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Background: The purpose of the present study is to compare central and peripheral refraction among children of 4-6 year-old user and non-user of smartphones and /or other electronic screens.
   Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 106 children aged 4-6 years were enrolled in two groups of user (56 children: 34 boys and 22 girls) and non-user (50 children: 30 girls and 20 boys) of smartphones and /or other electronic screens.
The user group used smartphones and /or other electronic screens for 1-3 hours a day for at least one year and non-user group either did not use these screens or used less than half an hour occasionally and not every day.
All children had visual acuity of at least 20/20 with or without correction and showed no other ocular or systemic diseases. Both groups were evaluated for central refraction and peripheral refraction up to 20° eccentricity in nasal and temporal directions and up to 10° eccentricity in superior direction using the Shin-Nippon K5001 autorefractometer. The outcome measures were compared with SPSS statistical software.
   Results: The findings showed no statistically significant difference in terms of central and peripheral refraction in superior, nasal and temporal eccentricities between the user and non-user groups (p>0.05).
   Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, it concludes that using smartphones and/or other electronic screens for 1-3 hours a day shows no effect on central and peripheral refraction in children with low range of refractive errors.

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Background and Objectives: Prematurity means that the baby is born before 37 months of age, which leads to various problems, including hearing defects. Timely detection of hearing loss with the help of tools that facilitate this identification, can have a significant impact on the child’s personal, social, and educational development. The aim of the present study was to achieve better responses using the chirp stimulus along with the click. The chirp stimulus can compensate for the time delay caused by low-frequency stimuli and increases the simultaneous presentation of high and low frequencies in the cochlea. Therefore, the morphology of the waves is improved, and the amplitude of responses increases; thus, the waves can be better identified despite the prematurity of the infants.
Methods: Eighy newborns were examined in four groups, which were divided into term and preterm groups based on gestational age (including late preterm, moderate, and very preterm). The intensity of the click and chirp stimuli was fixed at 40 and 80 dB. The amplitude and latency of waves I, III, and V, the inter-peak latencies of I-III, III-V, and I-V, as well as the ratio of the amplitude of wave V/I were among the compared parameters. It should be mentioned in tables paired t-test was used in cases marked with *. Wilcoxon test was used in other cases.
Results: The chirp stimulus mainly had less latency than the click stimulus and created a larger amplitude at a high intensity (80 dB). In the intensity close to the threshold, i.e. 40 dB, these findings were slightly different. The more developed the infants, the stronger the responses and the more effective the chirp stimulus in eliciting responses.
Conclusion: The chirp stimulus was more effective in obtaining multiple components of brainstem-evoked responses in infants, especially preterm infants, and investigating the status of their auditory system. The use of a higher sample size could lead to an increase in the growth of clinical use and better efficiency of diagnostic protocols and responses.
 

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Background and Objectives: Auditory processing (AP) takes place throughout the central auditory nervous system. Therefore, to correctly assess auditory processing disorder (APD), it is necessary to use a test battery so that each of these tests can evaluate specific auditory skills. Therefore, considering the importance of detecting children with APD, the Persian version of the multiple auditory processing assessment (MAPA-P) was used in the present study.
Methods: The study method was descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional. A total of 300 children aged 9-12 years old in equal numbers in both genders and at any age, from 7 primary schools in Arak City, Iran were enrolled. After ensuring the health of children’s peripheral hearing level, to check their central auditory system, the MAPA-P test battery was performed on laptops with headphones. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and independent t-test were used to analyze the results. The mean scores in each age group were calculated and finally, the prevalence of APD was determined based on the cut-off point of the whole test.
Results: The results showed that the mean scores in all 5 tests had a statistically significant difference in different age groups (P<0.0001), and the mean scores increased with age. Also, no significant difference was observed in the scores of any of the 5 tests between the two genders (P>0.05). The prevalence of APD in the school-age population was 5%.
Conclusion: According to the valid results of the MAPA model in many studies, the Persian version of this test battery has been introduced as a standardized test battery. In addition to covering the three crucial domains of AP, it can easily be used in a calm classroom using a CD-RAM. The results of the present study showed that 5% of the children were suspected of APD, which was consistent with the results of the other studies.
 

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Background and Objectives: Direct observation of procedural skills (DOPS) is one of the new methods of clinical evaluation that gives feedback about students’ clinical skills. The design and psychometrics of the DOPS test tool for the clinical assessments of speech therapy students in the evaluation of speech organs have been discussed.
Methods: In the current non-interventional descriptive study, 20 speech therapy students were selected from the Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences. The DOPS test related to the speech organs evaluation procedure and its evaluation checklist was prepared. After obtaining the consent and training, students and evaluators entered the study. The evaluators observed each student’s work with a real patient, and their judgments were recorded based on a structured checklist. Each of them was given feedback in the appropriate environment. Face validity, content, and inter-rater reliability were measured and reported.
Results: Face validity, including importance, clarity, and simplicity, was investigated for each item. The items’ impact scores for favorable face validity of >1.5 were included in the questionnaire. The content validity index for each item was over 0.8, and the content validity ratio was >0.62. All students have chosen the option of slightly satisfied to completely satisfied, and 70% have chosen the option of high satisfaction and complete satisfaction. None of the evaluators chose the options of no satisfaction to slightly satisfied. For inter-rater reliability, the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was calculated using the opinions of two evaluators, and the ICC value was 0.884 with a 95% confidence interval (0.708-0.954) (P<0.001). 
Conclusion: The results indicated good inter-rater agreement and reasonable reliability. According to this study, the use of DOPS to evaluate clinical skills in speech therapy students in evaluating speech organs has high validity and reliability.
 

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