Normal children

In the present study attempts were made to compare the personality traits of parents of children with externalizing behavioral disorders and the normal group of  students. The research falls within the category of causal-comparative studies. 110 elementary school students (male and female) in Tabriz were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling. Neo personality inventory-revised (shortened version) was used to assess parents 'personality traits, and Achenbach Diagnostic Scale (Parents' Report Form) was used to collect real data and diagnose children's externalizing disorders. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) within the framework of SPSS-20 software. The results of this study indicate that children's behaviors arise from the behavioral and personality reactions of adults. The results indicate that there is a correlation between externalizing behavioral disorders of children and parents with high scores on neuroticism and extraversion. High flexibility, agreeableness and conscientiousness of parents were found to  not affect children's externalizing disorders.

The present study explored the effects of voicing and place of articulation on voice onset time (VOT) and fundamental frequency (F0) of onset of Persian oral plosives uttered by normal hearing (NH) and hearing-impaired (HI) children. Twenty-one NH children and twenty-one HI children matched for age and gender took part in this study. The participants were asked to repeat 36 CV words including all eight Persian plosives (/p/, /t/, /k/, /c/, /b/, /d/, /g/, /Ɉ/) in combination with the vowel /æ/. All syllables were recorded in a nearly sound-proof room using PRAAT Software. Independent samples t-test was used to compare the groups across gender. The results revealed: (a) HI children had higher VOT and F0 of onset values in nearly all aspects except for VOT and F0 onset of voiced plosives and F0 onset of alveolar and velar plosives; (b) both groups of girls had higher VOT values than boys did; (c) VOT is affected by the place of articulation and F0 is related to voiced-voiceless classification of plosives. Overall, NH children were able to distinguish and produce sounds more correctly, implying that HI children need further training. The study has implications for speech therapists, clinical linguists, and application designers to focus on speech sounds which are challenging for HI children to produce.