bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Genetic and Environmental Mediation of the Relationship Between Language and Nonverbal Impairment in 4-Year-Old Twins
Authors: Viding Essi , Price Thomas S. , Spinath Frank M. , Bishop Dorothy V. M. , Dale Philip S. , Plomin Robert
Published: April 2006

This study of 4-year-old twins investigated the genetic and environmental origins of comorbidity between language impairment and nonverbal ability by testing the extent to which language impairment in one twin predicted nonverbal ability in the co-twin. Impairment of language ability was defined as scores below the 15th percentile on a general language scale derived from a battery of diverse language tests. Four hundred thirty-six children, members of 160 monozygotic (MZ) and 131 same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs, were identified as language impaired. Language-impaired probands also suffered significant impairments in nonverbal ability. DeFries-Fulker extremes analysis showed evidence for substantial genetic mediation of the phenotypic relationship between language impairment and poor nonverbal ability in that language problems in one twin predicted poor nonverbal ability in the co-twin, much more so for MZ twins than for DZ twins. This finding held even when we excluded those children with language impairment whose nonverbal score indicated general cognitive delay. These results point to a general genetic factor that includes both language and nonverbal problems.
The Acquisition of the English Plural Morpheme by Native Mandarin Chinese-Speaking Children
Authors: Jia Gisela
Published: April 2006

Although the acquisition of the English plural morpheme by monolingual English-speaking children (L1 learners) has been studied extensively, little is known about the processes through which native speakers of other languages (L2 speakers) acquire the English plural morpheme. To understand the similarities and differences between L1 and L2 English plural morpheme acquisition, 10 native Mandarin-speaking children who immigrated to the United States between ages 5 and 16 years were followed for 5 years. Their proficiency in English plural morpheme production was measured by a picture description task and by their spontaneous speech. In contrast to L1 learners who master the plural morpheme within 3 years of age, only 7 of these 10 L2 learners did so after 5 years of English exposure. Age of initial exposure to English and language environment explained individual differences to some extent. Participants' speech illustrated all error types made by L1 learners; however, L2 learners more frequently marked the same noun inconsistently in the same testing session, and more often overgeneralized the plural morpheme in singular or mass noun contexts. Differences between L2 learners and L1 learners with specific language impairment are also discussed.
A Comparison of Language Abilities in Adolescents With Down Syndrome and Children With Specific Language Impairment
Authors: Laws Glynis , Bishop Dorothy V. M.
Published: April 2006

This article compared the language profiles of adolescents with Down syndrome (DS) and children with specific language impairment matched for nonverbal cognitive ability, and investigated whether similar relationships could be established between language measures and other capacities in both groups. Language profiles were very similar: Expressive language was more affected than language comprehension, and grammar was more affected than vocabulary in both domains. Both groups were impaired on tests of grammatical morphology and phonological memory. There were some differences between the groups, but these could be attributed to other features of development of people with DS.
Auditory Temporal Order Discrimination and Backward Recognition Masking in Adults With Dyslexia
Authors: Griffiths Yvonne M. , Hill Nicholas I. , Bailey Peter J. , Snowling Margaret J.
Published: April 2006

The ability of 20 adult dyslexic readers to extract frequency information from successive tone pairs was compared with that of IQ-matched controls using temporal order discrimination and auditory backward recognition masking (ABRM) tasks. In both paradigms, the interstimulus interval (ISI) between tones in a pair was either short (20 ms) or long (200 ms). Temporal order discrimination was better for both groups of listeners at long than at short ISIs, but no group differences in performance were observed at either ISI. Performance on the ABRM task was also better at long than at short ISIs and was influenced by variability in masker frequency and by the spectral proximity of target and masker. The only significant group difference was found in one condition of the ABRM task when the target-masker interval was 200 ms, but this difference was not reliable when the measure was of optimal performance. Moderate correlations were observed between auditory thresholds and phonological skill for the sample as a whole and within the dyslexic and control groups. However, although a small subgroup of dyslexic listeners with poor phonology was characterized by elevated thresholds across the auditory tasks, evidence for an association between auditory and phonological processing skills was weakened by the finding of a subgroup of control listeners with poor auditory processing and normal phonological processing skills.
Representation of Sound Categories in Auditory Cortical Maps
Authors: Guenther Frank H. , Nieto-Castanon Alfonso , Ghosh Satrajit S. , Tourville Jason A.
Published: April 2006

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate the representation of sound categories in human auditory cortex. Experiment 1 investigated the representation of prototypical (good) and nonprototypical (bad) examples of a vowel sound. Listening to prototypical examples of a vowel resulted in less auditory cortical activation than did listening to nonprototypical examples. Experiments 2 and 3 investigated the effects of categorization training and discrimination training with novel nonspeech sounds on auditory cortical representations. The 2 training tasks were shown to have opposite effects on the auditory cortical representation of sounds experienced during training: Discrimination training led to an increase in the amount of activation caused by the training stimuli, whereas categorization training led to decreased activation. These results indicate that the brain efficiently shifts neural resources away from regions of acoustic space where discrimination between sounds is not behaviorally important (e.g., near the center of a sound category) and toward regions where accurate discrimination is needed. The results also provide a straightforward neural account of learned aspects of perceptual distortion near sound categories: Sounds from the center of a category are more difficult to discriminate from each other than sounds near category boundaries because they are represented by fewer cells in the auditory cortical areas.
Variability in /s/ Production in Children and Adults
Authors: Munson Benjamin
Published: April 2006

Previous research has found developmental decreases in temporal variability in speech. Relatively less work has examined spectral variability, and, in particular, variability in consonant spectra. This article examined variability in productions of the consonant /s/ by adults and by 3 groups of children, with mean ages of 3;11 (years;months), 5;04, and 8;04. Specifically, it measured the influence of age, phonetic context, and syllabic context on variability. Spectral variability was estimated by measuring dynamic spectral characteristics of multiple productions of /s/ in sV, spV, and swV sequences, where the vowel was either /a/ or /u/. Mean duration, variability in duration, and coarticulation were also measured. Children were found to produce /s/ with greater temporal and spectral variability than adults. Duration and coarticulation were comparable across the 4 age groups. Spectral variability was greater in swV contexts than in sV or spV sequences. The lack of consistent effects of phonetic context on spectral variability suggests that the developmental differences were related to subtle variability in place of articulation for /s/ in the children's productions.
Gesture Development
Authors: Capone Nina C. , McGregor Karla K.
Published: April 2006

The aim of this article is to provide clinicians and researchers a comprehensive overview of the development and functions of gesture in childhood and in select populations with developmental language impairments. Of significance is the growing body of evidence that gesture enhances, not hinders, language development. In both normal and impaired populations, gesture and language development parallel each other and share underlying symbolic abilities. Gesture serves several functions, including those of communication, compensation, and transition to spoken language. In clinical practice, gesture may play a valuable role in diagnosis, prognosis, goal selection, and intervention for children with language impairments. Where available, supporting evidence is presented. Needs for additional research on gesture are also highlighted.
Speech Recognition in Fluctuating and Continuous Maskers
Authors: Summers Van , Molis Michelle R.
Published: April 2006

Listeners with normal-hearing sensitivity recognize speech more accurately in the presence of fluctuating background sounds, such as a single competing voice, than in unmodulated noise at the same overall level. These performance differences are greatly reduced in listeners with hearing impairment, who generally receive little benefit from fluctuations in masker envelopes. If this lack of benefit is entirely due to elevated quiet thresholds and the resulting inaudibility of low-amplitude portions of signal + masker, then listeners with hearing impairment should derive increasing benefit from masker fluctuations as presentation levels increase. Listeners with normal-hearing (NH) sensitivity and listeners with hearing impairment (HI) were tested for sentence recognition at moderate and high presentation levels in competing speech-shaped noise, in competing speech by a single talker, and in competing time-reversed speech by the same talker. NH listeners showed more accurate recognition at moderate than at high presentation levels and better performance in fluctuating maskers than in unmodulated noise. For these listeners, modulated versus unmodulated performance differences tended to decrease at high presentation levels. Listeners with HI, as a group, showed performance that was more similar across maskers and presentation levels. Considered individually, only 2 out of 6 listeners with HI showed better overall performance and increasing benefit from masker fluctuations as presentation level increased. These results suggest that audibility alone does not completely account for the group differences in performance with fluctuating maskers; suprathreshold processing differences between groups also appear to play an important role. Competing speech frequently provided more effective masking than time-reversed speech containing temporal fluctuations of equal magnitude. This finding is consistent with "informational" masking resulting from competitive processing of words and phrases within the speech masker that would not occur for time-reversed sentences.
Effect of Age on Silent Gap Discrimination in Synthetic Speech Stimuli
Authors: Lister Jennifer , Tarver Kenton
Published: April 2006

The difficulty that older listeners experience understanding conversational speech may be related to their limited ability to use information present in the silent intervals (i.e., temporal gaps) between dynamic speech sounds. When temporal gaps are present between nonspeech stimuli that are spectrally invariant (e.g., noise bands or sinusoids), older listeners are less able to resolve temporal gaps than are younger listeners. It has also been demonstrated that temporal gap perception deteriorates as the frequency difference between the sounds bordering the silent gap increases, and this effect becomes more pronounced with age (J. Lister, J. Besing, & J. Koehnke, 2002; J. Lister, J. Koehnke, & J. Besing, 2000). In this study, the effect of age on the ability to discriminate temporal gaps in dynamic stimuli (i.e., changing in frequency and duration over time) was measured in a gap duration discrimination (GDD) task. The participants were two groups of listeners with normal hearing sensitivity through at least 4000 Hz: (a) ages 21–38 years and (b) ages 50–72 years. Stimuli simulated the frequency characteristics of 1 consonant (/s/), a steady-state vowel (/a/), a weak diphthong (e/
i
/), and a voiced bilabial plosive (/
burst
/) in 6 combinations: (a) /s-a/, (b) /s-e/
i
/, (c) /a-a/, (d) / e
i
-e
i
/, (e) /
burst
-a/, and (f) /
burst
-e/
i
/. For each of the 6 phoneme combinations, 2 conditions of stimulus duration were used: (a) fixed, meaning that the durations of leading and trailing noises were fixed at values typical for the speech sounds being simulated, and (b) random, meaning that duration varied randomly within a range acceptable for accurate perception of the speech contrasts. Gap duration difference limens (GDDLs) were significantly larger for the older listeners than for younger listeners. For both groups, GDDLs were poorer for the spectrally dynamic marker pairs (e.g., /
burst
-e
i
/) than for the marker pairs that were relatively stable in frequency over time (/a-a/). GDD performance also was poorer for the random condition than for the fixed condition. Listener age and hearing sensitivity were significantly correlated, and age was not significantly correlated with GDD when controlling for hearing sensitivity. The authors conclude that temporal resolution (as measured by gap discrimination) is affected by age, stimulus complexity, and, perhaps, by hearing sensitivity in a speech context.
Prevalence of Voice Disorders in Teachers and the General Population
Authors: Roy Nelson , Merrill Ray M. , Thibeault Susan , Parsa Rahul A. , Gray Steven D. , Smith Elaine M.
Published: April 2006

Over 3 million teachers in the United States use their voice as a primary tool of trade and are thought to be at higher risk for occupation-related voice disorders than the general population. However, estimates regarding the prevalence of voice disorders in teachers and the general population vary considerably. To determine the extent that teachers are at greater risk for voice disorders, 2,531 randomly selected participants from Iowa and Utah (1,243 teachers and 1,288 nonteachers) were interviewed by telephone using a voice disorder questionnaire. Prevalence—the number of cases per population at risk at a specific time—was determined. The prevalence of reporting a current voice problem was significantly greater in teachers compared with nonteachers (11.0% vs. 6.2%), χ
2
(1)=18.2,
p
<.001, as was the prevalence of voice disorders during their lifetime (57.7% for teachers vs. 28.8% for nonteachers), χ
2
(1)=215.2,
p
<.001. Teachers were also significantly more likely than nonteachers to have consulted a physician or speech-language pathologist regarding a voice disorder (14.3% vs. 5.5%), χ
2
(1)=55.3,
p
<.001. Women, compared with men, not only had a higher lifetime prevalence of voice disorders (46.3% vs. 36.9%), χ
2
(1)=20.9,
p
<.001, but also had a higher prevalence of chronic voice disorders (>4 weeks in duration), compared with acute voice disorders (20.9% vs. 13.3%), χ
2
(1)=8.7,
p
=.003. To assess the association between past voice disorders and possible risks, adjusted odds ratios (ORs) were estimated using multiple logistic regression. The results identified that being a teacher, being a woman, being between 40 and 59 years of age, having 16 or more years of education, and having a family history of voice disorders were each positively associated with having experienced a voice disorder in the past. These results support the notion that teaching is a high-risk occupation for voice disorders. Important information is also provided regarding additional factors that might contribute to the development of voice disorders.
Separating Contributions of Hearing, Lexical Knowledge, and Speech Production to Speech-Perception Scores in Children With Hearing Impairments
Authors: Paatsch Louise E. , Blamey Peter J. , Sarant Julia Z. , Martin Lois F. A. , Bow Catherine P.
Published: April 2006

Open-set word and sentence speech-perception test scores are commonly used as a measure of hearing abilities in children and adults using cochlear implants and/or hearing aids. These tests are usually presented auditorily with a verbal response. In the case of children, scores are typically lower and more variable than for adults with hearing impairments using similar devices. It is difficult to interpret children’s speech-perception scores without considering the effects of lexical knowledge and speech-production abilities on their responses. This study postulated a simple mathematical model to describe the effects of hearing, lexical knowledge, and speech production on the perception test scores for monosyllabic words by children with impaired hearing. Thirty-three primary-school children with impaired hearing, fitted with hearing aids and/or cochlear implants, were evaluated using speech-perception, reading-aloud, speech-production, and language measures. These various measures were incorporated in the mathematical model, which revealed that performance in an open-set word-perception test in the auditory-alone mode is strongly dependent on residual hearing levels, lexical knowledge, and speech-production abilities. Further applications of the model provided an estimate of the effect of each component on the overall speech-perception score for each child.
Cost-Effective Prediction of Reading Difficulties
Authors: Heath Steve M. , Hogben John H.
Published: April 2006

This study addressed 2 questions: (a) Can preschoolers who will fail at reading be more efficiently identified by targeting those at highest risk for reading problems? and (b) will auditory temporal processing (ATP) improve the accuracy of identification derived from phonological processing and oral language ability? A sample of 227 preschoolers was screened for Performance IQ and was tested on phonological awareness (PA). The upper and lower quartiles of the PA distribution were selected as being at lowest and highest risk, respectively, for reading failure. Children with good and poor PA were tested on ATP, phonological short-term memory, rapid automatized naming, oral language, receptive vocabulary, and 2 measures of listening comprehension. Reading outcomes were measured at the end of Year 2. Only 1 child in he good-PA group became a poor reader by the end of Year 2, confirming that being in the top quartile for PA predicts positive reading outcomes. Discriminant analysis using the authors’ test battery within the poor-PA group identified poor readers with sensitivity of.91 and specificity of.84, but ATP did not improve classification accuracy afforded by phonological and oral language. A brief screening procedure was formulated using only PA, phonological short-term memory, and demographic variables, with which 80% of children with poor PA who are at risk of reading problems can be identified. Further refinements of this screening procedure would increase accuracy of identification at the cost of only a small increment in required testing time.
The Effect of Phonological Neighborhood Density on Vowel Articulation
Authors: Munson Benjamin , Solomon Nancy Pearl
Published: April 2006

Recent literature suggests that phonological neighborhood density and word frequency can affect speech production, in addition to the well-documented effects that they have on speech perception. This article describes 2 experiments that examined how phonological neighborhood density influences the durations and formant frequencies of adults’ productions of vowels in real words. In Experiment 1, 10 normal speakers produced words that covaried in phonological neighborhood density and word frequency. Infrequent words with many phonological neighbors were produced with shorter durations and more expanded vowel spaces than frequent words with few phonological neighbors. Results of this experiment confirmed that this effect was not related to the duration of the vowels constituting the high- and low-density words. In Experiment 2, 15 adults produced words that varied in both word frequency and neighborhood density. Neighborhood density affected vowel articulation in both high- and low-frequency words. Moreover, frequent words were produced with more contracted vowel spaces than infrequent words. There was no interaction between these factors, and the vowel duration did not vary as a function of neighborhood density. Taken together, the results suggest that neighborhood density affects vowel production independent of word frequency and vowel duration.
Phonologic Processing in Adults Who Stutter
Authors: Weber-Fox Christine , Spencer Rebecca M. C. , Spruill John E. , Smith Anne
Published: April 2006

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs), judgment accuracy, and reaction times (RTs) were obtained for 11 adults who stutter and 11 normally fluent speakers as they performed a rhyme judgment task of visually presented word pairs. Half of the word pairs (i.e., prime and target) were phonologically and orthographically congruent across words. That is, the words looked orthographically similar and rhymed (e.g.,
thrown, own
) or did not look similar and did not rhyme (e.g.,
cake, own
). The phonologic and orthographic information across the remaining pairs was incongruent. That is, the words looked similar but did not rhyme (e.g.,
gown, own
) or did not look similar but rhymed (e.g.,
cone, own
). Adults who stutter and those who are normally fluent exhibited similar phonologic processing as indexed by ERPs, response accuracy, and RTs. However, longer RTs for adults who stutter indicated their greater sensitivity to the increased cognitive loads imposed by phonologic/orthographic incongruency. Also, unlike the normally fluent speakers, the adults who stutter exhibited a right hemisphere asymmetry in the rhyme judgment task, as indexed by the peak amplitude of the rhyming effect (difference wave) component. Overall, these findings do not support theories of the etiology of stuttering that posit a core phonologic-processing deficit. Rather we provide evidence that adults who stutter are more vulnerable to increased cognitive loads and display greater right hemisphere involvement in late cognitive processes.
Language Influences on Verbal Short-Term Memory Performance in Down Syndrome
Authors: Brock Jon , Jarrold Christopher
Published: April 2006

Down syndrome is associated with severe deficits in language and verbal short-term memory, but the causal relationship between these deficits is unclear. The current study therefore investigated the influence of language abilities on verbal short-term memory performance in Down syndrome. Twenty-one individuals with Down syndrome and 29 younger typically developing children were tested on memory for words and nonwords using 2 immediate recognition tasks: an order memory task that was a relatively pure measure of verbal short-term memory and an item memory task that was more sensitive to language ability. Despite having superior vocabulary knowledge to the typically developing children, individuals with Down syndrome were impaired on both order and item tasks. This impairment was particularly marked on the item task, where individuals with Down syndrome showed an atypically large lexicality effect. These results are interpreted in terms of an underlying verbal short-term memory deficit in Down syndrome that is compounded by poor phonological discrimination abilities.
Application of Psychometric Theory to the Measurement of Voice Quality Using Rating Scales
Authors: Shrivastav Rahul , Sapienza Christine M. , Nandur Vuday
Published: April 2006

Rating scales are commonly used to study voice quality. However, recent research has demonstrated that perceptual measures of voice quality obtained using rating scales suffer from poor interjudge agreement and reliability, especially in the midrange of the scale. These findings, along with those obtained using multidimensional scaling (MDS), have been interpreted to show that listeners perceive voice quality in an idiosyncratic manner. Based on psychometric theory, the present research explored an alternative explanation for the poor interlistener agreement observed in previous research. This approach suggests that poor agreement between listeners may result, in part, from measurement errors related to a variety of factors rather than true differences in the perception of voice quality. In this study, 10 listeners rated breathiness for 27 vowel stimuli using a 5-point rating scale. Each stimulus was presented to the listeners 10 times in random order. Interlistener agreement and reliability were calculated from these ratings. Agreement and reliability were observed to improve when multiple ratings of each stimulus from each listener were averaged and when standardized scores were used instead of absolute ratings. The probability of exact agreement was found to be approximately .9 when using averaged ratings and standardized scores. In contrast, the probability of exact agreement was only .4 when a single rating from each listener was used to measure agreement. These findings support the hypothesis that poor agreement reported in past research partly arises from errors in measurement rather than individual differences in the perception of voice quality.
The Incidence of Error in Young Children'sWh-Questions
Authors: Rowland Caroline F. , Pine Julian M. , Lieven Elena V. M. , Theakston Anna L.
Published: April 2006

Many current generativist theorists suggest that young children possess the grammatical principles of inversion required for question formation but make errors because they find it difficult to learn language-specific rules about how inversion applies. The present study analyzed longitudinal spontaneous sampled data from twelve 2–3-year-old English speaking children and the intensive diary data of 1 child (age 2;7 [years;months] to 2;11) in order to test some of these theories. The results indicated significantly different rates of error use across different auxiliaries. In particular, error rates differed across 2 forms of the same auxiliary subtype (e.g., auxiliaryisvs.are), and auxiliaryDOand modal auxiliaries attracted significantly higher rates of errors of inversion than other auxiliaries. The authors concluded that current generativist theories might have problems explaining the patterning of errors seen in children's questions, which might be more consistent with a constructivist account of development. However, constructivists need to devise more precise predictions in order to fully explain the acquisition of questions.
Word Learning in Children With Vocabulary Deficits
Authors: Nash Marysia , Donaldson Morag L.
Published: April 2006

Word learning in 16 children with specific language impairment (SLI) was compared with that of chronological-age controls (CAC) and vocabulary-age controls (VAC), to examine the extent and nature of word-learning deficits in the children with SLI. The children were exposed to novel words in a story and an explicit teaching context. Five tasks assessed how much the children had learned about the words' phonological form and semantic properties after 6 repetitions (Time 1) and again after 12 repetitions (Time 2) of the words in each context. The SLI group performed significantly worse than the CAC group at both Time 1 and Time 2 on all measures of the words presented in both contexts. They performed similarly to the VAC group (who were on average 2 1/2 years younger) on Time 1 and Time 2 measures from both contexts, except for the Naming task at Time 2, on which their performance was significantly lower. These findings suggest that children with vocabulary deficits have difficulties with both phonological and semantic aspects of word learning.
The Association Between Cardiovascular Disease and Cochlear Function in Older Adults
Authors: Torre Peter , Cruickshanks Karen J. , Klein Barbara E. K. , Klein Ronald , Nondahl David M.
Published: April 2006

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the relation between self-reported cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cochlear function in older adults. The Epidemiology of Hearing Loss Study (EHLS) is an ongoing population-based study of hearing loss and its risk factors in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. As part of the EHLS questionnaire, participants were asked about their cardiovascular medical history. CVD history was determined from questions regarding history of angina, myocardial infarction (MI), and stroke. Questions about the use of antihypertensive medication and blood pressure measurements determined the presence or absence of hypertension. Among the audiologic measures completed were distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs). Cochlear function was measured using DPOAEs and participants were categorized as having (a) cochlear impairment, (b) possible cochlear impairment, or (c) no cochlear impairment. There were 1,501 participants with complete CVD and DPOAE data from the 1998–2000 examination phase. Women with a self-reported history of MI were twice as likely (age-adjusted odds ratio [OR]=2.00, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.15–3.46) to have cochlear impairment than women without a history of MI. This association was not significant in men (age-adjusted OR=0.98, 95% CI=0.61–1.58). Additionally, no other CVD variables were associated with cochlear impairment. This study provides data on a possible sex-specific association between CVD and DPOAEs in older adults.
Intensive Stuttering Modification Therapy
Authors: Blomgren Michael , Roy Nelson , Callister Thomas , Merrill Ray M.
Published: April 2006

Nineteen adults who stutter participated in a 3-week intensive stuttering modification treatment program (the Successful Stuttering Management Program [SSMP]). A series of 14 fluency and affective-based measures were assessed before treatment, immediately after treatment, and 6 months after treatment. Measures included stuttering frequency; the Stuttering Severity Instrument for Children and Adults, Third Edition (SSI-3); a self-rating of stuttering severity; the Perceptions of Stuttering Inventory (PSI); the Locus of Control of Behavior Scale; the Beck Depression Inventory; the Multicomponent Anxiety Inventory IV (MCAI-IV); and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Statistically significant improvements were observed on 4 of the total 14 measures immediately following treatment and on 4 measures at 6 months posttreatment. Statistically significant improvements observed immediately posttreatment included scores on the SSI and the Struggle, Avoidance, and Expectancy subscales of the PSI. Sustained statistically significant improvements at 6 months posttreatment were observed only on client-reported perceptions of stuttering (the Avoidance and Expectancy subscales of the PSI) and 2 specific affective functioning measures (the Psychic and Somatic Anxiety subscales of the MCAI-IV). The SSMP generated some anxiolytic effects but was ineffective in producing durable reductions of core stuttering behaviors, such as stuttering frequency and severity. The discussion focuses on the strengths, weaknesses, and durability of the SSMP treatment approach.
Coordination of Oral and Laryngeal Movements in the Perceptually Fluent Speech of Adults Who Stutter
Authors: Max Ludo , Gracco Vincent L.
Published: April 2006

This work investigated whether stuttering and nonstuttering adults differ in the coordination of oral and laryngeal movements during the production of perceptually fluent speech. This question was addressed by completing correlation analyses that extended previous acoustic studies by others as well as inferential analyses based on the within-subject central tendency and variability of acoustic and physiological indices of oral-laryngeal control and coordination. Stuttering and nonstuttering adults produced the target /p/ as the medial consonant in C1V1#C2V2C3sequences (C=consonant; V=vowel or diphthong; #=word boundary) embedded in utterances differing in length and location of the target movements. No between-groups differences were found for across- or within-subject correlations between acoustic measures of stop gap and voice onset time (VOT). However, the acoustic data did show longer durations for devoicing interval and VOT in the stuttering versus nonstuttering individuals, in the absence of a difference for a proportional measure specifically reflecting oral-laryngeal relative timing. Analyses of combined kinematic and electroglottographic data revealed that the stuttering individuals' speech was also characterized by (a) longer durations from bilabial closing movement onset and peak velocity to V1vocal fold vibration offset and (b) greater within-subject variability for dependent variables that were physiological indices of devoicing interval and VOT, but again no between-groups differences were found for specific indices of oral-laryngeal relative timing. Overall, findings suggest that, for the production of voiceless bilabial stops in perceptually fluent speech, stuttering and nonstuttering adults differ in thedurationof intervals defined by events within as well as across the oral and laryngeal subsystems, but the groups show similar patterns ofrelative timingfor the involved oral and laryngeal movements.
French-Speaking Children's Understanding of Sarcasm
Authors: Laval Virginie , Bert-Erboul Alain
Published: April 2006

The aim of this study was to examine a form of sarcasm that has hardly been considered to date, sarcastic requests, at an earlier period of development than addressed in past developmental research. This article looked specifically at the role of intonation and context in sarcastic-request understanding by native French-speaking children ages 3 to 7 years. Forty-eight children (16 per group) had to complete stories that varied on 2 factors: intonation (sarcastic and neutral) and context (sarcastic and neutral). To maximize the contrast between the 2 types of intonation, the same phrase expressing sarcasm was added at the end of each test utterance. As a methodological control, the intonation of this phrase was evaluated both acoustically (by a computerized signal editor) and perceptually (by a group of adult participants). It turned out that the experimental task was too difficult for the 3-year-olds. However, this study offers some highly interesting information about sarcastic-request understanding by 5- and 7-year-olds. The ability to take into account cues that help children understand sarcastic requests evolves considerably between the ages of 5 and 7: 5-year-olds appear to primarily base their interpretation on intonation; it is not until they are 7 that children are also able to take context into account. Thus, intonation seems to be an earlier cue than context in sarcastic-request understanding.
A Subtype of Speech Delay Associated With Developmental Psychosocial Involvement
Authors: Hauner Katherina K. Y. , Shriberg Lawrence D. , Kwiatkowski Joan , Allen Chad T.
Published: April 2006

This report presents findings supporting the hypothesis of a clinically relevant subtype of childhood speech sound disorder, provisionally titled speech delay—developmental psychosocial involvement (SD-DPI). Conversational speech samples from 29 children who met inclusionary criteria for SD-DPI were selected from a case record archive at a university speech clinic for children. Participants with SD-DPI had been characterized by speech clinicians and caregivers as having speech delay with psychosocial issues that required attention in the course of at least 1 semester of speech treatment. The 29 participants were divided into 2 subgroups, based on clinicians' and parents' records indicating either
approach-related negative affect
(
n
=23) or
withdrawal-related negative affect
(
n
=6). Each participant with SD-DPI was matched by age, gender, and type of speech involvement to 3 comparison speakers with speech delay of unknown origin (
n
=87). Analyses of the conversational speech samples indicated that in comparison with participants in the control group, those with SD-DPI had significantly more severe speech delay, averaging approximately 7% to 10% lowered speech competence in conversation. The clinical prevalence of SD-DPI was estimated at approximately 12% of children referred to the university speech clinic in the present study. The authors interpret the present findings to indicate that approach-related or withdrawal-related negative affect, negative emotionality or mood, and decreased task persistence or attention are risk factors for increased severity of expression of speech delay.
Speech Recognition With the Advanced Combination Encoder and Transient Emphasis Spectral Maxima Strategies in Nucleus 24 Recipients
Authors: Holden Laura K. , Vandali Andrew E. , Skinner Margaret W. , Fourakis Marios S. , Holden Timothy A.
Published: April 2006

One of the difficulties faced by cochlear implant (CI) recipients is perception of low-intensity speech cues. A. E. Vandali (2001) has developed the transient emphasis spectral maxima (TESM) strategy to amplify short-duration, low-level sounds. The aim of the present study was to determine whether speech scores would be significantly higher with TESM than with the advanced combination encoder (ACE) strategy fitted using procedures that optimize perception of soft speech and other sounds. Eight adult recipients of the Nucleus 24 CI system participated in this study. No significant differences in scores were seen between ACE and TESM for consonant-vowel nucleus-consonant (CNC) words presented at 55 and 65 dB SPL, for sentences in noise presented at 65 dB SPL at 2 different signal-to-noise ratios, or for closed-set vowels and consonants presented at 60 dB SPL. However, perception of stop consonants within CNC words presented at the lower level (55 dB SPL) was significantly higher with TESM than ACE. In addition, percentage of information transmitted for words at 55 dB SPL was significantly higher with TESM than with ACE for manner and voicing features for consonants in the initial word position. Analysis of closed-set consonants presented at 60 dB SPL revealed percentage of information transmitted for manner was significantly higher with TESM than with ACE. These improvements with TESM were small compared with those reported by Vandali for recipients of the Nucleus 22 CI system. It appears that mapping techniques used to program speech processors and improved processing capabilities of the Nucleus 24 system contributed to soft sounds being understood almost as well with ACE as with TESM. However, half of the participants preferred TESM to ACE for use in everyday life, and all but 1 used TESM in specific listening situations. Clinically, TESM may be useful to ensure the audibility of low-intensity, short-duration acoustic cues that are important for understanding speech, for recipients who are difficult to map, or if insufficient time precludes the use of mapping techniques to increase audibility of soft sound.
Low Expressive Vocabulary
Authors: DeThorne Laura S. , Petrill Stephen A. , Hayiou-Thomas Marianna E. , Plomin Robert
Published: April 2006

This study of 4,274 pairs of 4-year-old twins from the Twins Early Development Study explored the magnitude of genetic and environmental effects on low expressive vocabulary skill, both as a function of general cognitive ability and as a function of the severity of expressive vocabulary impairment. Assessments were conducted through parent report measures. Two types of vocabulary deficit were identified: low vocabulary paired with typical general cognition (i.e.,
specific
expressive vocabulary impairment) and low vocabulary paired with low general cognition (i.e.,
nonspecific
expressive vocabulary impairment). The magnitude of genetic and environmental effects on low expressive vocabulary skill did not differ for these 2 types of expressive vocabulary deficit. By systematically varying the cutoffs used to define vocabulary and general cognitive delay, potential changes in the magnitude of genetic and environmental effects were examined. Results suggested that the severity of vocabulary deficit rather than level of cognitive functioning was a more meaningful etiological distinction: The heritability of low expressive vocabulary was higher and the influence of shared environment lower, as increasingly severe vocabulary deficits were identified. Implications for molecular genetics and the construct of specific language deficits are discussed.
A Comparison of Phonological Skills of Boys With Fragile X Syndrome and Down Syndrome
Authors: Roberts Joanne , Long Steven H. , Malkin Cheryl , Barnes Elizabeth , Skinner Martie , Hennon Elizabeth A. , Anderson Kathleen
Published: April 2006

In this study, the authors compared the phonological accuracy and patterns of sound change of boys with fragile X syndrome, boys with Down syndrome, and typically developing mental-age-matched boys. Participants were 50 boys with fragile X syndrome, ages 3 to 14 years; 32 boys with Down syndrome, ages 4 to 13 years; and 33 typically developing boys, ages 2 to 6 years, who were matched for nonverbal mental age to both the boys with fragile X syndrome and the boys with Down syndrome. All participants were administered a standardized articulation test, and their sound accuracy, phonological process, and proportion of whole-word proximity scores were analyzed. Although boys with fragile X syndrome were delayed in their speech development, they did not differ from the typically developing, mental-age-matched boys in the percentage of correct early-, middle-, and late-developing consonants; phonological processes; or whole-word proximity scores. Furthermore, boys with fragile X syndrome had fewer errors on early-, middle-, and late-developing consonants; fewer syllable structure processes; and higher whole-word proximity scores than did boys with Down syndrome. Boys with Down syndrome also were delayed in their speech development, yet their phonological inventories, occurrences of phonological processes, and proportion of whole-word proximity scores indicated greater delays in their phonological development than the younger, typically developing boys. These results suggest that males with fragile X syndrome display phonological characteristics in isolated words similar to younger, typically developing children, whereas males with Down syndrome show greater delays as well as some developmental differences compared with both the males with fragile X syndrome and typically developing males.
Conversational Versus Expository Discourse
Authors: Nippold Marilyn A. , Hesketh Linda J. , Duthie Jill K. , Mansfield Tracy C.
Published: April 2006

In this cross-sectional investigation, syntactic development was compared in conversational versus expository discourse in 120 typically developing children, adolescents, and adults, age 7 to 49 years. Each participant was asked to discuss common topics such as school, family, and friends to elicit conversational discourse and to explain the rules and strategies of a favorite game or sport to elicit expository discourse. The results showed greater syntactic complexity in expository discourse than in conversational for all age groups, supporting the view that complex thought is driving the development of complex language. For both genres, growth in syntax continued throughout childhood and adolescence and into early adulthood (age 20–29 years) and remained stable into middle age (age 40–49 years). The 2 best indicators of growth were mean length of T-unit and relative clause production, both of which showed age-related increases into early adulthood. Another variable that was sensitive to growth was the total number of T-units produced, a measure of language output. In general, older speakers talked more than younger ones regardless of genre. Despite the statistically significant group effects, there were wide individual differences. For example, in the expository genre, some of the younger children used rather elaborate syntax whereas some of the older adults spoke quite simply. Thus, it appears that individual variability can exist at all points along the age continuum, despite the trend toward greater syntactic complexity as a function of increasing chronological age.
Perception and Production of Lexical Tones by 3-Year-Old, Mandarin-Speaking Children
Authors: Wong Puisan , Schwartz Richard G. , Jenkins James J.
Published: April 2006

The present study investigated 3-year-old children's perception and production of Mandarin lexical tones in monosyllabic words. Thirteen 3-year-old, Mandarin-speaking children participated in the study. Tone perception was examined by a picture-pointing task, and tone production was investigated by picture naming. To compare children's productions with the adult forms, 4 mothers of the children were asked to say the same set of words to their children in a picture-reading activity. The children's and mothers' productions were low-pass filtered at 500 Hz and 400 Hz, respectively, to eliminate segmental information. Ten Mandarin-speaking judges identified the productions of tones from the filtered speech. Adult productions were more accurately identified than productions of the children. The children perceived the level, rising, and falling tones with relatively high accuracy. The dipping tone posed the greatest difficulty for the children in both perception and production.
Auditory Frequency Discrimination in Children With Specific Language Impairment
Authors: Hill P. R. , Hogben J. H. , Bishop D. M. V.
Published: April 2006

It has been proposed that specific language impairment (SLI) is caused by an impairment of auditory processing, but it is unclear whether this problem affects temporal processing, frequency discrimination (FD), or both. Furthermore, there are few longitudinal studies in this area, making it hard to establish whether any deficit represents a developmental lag or a more permanent deficit. To address these issues, the authors retested a group of 10 children with SLI and 12 control children first tested 42 months previously. At Time 1, the children with SLI (between 9 and 12 years of age) had significantly elevated FD thresholds compared to the matched controls. At Time 2, the thresholds of both groups had improved, but the children with SLI still had poorer FD thresholds than those of the controls. To assess temporal resolution, auditory backward masking was measured and it was found that most of the children with SLI performed as well as the controls, but 2 children had exceptionally high thresholds. There was also greater variability among the children with SLI compared to that measured among the controls on the FD task. These studies indicate considerable heterogeneity in auditory function among children with SLI and suggest that, as with auditory temporal deficits, difficulties in FD discrimination are important in this population.