# Presentation: 512515

## SPEECH SAMPLES 

_**AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON  **_
_**SPEECH OUTCOME**_
- Gunilla Henningsson
- SWEDEN

## How can we get comparable data sets?

_* *_
- Two important variables to consider:
-         **nature of the speech sample**
-          **type of speech data**

## TYPE OF SPEECH SAMPLE 

- a variable influencing
**SPEECH OUTCOME**

## Clinical Experiences: assessment of speech samples based on 

- _  __syllable repetition_ : /papapa/ /pipipi/
-   _spontaneous speech_
-   _will result in different conclusions _about  the quality of the patient ́s speech, i.e.  on speech outcome* *

## Speech sampling context(s):

-  1)	automatic speech (counting, days
- of week, months of year, etc.)
-  2)	memorized material (nursery  	rhymes, prayers, etc.)
-  3)	syllable repetition
-  4)	single words/articulation test
-  5)	sentence repetition
-  6)	oral reading of sentences
-  7)	spontaneous connected speech

##  Regardless of which speech samples we are using there is in fact  the individual target speech sounds on which  we base our descriptions  

## Examples from the battery of 

- _The Universal Reporting Parameters shows the same thing:__   _
-  (1)	 hypernasality: high vowels, some 	vowels, glides, liquids
-  (2) 	hyponasality: what else could we 	listen to but nasals?
-  (3) atypical backing of dental/alveolar 	target to velar

##  individual target sounds in isolation  are not to be recommended as speech samples.   

- THUS:
- _the individual target speech sounds_ must occur  in
- _a phonetic context_

## Two types of speech samplesrecommended for reporting: 

- single (short) words – as the main speech sample
- single short sentences – as  a supplementary type of speech sample

##   the phonetic context of the target 	sound 

-   _the  individual target speech   _	_sounds_
*	**but also by*
-   _the phonetic context_ of the target 	sound

## 	Recommended by the 

**in terms of *****single words***** and **
***short sentences:***
-  Birgit Hutters, phonetician,University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- 	Recommended by the
*	**Eurocran Speech Group*

##  EUROCRAN: European Collaboration on Craniofacial Anomalies 

- Webside: link to the _Eurocran speech project_ : “Good Practice Archive for Speech”
_** **_
_**www.eurocran.org**__ _

## Each language needs to work out 

- a **word list**
- and
- a **sentence list**
** **

## With adaptation to the specific language:

- _The specific requirements_ when the **TARGET SOUND** occurs in **WORDS**:

_**Single consonant**_
_**inventory**_ should include:
- all pressure consonants
- all or some non-pressure     oral consonants
- one or more nasal consonants (+hyponasality)

## Vowel inventory should include:

_**Vowel inventory**_ should include:
-  all or some high vowels
-  all or some low vowels
-  some non-high/low vowels

## As to phonetic context:

- _the number_ of contextual sounds should be _limited_
-    and the following should be _avoided_:

## 	 	gate, geese, pick

- 	 	_g_ate, _g_eese, _p_ick
-     _nasal consonants_:
- _t_en, _c_an, _p_in

## daddy , baby, potato 

- daddy , baby, potato

## For 'target' consonants in clusters, due to loading of the vp-mechanism on target cons : include following types:

- clusters with non-maximum loading (i.e. oral non-pressure consonants: (_**sl**_eep, _**fl**_ag)
- clusters with maximum loading (i.e. nasal consonants: _**sn**_ow, _**sn**_ail, _**sm**_all)
- other types of clusters

## As to the position of the target consonants in the word, the consonant should occur in: 

- 'strong position'
- other positions - if relevant for the consonant/language in question

## 'Strong position' : where the target sound is:

- most distinctly articulated
- most easily recognizable
- minimally influenced by the context

## Next requirement with regard to the number of representations of each target consonant: 

- _single target consonants_:
- three times in 'strong position',
- twice in other positions
- _in clusters_: twice

## Other requirements for the structure of the word list: 

- _the target consonants_ - and subsequently the words - should be randomly ordered
- _high vowels_ should occur in approximately _10 of the words_ following a target consonant in _'strong position'_

## Ex from English word list, 3 year old children (Scandcleft project, Eurocran)

- target word    target sound
- pea	   p-   (ideal ex)
- doll	   d-   (ideal ex)
- pee*p*	   p-   (target sound – twice - OK)
- ki*ck*	   k-     (target sound - twice - OK)
- ga**t**e          g-    (_velar_ + _dental_  - not recommended)

## SHORT SENTENCES:

- The following _**target consonants**_  should occur in 'strong' and possibly other positions
- all single pressure consonants
- nasal consonant (+ hyponasality)
- others as required

## With regard to vowels, the following is suggested 

-   **vowel height** should be taken into consideration when deciding on the phonetic content of the sentences

## A few words of cross-linguistic comparisons 

- Cleft Palate Craniofacial J: Sept 2004
- Speech Outcome Following Treatment in Cross-Linguistic  Cleft Palate Studies: Methodological  Implications.
- Birgit Hutters, Gunilla Henningsson

## The impact of the cleft condition will differ across languages depending on how vulnerable a language is in terms of: 

- prevalence of high pressure consonants
- prevalence of high vowels

## Two additional requirements for the target sounds intended for comparison - they should :

- be of similar phonetic content
- occur in similar phonetic context

## We have two controlled speech samples we all should use: 

**	****	****	****single short words**
**	****	****	****short sentences**

## What about  repeated syllables such as /pipipi/ ?

- No _standardization_ for:
- the SLP ́s rep behavior
- numbers of syllables used
- pronounciation of the vowel
- some syllable chains may be real words in some languages

## What about automatic speech and memorized material ? 

## What about automatic speech cont.

- Should NOT be used within the battery of The Universal Reporting Parameters

## What about spontaneous speech ?

- impossible to control from a universal aspect
- impossible to describe the base for the assessment
- the length of the speech will vary
- the phonetic context will vary
- the speech tempo will vary

## However:

**spontaneous speech** could still be assessed but in terms of **intelligi-bility** or with other rating scales.
- _but once again_: **spontaneous speech** should be rated and reported _separated from_  single short words and short sentences
_** **_
** **

## Assessment and rating of HYPERNASALITY

- _ _
- from **high vowels** within _short words_ -   or
- from **low vowels** if this is the purpose of our assessment
- keep assessment and rating of high and low vowels _separated_

## Hypernasality  cont.

- Recommendation: assessment of 10 short words with high vowels
- The longer the speech samples with a mixture of vowels - the more difficult to listen to the individual vowels and rating of hypernasality

## For the clinical speech assesment of an individual patient , the SLP is free to use whatever speech samples he/she likes, but  they will not be usable within the battery of  The Universal Reporting Parameters

## The point is: 

- in order to be able to report on speech outcome in a meaningful way - the require-ments for speech samples should be considered in the clinical assessment

## Each cleft palate team within each language needs  to establish:

**a **_**word list**__ _ as much as possible in accordance to the recommended requirements
**a **_**sentence list**_  as much as possible in accordance to the recommended requirements

## How to elicit single word speech material?

## Eurocran recommendations (1)

- parents must not interfere with the child ́s talk
- _naming of the word_ - first choice
- _semantic prompting_ -next choice
- _final choice_ : repetition of the word
- After each naming the SLP should repeat the target word

## Further recommendations (2)

**the speech samples:**  tape recordings of high standard
- high quality equipment (see Eurocran recommendations)
**the target sound realisation:** _*transcriptions from the recordings*_ should be used for assessing cleft palate speech characteristics:

## Further recommendations  (3)

- This means that:
- each _target speech sound  realisation_ could include more than ONE speech characteristic (ex dental backing to velar + nasal emission)

## Further recommendations  (4)

**Words **and **sentences** should include an _established number_ of _target speech sounds_
_**then**_**:**** ****type **of speech characteristics – AND **number**** **of _correct_ and _incorrect_ responses could be summed up and  _transferred_ into any scoring system

## Further recommendations (5)

**CSAG** (Great Britain)
- the **ScandCleft Project** (longitu-dinal, multicenter study:10 european cleft palate centres, 5 languages
**Sw**edish **A**rticulation and **N**asality **Te**st: **SVANTE**  (publ 2005)