Economic gradient of onset of disability in India

Background Disability in India is associated with increasing non-communicable diseases, rising longevity, and increasing accidents and injuries. Though studies have examined prevalence, patterns, and socioeconomic correlates of disability, no attempt has been made in estimating age of onset of disability in India. Objective This paper investigates the economic gradient of age of onset of locomotor, visual, hearing, speech, mental retardation, mental illness, and other disabilities in India. Method We use nationally representative data of 106,894 disabled individuals from the 76th round of National Sample Survey (NSS), 2018. Descriptive statistics, kernel density, Kaplan-Meier survival curves, and linear regression models are used in the analysis. Result The disability rate in India was 2184 per 100,000 persons. The disability rate was highest for locomotor (1353) followed by hearing (296), visual (234), speech (228), mental retardation (158), and mental illness (131). Over 85% of mental retardation and 80% of speech disabilities occur at birth, while 82% of locomotor and 81% of visual disabilities occur after birth. Among those who had disability after birth, the median age for mental retardation was 2 years followed by mental illness (28 years), speech (29 years), locomotor (42 years), visual (55 years), and 56 years for hearing disability. Adjusting for socioeconomic covariates, the age of onset of locomotor and speech disabilities among the poorest individuals were 7 and 11 years earlier than the richest, respectively. Conclusion The economic gradient of onset of locomotive and speech disabilities are strong. The age of onset of disability was earliest for mental retardation followed by mental illness and speech disability.

Recast type, repair, and acquisition in AAC mediated interaction

The present study investigated the effects of different types of recasts and prompts on the rate of repair and spontaneous use of novel vocabulary by eight children with severe motor speech disabilities who used speech-generating technologies to communicate. Data came from 60 transcripts of clinical sessions that were part of a conversation-based intervention designed to teach them pronouns, verbs, and verb inflections. The results showed that, when presented alone, interrogative choice and declarative recasts led to the highest rates of child repair. The results also showed that when children were presented with recasts and prompts to repair, the rate of repair increased. Spontaneous use of linguistic targets was significantly and positively related to conversational sequences where the adult recast was followed by child repair. These findings suggest that using different recast types and prompts to repair may be beneficial for spontaneous use of linguistic targets in this population.

Daily activities of working individuals with hearing and speech disabilities

Introduction Disability is one of the factors that can lead to social exclusion and poverty of individuals with hearing and speech impairment. This is due to the fact that individuals with disabilities are often underestimated, in terms of their work and social skills. The employment of people with disabilities represents a powerful mechanism for achieving full participation of the marginalized groups in all spheres of society. Methods The study included a total of 40 people with hearing and speech disabilities, out of which 16 individuals were employed at DES d.o.o. Sarajevo and 24 at SINKRO d.o.o. Sarajevo. A combination of three questionnaires was used for assessing daily activities and their impact on the quality of life (QoL) of the individuals with hearing and speech disabilities. Results In the total sample, there were 35% males and 65% females. Complete deafness was observed in the majority of participants (90%), while the rest had either moderate (7.5%) or mild (2.5%) hearing impairment. A higher number of participants used sign language as the means of communication, compared to manual alphabet. About 17.5% of the participants used a cochlear implant or a hearing aid. Most of the individuals lived with a spouse (70%), 20% lived with their parents, 7.5% lived independently, and 2.5% lived with a guardian. The majority of the participants who were married had a child (57.5%). The average Ferrans and Powers' Quality of Life Index (QLI) was 19.33, and the average value for total daily activities was 11.700 MET. The average value for the level of physical activity in males was M = 13716.5 and in females M = 10613.56 (p > 0.05). Conclusions Overall, we showed that daily activities have a positive effect on the QoL of working individuals with hearing and speech disabilities, i.e., the individuals who had a higher level of physical activity also had a higher QoL.