News

Language acquisition is a complex process that requires different neural and cognitive skills from early childhood.

Below we share with you an exciting recent study from the University of Barcelona on babies' language acquisition. 

Summary: A new study reveals that prosody – rhythm, melodic stress, pitch, pauses – plays a fundamental role in babies’ language acquisition and cognitive development, improving their ability to identify distant grammatical regularities.

The study highlights the crucial impact of subtle pitch changes in processing statistical information in early childhood and sheds light on the role of prosody in language acquisition.

Source: University of Barcelona

Prosodic cues increase infants' sensitivity to non-adjacent regularities

In language, grammatical dependencies often hold between items that are not immediately adjacent to each other. Acquiring these nonadjacent dependencies is crucial for learning grammar.

However, there are potentially infinitely many dependencies in the language input. How does the infant brain solve this computational learning problem?

Here, we demonstrate that while rudimentary sensitivity to nonadjacent regularities may be present relatively early, robust and reliable learning can only be achieved when convergent statistical and perceptual, specifically prosodic cues, are both present, helping the infant brain detect the building blocks that form a nonadjacent dependency.


This study contributes to our understanding of the neural foundations of rule learning that pave the way for language acquisition.

We found the original text on 27.04.2023 at

https://neurosciencenews.com/language-babies-prosody-23115/

As this is an external link, MediTECH has no influence on its accessibility. 

Listening to Music During Pregnancy Benefits Baby Brain’s Ability to Encode Speech Sounds

Below we share with you an exciting recent study by the University of Barcelona on prenatal development and how children can be "nurtured" while still in the womb. We are not talking about targeted, elaborate programmes. Rather, expectant mothers can do something good quite incidentally:

Summary: Exposure to music or the sound of the mother singing while in the womb was associated with better neural encoding of speech sounds in infants.

Source: University of Barcelona

Prenatal daily musical exposure is associated with enhanced neural representation of speech fundamental frequency: Evidence from neonatal frequency‐following responses

Fetal hearing experiences shape the linguistic and musical preferences of neonates. From the very first moment after birth, newborns prefer their native language, recognize their mother’s voice, and show a greater responsiveness to lullabies presented during pregnancy. Yet, the neural underpinnings of this experience inducing plasticity have remained elusive.

Here we recorded the frequency-following response (FFR), an auditory evoked potential elicited to periodic complex sounds, to show that prenatal music exposure is associated to enhanced neural encoding of speech stimuli periodicity, which relates to the perceptual experience of pitch.

FFRs were recorded in a sample of 60 healthy neonates born at term and aged 12–72 hours. The sample was divided into two groups according to their prenatal musical exposure (29 daily musically exposed; 31 not-daily musically exposed).

Prenatal exposure was assessed retrospectively by a questionnaire in which mothers reported how often they sang or listened to music through loudspeakers during the last trimester of pregnancy. The FFR was recorded to either a /da/ or an /oa/ speech-syllable stimulus. Analyses were centered on stimuli sections of identical duration (113 ms) and fundamental frequency (F0 = 113 Hz).

Neural encoding of stimuli periodicity was quantified as the FFR spectral amplitude at the stimulus F0. Data revealed that newborns exposed daily to music exhibit larger spectral amplitudes at F0 as compared to not-daily musically-exposed newborns, regardless of the eliciting stimulus.

Our results suggest that prenatal music exposure facilitates the tuning to human speech fundamental frequency, which may support early language processing and acquisition..

We found the original text on 12.04.2023 under

https://neurosciencenews.com/pregnancy-music-speech-22997/

Since this is an external link, MediTECH has no influence on its accessibility. 

How the Mother’s Mood Influences Her Baby’s Ability to Speak

Below we share with you an exciting recent study by the Max Planck Institute on early childhood development and how much it can be influenced by the emotional state of the mother immediately after birth:

Summary: Children of mothers who experience more negative moods as a result of postpartum depression during the first two months of their child’s life have less mature processing of speech sounds at the age of six months.

Source: Max-Planck-Institut

Up to 70 percent of mothers develop postnatal depressive mood, also known as baby blues, after their baby is born. Analyses show that this can also affect the development of the children themselves and their speech. Until now, however, it was unclear exactly how this impairment manifests itself in early language development in infants.

In a study, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig have now investigated how well babies can distinguish speech sounds from one another depending on their mother’s mood.

This ability is considered an important prerequisite for the further steps towards a well-developed language. If sounds can be distinguished from one another, individual words can also be distinguished from one another.

It became clear that if mothers indicate a more negative mood two months after birth, their children show on average a less mature processing of speech sounds at the age of six months. The infants found it particularly difficult to distinguish between syllable-pitches.

Specifically, they showed that the development of their so-called Mismatch Response was delayed than in those whose mothers were in a more positive mood. This Mismatch Response in turn serves as a measure of how well someone can separate sounds from one another.

If this development towards a pronounced mismatch reaction is delayed, this is considered an indication of an increased risk of suffering from a speech disorder later in life.

“We suspect that the affected mothers use less infant-directed-speech,” explains Gesa Schaadt, postdoc at MPI CBS, professor of development in childhood and adolescence at FU Berlin and first author of the study, which has now appeared in the journal JAMA Network Open.

“They probably use less pitch variation when directing speech to their infants.” This also leads to a more limited perception of different pitches in the children, she said. This perception, in turn, is considered a prerequisite for further language development.

The results show how important it is that parents use infant-directed speech for the further language development of their children. Infant-directed speech that varies greatly in pitch, emphasizes certain parts of words more clearly – and thus focuses the little ones’ attention on what is being said – is considered appropriate for children. Mothers, in turn, who suffer from depressive mood, often use more monotonous, less infant-directed speech.

 

“To ensure the proper development of young children, appropriate support is also needed for mothers who suffer from mild upsets that often do not yet require treatment,” Schaadt says. That doesn’t necessarily have to be organized intervention measures. “Sometimes it just takes the fathers to be more involved.”

Notes: The researchers investigated these relationships with the help of 46 mothers who reported different moods after giving birth. Their moods were measured using a standardized questionnaire typically used to diagnose postnatal upset. They also used electroencephalography (EEG), which helps to measure how well babies can distinguish speech sounds from one another.

The so-called Mismatch Response is used for this purpose, in which a specific EEG signal shows how well the brain processes and distinguishes between different speech sounds.

The researchers recorded this reaction in the babies at the ages of two and six months while they were presented with various syllables such as “ba,” “ga” and “bu”.

About this language development research news

• Author: : Verena Müller

• Source: Max-Planck-Institut

• Contact: Verena Müller - Max-Planck-Institut  

• “Association of Postpartum Maternal Mood With Infant Speech Perception at 2 and 6.5 Months of Age” by Gesa Schaadt et al. JAMA Network Open
  

Abstract

Association of Postpartum Maternal Mood With Infant Speech Perception at 2 and 6.5 Months of Age

Importance  

Language development builds on speech perception, with early disruptions increasing the risk for later language difficulties. Although a major postpartum depressive episode is associated with language development, this association has not been investigated among infants of mothers experiencing a depressed mood at subclinical levels after birth, even though such a mood is frequently present in the first weeks after birth. Understanding whether subclinical depressed maternal mood after birth is associated with early language development is important given opportunities of coping strategies for subclinical depressed mood.

Objective  

July 25, 2022

Stress Increases Beliefs That Underlie Disorders and Conspiracy Theories

To examine whether depressed maternal mood at subclinical levels 2 months after birth is associated with infant speech perception trajectories from ages 2 to 6.5 months

Design, Setting, and Participants  

In this longitudinal cohort study conducted between January 1, 2018, and October 31, 2019, 46 healthy, monolingual German mother-infant dyads were tested. The sample was recruited from the infants database of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences. Initial statistical analysis was performed between January 1 and March 31, 2021; the moderation analysis (results reported herein) was conducted between July 1 and July 31, 2022.

Exposures  

Mothers reported postpartum mood via the German version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (higher scores indicated higher levels of depressed mood, with a cutoff of 13 points indicating a high probability of clinical depression) when their infants were 2 months old.

Main Outcomes and Measures  

Electrophysiological correlates of infant speech perception (mismatch response to speech stimuli) were tested when the infants were aged 2 months (initial assessment) and 6.5 months (follow-up).

Results

A total of 46 mothers (mean [SD] age, 32.1 [3.8] years) and their 2-month-old children (mean [SD] age, 9.6 [1.2] weeks; 23 girls and 23 boys) participated at the initial assessment, and 36 mothers (mean [SD] age, 32.2 [4.1] years) and their then 6.5-month-old children (mean [SD] age, 28.4 [1.5 weeks; 18 girls and 18 boys) participated at follow-up. Moderation analyses revealed that more depressed maternal subclinical postpartum mood (mean [SD] Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale score, 4.8 [3.6]) was associated with weaker longitudinal changes of infants’ electrophysiological brain responses to syllable pitch speech information from ages 2 to 6.5 months (coefficient: 0.68; 95% CI, 0.03-1.33; P = .04).

Conclusions and Relevance   

The results of this cohort study suggest that infant speech perception trajectories are correlated with subclinical depressed mood in postpartum mothers. This finding lays the groundwork for future research on early support for caregivers experiencing depressed mood to have a positive association with children’s language development.

We found the original text on 11.10.2022 under

https://neurosciencenews.com/mother-mood-child-language-21591/

Since this is an external link, MediTECH has no influence on its accessibility. 

Education as a leading German resource increasingly in short supply

Berlin (dpa) - Elementary school children in Germany increasingly have math and German problems and have fallen behind significantly in their competencies in a ten-year comparison. This is shown by a study presented on Friday by the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (KMK), which examines the status of fourth graders in a representative manner at five-year intervals. Closed schools in the Corona pandemic are partly to blame, according to the KMK. However, experts also see other reasons.

At nearly 1,500 schools across Germany, about 27,000 fourth graders were tested between April and August 2021 - in reading, listening, spelling and math. Compared to the last survey in 2016, the competence declines corresponded to about a third of a school year in reading, and a quarter in spelling and math, according to the study. Compared with 2011, the shortfalls are even around half a school year.

Education as a leading German resource increasingly in short supply

Everywhere, the results have deteriorated. It is particularly striking in spelling: less than half of the fourth graders (44 percent) achieved the "regular standard" here, i.e., what is expected on average of students at this age, and almost a third (30 percent) failed to meet the "minimum standard" - meaning that almost one in three elementary school students in the fourth grade makes so many spelling mistakes that they do not meet the defined minimum requirements. In reading, listening and math, about one in five did not reach the minimum standards.

Crucial foundations for successful learning and passing in the classroom can be built and strengthened with the Warnke® process: Brain-Boy®, Lateral-Training and Orthofix® specifically promote important skills in the areas of perception, listening comprehension and language. Through the HEG-Neurofeedback
can also be used to train attention and concentration.

You can find the complete article of the Süddeutsche Zeitung here: (available just in German)

https://www.sueddeutsche.de/dpa/dpa-dpa.urn-newsml-dpa-com-20090101-220701-99-877613

A similar report was published in the Tagesschau. You can find this article from Tagesschau.de here: 

https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/lesen-rechnen-grundschueler-lernen-101.html

New directions in comparative hearing instrument fitting

New ways in comparative hearing instrument fitting

AUDECOM offers a remedy here, with which you can change the comparative hearing system fitting in a simple, objectively oriented way and thus make your work more effective and smoother
 

The intelligent hearing aid comparison with AUDECOM has new features in version 1.0.37.

• Sound examples can now be selected faster and directly one after the other.

• The Signia manufacturer package has been updated.

• The sound card driver can now be adjusted more comfortable.

Online-Seminar with Dr. René Mayer-Pelinski (Dipl.-Psych.)  

Dear friends of MediTECH,

In a 1-hour online seminar, Dr. René Mayer-Pelinski from the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden would like to explain the theoretical and practical applications and background of the SCP sensor in more detail. 

This online seminar is about the Slow Cortical Potentials as a special neurofeedback training. During SCP training, participants learn to switch between an activated/aware state and a deactivated/relaxed state by modulating their SCPs in the direction of more negative or positive amplitudes. Appropriate SCP neurofeedback protocols are used in everyday clinical practice as well as at peak power levels. This webinar provides a practical insight. 

After a short and compact introduction to the background and application areas of SCP neurofeedback in everyday therapeutic practice, you will experience in this online seminar how an SCP neurofeedback session with the Infiniti system is prepared, instructed and conducted. You will get to know and appreciate SCP Neurofeedback as a wonderful addition to your existing biofeedback and neurofeedback instruments. SCP is not only successfully used for patients with attention and concentration problems; SCP neurofeedback can also effectively support you and your patients in the treatment of epilepsy or tinnitus. You can look forward to the contents of this free training course! 

·          your speaker : 

René Mayer-Pelinski., Dr.rer.nat., Dipl.-Psych.,

• is a licensed psychotherapist in patient care  

•  integrates a variety of evidence-based methods in his practice,                   

   including biofeedback, neurofeedback and psychotherapeutic approaches                                

•  daist works in clinical research, speaker and reviewer

•  in addition, in outpatient and inpatient acute psychiatric care, where he treats people with various disorders and problems (including suicidal tendencies, emotional instability)    

                         

                         

•  obtained his diploma in psychology at the TU-Greifswald:          

   Main focus was clinical and biological psychology (EEG/ EKP)  

• In particular he dealt with the collection and evaluation of  

   Biosignals (EEG, EMG, EDA and later Eye-Movements)     

•  PhD at the TU-Dresden          

-  deepened there further in clinical psychology  

           -  completed a behavioral therapy training (DGVT-A, Dresden) 

Data and facts about the event

·         referent: Herr Dr. René Mayer-Pelinski

·         date: 06.10.2020

·          Schedule: 19 h to 20 h 

·           event takes place online                                  statt.

The participation is free of charge for you.   

Jnow register here for free!    Registration

Development of integrated digital business processes in a medical technology company.       

This project is supported by the European Regional Development Fund.

www.europa-fuer-niedersachsen.de

–   Possibility of issuing 3-month licenses

–   orthofix® flatrate for practices and schools - optional 3-month licenses for students by partner institutions 
–  3-month licenses include both GERMAN and ENGLISH

–  Parallel display of the word translation during the spelling training

–  Easy setup of new trainers directly in the main screen

–  No longer preselected demo client

–  New option for creating your own vocabulary: Word selection now available with MINIMUM and MAXIMUM word length
–  New option for creating your own vocabulary: Search function with proportional word input for quick finding and selecting desired training words

Even in times of Corona, new partnerships can be established: With Bioland Technology Corporation MediTECH has gained a new committed partner in Hong Kong. The professional communication and product presentation is off to a promising start: MediBalance is now also described and made known in Chinese. and made known in Chinese:

https://www.bioland.com.tw/news_detail/11.htm

Due to the corona crisis, the organisers cancelled the trade fairs in March in Berlin and also in May in Vienna.

The compact course on the Warnke-Method in Vienna, which was planned for March, was postponed. A catch-up course is planned for 24 - 28 August in Leoben near Graz (Styria in Austria). Are you interested in the training course as a trainer for leaning enhancement? Then don't miss this event, where you will learn the contents of three two-day courses in five days, compressed and free of repetitions ... and that in the beautiful region of Styria. .

After one of the fundamental books by Fred Warnke "The Pulse of the brain" was temporarily out of stock, it is now available again. It describes the basics and requirements of good central hearing on the one hand in connection with reading and spelling skills on the other. 

Mehr über das Buch erfahren Sie in unserem Shop.

We are in business vacation in the periode of the 21st December 2019 til the 5th January 2020.

During this time you can send us messages by fax, e-mail or answering machine text, which we will be happy to process immediately from 6 January 2020.

From 6 January 2020 we will be personally available for you again and look forward to many contacts and a lively exchange.

Fitness for hearing and brain: The Hörfitness®-App    

With Hörfitness®, the hearing care professionals network oton & friends and the technology company MediTECH have developed a holistic, app-based fitting concept based on the interlocking and expansion of two successful systems: The axone hearing therapy® and the hörFit® hearing training. For hearing care professionals, the concept offers new opportunities to position themselves in the competitive arena and to stand out positively in the interest of the customer.

 

One year after the launch of Hörfitness®, one thing is certain: the concept keeps its promises. "Although hearing loss due to aging cannot be completely avoided, its consequences on hearing comprehension in everyday life can be measurably influenced by Hörfitness® Training," explains Ralph Warnke, Managing Director of MediTECH Electronic GmbH.

With Hörfitness® oton & friends GmbH and MediTECH Electronic GmbH present a scientifically based fitting concept that sets new standards in hearing health and provides solutions for the main interference factor in hearing aid supply: The acceptance of hearing aids. Since many people do not go to the hearing care professional until very late in life, hearing perception in the brain is often already severely impaired. As a result, a hearing aid is initially perceived as unpleasant because noise cannot be successfully blocked out and the 'new' sounds can no longer be properly classified.

With the app, the customer can train his hearing with targeted exercises and has the chance to train his neural abilities in auditory perception. The app serves as a personal trainer and accompanies the user through the entire process. A 14-day hearing therapy to activate the hearing processing is followed by a one-year neural hearing training for hearing retention. In this way, it is possible to noticeably improve hearing within a very short time with the help of a hearing aid. The best thing about it: The app is available anywhere and anytime for hearing training on your own smartphone or tablet - whether at home, on vacation or on the road. With the Hörfitness® concept, the customer is also much more involved in the fitting process than before. This improves the acceptance of the hearing care, strengthens the customer relationship and promotes the success of the fitting.

Hörfitness® is deliberately aimed at all people who care about their hearing, regardless of age. Hörfitness® translates the scientific findings on the course of hearing loss and the gradual breakdown of brain cells responsible for understanding speech into an app solution that is easy to use and attractive for the client. This offers hearing care professionals new opportunities in addressing younger target groups as well as in the areas of exclusivity and local marketing. To position oneself more actively than the competition, to reach new target groups and to be able to offer customers a convincing and sustainable solution to promote their own hearing health - this is a major key to success in hearing acoustics today.

More information: https://www.hoerfitness.de/

Mehr zu der Pressemitteilung finden Sie here.

AUTRIS-2 - playfully creating linguistic competence

The acoustic strategic game is now also available for WINDOWS 10.  you can train certain auditory-motor skills in the areas of cognition and behavioural... and linguistic competence with the help of this game and without being aware of it.

During the playing process, the user has the task of bringing four auditory stimuli into a given spatial and temporal order. For this purpose, he receives four acoustic signals, e.g. one to four in a disordered sequence. By skilfully pressing the keys on the screen with the mouse, the user can restore the correct order. Depending on the user's age and training status, 50 different levels of difficulty can be selected. Training with AUTRIS-2 is therefore suitable for every user, especially for improving the most essential sub-functions of the central automation skills. 

In addition, the coordination between the two hemispheres of the brain is used for training, as stimuli perceived from different directions must be evaluated by the brain. Other skills that are trained "on the side" are for example: 

• Attention

• Differentiation and selection

• Direction determination and pitch discrimination

• Pattern recognition
  

 

• Memorization

• Fine motor skills through targeted pressure of the mouse buttons

• Computer control

The program is delivered on a CD-ROM.

Original article NEUROSCIENCE NEWS 2019-01-29 
  

Abstract: Researchers discovered that babies are able to pick words from language starting at the age of three days using fNIRS. 

Source: University of Manchester. 

Newborn babies are born with the inbuilt skills to pick out words from language.  The international research team discovered two mechanisms in 3-day-old infants that give them the ability to pick out words in a sound stream. The discovery provides an important insight into a first step towards language learning. 

The study, published in the journal Developmental Science, is a collaboration between the researchers from SISSA in Italy, the Neurospin Centre in France, the University of Liverpool and the University of Manchester funded by the European Research Council. 

One of the mechanisms discovered by the team is the so-called prosody - the melody of language that allows us to recognize when a word begins and ends. Another mechanism, as they call it the statistics of language, which describes how we calculate the frequency with which sounds come together in a word. Dr. Alissa Ferry from the University of Manchester adds: "We think this study shows how sensitive newborns really are and how much information they absorb." "This is very important for new parents and gives them an insight into how their baby listens to them," says Dr. Alissa Ferry. "Language is incredibly complicated and this study is about understanding how babies try to make sense of it when they hear it for the first time." 

"We often think that language is made up of words, but words often blend together when we speak. So one of the first steps in learning language is to pick the words. "Our study shows that at the age of only 3 days, they are able to pick out individual words from the language without understanding what it means." And we have identified two important tools, which is almost certainly inbuilt and gives the  newborns ability to do this." 

By using a pain-free technique called near-infrared spectroscopy, which enlightens the function of the brain, they could measure how much was absorbed and which parts of the brain were active.HEG system offered by MediTECHBased on NIRS technology, this enables simple derivation of prefrontal brain activity, for example to record and train attentional performance.

 

The Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has published information on funding and facilitating opportunities for people with disabilities in a series of brochures. Most of them are available on our partner portal.  .

On 1.1.2017 our new Network Partner Model has officially started. Use the countless opportunities and become a network partner.

Due to the positive response to the Partners and Friends Day in 2015, once again we are pleased to offer a similar event. You will be surprised - a series of interesting short presentations are waiting for you again. You will have the whole day to get to know the new equipments and methods in a pleasant and friendly atmosphere. And even learn helpful tips and tricks about the equipment and ask all the questions you come across while working with the equipments. 

Sign up now: Registration for the Partner and Friends Day

Hint: On the following day there will be introductory courses on the Warnke procedure and on biofeedback/neurofeedback. Take this opportunity - Whether in combination with the Partners and Friends Day or not - to support people on their way to better perception with these two fundamental methods. 

Registration for the Warnke trial course orr Biofeedback/Neurofeedback taster course (7.5.2017)

Take a look at our new online shop. Do you miss one of our products you are familiar with? Please do not hesitate to contact us. We offer a wider range of products than what you can see on the Internet. We will be happy to give you advice.

With the new design of our website you can now conveniently participate in our seminars online. You can find the courses under https://www.meditech.de/event Whether you register by fax, telephone or online -  We look forward to meeting you personally at an exciting and certainly helpful event to support your work.  https://www.meditech.de/event Egal ob Sie sich per Fax, telefonisch oder online anmelden - wir freuen uns, Sie als unsere Gäste bei einer interessanten und sicherlich für Ihre Arbeit hilfreichen Veranstaltung begrüßen zu können.

MediBalance Pro distribution partner Zukor will distribute the professional sports balancing system in North and South America from 2016.

Listening to Music During Pregnancy Benefits Baby Brain’s Ability to Encode Speech Sounds

Below we share with you an exciting recent study by the University of Barcelona on prenatal development and how children can be "nurtured" while still in the womb. We are not talking about targeted, elaborate programmes. Rather, expectant mothers can do something good quite incidentally:

Summary: Exposure to music or the sound of the mother singing while in the womb was associated with better neural encoding of speech sounds in infants.

Source: University of Barcelona

Prenatal daily musical exposure is associated with enhanced neural representation of speech fundamental frequency: Evidence from neonatal frequency‐following responses

Fetal hearing experiences shape the linguistic and musical preferences of neonates. From the very first moment after birth, newborns prefer their native language, recognize their mother’s voice, and show a greater responsiveness to lullabies presented during pregnancy. Yet, the neural underpinnings of this experience inducing plasticity have remained elusive.

Here we recorded the frequency-following response (FFR), an auditory evoked potential elicited to periodic complex sounds, to show that prenatal music exposure is associated to enhanced neural encoding of speech stimuli periodicity, which relates to the perceptual experience of pitch.

FFRs were recorded in a sample of 60 healthy neonates born at term and aged 12–72 hours. The sample was divided into two groups according to their prenatal musical exposure (29 daily musically exposed; 31 not-daily musically exposed).

Prenatal exposure was assessed retrospectively by a questionnaire in which mothers reported how often they sang or listened to music through loudspeakers during the last trimester of pregnancy. The FFR was recorded to either a /da/ or an /oa/ speech-syllable stimulus. Analyses were centered on stimuli sections of identical duration (113 ms) and fundamental frequency (F0 = 113 Hz).

Neural encoding of stimuli periodicity was quantified as the FFR spectral amplitude at the stimulus F0. Data revealed that newborns exposed daily to music exhibit larger spectral amplitudes at F0 as compared to not-daily musically-exposed newborns, regardless of the eliciting stimulus.

Our results suggest that prenatal music exposure facilitates the tuning to human speech fundamental frequency, which may support early language processing and acquisition..

We found the original text on 12.04.2023 under

https://neurosciencenews.com/pregnancy-music-speech-22997/

Since this is an external link, MediTECH has no influence on its accessibility. 

How the Mother’s Mood Influences Her Baby’s Ability to Speak

Below we share with you an exciting recent study by the Max Planck Institute on early childhood development and how much it can be influenced by the emotional state of the mother immediately after birth:

Summary: Children of mothers who experience more negative moods as a result of postpartum depression during the first two months of their child’s life have less mature processing of speech sounds at the age of six months.

Source: Max-Planck-Institut

Up to 70 percent of mothers develop postnatal depressive mood, also known as baby blues, after their baby is born. Analyses show that this can also affect the development of the children themselves and their speech. Until now, however, it was unclear exactly how this impairment manifests itself in early language development in infants.

In a study, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig have now investigated how well babies can distinguish speech sounds from one another depending on their mother’s mood.

This ability is considered an important prerequisite for the further steps towards a well-developed language. If sounds can be distinguished from one another, individual words can also be distinguished from one another.

It became clear that if mothers indicate a more negative mood two months after birth, their children show on average a less mature processing of speech sounds at the age of six months. The infants found it particularly difficult to distinguish between syllable-pitches.

Specifically, they showed that the development of their so-called Mismatch Response was delayed than in those whose mothers were in a more positive mood. This Mismatch Response in turn serves as a measure of how well someone can separate sounds from one another.

If this development towards a pronounced mismatch reaction is delayed, this is considered an indication of an increased risk of suffering from a speech disorder later in life.

“We suspect that the affected mothers use less infant-directed-speech,” explains Gesa Schaadt, postdoc at MPI CBS, professor of development in childhood and adolescence at FU Berlin and first author of the study, which has now appeared in the journal JAMA Network Open.

“They probably use less pitch variation when directing speech to their infants.” This also leads to a more limited perception of different pitches in the children, she said. This perception, in turn, is considered a prerequisite for further language development.

The results show how important it is that parents use infant-directed speech for the further language development of their children. Infant-directed speech that varies greatly in pitch, emphasizes certain parts of words more clearly – and thus focuses the little ones’ attention on what is being said – is considered appropriate for children. Mothers, in turn, who suffer from depressive mood, often use more monotonous, less infant-directed speech.

 

“To ensure the proper development of young children, appropriate support is also needed for mothers who suffer from mild upsets that often do not yet require treatment,” Schaadt says. That doesn’t necessarily have to be organized intervention measures. “Sometimes it just takes the fathers to be more involved.”

Notes: The researchers investigated these relationships with the help of 46 mothers who reported different moods after giving birth. Their moods were measured using a standardized questionnaire typically used to diagnose postnatal upset. They also used electroencephalography (EEG), which helps to measure how well babies can distinguish speech sounds from one another.

The so-called Mismatch Response is used for this purpose, in which a specific EEG signal shows how well the brain processes and distinguishes between different speech sounds.

The researchers recorded this reaction in the babies at the ages of two and six months while they were presented with various syllables such as “ba,” “ga” and “bu”.

About this language development research news

• Author: : Verena Müller

• Source: Max-Planck-Institut

• Contact: Verena Müller - Max-Planck-Institut  

• “Association of Postpartum Maternal Mood With Infant Speech Perception at 2 and 6.5 Months of Age” by Gesa Schaadt et al. JAMA Network Open
  

Abstract

Association of Postpartum Maternal Mood With Infant Speech Perception at 2 and 6.5 Months of Age

Importance  

Language development builds on speech perception, with early disruptions increasing the risk for later language difficulties. Although a major postpartum depressive episode is associated with language development, this association has not been investigated among infants of mothers experiencing a depressed mood at subclinical levels after birth, even though such a mood is frequently present in the first weeks after birth. Understanding whether subclinical depressed maternal mood after birth is associated with early language development is important given opportunities of coping strategies for subclinical depressed mood.

Objective  

July 25, 2022

Stress Increases Beliefs That Underlie Disorders and Conspiracy Theories

To examine whether depressed maternal mood at subclinical levels 2 months after birth is associated with infant speech perception trajectories from ages 2 to 6.5 months

Design, Setting, and Participants  

In this longitudinal cohort study conducted between January 1, 2018, and October 31, 2019, 46 healthy, monolingual German mother-infant dyads were tested. The sample was recruited from the infants database of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences. Initial statistical analysis was performed between January 1 and March 31, 2021; the moderation analysis (results reported herein) was conducted between July 1 and July 31, 2022.

Exposures  

Mothers reported postpartum mood via the German version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (higher scores indicated higher levels of depressed mood, with a cutoff of 13 points indicating a high probability of clinical depression) when their infants were 2 months old.

Main Outcomes and Measures  

Electrophysiological correlates of infant speech perception (mismatch response to speech stimuli) were tested when the infants were aged 2 months (initial assessment) and 6.5 months (follow-up).

Results

A total of 46 mothers (mean [SD] age, 32.1 [3.8] years) and their 2-month-old children (mean [SD] age, 9.6 [1.2] weeks; 23 girls and 23 boys) participated at the initial assessment, and 36 mothers (mean [SD] age, 32.2 [4.1] years) and their then 6.5-month-old children (mean [SD] age, 28.4 [1.5 weeks; 18 girls and 18 boys) participated at follow-up. Moderation analyses revealed that more depressed maternal subclinical postpartum mood (mean [SD] Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale score, 4.8 [3.6]) was associated with weaker longitudinal changes of infants’ electrophysiological brain responses to syllable pitch speech information from ages 2 to 6.5 months (coefficient: 0.68; 95% CI, 0.03-1.33; P = .04).

Conclusions and Relevance   

The results of this cohort study suggest that infant speech perception trajectories are correlated with subclinical depressed mood in postpartum mothers. This finding lays the groundwork for future research on early support for caregivers experiencing depressed mood to have a positive association with children’s language development.

We found the original text on 11.10.2022 under

https://neurosciencenews.com/mother-mood-child-language-21591/

Since this is an external link, MediTECH has no influence on its accessibility. 

Education as a leading German resource increasingly in short supply

Berlin (dpa) - Elementary school children in Germany increasingly have math and German problems and have fallen behind significantly in their competencies in a ten-year comparison. This is shown by a study presented on Friday by the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (KMK), which examines the status of fourth graders in a representative manner at five-year intervals. Closed schools in the Corona pandemic are partly to blame, according to the KMK. However, experts also see other reasons.

At nearly 1,500 schools across Germany, about 27,000 fourth graders were tested between April and August 2021 - in reading, listening, spelling and math. Compared to the last survey in 2016, the competence declines corresponded to about a third of a school year in reading, and a quarter in spelling and math, according to the study. Compared with 2011, the shortfalls are even around half a school year.

Education as a leading German resource increasingly in short supply

Everywhere, the results have deteriorated. It is particularly striking in spelling: less than half of the fourth graders (44 percent) achieved the "regular standard" here, i.e., what is expected on average of students at this age, and almost a third (30 percent) failed to meet the "minimum standard" - meaning that almost one in three elementary school students in the fourth grade makes so many spelling mistakes that they do not meet the defined minimum requirements. In reading, listening and math, about one in five did not reach the minimum standards.

Crucial foundations for successful learning and passing in the classroom can be built and strengthened with the Warnke® process: Brain-Boy®, Lateral-Training and Orthofix® specifically promote important skills in the areas of perception, listening comprehension and language. Through the HEG-Neurofeedback
can also be used to train attention and concentration.

You can find the complete article of the Süddeutsche Zeitung here: (available just in German)

https://www.sueddeutsche.de/dpa/dpa-dpa.urn-newsml-dpa-com-20090101-220701-99-877613

A similar report was published in the Tagesschau. You can find this article from Tagesschau.de here: 

https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/lesen-rechnen-grundschueler-lernen-101.html

New directions in comparative hearing instrument fitting

New ways in comparative hearing instrument fitting

AUDECOM offers a remedy here, with which you can change the comparative hearing system fitting in a simple, objectively oriented way and thus make your work more effective and smoother
 

The intelligent hearing aid comparison with AUDECOM has new features in version 1.0.37.

• Sound examples can now be selected faster and directly one after the other.

• The Signia manufacturer package has been updated.

• The sound card driver can now be adjusted more comfortable.

Online-Seminar with Dr. René Mayer-Pelinski (Dipl.-Psych.)  

Dear friends of MediTECH,

In a 1-hour online seminar, Dr. René Mayer-Pelinski from the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden would like to explain the theoretical and practical applications and background of the SCP sensor in more detail. 

This online seminar is about the Slow Cortical Potentials as a special neurofeedback training. During SCP training, participants learn to switch between an activated/aware state and a deactivated/relaxed state by modulating their SCPs in the direction of more negative or positive amplitudes. Appropriate SCP neurofeedback protocols are used in everyday clinical practice as well as at peak power levels. This webinar provides a practical insight. 

After a short and compact introduction to the background and application areas of SCP neurofeedback in everyday therapeutic practice, you will experience in this online seminar how an SCP neurofeedback session with the Infiniti system is prepared, instructed and conducted. You will get to know and appreciate SCP Neurofeedback as a wonderful addition to your existing biofeedback and neurofeedback instruments. SCP is not only successfully used for patients with attention and concentration problems; SCP neurofeedback can also effectively support you and your patients in the treatment of epilepsy or tinnitus. You can look forward to the contents of this free training course! 

·          your speaker : 

René Mayer-Pelinski., Dr.rer.nat., Dipl.-Psych.,

• is a licensed psychotherapist in patient care  

•  integrates a variety of evidence-based methods in his practice,                   

   including biofeedback, neurofeedback and psychotherapeutic approaches                                

•  daist works in clinical research, speaker and reviewer

•  in addition, in outpatient and inpatient acute psychiatric care, where he treats people with various disorders and problems (including suicidal tendencies, emotional instability)    

                         

                         

•  obtained his diploma in psychology at the TU-Greifswald:          

   Main focus was clinical and biological psychology (EEG/ EKP)  

• In particular he dealt with the collection and evaluation of  

   Biosignals (EEG, EMG, EDA and later Eye-Movements)     

•  PhD at the TU-Dresden          

-  deepened there further in clinical psychology  

           -  completed a behavioral therapy training (DGVT-A, Dresden) 

Data and facts about the event

·         referent: Herr Dr. René Mayer-Pelinski

·         date: 06.10.2020

·          Schedule: 19 h to 20 h 

·           event takes place online                                  statt.

The participation is free of charge for you.   

Jnow register here for free!    Registration

Development of integrated digital business processes in a medical technology company.       

This project is supported by the European Regional Development Fund.

www.europa-fuer-niedersachsen.de

–   Possibility of issuing 3-month licenses

–   orthofix® flatrate for practices and schools - optional 3-month licenses for students by partner institutions 
–  3-month licenses include both GERMAN and ENGLISH

–  Parallel display of the word translation during the spelling training

–  Easy setup of new trainers directly in the main screen

–  No longer preselected demo client

–  New option for creating your own vocabulary: Word selection now available with MINIMUM and MAXIMUM word length
–  New option for creating your own vocabulary: Search function with proportional word input for quick finding and selecting desired training words

Even in times of Corona, new partnerships can be established: With Bioland Technology Corporation MediTECH has gained a new committed partner in Hong Kong. The professional communication and product presentation is off to a promising start: MediBalance is now also described and made known in Chinese. and made known in Chinese:

https://www.bioland.com.tw/news_detail/11.htm

Due to the corona crisis, the organisers cancelled the trade fairs in March in Berlin and also in May in Vienna.

The compact course on the Warnke-Method in Vienna, which was planned for March, was postponed. A catch-up course is planned for 24 - 28 August in Leoben near Graz (Styria in Austria). Are you interested in the training course as a trainer for leaning enhancement? Then don't miss this event, where you will learn the contents of three two-day courses in five days, compressed and free of repetitions ... and that in the beautiful region of Styria. .

After one of the fundamental books by Fred Warnke "The Pulse of the brain" was temporarily out of stock, it is now available again. It describes the basics and requirements of good central hearing on the one hand in connection with reading and spelling skills on the other. 

Mehr über das Buch erfahren Sie in unserem Shop.

We are in business vacation in the periode of the 21st December 2019 til the 5th January 2020.

During this time you can send us messages by fax, e-mail or answering machine text, which we will be happy to process immediately from 6 January 2020.

From 6 January 2020 we will be personally available for you again and look forward to many contacts and a lively exchange.

Fitness for hearing and brain: The Hörfitness®-App    

With Hörfitness®, the hearing care professionals network oton & friends and the technology company MediTECH have developed a holistic, app-based fitting concept based on the interlocking and expansion of two successful systems: The axone hearing therapy® and the hörFit® hearing training. For hearing care professionals, the concept offers new opportunities to position themselves in the competitive arena and to stand out positively in the interest of the customer.

 

One year after the launch of Hörfitness®, one thing is certain: the concept keeps its promises. "Although hearing loss due to aging cannot be completely avoided, its consequences on hearing comprehension in everyday life can be measurably influenced by Hörfitness® Training," explains Ralph Warnke, Managing Director of MediTECH Electronic GmbH.

With Hörfitness® oton & friends GmbH and MediTECH Electronic GmbH present a scientifically based fitting concept that sets new standards in hearing health and provides solutions for the main interference factor in hearing aid supply: The acceptance of hearing aids. Since many people do not go to the hearing care professional until very late in life, hearing perception in the brain is often already severely impaired. As a result, a hearing aid is initially perceived as unpleasant because noise cannot be successfully blocked out and the 'new' sounds can no longer be properly classified.

With the app, the customer can train his hearing with targeted exercises and has the chance to train his neural abilities in auditory perception. The app serves as a personal trainer and accompanies the user through the entire process. A 14-day hearing therapy to activate the hearing processing is followed by a one-year neural hearing training for hearing retention. In this way, it is possible to noticeably improve hearing within a very short time with the help of a hearing aid. The best thing about it: The app is available anywhere and anytime for hearing training on your own smartphone or tablet - whether at home, on vacation or on the road. With the Hörfitness® concept, the customer is also much more involved in the fitting process than before. This improves the acceptance of the hearing care, strengthens the customer relationship and promotes the success of the fitting.

Hörfitness® is deliberately aimed at all people who care about their hearing, regardless of age. Hörfitness® translates the scientific findings on the course of hearing loss and the gradual breakdown of brain cells responsible for understanding speech into an app solution that is easy to use and attractive for the client. This offers hearing care professionals new opportunities in addressing younger target groups as well as in the areas of exclusivity and local marketing. To position oneself more actively than the competition, to reach new target groups and to be able to offer customers a convincing and sustainable solution to promote their own hearing health - this is a major key to success in hearing acoustics today.

More information: https://www.hoerfitness.de/

Mehr zu der Pressemitteilung finden Sie here.

AUTRIS-2 - playfully creating linguistic competence

The acoustic strategic game is now also available for WINDOWS 10.  you can train certain auditory-motor skills in the areas of cognition and behavioural... and linguistic competence with the help of this game and without being aware of it.

During the playing process, the user has the task of bringing four auditory stimuli into a given spatial and temporal order. For this purpose, he receives four acoustic signals, e.g. one to four in a disordered sequence. By skilfully pressing the keys on the screen with the mouse, the user can restore the correct order. Depending on the user's age and training status, 50 different levels of difficulty can be selected. Training with AUTRIS-2 is therefore suitable for every user, especially for improving the most essential sub-functions of the central automation skills. 

In addition, the coordination between the two hemispheres of the brain is used for training, as stimuli perceived from different directions must be evaluated by the brain. Other skills that are trained "on the side" are for example: 

• Attention

• Differentiation and selection

• Direction determination and pitch discrimination

• Pattern recognition
  

 

• Memorization

• Fine motor skills through targeted pressure of the mouse buttons

• Computer control

The program is delivered on a CD-ROM.

Original article NEUROSCIENCE NEWS 2019-01-29 
  

Abstract: Researchers discovered that babies are able to pick words from language starting at the age of three days using fNIRS. 

Source: University of Manchester. 

Newborn babies are born with the inbuilt skills to pick out words from language.  The international research team discovered two mechanisms in 3-day-old infants that give them the ability to pick out words in a sound stream. The discovery provides an important insight into a first step towards language learning. 

The study, published in the journal Developmental Science, is a collaboration between the researchers from SISSA in Italy, the Neurospin Centre in France, the University of Liverpool and the University of Manchester funded by the European Research Council. 

One of the mechanisms discovered by the team is the so-called prosody - the melody of language that allows us to recognize when a word begins and ends. Another mechanism, as they call it the statistics of language, which describes how we calculate the frequency with which sounds come together in a word. Dr. Alissa Ferry from the University of Manchester adds: "We think this study shows how sensitive newborns really are and how much information they absorb." "This is very important for new parents and gives them an insight into how their baby listens to them," says Dr. Alissa Ferry. "Language is incredibly complicated and this study is about understanding how babies try to make sense of it when they hear it for the first time." 

"We often think that language is made up of words, but words often blend together when we speak. So one of the first steps in learning language is to pick the words. "Our study shows that at the age of only 3 days, they are able to pick out individual words from the language without understanding what it means." And we have identified two important tools, which is almost certainly inbuilt and gives the  newborns ability to do this." 

By using a pain-free technique called near-infrared spectroscopy, which enlightens the function of the brain, they could measure how much was absorbed and which parts of the brain were active.HEG system offered by MediTECHBased on NIRS technology, this enables simple derivation of prefrontal brain activity, for example to record and train attentional performance.

 

The Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has published information on funding and facilitating opportunities for people with disabilities in a series of brochures. Most of them are available on our partner portal.  .

On 1.1.2017 our new Network Partner Model has officially started. Use the countless opportunities and become a network partner.

Due to the positive response to the Partners and Friends Day in 2015, once again we are pleased to offer a similar event. You will be surprised - a series of interesting short presentations are waiting for you again. You will have the whole day to get to know the new equipments and methods in a pleasant and friendly atmosphere. And even learn helpful tips and tricks about the equipment and ask all the questions you come across while working with the equipments. 

Sign up now: Registration for the Partner and Friends Day

Hint: On the following day there will be introductory courses on the Warnke procedure and on biofeedback/neurofeedback. Take this opportunity - Whether in combination with the Partners and Friends Day or not - to support people on their way to better perception with these two fundamental methods. 

Registration for the Warnke trial course orr Biofeedback/Neurofeedback taster course (7.5.2017)

Take a look at our new online shop. Do you miss one of our products you are familiar with? Please do not hesitate to contact us. We offer a wider range of products than what you can see on the Internet. We will be happy to give you advice.

With the new design of our website you can now conveniently participate in our seminars online. You can find the courses under https://www.meditech.de/event Whether you register by fax, telephone or online -  We look forward to meeting you personally at an exciting and certainly helpful event to support your work.  https://www.meditech.de/event Egal ob Sie sich per Fax, telefonisch oder online anmelden - wir freuen uns, Sie als unsere Gäste bei einer interessanten und sicherlich für Ihre Arbeit hilfreichen Veranstaltung begrüßen zu können.

MediBalance Pro distribution partner Zukor will distribute the professional sports balancing system in North and South America from 2016.

Education as a leading German resource increasingly in short supply

Berlin (dpa) - Elementary school children in Germany increasingly have math and German problems and have fallen behind significantly in their competencies in a ten-year comparison. This is shown by a study presented on Friday by the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (KMK), which examines the status of fourth graders in a representative manner at five-year intervals. Closed schools in the Corona pandemic are partly to blame, according to the KMK. However, experts also see other reasons.

At nearly 1,500 schools across Germany, about 27,000 fourth graders were tested between April and August 2021 - in reading, listening, spelling and math. Compared to the last survey in 2016, the competence declines corresponded to about a third of a school year in reading, and a quarter in spelling and math, according to the study. Compared with 2011, the shortfalls are even around half a school year.

Education as a leading German resource increasingly in short supply

Everywhere, the results have deteriorated. It is particularly striking in spelling: less than half of the fourth graders (44 percent) achieved the "regular standard" here, i.e., what is expected on average of students at this age, and almost a third (30 percent) failed to meet the "minimum standard" - meaning that almost one in three elementary school students in the fourth grade makes so many spelling mistakes that they do not meet the defined minimum requirements. In reading, listening and math, about one in five did not reach the minimum standards.

Crucial foundations for successful learning and passing in the classroom can be built and strengthened with the Warnke® process: Brain-Boy®, Lateral-Training and Orthofix® specifically promote important skills in the areas of perception, listening comprehension and language. Through the HEG-Neurofeedback
can also be used to train attention and concentration.

You can find the complete article of the Süddeutsche Zeitung here: (available just in German)

https://www.sueddeutsche.de/dpa/dpa-dpa.urn-newsml-dpa-com-20090101-220701-99-877613

A similar report was published in the Tagesschau. You can find this article from Tagesschau.de here: 

https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/lesen-rechnen-grundschueler-lernen-101.html

New directions in comparative hearing instrument fitting

New ways in comparative hearing instrument fitting

AUDECOM offers a remedy here, with which you can change the comparative hearing system fitting in a simple, objectively oriented way and thus make your work more effective and smoother
 

The intelligent hearing aid comparison with AUDECOM has new features in version 1.0.37.

• Sound examples can now be selected faster and directly one after the other.

• The Signia manufacturer package has been updated.

• The sound card driver can now be adjusted more comfortable.

Online-Seminar with Dr. René Mayer-Pelinski (Dipl.-Psych.)  

Dear friends of MediTECH,

In a 1-hour online seminar, Dr. René Mayer-Pelinski from the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden would like to explain the theoretical and practical applications and background of the SCP sensor in more detail. 

This online seminar is about the Slow Cortical Potentials as a special neurofeedback training. During SCP training, participants learn to switch between an activated/aware state and a deactivated/relaxed state by modulating their SCPs in the direction of more negative or positive amplitudes. Appropriate SCP neurofeedback protocols are used in everyday clinical practice as well as at peak power levels. This webinar provides a practical insight. 

After a short and compact introduction to the background and application areas of SCP neurofeedback in everyday therapeutic practice, you will experience in this online seminar how an SCP neurofeedback session with the Infiniti system is prepared, instructed and conducted. You will get to know and appreciate SCP Neurofeedback as a wonderful addition to your existing biofeedback and neurofeedback instruments. SCP is not only successfully used for patients with attention and concentration problems; SCP neurofeedback can also effectively support you and your patients in the treatment of epilepsy or tinnitus. You can look forward to the contents of this free training course! 

·          your speaker : 

René Mayer-Pelinski., Dr.rer.nat., Dipl.-Psych.,

• is a licensed psychotherapist in patient care  

•  integrates a variety of evidence-based methods in his practice,                   

   including biofeedback, neurofeedback and psychotherapeutic approaches                                

•  daist works in clinical research, speaker and reviewer

•  in addition, in outpatient and inpatient acute psychiatric care, where he treats people with various disorders and problems (including suicidal tendencies, emotional instability)    

                         

                         

•  obtained his diploma in psychology at the TU-Greifswald:          

   Main focus was clinical and biological psychology (EEG/ EKP)  

• In particular he dealt with the collection and evaluation of  

   Biosignals (EEG, EMG, EDA and later Eye-Movements)     

•  PhD at the TU-Dresden          

-  deepened there further in clinical psychology  

           -  completed a behavioral therapy training (DGVT-A, Dresden) 

Data and facts about the event

·         referent: Herr Dr. René Mayer-Pelinski

·         date: 06.10.2020

·          Schedule: 19 h to 20 h 

·           event takes place online                                  statt.

The participation is free of charge for you.   

Jnow register here for free!    Registration

Development of integrated digital business processes in a medical technology company.       

This project is supported by the European Regional Development Fund.

www.europa-fuer-niedersachsen.de

–   Possibility of issuing 3-month licenses

–   orthofix® flatrate for practices and schools - optional 3-month licenses for students by partner institutions 
–  3-month licenses include both GERMAN and ENGLISH

–  Parallel display of the word translation during the spelling training

–  Easy setup of new trainers directly in the main screen

–  No longer preselected demo client

–  New option for creating your own vocabulary: Word selection now available with MINIMUM and MAXIMUM word length
–  New option for creating your own vocabulary: Search function with proportional word input for quick finding and selecting desired training words

Even in times of Corona, new partnerships can be established: With Bioland Technology Corporation MediTECH has gained a new committed partner in Hong Kong. The professional communication and product presentation is off to a promising start: MediBalance is now also described and made known in Chinese. and made known in Chinese:

https://www.bioland.com.tw/news_detail/11.htm

Due to the corona crisis, the organisers cancelled the trade fairs in March in Berlin and also in May in Vienna.

The compact course on the Warnke-Method in Vienna, which was planned for March, was postponed. A catch-up course is planned for 24 - 28 August in Leoben near Graz (Styria in Austria). Are you interested in the training course as a trainer for leaning enhancement? Then don't miss this event, where you will learn the contents of three two-day courses in five days, compressed and free of repetitions ... and that in the beautiful region of Styria. .

After one of the fundamental books by Fred Warnke "The Pulse of the brain" was temporarily out of stock, it is now available again. It describes the basics and requirements of good central hearing on the one hand in connection with reading and spelling skills on the other. 

Mehr über das Buch erfahren Sie in unserem Shop.

We are in business vacation in the periode of the 21st December 2019 til the 5th January 2020.

During this time you can send us messages by fax, e-mail or answering machine text, which we will be happy to process immediately from 6 January 2020.

From 6 January 2020 we will be personally available for you again and look forward to many contacts and a lively exchange.

Fitness for hearing and brain: The Hörfitness®-App    

With Hörfitness®, the hearing care professionals network oton & friends and the technology company MediTECH have developed a holistic, app-based fitting concept based on the interlocking and expansion of two successful systems: The axone hearing therapy® and the hörFit® hearing training. For hearing care professionals, the concept offers new opportunities to position themselves in the competitive arena and to stand out positively in the interest of the customer.

 

One year after the launch of Hörfitness®, one thing is certain: the concept keeps its promises. "Although hearing loss due to aging cannot be completely avoided, its consequences on hearing comprehension in everyday life can be measurably influenced by Hörfitness® Training," explains Ralph Warnke, Managing Director of MediTECH Electronic GmbH.

With Hörfitness® oton & friends GmbH and MediTECH Electronic GmbH present a scientifically based fitting concept that sets new standards in hearing health and provides solutions for the main interference factor in hearing aid supply: The acceptance of hearing aids. Since many people do not go to the hearing care professional until very late in life, hearing perception in the brain is often already severely impaired. As a result, a hearing aid is initially perceived as unpleasant because noise cannot be successfully blocked out and the 'new' sounds can no longer be properly classified.

With the app, the customer can train his hearing with targeted exercises and has the chance to train his neural abilities in auditory perception. The app serves as a personal trainer and accompanies the user through the entire process. A 14-day hearing therapy to activate the hearing processing is followed by a one-year neural hearing training for hearing retention. In this way, it is possible to noticeably improve hearing within a very short time with the help of a hearing aid. The best thing about it: The app is available anywhere and anytime for hearing training on your own smartphone or tablet - whether at home, on vacation or on the road. With the Hörfitness® concept, the customer is also much more involved in the fitting process than before. This improves the acceptance of the hearing care, strengthens the customer relationship and promotes the success of the fitting.

Hörfitness® is deliberately aimed at all people who care about their hearing, regardless of age. Hörfitness® translates the scientific findings on the course of hearing loss and the gradual breakdown of brain cells responsible for understanding speech into an app solution that is easy to use and attractive for the client. This offers hearing care professionals new opportunities in addressing younger target groups as well as in the areas of exclusivity and local marketing. To position oneself more actively than the competition, to reach new target groups and to be able to offer customers a convincing and sustainable solution to promote their own hearing health - this is a major key to success in hearing acoustics today.

More information: https://www.hoerfitness.de/

Mehr zu der Pressemitteilung finden Sie here.

AUTRIS-2 - playfully creating linguistic competence

The acoustic strategic game is now also available for WINDOWS 10.  you can train certain auditory-motor skills in the areas of cognition and behavioural... and linguistic competence with the help of this game and without being aware of it.

During the playing process, the user has the task of bringing four auditory stimuli into a given spatial and temporal order. For this purpose, he receives four acoustic signals, e.g. one to four in a disordered sequence. By skilfully pressing the keys on the screen with the mouse, the user can restore the correct order. Depending on the user's age and training status, 50 different levels of difficulty can be selected. Training with AUTRIS-2 is therefore suitable for every user, especially for improving the most essential sub-functions of the central automation skills. 

In addition, the coordination between the two hemispheres of the brain is used for training, as stimuli perceived from different directions must be evaluated by the brain. Other skills that are trained "on the side" are for example: 

• Attention

• Differentiation and selection

• Direction determination and pitch discrimination

• Pattern recognition
  

 

• Memorization

• Fine motor skills through targeted pressure of the mouse buttons

• Computer control

The program is delivered on a CD-ROM.

Original article NEUROSCIENCE NEWS 2019-01-29 
  

Abstract: Researchers discovered that babies are able to pick words from language starting at the age of three days using fNIRS. 

Source: University of Manchester. 

Newborn babies are born with the inbuilt skills to pick out words from language.  The international research team discovered two mechanisms in 3-day-old infants that give them the ability to pick out words in a sound stream. The discovery provides an important insight into a first step towards language learning. 

The study, published in the journal Developmental Science, is a collaboration between the researchers from SISSA in Italy, the Neurospin Centre in France, the University of Liverpool and the University of Manchester funded by the European Research Council. 

One of the mechanisms discovered by the team is the so-called prosody - the melody of language that allows us to recognize when a word begins and ends. Another mechanism, as they call it the statistics of language, which describes how we calculate the frequency with which sounds come together in a word. Dr. Alissa Ferry from the University of Manchester adds: "We think this study shows how sensitive newborns really are and how much information they absorb." "This is very important for new parents and gives them an insight into how their baby listens to them," says Dr. Alissa Ferry. "Language is incredibly complicated and this study is about understanding how babies try to make sense of it when they hear it for the first time." 

"We often think that language is made up of words, but words often blend together when we speak. So one of the first steps in learning language is to pick the words. "Our study shows that at the age of only 3 days, they are able to pick out individual words from the language without understanding what it means." And we have identified two important tools, which is almost certainly inbuilt and gives the  newborns ability to do this." 

By using a pain-free technique called near-infrared spectroscopy, which enlightens the function of the brain, they could measure how much was absorbed and which parts of the brain were active.HEG system offered by MediTECHBased on NIRS technology, this enables simple derivation of prefrontal brain activity, for example to record and train attentional performance.

 

The Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has published information on funding and facilitating opportunities for people with disabilities in a series of brochures. Most of them are available on our partner portal.  .

On 1.1.2017 our new Network Partner Model has officially started. Use the countless opportunities and become a network partner.

Due to the positive response to the Partners and Friends Day in 2015, once again we are pleased to offer a similar event. You will be surprised - a series of interesting short presentations are waiting for you again. You will have the whole day to get to know the new equipments and methods in a pleasant and friendly atmosphere. And even learn helpful tips and tricks about the equipment and ask all the questions you come across while working with the equipments. 

Sign up now: Registration for the Partner and Friends Day

Hint: On the following day there will be introductory courses on the Warnke procedure and on biofeedback/neurofeedback. Take this opportunity - Whether in combination with the Partners and Friends Day or not - to support people on their way to better perception with these two fundamental methods. 

Registration for the Warnke trial course orr Biofeedback/Neurofeedback taster course (7.5.2017)

Take a look at our new online shop. Do you miss one of our products you are familiar with? Please do not hesitate to contact us. We offer a wider range of products than what you can see on the Internet. We will be happy to give you advice.

With the new design of our website you can now conveniently participate in our seminars online. You can find the courses under https://www.meditech.de/event Whether you register by fax, telephone or online -  We look forward to meeting you personally at an exciting and certainly helpful event to support your work.  https://www.meditech.de/event Egal ob Sie sich per Fax, telefonisch oder online anmelden - wir freuen uns, Sie als unsere Gäste bei einer interessanten und sicherlich für Ihre Arbeit hilfreichen Veranstaltung begrüßen zu können.

MediBalance Pro distribution partner Zukor will distribute the professional sports balancing system in North and South America from 2016.