bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Age-Related Differences in Processing Dynamic Information to Identify Vowel Quality
Authors: Fox Robert Allen , Wall Lida G. , Gokcen Jeanne
Published: July 2014

This study examined age-related differences in the use of dynamic acoustic information (in the form of formant transitions) to identify vowel quality in CVCs. Two versions of 61 naturally produced, commonly occurring, monosyllabic English words were created: a control version (the unmodified whole word) and a silent-center version (in which approximately 62% of the medial vowel was replaced by silence). A group of normal-hearing young adults (19–25 years old) and older adults (61–75 years old) identified these tokens. The older subjects were found to be significantly worse than the younger subjects at identifying the medial vowel and the initial and final consonants in the silent-center condition. These results support the hypothesis of an age-related decrement in the ability to process dynamic perceptual cues in the perception of vowel quality.
Intelligibility Assessment in Developmental Phonological Disorders
Authors: Kwiatkowski Joan , Shriberg Lawrence D.
Published: July 2014

Fifteen caregivers each glossed a simultaneously videotaped and audiotaped sample of their child with speech delay engaged in conversation with a clinician. One of the authors generated a reference gloss for each sample, aided by (a) prior knowledge of the child’s speech-language status and error patterns, (b) glosses from the child’s clinician and the child’s caregiver, (c) unlimited replays of the taped sample, and (d) the information gained from completing a narrow phonetic transcription of the sample. Caregivers glossed an average of 78 of the utterances and 81 of the words. A comparison of their glosses to the reference glosses suggested that they accurately understood an average of 58 of the utterances and 73 of the words. Discussion considers the implications of such findings for methodological and theoretical issues underlying children’s moment-to-moment intelligibility breakdowns during speech-language processing.
The Role of Localization in Visual Reinforcement Audiometry
Authors: Primus Michael A.
Published: July 2014

The response task employed in visual reinforcement audiometry (VRA) has been characterized both as a localization response and, alternatively, as a pure operant conditioning behavior independent of localization. This study examined the role of localization in VRA conditioning and threshold procedures by varying the localization information provided to normal infants. Results indicate (a) that the VRA response is not contingent on localization but (b) that performance may be significantly influenced by localization. The findings suggest that any variable that alters proper localization cues, including equipment arrangement or impaired auditory function, may degrade response performance.
Tongue Strength and Endurance
Authors: Robin Donald A. , Goel Anuj , Somodi Lori B. , Luschei Erich S.
Published: July 2014

Tongue strength and endurance (fatigue) were examined in subjects who have acquired high skill levels with their tongues (supranormal) and in subjects who use the tongue normally. The supranormal groups were trumpet players and high school debaters who were able to speak intelligibly at rates much faster than normal. Hand strength and fatigue were also assessed. Maximal strength was measured by recording how much pressure an individual could exert on an air-filled bulb. Endurance was measured by determining how long subjects could sustain 50% of their maximal pressure. Results showed that maximal strength of the tongue and hand did not differentiate the supranormal subjects from the normal subjects. Hand endurance did not differentiate the subjects either. However, the supranormal groups had significantly longer tongue endurance times than did the normal subjects.
Contributions of the Fundamental, Resolved Harmonics, and Unresolved Harmonics in Tone-Phoneme Identification
Authors: Stagray James R. , Downs David , Sommers Ronald K.
Published: July 2014

Researchers describe Mandarin Chinese tone phonemes by their fundamental frequency (Fo) contours. However, tone phonemes are also comprised of higher harmonics that also may cue tone phonemes. We measured identification thresholds of acoustically filtered tone phonemes and found that higher harmonics, including resolved harmonics above the Fo and unresolved harmonics, cued tone phonemes. Resolved harmonics cued tone phonemes at lower intensity levels suggesting they are more practical tone-phoneme cues in everyday speech. The clear implication is that researchers should use the Fo only as a benchmark when describing tone-phoneme contours, recognizing that higher harmonics also cue tone phonemes. These results also help explain why tone-language speakers can identify tone phonemes over a telephone that attenuates selective frequencies, and suggests that hearing-impaired tone-language speakers may still identify tone phonemes when their hearing loss attenuates selective frequencies.
Preschoolers’ Imitation of Intonation Contours
Authors: Loeb Diane Frome , Allen George D.
Published: July 2014

This study evaluated normally developing preschoolers’ imitation of intonation contours modeled in a sentence elicitation task. Three intonation contours (declarative, interrogative, and monotone) were presented to 3- and 5-year-old children. Acoustic analyses using the Visi-Pitch and Apple ile computer system, along with perceptual ratings, measured the extent to which preschoolers imitated a modeled intonation contour. The results indicated that, as a group, the children were perceived to imitate or partially imitate the preceding intonation contour modeled by the adult. The 5-year-old children imitated modeled contours more frequently than did the 3-year-old children. In contrast, the 3-year-old children primarily partially imitated the intonation contours. Further analysis revealed that between-group differences were due largely to accuracy in imitating the interrogative contour. These findings establish reference data on normal children and implicate the use of both acoustic and perceptual analyses in order to develop and interpret intervention strategies aimed at children with prosodic problems.
Following the Child’s Lead When Teaching Nouns to Preschoolers With Mental Retardation
Authors: Yoder Paul J. , Kaiser Ann P. , Alpert Cathy , Fischer Rebecca
Published: July 2014

The current study tested the effects of following the child’s attentional lead on the efficiency of object-label teaching. Three preschoolers with mental retardation participated. An alternating-treatments design was used to test relative treatment effects. An elicited-production method of teaching object labels was used to present the words under two conditions. Two sets of 32 nonsense words and unfamiliar objects were randomly assigned to the two teaching conditions to create equivalent goal sets and to control for prior exposure to the words and objects. Under the "following-the-child’s-lead" condition, teaching episodes occurred only when the child had sustained attention to a target object or intentionally communicated about the target object. Under the "recruiting-the-child’s-attention" condition, the child’s attention was recruited intrusively away from his or her object of interest and toward the target object before each teaching episode began. The number of teaching trials per item and per session was carefully controlled. Results indicated that object-label teaching was more efficient under the following-the-child’slead condition for all three participants.
Haptic Recognition of Children With Specific Language Impairment
Authors: Montgomery James W.
Published: July 2014

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have been shown to exhibit deficient nonlinguistic symbolic functioning as indexed by their poor haptic recognition. Previous findings from conventional haptic tasks may be confounded because subject responses required cross-modal processing. The present study compared the haptic processing of children with SLI and children with normal language (NL) using one cross-modal and two tactile response conditions to isolate the influence of cross-modal processing on haptic recognition. Results showed that children with SLI and those with NL performed (a) similarly when the response modality was tactile and task requirements were minimal and (b) differently when the response demands included cross-modal processing or increased symbolic and memory processing. The results were interpreted to suggest that (a) children with SLI and those with NL possess comparable nonlinguistic representational abilities as indexed by haptic processing and (b) deficient cross-modal processing and limited capacity processing are two likely sources of the overall poorer haptic functioning of children with SLI.
A System for Quantifying the Informativeness and Efficiency of the Connected Speech of Adults With Aphasia
Authors: Nicholas Linda E. , Brookshire Robert H.
Published: July 2014

A standardized rule-based scoring system, the Correct Information Unit (CIU) analysis, was used to evaluate the informativeness and efficiency of the connected speech of 20 non-brain-damaged adults and 20 adults with aphasia in response to 10 elicitation stimuli. The interjudge reliability of the scoring system proved to be high, as did the session-to-session stability of performance on measures. There was a significant difference between the non-brain-damaged and aphasic speakers on each of the five measures derived from CIU and word counts. However, the three calculated measures (words per minute, percent CIUs, and CIUs per minute) more dependably separated aphasic from non-brain-damaged speakers on an individual basis than the two counts (number of words and number of CIUs).
Auditory Detection of the Human Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response
Authors: Kidd Gerald , Burkard Robert F. , Mason Christine R.
Published: July 2014

The human brainstem auditory evoked response (BAER) is a far-field electrical potential recorded from the scalp in response to transient acoustic stimuli. Typically, voltage measurements are obtained for a period of about 10 msec following the acoustic stimulus, which is repeated and summed several hundred or thousand times to permit extraction of the response from ongoing nonauditory neural activity. The judgment about whether a response has been obtained is normally based on the pattern observed in a visual display of the waveform. In this study, we investigated whether listeners can distinguish BAERs elicited by acoustic clicks from control waveforms obtained with no acoustic stimulus when the waveforms were presented auditorily. For this purpose, BAER and control waveforms were transduced by an earphone and used in an auditory detection task. Several presentation strategies were examined, including lengthening the waveform by playing it at a lower sampling rate, playing the waveform repetitively, and using the waveform to frequency modulate a pure-tone carrier. The results indicated that the BAER, when extended in duration and used to frequency modulate a 1000-Hz pure tone, was highly detectable in a
yes-no
paradigm for BAERs elicited with high-level (e.g., 70 dB re. behavioral detection threshold) acoustic clicks. Performance declined to near chance as the level of the BAER-eliciting stimulus was lowered to 10 dB. In general, detection performance for stimuli presented visually was slightly, but consistently, superior to that which occurred for stimuli presented auditorily.
Maximum Performance Tests in Children With Developmental Spastic Dysarthria
Authors: Wit J. , Maassen B. , Gabreëls F. J. M. , Thoonen G.
Published: July 2014

Three noninvasive Maximum Performance Tasks (MPT)—Maximum Sound Prolongation (MSP), Fundamental Frequency Range (FFR), and Maximum Repetition Rate (MRR)—were administered to 11 children with spastic dysarthria due to cerebral palsy and to 11 control children with normal speech in order to determine the value of the tasks for differentiating between these groups of children. From the acoustic measurements, nine parameters were calculated, and in seven of them highly significant group differences were found. By adding the unweighted z-scores of four parameters (maximum sound prolongation, syllable duration, fundamental frequency range, inter-utterance variability of syllable duration), a composite z-score was constructed with nonoverlapping distributions for both groups. The authors conclude that maximum performance tasks, despite the large intrasubject and intersubject variability in both normal and pathological speakers, are powerful tools for detecting spastic dysarthria.
Vowel and Diphthong Production by Young Users of Cochlear Implants and the Relationship Between the Phonetic Level Evaluation and Spontaneous Speech
Authors: Tye-Murray Nancy , Kirk Karen Iler
Published: July 2014

This investigation assessed how the vowel and diphthong production of young users of cochlear implants varied over time and how performance on the Phonetic Level Evaluation (PLE, Ling, 1976) corresponded with vowel and diphthong production during spontaneous speech. Eight children with prelingual deafness were tested with the PLE on five occasions: before receiving a Cochlear Corporation Nucleus cochlear implant and at the following points after receiving a cochlear implant: 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, and 24 or 36 months. An audiovideo recording of spontaneous speech was obtained at each test session. Performance on the PLE was scored with the scoring system designed by Kirk and Hill-Brown (1985). Performance during spontaneous speaking was scored by referencing a transcription of the spoken message to a transcription of the signed message. The correlations between the PLE and the spontaneous speech measures were weak, suggesting that performance on the PLE has low predictive value for vowel and diphthong production during spontaneous speaking. The results from the spontaneous speech samples collected over time suggest that two changes occurred: (a) vowel and diphthong production became more diverse and (b) production became more accurate. It is suggested that increased access to formant information enables subjects to enlarge their system of phonological performance and refine their motoric ability to establish vowel and diphthong targets.
The Need for Replication
Authors: Muma John R.
Published: July 2014

Replication provides verification and disconfirmation functions for the scholarly fields. Relatively few replications were found in a survey of studies inJSHDandJSHRover a recent decade. Based on the probabilities of Type I and Type II errors, there are likely to be approximately 50 to 250 false findings in this literature. Because many studies had relatively small sample sizes, replication would be helpful for extending the generalization of their results. These data underscore the urgency for more replications in the field.
Acquisition of Vowel Contrasts in Dutch
Authors: Clement Chris J. , Wijnen Frank
Published: July 2014

The aim of this research is to disentangle the contributions of anatomical development of the vocal tract and articulatory learning to the acquisition of vowel contrasts. Four groups of subjects were selected: normal 2-year-olds, normal 4-year-olds, 4-year-olds with a delay in phonological development of approximately 2 years, and adults. Elicited renditions of three Dutch vowels, /u/, /a/, and /a/ were acoustically analysed. The F1 and F2 values of the two vowels constituting a large contrast (/a/ versus /u/) were significantly different in all subject groups. On the other hand, the extent to which the spectra of /a/ and /a/ differed appeared to be affected by age. The 2-year-olds, in contrast to the normal 4-year-olds and adults, produced nondistinctive F2s for these two vowels. The results from the phonologically delayed 4-year-olds paralleled those of the 2-year-olds, which suggests that the acquisition of subtle vowel contrasts is primarily dependent on articulatory learning, rather than the purported anatomical development of the vocal tract.
Age and Velopharyngeal Function During Speech Production
Authors: Hoit Jeannette D. , Watson Peter J. , Hixon Kimberly E. , McMahon Patricia , Johnson Cynthia L.
Published: July 2014

This investigation was designed to determine if velopharyngeal function during speech production, as reflected in measures of nasal air flow, differs with age in adults. Eighty subjects were studied, 40 women and 40 men, representing four age groups (20–30, 40–50, 60–70, and 80+ years). Results showed no age-related differences in nasal air flow. Sex-related differences in flow were found on productions of nasal consonants only. These findings do not support the suggestion of Hutchinson, Robinson, and Nerbonne (1978) that velopharyngeal function deteriorates with age.
Effect of High-Pass Filtering on the Neonatal Auditory Brainstem Response to Air- and Bone-Conducted Clicks
Authors: Stuart Andrew , Yang Edward Y.
Published: July 2014

The effect of standard high-pass analog filtering on the neonatal auditory brainstem response (ABR) to air- and bone-conducted clicks at low intensity screening levels was investigated. Simultaneous three channel recorded ABRs were obtained from 20 neonates with filter settings of 30–3000, 100–3000, and 150–3000 Hz at intensity levels of 20, 30, and 40 dB nHL. Statistically significant reductions in wave V amplitude and decreases in wave V latency were observed for both transducers across all three low level stimulus intensities with the progressive increase in the high-pass filter cutoff (
p
< .05). These data support the advocacy of less restrictive high-pass filtering (e.g., 30 Hz) for neonatal and infant ABR screening to air- and bone-conducted clicks.
A Homomorphic Method for Measuring Secondary Amplitude Modulation
Authors: Qi Yingyong , Weinberg Bernd
Published: July 2014

A homomorphic processing, software implemented method for measuring secondary amplitude modulation (AM) is described. The accuracy of measurement of this method was tested on a series of synthetically produced AM and vowel signals. The homomorphic method provided highly accurate measurement of modulation frequency and modulation index.
Phrase-Final Syllable Lengthening and Intonation in Early Child Speech
Authors: Snow David
Published: July 2014

This research describes the development of phrase-final prosodic patterns in nine English-speaking children. The intonation feature of interest is the fall in the fundamental frequency of the voice that occurs in the final syllables of statements. The corresponding feature of speech timing is phrase-final lengthening. To test opposing theories about the relationship between intonation and syllable timing, these boundary features were compared in a longitudinal study of the children’s speech development between the mean ages of 16 and 25 months. The results suggest that young children acquire the skills that control intonation earlier than final syllable timing skills. The findings support the hypothesis that final lengthening in the speech of 2-year-olds is a learned prosodic feature that cannot be accounted for as a secondary effect of inherent speech production constraints. In addition, a consistent pattern of final lengthening began to emerge when the children were making the transition to combinatorial speech, suggesting a developmental relationship between the child’s learning of speech timing and syntax.
A Structured Approach to Voice Range Profile (Phonetogram) Analysis
Authors: Sulter Arend M. , Wit Hero P. , Schutte Harm K. , Miller Donald G.
Published: July 2014

A new method to analyze voice range profiles (phonetograms) is described. The structured analysis is based on quantitatively determining the features: shape, area, and “speaking range” dynamics, without distorting the shape of phonetograms. The parameter sets describing these features are calculated independently of fundamental frequency, which makes it possible to compare phonetograms. Two phonetograms representing a normal and a pathological example are used to illustrate the proposed method. The process provides a tool for establishing normative data for specified groups.
A Measure of the Contribution of a Gesture to the Perception of Speech in Listeners With Aphasia
Authors: Records Nancy L.
Published: July 2014

The contribution of a visual source of contextual information to speech perception was measured in 12 listeners with aphasia. The three experimental conditions were: Visual-Only (referential gesture), Auditory-Only (computer-edited speech), and Audio-Visual. In a two-alternative, forced-choice task, subjects indicated which picture had been requested. The stimuli were first validated with listeners without brain damage. The listeners with aphasia were subgrouped as having high or low language comprehension based on standardized test scores. Results showed a significantly larger contribution of gestural information to the responses of the lower-comprehension subgroup. The contribution of gesture was significantly correlated with the amount of ambiguity experienced with the auditory-only information. These results show that as the auditory information becomes more ambiguous, individuals with impaired language comprehension deficits make greater use of the visual information. The results support clinical observations that speech information received without visual context is perceived differently than when received with visual context.
Developmental Phonological Disorders III
Authors: Shriberg Lawrence D. , Gruber Frederic A. , Kwiatkowski Joan
Published: July 2014

Prior articles in this series provide a descriptive profile of 178 children with developmental phonological disorders (Shriberg & Kwiatkowski, 1994) and predictive correlates of short-term speech-sound normalization in 54 children (Shriberg, Kwiatkowski, & Gruber, 1994). The present article reports findings from a study of 10 children with developmental phonological disorders whose progress was followed at least once yearly for 7 years. Analyses characterize the sequence, rates, and error patterns of long-term speech-sound normalization in relation to developmental perspectives on the nature of children’s phonological disorders. Findings are interpreted to support the hypothesis of a critical period for speech-sound development, with long-term normalization of significant speech delay reaching a chronological age boundary at approximately 8.5 years.
Levator Veli Palatini Muscle Activity in Relation to Intraoral Air Pressure Variation
Authors: Kuehn David P. , Moon Jerald B.
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this investigation was to study the operating range of the levator veli palatini muscle for a nonspeech task (blowing) and to determine where in that range levator activity for speech lies. Ten adult subjects without speech or velopharyngeal abnormalities participated. Levator EMG activity for speech occurred in the lower region of the total range for blowing. In two subsequent experiments involving a subset of 4 subjects, it was found that overall effort may have had a small effect on levator activity apart from its role in velopharyngeal closure for aerodynamic purposes. The results of the main experiment are discussed in relation to the concept of threshold of fatigue as it may influence velopharyngeal control mechanisms.
Perceptual Rankings of Speech Quality Produced With One-Way Tracheostomy Speaking Valves
Authors: Leder Steven B.
Published: July 2014

Perceptual speech quality rankings, mechanical functioning, and maintenance of respiration as measured by oxygen saturation were determined for four different one-way tracheostomy speaking valves. Results indicated significant differences in speech quality rankings, with the Montgomery and Passy-Muir valves ranked significantly better than the Kistner and Olympic valves, and the Olympic valve ranked significantly better than the Kistner valve. The Passy-Muir valve was identified with the best speech quality most often by both listeners and subjects, and exhibited the fewest clinically relevant mechanical problems. Maintenance of respiration was not affected by use of any of the valves studied.
Effect of Frequency-Altered Feedback on Stuttering Frequency at Normal and Fast Speech Rates
Authors: Hargrave Stephanie , Kalinowski Joseph , Stuart Andrew , Armson Joy , Jones Kathleen
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the magnitude and direction of the frequency shift of frequency-altered auditory feedback (FAF) on stuttering frequency at both normal and fast speech rates. Twelve adult male and 2 adult female subjects who stutter read 10 different passages at either a normal or fast speech rate under nonaltered auditory feedback (NAF) and each of four FAF conditions in which the feedback signal was shifted: up one-half octave; up one octave; down one-half octave; and down one octave. Mean stuttering frequency for NAF was significantly higher than mean stuttering frequencies for all FAF conditions (
p
< 0.05). There were no statistically significant differences between the FAF conditions (
p
>0.05). Subjects exhibited significantly more disfluencies under the fast speech rate condition relative to the normal speech rate condition. Future research should examine the relationship between frequency shifts of less than one-half octave and stuttering amelioration.
Effects of Lexical Meaning and Practiced Productions on Coarticulation in Children’s and Adults’ Speech
Authors: Siren Kathleen A. , Wilcox Kim A.
Published: July 2014

This investigation examined the effect of familiarity with a speech target on the magnitude of the coarticulation observed in children (aged 3, 5, and 7 years) and adults. For the purposes of this investigation, coarticulation was defined as the effect that a following vowel, /i/ or /u/, had on the frequency value of the second formant (F2) in the preceding fricative, /s/ or /∫/. Familiarity with the spoken targets was examined through the manipulation of two factors: (a) the presence or absence of lexical meaning and (b) the extent to which speakers were allowed to practice an item prior to recording. Results of acoustic measurements confirm that the children exhibited a greater effect of a following vowel on the preceding fricative when compared to adults. Nonmeaningful production items appeared to exhibit a greater effect of the vowel on the preceding fricative than meaningful production items, regardless of age of the individual. Limited motor practice did not have an effect on degree of fricative-vowel coarticulation in production items for any of the age groups. For the productions in this investigation, the primary coarticulatory effect was intrasyllabic.
Measurement of Narrative Discourse Ability in Children With Language Disorders
Authors: Liles Betty Z. , Duffy Robert J. , Merritt Donna D. , Purcell Sherry L.
Published: July 2014

Narratives from three studies differing in subject pools, elicitation procedures, and story content were analyzed using seven variables hypothesized to measure a variety of language abilities used in narrative production. Two questions were addressed: (a) To what extent did multiple variables represent common factors? and (b) To what extent did these variables distinguish children with language disorder from their nondisordered peers? Results indicated that: (a) The seven variables represented two factors; Factor I measured global organization of content (i.e., episode structure), and Factor II measured within- and across-sentence structure (i.e., grammatical sentence structure, within subordinate clause productivity, and textual cohesion), and (b) regardless of study, only the variables representing Factor II were selected as the most effective in predicting group membership.
Idiom Understanding in Youth: Further Examination of Familiarity and Transparency
Authors: Nippold Marilyn A. , Taylor Catherine L.
Published: July 2014

School-age children and adolescents (n= 150) enrolled in Grades 5, 8, and 11 were administered a forced choice task of idiom understanding that controlled for idiom familiarity and transparency. Performance on the task steadily improved during the targeted age range and was affected by the factors of interest: Idioms that were higher in familiarity and transparency were easier for students to understand than those that were less familiar and more opaque. The results of this study provide further support for the language experience hypothesis of figurative language development and for the hypothesis that metalinguistic activity, which itself becomes more sophisticated during the school-age and adolescent years, facilitates later language development. The study also suggests certain methodological implications for future research that examines the development of idiom understanding in youth.
Quick Incidental Learning (QUIL) of Words by School-Age Children With and Without SLI
Authors: Oetting Janna B. , Rice Mabel L. , Swank Linda K.
Published: July 2014

This study examined Quick Incidental Learning (QUIL) of novel vocabulary by two groups of school-age children, those who were developing language normally and those who demonstrated a specific language impairment (SLI). The experimental items consisted of 20 words that referred to one of four semantic classes: object, attribute, action, and affective state. Videotaped stories were used to introduce the novel words, and word learning was measured by a picture-pointing task. For the normally developing children, the results documented a robust ability to learn words in the early school years. Comprehension gains were observed for all four word types, with the greatest gain made on the object labels. The children with SLI also demonstrated some word-learning ability, but their gain was significantly less than that of their normally developing peers. Although the general pattern of word effects was similar across the two groups, the children with SLI demonstrated a particularly low gain on words from the action class.
Phonological Awareness and Literacy Development in Children With Expressive Phonological Impairments
Authors: Bird J. , Bishop D. V. M. , Freeman N. H.
Published: July 2014

This study investigated the link between expressive phonological impairments, phonological awareness, and literacy. Previous investigations of literacy skills in children with speech impairments have given mixed results; here we considered whether presence of additional language impairments or severity of the speech impairment was an important prognostic factor. Thirty-one children with expressive phonological impairments were compared with control children matched on age and nonverbal ability on three occasions, at mean ages of 70, 79, and 91 months. On each occasion they were given three tests of phonological awareness: one involved rime-matching and two involved onset-matching. At assessments 2 and 3 literacy skills were assessed. Children with phonological impairments scored well below their controls on phonological awareness and literacy, independent of whether or not they had other language problems. Although many of them knew letter sounds, they were poor at reading and writing nonwords as well as real words. It is suggested that both the speech impairment and the literacy problems arise from a failure to analyze syllables into smaller phonological units. The severity of the phonological problems in relation to age is an important determinant of literacy outcome; children who have severe expressive phonological impairments at the time they start school are at particular risk for reading and spelling problems.
Characteristics of Voicing Source Waveforms Produced by Esophageal and Tracheoesophageal Speakers
Authors: Qi Yingyong , Weinberg Bernd
Published: July 2014

Voicing source waveforms produced by 10 laryngectomized esophageal speakers, 12 laryngectomized tracheoesophageal speakers, and 10 age-matched, normal male speakers were obtained by inversely filtering flow functions recorded with a circumferentially vented mask. The data from these speakers was used to evaluate differences in source signal properties on a group basis. In a second analysis, source signals produced by a single laryngectomized individual, capable of producing esophageal and tracheoesophageal speech in a highly proficient manner, were analyzed and compared. The overall results of this project provide an initial and novel description of voicing source signals produced by esophageal and tracheoesophageal speakers. The characteristics of these signals appear to be highly variable, particularly in comparison with the homogeneous pattern of source waves produced by age-matched, normal speakers. This initial description of voicing source signals produced by alaryngeal speakers is generally supportive of the hypothesis of differences in source properties among normal, esophageal, and tracheoesophageal voices.
Results of a Traditional Acupuncture Intervention for Stuttering
Authors: Craig Ashley R. , Kearns Maree
Published: July 2014

It is important that researchers investigate alternative strategies for treating stuttering, as contemporary treatments are not entirely successful in reducing stuttering with all people. Furthermore, many who have been “successfully” treated suffer from high relapse rates in the long term. Acupuncture has been shown to be a promising treatment for several diverse disorders, so a pilot investigation into its effectiveness for stuttering was considered worthwhile. This study investigated traditional acupuncture-based treatments for two adult males who had stuttered since childhood. A single-case experimental ABAB multiple baseline design was employed to test for treatment effectiveness. Subjects were followed up for a further 12 weeks to evaluate maintenance (C phase) of possible improvements. No significant ABAB reversal effects were observed, and stuttering frequency through the treatment phases remained at baseline levels for the two subjects. Speech rate also remained at baseline levels throughout the treatment phases, as did naturalness of speech and anxiety levels. This research is important as claims that acupuncture may successfully reduce stuttering need to be tested, and the scope and usefulness of treatments like acupuncture for a wide variety of problems needs to be determined. However, the low subject numbers involved suggest caution in concluding acupuncture is not a successful intervention for stuttering. Perhaps alternative acupuncture points need to be evaluated and a wider variety of persons who stutter need to be involved in any future research.
Conflict Resolution Abilities of Children With Specific Language Impairment and Children With Normal Language
Authors: Stevens Lizbeth J. , Bliss Lynn S.
Published: July 2014

This study explored the conflict resolution ability of 30 children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 30 children with normal language (NL) in grades 3 through 7. The children participated in a hypothetical problem-solving activity in which an imaginary conflict was presented and a hypothetical solution was required. They also engaged in role enactments of conflicts. The children with SLI suggested fewer types of strategies to resolve hypothetical conflicts than their peers with NL. The groups did not differ in the number of strategy types used in the role-enactment contexts. The children with receptive and expressive SLI performed more poorly than the children with primarily expressive language deficits only on the role-enactment task. Similarities and differences in types of strategy used by the children with SLI and those with NL were found in both tasks. Explanations are offered for these findings.
Novel Word Learning in Children With Hearing Impairment
Authors: Gilbertson Margie , Kamhi Alan G.
Published: July 2014

This study examined novel word-learning abilities in young school-age children with mild-to-moderate hearing losses. We questioned whether degree of hearing loss or measures of language and phonological processing abilities were more likely to be related to novel word-learning ability. Subjects were 20 children with hearing impairment (M = 9:0) and 20 children with normal hearing (M = 6:5) matched for receptive vocabulary knowledge. Children were administered measures of language and phonological processing. The novel word-learning task consisted of an acquisition and retention phase in which children received a series of trials to learn to produce four novel words.

Half of the children with hearing impairment performed comparably to the children with normal hearing on all of the measures obtained, whereas the other 10 children with hearing impairment performed more poorly than the higher functioning children with hearing impairment and all of the children with normal hearing on most of the measures of language, phonological processing, and novel word learning. Degree of hearing loss was not related to language or word-learning abilities. These findings suggest that the population of children with mild-to-moderate hearing loss may contain two distinct groups: a group of normally developing children who have a hearing loss and a group of children with language impairment who have a hearing loss. The implications of this categorization will be discussed.
Parameter Estimation of Labial Movements in Speech Production: Implications for Speech Motor Control
Authors: Hinton Virginia A. , Robey Randall R.
Published: July 2014

Central to theories of speech motor control are estimates on magnitudes of lip activity expressed in terms of central tendency, variability, and interrelatedness. In fact, the tenability of each of two competing theories of motor control for speech production rests solely on the observation of the predicted direction of the correlation coefficient (one positive and one negative) that indexes the relationship of concurrent lip activity. Each theory, however, predicts a relationship that is the complete opposite of the relationship predicted by the other. That is, one theory proposes that the labial system functions on the basis of complementary variation, whereas the other assumes positive covariation, or complementary modulation. In apparent contradiction, each prediction has been observed under laboratory conditions. The explanation for this apparent contradiction resides in the small sample sizes upon which each estimate was based.

The minimum number of observations that are necessary to achieve accurate estimates of lip displacement parameters has remained unclear. This paper addresses three fundamental questions: (a) how many observations of on-task behavior are necessary to accurately estimate mean and variance values for the magnitude of upper lip displacement in a speech production experiment?, (b) what is the analogous number of observations for estimating the same values of lower lip displacement (together with the mandible) in the same context?, and (c) how many observations are necessary to accurately estimate the correlation coefficient indexing the relationship of lip displacements during the production of speech? Answers to these questions are accomplished through a review of estimator properties, a Monte Carlo computer simulation, and through laboratory observations. The findings indicate that, as currently formulated, neither the relationship predicted by the complementary variation model nor that predicted by the complementary modulation model is wholly tenable.
Validity of Parent Report Measures of Vocabulary Development for Children With Down Syndrome
Authors: Miller Jon F. , Sedey Allison L. , Miolo Giuliana
Published: July 2014

This study investigated the validity of a parent report measure of vocabulary development, the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences (CDI), in children with and without developmental disabilities. Concurrent validity was examined by comparing results from the CDI and laboratory measures of vocabulary in 44 children with Down syndrome and 46 typically developing children with mental ages from 12 to 27 months. Significant correlations between .70 and .82 were obtained. Predictive validity was examined by measuring the vocabulary of 20 children with Down syndrome and 23 typically developing children first at approximately 20 months mental age and later at a mental age of approximately 28 months. Significant correlations were obtained between the CDI at Time A and all but one of the vocabulary measures at Time B (r= .46 to .66). These results establish the validity of parent measures of vocabulary development for children with Down syndrome and confirm their validity for typically developing children.
Discourse Topic Management in Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer's Type
Authors: Mentis Michelle , Briggs-Whittaker Jan , Gramigna Gary D.
Published: July 2014

The purpose of the study was to provide a detailed evaluation of the topic management abilities of a group of subjects with senile dementia of the Alzheimer’s type (SDAT) and to compare their patterns of topic management to that of a normal elderly (NE) subject group. Twenty-four subjects participated in the study: 12 SDAT subjects and 12 NE subjects matched along the variables of age, sex, and education. The evaluation of topic management was based on a 20-minute casual conversational interaction between the subject and a speech-language pathologist that was videotaped and later transcribed orthographically. Topic management was analyzed in terms of a modified version of the multidimensional topic coherence analysis developed by Mentis and Prutting (1991). The results indicated significant differences between the SDAT and NE subjects along a number of parameters of topic introduction and maintenance. The topic management profiles of the SDAT subjects were characterized by a reduced ability to change topics while preserving the discourse flow, difficulty in actively contributing to the propositional development of the topic, and a failure to consistently maintain topic in a clear and coherent manner. These problems appeared to be related to underlying problems across the discourse-pragmatic, linguistic, and cognitive domains; they highlight the need to more fully explore the interactions among deficits in SDAT and their effects on conversational discourse.
Disfluency Clusters of Children Who Stutter: Relation of Stutterings to Self-Repairs
Authors: LaSalle Lisa R. , Conture Edward G.
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this study was to account for the frequency, type, and possible origins of speech disfluency clusters in the spontaneous speech of 3- to 6-year-old children, 30 who stutter and 30 who do not stutter. On the basis of the Covert Repair Hypothesis (Postma & Kolk, 1993), which suggests that stutterings are the by-products of self-repairs or self-corrections of speech errors, three hypotheses were tested in attempts to account for the frequency and location of stutterings within speech disfluency clusters. Sequences of various types of speech disfluencies in utterances containing disfluency clusters were collected from audio/videotaped conversations between each of these 60 children and their mothers. Three types of speech disfluencies—overt self-repairs, coVert self-repairs, and within-word disfluencies (“stutterings”)—and the disfluency clusters they comprised, were identified and analyzed frame-by-frame. Results indicated that children who stutter produced significantly more stuttering-stuttering clusters (e.g., “/-/-/w-w-want…” or “w-w-waaaant”) and that, although children who do not stutter occasionally produced stutterings, they never produced stuttering-stuttering clusters. Furthermore, children who stutter produced significantly more stuttering-repair clusters, whereas children who do not stutter produced significantly more repair-repair clusters. Within the disfluency clusters of children who do not stutter, stutterings were more likely to follow an overt self-repair produced at a relatively fast speaking rate (6.6 sylls/sec). Findings are taken to suggest that stuttering-stuttering clusters may help differentiate between children who do and do not stutter, and that speech errors, self-repairs, and speech disfluencies influence one another within and between adjacent sounds, syllables, and Words in what appears to be a nonhappenstance and theoretically important fashion.
Parents’ Speech and Children’s Stuttering: A Critique of the Literature
Authors: Nippold Marilyn A. , Rudzinski Mishelle
Published: July 2014

The role of parents in relation to their children’s stuttering has been of great interest to speech-language pathologists for more than 50 years. As part of treatment, speech-language pathologists frequently advise parents to modify their speech behaviors when talking with their children. For example, parents are often told to speak more slowly and to refrain from interrupting or questioning the child excessively. Given the commonness of this advice, it is important to examine the research upon which it is based. This article contains a critical review of the literature concerning the role of parents’ speech behaviors (e.g., rate, interruptions, question-asking) in relation to their children’s stuttering. Published studies are reported and analyzed in order to determine the extent to which parents may affect their children’s stuttering through their own speech behaviors. The review indicates that there is little convincing evidence to support the view that parents of children who stutter differ from parents of children who do not stutter in the way they talk with their children. Similarly, there is little objective support for the argument that parents’ speech behaviors contribute to children’s stuttering or that modifying parents’ speech behaviors facilitates children’s fluency. Implications for treatment and for future research are discussed.
Fundamental Frequency, Intensity, and Vowel Selection: Effects on Measures of Phonatory Stability
Authors: Gelfer Marylou Pausewang
Published: July 2014

Measures of phonatory stability such as jitter, shimmer, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) are increasingly used in clinics and laboratories, yet questions about the effects of various aspects of voice production on these acoustic variables have received only limited attention. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of frequency, intensity, and vowel selection on those measures of phonatory stability. Twenty-nine young adult females were used as subjects. Each subject produced vocalizations at her speaking fundamental frequency (SFF) and one octave above SFF; at 60, 70, and 80 dB; and on the vowels /i/ and /a/, for a total of 12 vocalizations per subject. These vocalizations were then analyzed, using CSpeech acoustic analysis software, to obtain measures of jitter, shimmer, and SNR. Results revealed that frequency, intensity, and vowel selection all affected various phonatory stability measures, with the highest perturbation values almost always occurring in the low frequency-low intensity condition. Implications and physiological explanations for the results of the study were presented.
Effects of Prenatal Exposure to Cocaine and Associated Risk Factors on Language Development
Authors: Mentis Michelle , Lundgren Kristine
Published: July 2014

During the past decade there has been a dramatic increase in the number of children born with prenatal exposure to cocaine. However, there is very little hard data concerning the later development of these children. The purpose of this preliminary study was to compare the language development profiles of 5 children prenatally exposed to cocaine and associated risk factors to the language development profiles of a matched non-exposed control group in terms of analyses of the discourse-pragmatic, semantic, and form components of language. The language evaluation was based on the analysis of a 30-minute language sample. The results suggested differences between the two groups as well as differences within the cocaine-exposed group. The major differences between the two groups were in discourse-pragmatics although less marked differences in syntactic development were also found. The results are discussed in relation to the potential contribution of pertinent medical and environmental risk factors. The study suggests that for children with prenatal exposure to cocaine in combination with multiple associated risk factors, language development may be compromised.