Background and Aim: Providing rehabilitation care of deglutition disorders or dysphagia is a challenging issue for speech and language pathologists. Comprehensive assessment of dysphagia includes early screening, clinical tests and finally instrumental tests to be assured. In spite of the importance and the advantages of clinical tests; accurate diagnosis and decision in dysphagia management largely depend on instrumental ones. These tests provide dynamic assessment and information about structures and physiology of normal and affected swallow for clinician. The aim of this review article was to find instrumental tests of swallowing with their application, limitation and advantages.

Materials and Methods: An electronic search was done via the PubMed, Google scholar, Science direct, Medline, Scopus, Iranian web of knowledge data bases and web of knowledge data bases from 1956 to 2012. Based on the used keywords, 150 papers were found of which 90 papers were selected in accordance with the selection criteria.

Results: Fourteen related instrumental tests were found. Only one of the tests is usable for screening and others for diagnosis and treatment of dysphagia. Three tests are used only in adults and others in children too.

Conclusion: The literature review showed that among the instrumental tests, (Video fluoroscopy swallowing study; VFSS), (Fiberoptic Endoscopic evaluation of swallowing; FEES) are golden standards for dysphagia assessment and treatment. Therefore, they are widely accepted among clinicians and researches in despite of their limitations, our study offers the possibility to professionals for selecting the appropriate instrumental test in dysphagia.

Keywords: Assessment, Dysphagia, Screening, Instrumental tests.

Background and Aim: Theory of mind as a cognitive component is the foundation of our ability to explain or predict the behavior of ourselves and others which is done through the attribution of mental status. This ability damaged in deaf children and its development is fast in girls. The aim of this study was to study theory of mind in 5-6 years cochlear implant children and its relation with gender and age of cochlear implant (CI).

Materials and Methods:  This study is descriptive and cross-sectional. Eighteen Farsi speaking children CI children and 18 normal development children aged 5-6 were participated in this study. The normal children were selected from living area of CI children. They were selected through available and easy sampling method. These children had no sensory or speech disorders. The basic theory of mind was tested in these children.

Results: Theory of mind was significantly different in both groups (p = 0.00). The comparison between girls and boys did not show significant difference in normal (p= 0.321) and CI children (p =0.231). There was no significant relationship between the age at CI and theory of mind scores (p=0.100).

Conclusion: Hearing impairment has influence on basic theory development in CI children. Age of implantation and gender had no effect on development of theory of mind.

Keywords: Theory of mind, Cochlear implant, Farsi language.