THE INDEX

Every paper we have read

Each one summarised from the full article, not its abstract, and kept only if it speaks to physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology or nursing. Newest first.

35,183 PAPERS · PAGE 574 OF 704 · NEWEST FIRST

• PTOTSLPOther2025Clinician-caregiver informant discrepancy is associated with sex, diagnosis age, and intervention use among autistic children.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceClinicians rated boys higher than caregivers, but rated girls lower than caregivers. This discrepancy linked to earlier diagnosis and more intervention hours. Therapists should note that girls may appear less impaired in clinic than at home due to camouflaging.
• PTOther2025Ultrasound tissue characterization and function of Achilles tendon in psoriatic arthritis patients: a cross-sectional study.European journal of physical and rehabilitation medicinePeople with psoriatic arthritis and painful Achilles insertion had moderate-severe pain, reduced heel-rise endurance, strength, and fast walking. Ultrasound showed structural changes on both sides, even when pain was one-sided.
• PTOTSystematic Review2025Review of upper extremity passive joint impedance identification in people with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationPassive arm resistance in Duchenne muscular dystrophy is not just stiffness; it changes with position, speed, contractures, and multi-joint coupling. For assistive arm supports, the review describes slow ramp movements across the full range as the best way to capture this resistance.
• PTOTSLPSystematic Review2025Outcome measures in muscular dystrophy rehabilitation: an ICF content comparison approach to the most commonly used MD scales.Journal of rehabilitation medicineThe 116 included studies used 142 outcome measures, mostly covering activity, participation and body functions. Speech, swallowing, cognitive and environmental domains were not common.
• PTOTSLPCohort2025Health and Health Care Utilization Outcomes for Individuals With Traumatic Brain Injury: A 1-Year Longitudinal Study.The Journal of head trauma rehabilitationOne year after injury, people with traumatic brain injury used significantly more health care than matched controls without injury. They had higher rates of emergency visits, hospital admissions, and new diagnoses, including headaches and anxiety. This suggests a need for closer long-term monitoring.
• PTOTCohort2025Construct validity and responsiveness of clinical upper limb measures and sensor-based arm use within the first year after stroke: a longitudinal cohort study.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationClinical scores and real-world arm use measure different things. A 4-point improvement in motor recovery did not guarantee patients felt better. Use arm use data to see how much patients actually use the arm, not just how well they can move it.
• OTCohort2025Natural history of cerebral visual impairment in children with cerebral palsy.Developmental medicine and child neurologyIn children with cerebral palsy and cerebral visual impairment, some visual functions changed with age. Optic disc abnormalities and strabismus became more common, while fixation, pursuit, saccades, acuity, contrast sensitivity and visual fields improved. No treatment was tested.
• PTOTSLPRCT2025Transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation combined with robotic-assisted body weight-supported treadmill training enhances motor score and gait recovery in incomplete spinal cord injury: a double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationAdding transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation to robotic treadmill training improved leg strength and walking speed more than sham stimulation at one-month follow-up. The effect appeared after the stimulation phase ended, not immediately, and the study was small.
• PTOther2025Motor modules are largely unaffected by pathological walking biomechanics: a simulation study.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationIn computer simulations, walking speed, step width and step length asymmetry were produced by the same lower-limb motor modules. The modules changed how strongly and when they fired, while their number and muscle groupings were largely unchanged.
• PTOTSLPCohort2025Functional independence trajectories over 5 years in older veterans with traumatic brain injury: A model systems study.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitationFunctional independence declined over five years in older veterans with TBI. Those with longer posttraumatic amnesia or preinjury substance use had lower scores and steeper drops. Clinicians should monitor these high-risk groups closely, as their recovery trajectory is worse than average.
• PTOTSLPSystematic Review2025Effectiveness of rehabilitation interventions in patients with colorectal cancer: an overview of systematic reviews.Journal of rehabilitation medicineExercise and prehabilitation improve fitness and quality of life, but evidence for fatigue and mental health is weak. Nutritional supplements cut surgical infections, while acupuncture speeds gut recovery. Results vary widely because studies used different doses and timelines, so no single best rehabilitation method was identified.
• SLPOther2024Maximum Anterior Tongue Strength and Maximum Lip Strength in Healthy Spanish Adults: A Proposal of Reference Values.DysphagiaIn healthy Spanish adults, tongue strength falls with age but does not differ by sex, while lip strength is higher in men and does not change with age. Use tongue reference values by age group and lip reference values by sex when interpreting IOPI scores.
• SLPPilot2024A preliminary study of the effects of stimulant medications on estimates of psycholinguistic abilities for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.Clinical linguistics & phoneticsChildren with ADHD scored higher on sentence recall and receptive vocabulary when tested on stimulant medication, with changes exceeding standard error margins. No significant improvements were found for reading, nonverbal IQ, or narrative tasks. This suggests medication status may influence specific diagnostic language markers.
• SLPOther2024Front Is High and Back Is Low: Sound-Space Iconicity in Finnish.Language and speechFinnish speakers consistently matched high-pitched sounds to forward movement and low-pitched sounds to backward movement. They also produced these pitch-vowel pairings faster when the mapping aligned with spatial direction. The effect held for static front/back concepts, not just motion.
• SLPCohort2024Comparing criteria for deviation from hearing aid prescriptive targets in children.International journal of audiologyTightening hearing aid fit to within 3 dB of target improves audibility and grammar skills in children, especially those with milder loss. Current 5 dB guidelines may be too loose for optimal language development. Speech recognition and vocabulary scores did not change with the stricter fit.
• PTOTOther2024Validation of a tri-axial accelerometer for measuring physical activity in patients with subacute stroke.Frontiers in rehabilitation sciencesThe Active Style Pro accelerometer accurately estimated energy expenditure during walking and reaching in patients with subacute stroke who could walk independently. Scores were similar regardless of whether the device was worn on the affected or unaffected side.
• SLPQualitative2024Nurse perspectives on supporting children and youth who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) in the pediatric intensive care unit.Augmentative and alternative communication (Baltimore, Md. : 1985)Six pediatric ICU nurses valued AAC for children's care but said time, limited training, and shifting priorities often blocked communication access. They wanted SLP support and clear AAC options.
• SLPSurvey2024Does Orkish Sound Evil? Perception of Fantasy Languages and Their Phonetic and Phonological Characteristics.Language and speechGerman listeners judged fictional languages by sound alone, preferring those with familiar phonemes and voicing. Klingon and Dothraki sounded evil, but Orkish sounded pleasant, contradicting its design. This shows aesthetic judgments rely on similarity to the listener's native language, not just inherent harshness.
• SLPOther2024Processing of English Coda Laterals in L2 Listeners: An Eye-Tracking Study.Language and speechMandarin-speaking English learners found the 'l' sound at the end of syllables hardest after back vowels. In a word-label task, they often heard it as part of the vowel, even when they could match pairs in a simpler task.
• PTOTSLPCohort2024Do maternal and paternal education protect against developmental delays?Research in developmental disabilitiesMaternal education is associated with lower odds of developmental delays in children's second and third years, but not the first. Paternal education shows a similar trend only when maternal education is not considered, suggesting maternal factors are the primary driver.
• SLPCohort2024Morphosyntactic profiles among preschoolers with and without speech sound disorders.Clinical linguistics & phoneticsPreschoolers with speech sound disorders but normal language made more errors on subject pronouns, irregular past tense verbs, and yes/no questions than typical peers. Irregular past tense errors were linked to poor phonological awareness. Other morphosyntactic areas showed no group differences.
• Other2025The CO-OP Approach: A transdiagnostic perspective.Developmental medicine and child neurologyThis commentary discusses how the CO-OP Approach, typically used for coordination difficulties, may also improve motor and daily activity skills in children with autism. It highlights that while the approach helps with tasks, the underlying reasons for these changes remain unclear.
• PTOTQualitative2025Secondary amputation: a qualitative study of quality of life in patients after primary limb salvage surgery and after later ablative sarcoma treatment.Journal of rehabilitation medicinePatients who underwent secondary amputation after failed limb salvage described the surgery as a relief from chronic infection, not a loss. They emphasized that discussing amputation as a future option early in their care helped them cope and improved their quality of life.
• PTOTPilot2025Effectiveness of a New Device for Hand, Wrist, and Forearm Rehabilitation: Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologiesAdding the FEPSim device to standard hand therapy improved grip strength and passive wrist flexion more than standard equipment alone. However, patient-reported pain and disability did not show a difference between the groups. This small pilot trial suggests the device is feasible but requires a larger study to confirm its effectiveness.
• PTOTQualitative2025Advancing stroke rehabilitation: the role of wearable technology according to research experts.Disability and rehabilitation. Assistive technologyStroke researchers believe wearable technology is vital for measuring real-world movement but too burdensome for routine use due to cost, data overload, and poor integration into clinical workflows.
• SLPOther2025Phonemic and pitch variability in bilingual preschoolers: A comparison of Jamaican Creole and English.International journal of speech-language pathologyMean pitch and stop-timing measures did not differ between languages. Pitch variability was higher in English than in Jamaican Creole. Pitch variability and stop-timing variability were not related.
• Protocol2025Evidence synthesis of health policy and systems research in rehabilitation: a protocol for Cochrane overviews of systematic reviews on delivery, governance, financial arrangements, and implementation strategies.European journal of physical and rehabilitation medicineNo results are reported. This is a protocol for planned Cochrane overviews of rehabilitation health policy, so there is nothing to act on.
• SLPOther2025More than one way to improve a CAT: Outcomes and reflections on two iterations of the Queen Square Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Programme.AphasiologyPeople with chronic aphasia in intensive Queen Square programmes had better language, communication confidence and quality of life at follow-up. The study had no control group, so these changes cannot be proven to be caused by the programme.
• Survey2025Unmet need for autism-aware care for gynaecological, menstrual and sexual wellbeing.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceAutistic people assigned female at birth often found menstruation, menopause and sexual health hard to discuss in primary care. Many said staff seemed unaware of how autism affected these issues, and some felt dismissed when they raised them.
• Other2024Structure-function coupling in white matter uncovers the hypoconnectivity in autism spectrum disorder.Molecular autismWhite matter tracts in autism show reduced coupling between structure and function. This coupling predicts symptom severity better than structural scans alone, offering a potential biomarker for assessing social and repetitive behaviors.
• SLPOther2024Asymmetries in Infants' Vowel Perception: Changes in Vowel Discrimination in German Learning 6- and 9-Month-Old Infants.Language and speechGerman-learning infants discriminated the vowels at 6 months in both directions. At 9 months, they noticed the change only from the Polish vowel to the German vowel, not the reverse.
• PTOTSLPOther2024A 3D approach to understanding heterogeneity in early developing autisms.Molecular autismData-driven clustering of early development scores splits autism into two distinct types. Type I shows profound delays and slower growth in language and motor skills. Type II shows relative strengths and faster development. This distinction holds across independent datasets and predicts different brain biology.
• SLPQualitative2024Intensive Outpatient Programs for Pediatric Feeding Disorder: A Qualitative Study of Current Challenges and Future Directions.Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics : JDBPProgram leaders report that insurance denials, lack of standardized billing codes, and geographic distance are the primary barriers preventing families from accessing intensive feeding day programs. Waitlists range from 2 to 24 months.
• PTOTSLPQualitative2024Caregiver perceptions of usual care home programs for persons with acquired brain injury: a qualitative descriptive study.Frontiers in rehabilitation sciencesCaregivers of people with acquired brain injury valued home programs but described limited training and repetitive exercises. They mostly encouraged rather than directly participated, and reported motivation, boredom, fatigue, and system barriers as key to engagement.
• SLPPilot2024Pilot Study of Intensive Trismus Intervention Using Restorabite™ During Unilateral Adjuvant Radiation for Head and Neck Cancer.DysphagiaIn nine patients, mouth opening improved by 7.8 mm after 10 weeks and by 10.6 mm at 6 months, and trismus-related quality of life improved, but swallowing, speech and pain scores showed no clear improvement, and adherence fell during radiation weeks 4-6.
• SLPOther2024A further look at two grammatical measures from children's language samples and their contribution to the diagnostic process.Clinical linguistics & phoneticsTwo language-sample measures sorted four- and five-year-olds with DLD from typical peers: a tense/agreement score missed one child, Sentence Point missed none. In children with DLD, scores did not track the SPELT-P2 grammar test. Use them with other assessments, not alone.
• SLPOther2024Estimating the Incidence and Prevalence of Dysphagia in New Zealand.DysphagiaNew cases are projected to rise from 9,250 in 2020 to 24,500 in 2073, and total people living with dysphagia from 74,600 to 177,600. Most are projected to be aged 65 and over.
• PTOTSLPOther2024Phenome-wide profiling identifies genotype-phenotype associations in Phelan-McDermid syndrome using family-sourced data from an international registry.Molecular autismChildren with larger 22q13 deletions in Phelan-McDermid syndrome had more severe motor delays, feeding problems, and medical issues like kidney defects. However, they showed less verbal speech, self-care, and social interaction. They were also less likely to have autism or ADHD diagnoses than those with smaller deletions.
• PTOTSLPQualitative2024Parent Perspectives on Parent-Mediated Intervention for Young Children With Down Syndrome.Journal of applied research in intellectual disabilities : JARIDParents want home-based interventions to fit existing routines, involve siblings, and require brief sessions. Time pressure and feeling unqualified were major barriers. Clinicians should design parent-led programmes to be short, structured, and embedded in daily life rather than adding new tasks.
• SLPOther2024Evidence to support test interpretation: Evaluating the content validity of a new item set for the Transition Pragmatics Interview.International journal of speech-language pathologyTwenty-three of twenty-five new items on the Transition Pragmatics Interview were found to be relevant and understandable to adolescents. Two items involving gender pay and corporate bias were flagged as potentially distracting, so they were edited to better reflect social communication ability.
• PTSurvey2024Underutilization of coper/non-coper screening in anterior cruciate ligament injuries management in Italy: an online survey.Frontiers in rehabilitation sciencesMost Italian clinicians do not use the coper/non-coper screening for ACL injuries. Only 17% of physical therapists and 20% of surgeons apply it routinely. This means many patients may miss a chance to avoid surgery through structured rehab.
• SLPOther2024Pharyngeal Residue Scoring in Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing: Reliability Comparison and Applicability Among Different Scales.DysphagiaThe Yale scale was the most reliable for scoring pharyngeal residue on FEES. The Boston scale was significantly slower and harder to use. The RORS was the easiest. Choose the Yale scale for a balance of accuracy and speed in routine practice.
• SLPOther2024Learnability Advantage of Segmental Repetitions in Word Learning.Language and speechAdults learning made-up words remembered those with repeated consonants better than words with repeated vowels or no repetitions. This advantage came specifically from better recall of the consonants themselves, suggesting a general memory bias for repeating sounds in speech.
• SLPSystematic Review2024Resilience and strengths in the Black autism community in the United States: A scoping review.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchBlack caregivers of autistic children rely heavily on advocacy, informal family networks, and spirituality to navigate systemic barriers. No studies in this review centered the voices of Black autistic adults themselves, leaving their specific strengths and resilience strategies completely unknown.
• SLPCohort2024Cultivating the imagination: Caregiver input during pretend play with toddlers at elevated likelihood for autism.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchCaregiver talk about pretend play increased from 18 to 36 months, with more references to objects than self. At 36 months, caregivers of toddlers diagnosed with autism used less pretend play talk and matched their child's actions less often than other groups.
• SLPOther2024Identifying SETBP1 haploinsufficiency molecular pathways to improve patient diagnosis using induced pluripotent stem cells and neural disease modelling.Molecular autismA variant of unknown significance in the SETBP1 gene caused neural cell defects matching those of known pathogenic mutations. This suggests such variants should be treated as likely disease-causing rather than uncertain when assessing patients.
• SLPOther2025Autistic individuals benefit from gestures during degraded speech comprehension.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceWhen speech was hard to hear, iconic gestures improved verb recognition for autistic and neurotypical adults equally. Gestures were not tested as a treatment here, but they helped recognition when speech was degraded.
• PTOTRCT2025Timing of high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation to the nondominant primary motor cortex fails to modulate cortical hemodynamic activity and improve motor sequence learning.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationStimulating the brain before or during a finger-tapping task made no difference to learning or brain activity in healthy older adults. Neither timing improved performance over sham stimulation, and no change in blood oxygen levels was detected.
• Other2025Comparing self-report medication data from a longitudinal study on intellectual disability and national dispensing records.Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDRAmong 292 older adults with intellectual disability in Ireland, self-reported psychotropic medication lists agreed closely with pharmacy dispensing records for antipsychotics and antidepressants. Agreement was less close for anxiolytics.
• PTSystematic Review2025Effectiveness and adverse effects of immersive technologies used for rehabilitation of patients with non-specific neck pain: a systematic review.Journal of rehabilitation medicineImmersive VR, mostly added to exercise or hot-pack therapy, did not clearly beat exercise-based control for pain, function or movement across 5 randomized trials; some VR advantages appeared in selected measures, and safety reporting was poor.