Fear has long been recognised as a potent tool for persuasive communication. A plethora of research has examined the role of fear appeals in influencing the target audience. However, scant attention has been given to the choice of persuasive strategies used to craft fear messages, particularly in the public health domain. This study aims to bridge the gap in the literature by examining the prevalence of fear strategies and the interplay between persuasion and fear in an anti-smoking campaign, drawing on Aristotle’s persuasion theory and Fear Appeals by Witte and Allen (2000). Methodologically, the study employs a qualitative, descriptive content analysis to examine how fear-based persuasive strategies are constructed in the CDC’s press releases. A qualitative analysis was conducted on a corpus of 27 press releases issued between 2012 and 2024 as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Tips From Former Smokers campaign. The analysis reveals five predominant fear strategies utilised by the CDC in their press releases: fear-induced narratives, health-hazard emphasis, statistics, expert endorsement, and urgency. These strategies enhance the CDC's message by amplifying fear appeals, thereby altering smokers' current behaviours and attitudes. This study contributes to the literature by providing insights into the strategies adopted in crafting fear appeals in anti-smoking campaigns and how fear patterns shape individuals’ behavioural change against smoking tobacco.

Children with language impairment (LI) experience increased mental health challenges, which may be reflected in the words they use to tell stories. We examined whether children with LI produced more emotionally negative narratives than typically developing (TD) children, and whether lower lexical diversity (a proxy for vocabulary size) was associated with more negativity. Language samples were analyzed from four corpora, totaling 1197 children, ages 3-15. In the two larger corpora, there was evidence for increased negativity in LI children compared to TD children. However, this increased negativity in LI children was not observed across all measures of emotional valence in the two larger corpora, nor was it observed in any measure in the two smaller corpora (and was in the opposite direction on one measure in one of the smaller corpora). There were many associations within both the LI and TD groups between lower lexical diversity and more negativity, indicating that children with smaller vocabularies produced narratives with elevated negativity, but these associations were generally small and sometimes absent or in the reverse direction. In sum, the negative emotions that are known to be experienced by children with weaker language abilities may manifest in their stories, but the results were inconclusive, and more research is needed. Implications for speech-language pathology and clinical psychology are discussed.

This study aims to offer a more nuanced examination of elderspeak, which most research on elderly care communication considers to have a negative effect on the dignity of older adults. To do this, we drew on data collected in two very different countries/cultures, France and China, in order to fill the gap in cultural diversity in elderspeak studies (existing work mainly concerns English) and to broaden the focus to include cultural and institutional contexts. Multimodal data analyzed in the current study include meal assistance, sensory workshops, and memory games. The diversity of communicative situations (daily care vs. social activities, informal vs. structured) makes it possible to identify the contextual elements that favor the use of elderspeak and the varied effects of the same communication strategy depending on the individuality of the residents. Preliminary findings suggest that certain elements of elderspeak, such as repetition and simplified phrasing, when adapted to residents’ cognitive capacity, can enhance comprehension and participation. Similarly, compliments, when sincere and proportionate, contribute positively to the construction of older people's social identity. Finally, the design of activities plays a decisive role in the use of elderspeak: in a task-oriented activity where the professional-resident power relationship is asymmetrical to the detriment of residents, communication is likely to be condescending, whereas an exchange on equal terms allows for better participation and self-expression on the part of residents. All these elements lead us to propose a new definition of elderspeak: rather than focusing on linguistic appearances which vary according to cultural contexts, we should focus on effects. This opens up new avenues for reflection in caregiver training. Proposing a guide to good practices is not a satisfactory solution; instead, professionals need interactional skills to adjust their communication style to the specific needs and abilities of residents.

This paper describes the grammatical complexity and sentence production in spontaneous speech among Spanish-speaking adults with Williams syndrome (WS). The goal is to provide a linguistic description of the typical sentence patterns used by Spanish speakers with WS. A sample of 30 spontaneous speech corpora (16 WS, 14 TD) was collected, transcribed and manually analyzed. The study identifies significant differences between the two groups, particularly in the complexity of syntactic constructions and the discourse production. Results show that WS speakers produce fewer words and significantly fewer complex sentences, such as those involving complementizers, pronominalized objects, or relative clauses. These findings align with prior research, suggesting deficits in working memory, syntactic production, and the manipulation of hierarchical grammatical rules among WS individuals. This study corroborates the notion that while WS individuals often display notable verbal strengths, these coexist with an atypical development of their syntactic capacity.

22q11.2 syndrome is the second most common genetic condition worldwide, where communication, language, and speech are significantly affected to varying degrees. This has generated considerable interest among professionals working with this population. The objective of this research is to review studies conducted in recent years concerning language delays and difficulties experienced by individuals with 22q11.2 syndrome. A total of 21 articles were analyzed, focusing on the development of oral language, written language, and overall communication, following the PRISMA Statement guidelines and COSMIN methodology. The results highlight that individuals with 22q11.2 syndrome present significant difficulties, particularly in speech, various areas of expressive language, and in the acquisition of reading and writing skills when compared to their typically developing peers across different developmental stages. Therefore, linguistic intervention should be considered a fundamental area of support throughout the lifespan of individuals with 22q11.2 syndrome.

Throughout the world ordinary people are caring for equally ordinary people who are living with dementia (PLWD). However, the care available differs in different parts of the world. In this paper we explore the caregiving that is available in three different countries: the People’s Republic of China, Cyprus and the United States of America. In China and Cyprus interviews were carried out with caregivers of PLWD who were still living in their own homes. The PLWD in the U.S. were no longer living in their own homes but had moved to residential facilities where it proved almost impossible to interview their carers. In addition, interviews were carried out with U.S. prison Corrections Officers who become de facto carers for older prisoners who develop dementia. In China most caregiving is carried out by family members who are not assisted by immigrant caregivers. Cyprus is in a period of transition. Traditionally family members, usually women, cared for PLWD, but as more women are working outside the home more of the caregiving is being carried out by migrants. In the U.S., much of the caregiving is provided by migrants, whether the PLWDs are living in their own homes or in residential facilities. Many immigrant caregivers do not speak the language of the PLWD for whom they care and receive minimal or no training for their role. Instead, they must learn on the job. We end by stressing the importance of providing training and simple resources for carers of PLWD.

Intergenerational inter-familial communication is one of the pillars of women’s knowledge about menopause; however, it remains largely unexplored in Chinese contexts. Drawing on interviews with 46 women experiencing menopause and using theme-oriented discourse analysis, this paper examined intergenerational communication about menopause among the women residing in Hong Kong and China mainland. The data were examined along two axes: ascending communication (between women in menopause and their mothers or older female family members) and descending communication (women in menopause and their daughters). The analysis demonstrated that menopause was rendered secondary and silenced when external circumstances (such as hardships, geographically dispersed families) took precedence. Menopause was made more salient in the conversations when symptoms became more severe and, therefore, noticeable. On reflecting on conversations about menopause, the women engaged in complex accounts work to provide excuses for why these conversations had not happened. The excuses primarily focused on external extenuating circumstances. The women also provided justifications to re-distribute the responsibility for communication about menopause between their daughters and themselves and to construct their identity of ‘good mothers’ who had a strong bond with their daughters. The analysis points to a changing epistemic landscape: the younger generation are more knowledgeable about menopause, but their sources of information are external, such as social media or school. Intergenerational communication on menopause can thus be viewed as a cline ranging from more deliberate salient communication to minimal communication or silence. This is reflective of complex mother-daughter relational dynamics, as well as a range of extra-familial contextual factors that impact it.

Linguistic changes in later life serve as observable indicators of age-related cognitive decline, with mean length of utterance (MLU) being a widely adopted metric for assessing syntactic complexity in aging populations. However, the reliability of MLU depends on utterance segmentation consistency, a methodological challenge that remains underexplored in Chinese, where standardized guidelines are lacking and phenomena such as pro-drop and cohesive repetition systematically obscure boundary judgments. This study presents a methodological investigation into how segmentation variability influences MLU values. Using narrative and descriptive speech samples from Chinese older adults with differing cognitive statuses, three MLU variants were derived from the transcripts: MLU_Raw, MLU adjusted for pro-drop (MLU_PDP), and MLU adjusted for cohesive repetition (MLU_CHS). Inter-annotator agreement in utterance boundary judgments was assessed via accuracy, while Pearson Correlation and Bland-Altman analysis quantified cross-method agreement. Results showed that without explicit segmentation guidelines, inter-annotator agreement was quite low, indicating high subjectivity. Bland-Altman analysis showed significant MLU variability between calculation methods. Task complexity and cognitive status critically moderated MLU validity. MLU_PDP amplified differences between cognitively impaired and healthy older adults during narrative tasks. In contrast, MLU_Raw and MLU_CHS demonstrated high agreement, supporting their stability for basic language assessment. The findings demonstrate that MLU is not a fixed property of speech but a construct highly sensitive to preprocessing decisions, task demands, and annotator interpretation. This study underscores the necessity for evidence-based, linguistically motivated segmentation protocols for Chinese and provides a methodological framework for evaluating measurement consistency. It argues that systematic methodological investigation including explicit reporting of segmentation criteria and multi-method agreement analyses is a prerequisite for advancing MLU as a valid measure in lifespan linguistics and clinical applications.