Visual Gesture-Based Character Recognition Systems for Design of Assistive Technologies for People With Special Necessities

In the present scenario, around 15% of the world's population experience some form of disability. So, there has been an enormous increase in the demand for assistive techniques for overcoming the restraints faced by people with physical impairments. More recently, gesture-based character recognition (GBCR) has emerged as an assistive tool of immense importance, especially for facilitating the needs of persons with special necessities. Such GBCR systems serve as a powerful mediator for communication among people having hearing and speech impairments. They can also serve as a rehabilitative aid for people with motor disabilities who cannot write with pen on paper, or face difficulty in using common human-machine interactive (HMI) devices. This chapter provides a glimpse of disability prevalence around the globe and particularly in India, emphasizes the importance of learning-based GBCR systems in practical education of differently-abled children, and highlights the novel research contributions made in this field.

Lyme Disease and Associated NMDAR Encephalitis: A Case Report and Literature Review

We present a case of a patient with positive N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) IgG antibodies in their serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) associated with neuroborreliosis. Clinically, the patient presented with symptoms of confusion, as well as behavioral and speech impairments. Regardless of antibacterial treatment, no significant improvement was achieved. Methylprednisolone provided a marked improvement in the patient’s clinical signs and CSF findings. The screening did not reveal any underlying neoplasm. Taking into account the marked clinical improvement after treatment with glucocorticosteroids, we suggest that NMDAR encephalitis is a possible autoimmune complication in neuroborreliosis patients requiring additional immunotherapy.

Similarity Learning for CNN-Based ASL Alphabet Recognition

Sign language is an important communication way to convey information among the deaf community, and it is primarily used by people who have hearing or speech impairments. Besides, sign language represents a direct Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI) similar to voice commands. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate and develop a system for American Sign Language (ASL) alphabet recognition using convolutional neural networks. Our proposal is based on semantic similarity learning using Siamese Convolutional Neural Network to reduce the intra-class variation and inter-class similarity among sign images in a Euclidean space. The results of the siamese architecture applied to the ASL alphabet dataset outperform previous works found in the literature. From these results, using t-SNE visualization, we demonstrate that our hypothesis is correct; the ASL recognition improves when increasing the similarity among encoding of the images belonging to the same class and reducing it otherwise.

Action bids in children with speech impairments

The paper illustrates a practice, which we have called ‘marking’, observed in play interactions between parents and children with Down syndrome (DS) aged 3–8 years. Markings are minimal turns that rely on prosody, embodied resources and indexicality to foreground events within an ongoing activity and convey a stance toward them. Markings can be both retrospective and prospective (i.e. referring to a just-occurred or an incipient event). As first pair parts, they are open action bids that prompt recipients to display their co-orientation towards the referent. Responses from parents (i.e. second markings) can take the form of repeats or expansions; after prospective marking the recipient can also add support to the incipient activity the child has marked. We discuss marking as the core constituent of a larger family of actions for ‘sharing noteworthiness’, but also as a designedly undetermined action bid with specific conversational uses for children and adults alike.

Participation in Regular Physical Activity According to the Type of Disability, Sex, Point of Disability Diagnosis, and Ability to Walk Independently in South Korea

This study aimed to compare rates of participation in physical activity according to the type of disability, sex, point of disability diagnosis (congenital vs. acquired), and ability to walk independently. The study involved individuals who were registered as disabled based on the 2020 Sports Survey for the Disabled project of the Korea Ministry of Health and Welfare. Participants (mean age: 49.94 ± 12.35 years) included those with physical disabilities (n = 889), visual impairments (n = 523), hearing/speech impairments (n = 412), intellectual disabilities (n = 561), and disabilities associated with brain lesions (n = 364). Rates of severe (100%) and congenital disability (65.95%) were highest in the intellectual disability group. Acquired disability was most frequent in the physical disability group (94.71%). The highest frequency of independent walking ability was observed in the hearing/speech impairment group (99.27%). The rate of participation in physical activity was significantly higher in the acquired (odds ratio [OR] = 1.46, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.12–1.87, p = 0.005) and independent walking (OR = 1.43, 95% CI = 1.11–1.84, p = 0.005) hearing/speech impairment groups than in the corresponding physical disability groups after adjusting for age, sex, and severity. Our findings highlight the need to promote physical activity for people with physical and intellectual disabilities based on the factors examined in this study.

Features of Vocabulary of Preschool Children with Speech Disorders

In this article, the author refers to studies devoted to the ontogeny of vocabulary development in preschool children. The article reveals the importance of vocabulary in the full development of speech in preschool age. The main value of the article is empirical research to identify the characteristics of vocabulary in preschoolers with speech impairments.

Personal characteristics and internal picture of the defect in disabled adults

The presented article describes the results of the study of the components of the internal picture of the defect and their relationship with personality traits in adults with deficient dysontogeny type (respondents with visual impairment, speech impairment, musculoskeletal system impairment, hearing impairment). At the theoretical level, an analysis of the possibilities of a defect to determine violations of personal development and personal changes is presented. We noted a greater number of connections in the group of people with visual impairments, and the least in the group of people with severe speech impairments. As a result of empirical analysis, correlations of personality traits and components of the internal picture of a defect in respondents of various nosological groups were revealed, and the influence of personality traits on the folding of structure of internal picture of the defect as a whole was determined. As a result of regression analysis, the influence of spontaneity and sensitivity on the physical and sensitive components in the group of persons with musculoskeletal disorders was revealed; anxiety on the physical and sensitive component of internal picture of the defect in the group of people with visual impairment. When considering the influence of personal characteristics on the components of the internal picture of the defect without reference to nosological groups, the main influence of spontaneity was revealed.

To the question about the features of the grammatic impairment of statement in children with bilingualism and speech disorders

Modern political and economic trends in the development of society have made certain adjustments to the system of domestic education, which, in turn, has led to the emergence of problems, the existence of which no one even suspected twenty years ago. One of these problems is teaching children in the state language in state schools, for whom the language of everyday communication is not Russian, but the language of one of the small peoples of the Russian Federation. When involved in the educational process, these children find themselves in a forced bilingualism system, which becomes a risk factor for learning difficulties. When two different languages are used in different situations, the dominant language system has a significant effect on the other, as a result of which they mix, the result of which is the child’s speech and language difficulties, the most noticeable of which are systemic errors in the grammatical structuring of the oral and, later, written utterance. In many respects, the grammatical problems of children with bilingualism intersect with the problems of grammatical design of speech by children with hearing and speech impairments, however, it is not possible to fully implement correctional and speech therapy approaches to overcoming grammatical disorders in the oral and written speech of children with bilingualism, since the violation is determined by other mechanisms.