing. Data were collected after 6 weeks of FC, and follow-up data up to 7 months later. Findings differed across methods, but there was little clear support for the validity of FC in enhancing communication over communication that students produced independently. Significant facilitator influence of responses was found, but was far less extensive than in other studies. However, an "abdication" pattern of responding was found for some students, in which high performance observed with independent responding was lessened on trials when FC was introduced. That is, these students may become more passive communicators when FC is used. The complex detected and undetected influences in the process of communication through facilitation are discussed, as well as risk factors in the use of FC.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1992

Recall performance on a central-incidental memory task by profoundly deaf children.

Bebko (1984) reported that deaf children tend not to use spontaneously active memory strategies such as rehearsal in tasks requiring recall of ordered, temporal information. The present study investigated whether this tendency is task specific or generalized to other experimental paradigms. A central-incidental paradigm was used with profoundly deaf children and hearing children 6 to 13 years of age. The results for the hearing students replicated previous studies: central recall increased with age, but incidental recall changed little. For the deaf children, the results initially appeared very similar to those of the hearing children. However, on closer examination, the rehearsal strategies of the deaf students seemed less effective in mediating their recall. They apparently compensated for these difficulties by capitalizing on unique spatial features of the task, leading to recall levels comparable to those of the hearing students. Therefore, similar performance may not have been the result of equal strategy use but, rather, of the use of additional strategies by the deaf students. This study reinforced the need to provide additional training for deaf students in the use of memory strategies such as rehearsal when information is to be remembered in a sequential manner.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

The language experience of deaf children: its relation to spontaneous rehearsal in a memory task.

This study was an investigation of whether the language history of deaf children is related to their delayed emergence of spontaneous memory strategy use. Use of rehearsal on a serial recall task was compared for 41 deaf (age 5 to 15 years) and 45 hearing (age 5 to 8 years) children. A lag of several years was noted in the emergence of spontaneous rehearsal for the deaf. Hierarchical discriminant function analysis showed language history to be a nearly perfect mediator of the relation between age and rehearsal use, effectively eliminating the lag in the emergence of rehearsal use. Increased language experience was hypothesized to be associated with automatization of language skills, and thus with decreased processing demands when language-based strategies are used.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1987

Parent and professional evaluations of family stress associated with characteristics of autism.

This study assessed the impact of various individual symptoms of autism on mothers and fathers, and professionals' accuracy in estimating parents' perceived stress levels. Mothers and fathers of 20 autistic children, and 20 therapists working with those children, independently rated the severity of common symptoms of autism in their child, and how stressful they found each symptom; therapists estimated parental stress. The autistic child's language and cognitive impairment were judged by all raters as most severe and stressful. In contrast with other studies, individual parents agreed on both symptom severity and degree of stress. Parents of older children judged symptom severity to be lower, but fathers reported a continued high level of stress. Professionals judged families as more stressed by the child symptoms than did families themselves. Implications for intervention and casework are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1984

Memory and rehearsal characteristics of profoundly deaf children.

This study examined whether a deficiency in spontaneous strategy use accounts for deaf children's verbal short-term memory performance. Various colors were presented for 3 s each, followed by a 15-s recall delay. The delay was either unfilled, or subjects were induced to rehearse or were prevented from rehearsing. Sixty-four deaf students from oral and total communication settings, 5 to 15 years of age, were tested. The spontaneous rehearsal of both deaf samples seemed to emerge later than the hearing sample's, and it was both inefficiently implemented and less effective in mediating recall than hearing children's. However, when rehearsal was prevented or was induced in all samples, the deaf recalled as well as, or better than, the hearing. Implications discussed include the need to compare both spontaneous and controlled strategy use in developmental memory studies, and the need to provide additional training for deaf children in the strategies of remembering, as opposed to the content material.

Adolescent↗