bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Nonmodularity of the Central Auditory Nervous System
Authors: Musiek Frank E. , Bellis Teri James , Chermak Gail D.
Published: April 2006

This response to A. T. Cacace and D. J. McFarland (2005) identifies points of agreement and disagreement regarding the concept of modularity in the diagnosis of (central) auditory processing disorder [(C)APD]. We concur that the evaluation of (C)APD must take into consideration the influence of higher order global or pansensory issues on performance on tests of central auditory function. To accomplish this goal, multidisciplinary (e.g., multimodal) testing is an integral part of differential diagnosis of (C)APD. We also agree that the efficiency of diagnostic tests of (C)APD should not be evaluated by imprecise criteria [e.g., "presumed" or "suspected" (C)APD], which do not provide accurate measures of the true sensitivity and specificity of these tests. Our conceptualization and recommendations for clinical practice in this area diverge, however, from that of Cacace and McFarland in a number of pivotal ways. Based on the current limitations of multimodal assessment relative to issues related to scope of practice and test efficiency, as well as the accumulated basic science and clinical literature that demonstrates the nonmodularity and interactive organization of the brain, we recommend use of the sensitized test battery of the central auditory nervous system (CANS) in combination with multidisciplinary testing to differentially diagnose (C)APD and to guide treatment of the disorder. We assert that sensitivity and specificity measures derived from individuals with well-circumscribed lesions of the CANS provide an important guide to establishing the validity of central auditory diagnostic tests. We note that researchers in the area of auditory science and (C)APD must acknowledge the challenges of the clinical arena, and we encourage their continued help to develop diagnostic tools that are both efficient and practical for the differential diagnosis of (C)APD. We conclude that our approach, which combines multidisciplinary evaluation and specific tests of central auditory function that have demonstrated sensitivity and specificity for disorders of the CANS, allows us to identify (and thus rehabilitate) the auditory deficits present in individuals with (C)APD in its "purest" form. It also permits the identification and rehabilitation of auditory deficits in individuals who exhibit auditory perceptual problems that coexist with other processing problems, while ruling out those who perform poorly on auditory tests because of a global, supramodal problem involving cognition, attention, language, memory, or related skills.
A Multisite Study to Examine the Efficacy of the Otoacoustic Emission/Automated Auditory Brainstem Response Newborn Hearing Screening Protocol
Authors: White Karl R. , Vohr Betty R. , Meyer Sally , Widen Judith E. , Johnson Jean L. , Gravel Judith S. , James Michele , Kennalley Teresa , Maxon Antonia B. , Spivak Lynn , Sullivan-Mahoney Maureen , Weirather Yusnita
Published: April 2006

Purpose:
Most newborns are screened for hearing loss, and many hospitals use a 2-stage protocol in which all infants are screened first with otoacoustic emissions (OAEs). In this protocol, no additional testing is done for those passing the OAE screening, but infants failing the OAE are also screened with automated auditory brainstem response (A-ABR). This study evaluated how many infants who failed the OAE and passed the A-ABR had permanent hearing loss (PHL) at 8–12 months of age.

Method:
A total of 86,634 infants were screened at 7 birthing centers using a 2-stage OAE/A-ABR hearing screening protocol. Of infants who failed the OAE but passed the A-ABR, 1,524 were enrolled in the study. Diagnostic audiologic evaluations were performed on 64% of the enrolled infants (1,432 ears from 973 infants) when they were 8–12 months old.

Results:
Twenty-one infants (30 ears) who passed the newborn A-ABR hearing screening were identified with PHL when they were 8–12 months old. Most (71%) had mild hearing loss.

Conclusions:
If all infants were screened for hearing loss using a typical 2-stage OAE/A-ABR protocol, approximately 23% of those with PHL at 8–12 months of age would have passed the A-ABR.
The Role of Sequential Stream Segregation and Frequency Selectivity in the Perception of Simultaneous Sentences by Listeners With Sensorineural Hearing Loss
Authors: Mackersie Carol L. , Prida Tammy L. , Stiles Derek
Published: April 2006

The purpose of this study was to determine the role of frequency selectivity and sequential stream segregation in the perception of simultaneous sentences by listeners with sensorineural hearing loss. Simultaneous sentence perception was tested in listeners with normal hearing and with sensorineural hearing loss using sentence pairs consisting of one sentence spoken by a male talker and one sentence spoken by a female talker. Listeners were asked to repeat both sentences and were scored on the number of words repeated correctly in each sentence. Separate scores were obtained for the first and second sentences repeated. Frequency selectivity was assessed using a notched-noise method in which thresholds for a 1000 Hz pure-tone signal were measured in noise with spectral notch bandwidths of 0, 300, and 600 Hz. Sequential stream segregation was measured using tone sequences consisting of a fixed frequency (A) and a varying frequency tone (B). Tone sequences were presented in an ABA_ABA_... pattern starting at a frequency (B) either below or above the frequency of the fixed 1000 Hz tone (A). Initially, the frequency difference was large and was gradually decreased until listeners indicated that they could no longer perceptually separate the two tones (fusion threshold).

Scores for the first sentence repeated decreased significantly with increasing age. There was a strong relationship between fusion threshold and simultaneous sentence perception, which remained even after partialling out the effects of age. Smaller frequency differences at fusion thresholds were associated with higher sentence scores. There was no relationship between frequency selectivity and simultaneous sentence perception. Results suggest that the abilities to perceptually separate pitch patterns and separate sentences spoken simultaneously by different talkers are mediated by the same underlying perceptual and/or cognitive factors.
Perceptions of Simulated Stuttering and Fluency
Authors: Susca Michael , Healey E. Charles
Published: April 2006

This study explored multiple effects of listener perceptions of different levels of simulated stuttering and fluency. A single stuttered speech sample was modified to create four additional samples of stuttering and fluency. A sixth sample of a nonstuttered signal served as a comparative baseline. Each of 60 independent listeners made quantitative and qualitative perceptual judgments upon hearingonly one of the six randomly assigned samples. Results showed a broad spectrum of qualitative and quantitative listener perceptions of the various levels of stuttering and fluency studied. Likert scale data revealed that listeners gave lower ratings to samples with increased levels of stuttering. Listener commentaries revealed fewer positive comments with increased levels of stuttering and distinctivepreferences between two 0% samples of stuttering where only prosodic features were modified. Additionally, specific perceptions of speaker competency, perceived ease in reading a passage, general comfort listening, and perceived effort in understanding the story appear to affect the global perceptions of a speaker's communication. Implications of these findings are discussed.
Respiratory Markers of Conversational Interaction
Authors: McFarland David H.
Published: April 2006

Respiratory movements were recorded from 10 dyads (20 subjects) during quiet breathing, reading aloud, spontaneous monologue, scripted dialog, and spontaneous conversation. Timing measures of inspiratory, expiratory, and total cycle duration were used to compare respiratory function during quiet breathing, listening, and speech. Cross-correlation analyses of the respiratory movements of conversational partners provided an index of conversational synchrony. Inspiratory duration was found to be the most consistent and sensitive measure for discriminating quiet breathing from speech breathing. In the scripted dialog and spontaneous conversation conditions, respiratory kinematics changed during listening to more closely resemble speech, and systematic changes were observed in anticipation of turn-taking speech onset. For the breathing cycles immediately surrounding turn changes and simultaneously produced vocal events, the kinematic signals of conversational partners were strongly correlated. Results are discussed in the context of similar findings concerning conversational interactions and motor preparation for speech.
Beginning to Talk at 20 Months
Authors: Ertmer David J. , Mellon Jennifer A.
Published: April 2006

Early vocal development, consonant production, and spoken vocabulary were examined in a deaf toddler whose multichannel cochlear implant was activated at 20 months. Parent-child interactions were recorded before implantation and at monthly intervals during the first year of implant use. The child's utterances were classified according to developmental levels from the Stark Assessment of Early Vocal Development. The emergence of consonant types and consonant features were documented through listener transcription. Parent reports were used to monitor oral vocabulary growth. A large increase in canonical and postcanonical utterances was observed after 5 months of implant use, and these advanced prelinguistic forms were dominant in all subsequent recording sessions. Increases in the diversity of consonant types and features suggested that auditory information was used to increase phonetic diversity. It was reported that the child understood almost 240 words and spoke approximately 90 words after one year of implant experience. The combination of cochlear implantation at a young age, family support, and regular intervention appeared to facilitate efficient early vocal development and gains in spoken vocabulary.
The Effects of Masseter Tendon Vibration on Nonspeech Oral Movements and Vowel Gestures
Authors: Loucks Torrey M. J. , Nil Luc F. De
Published: April 2006

The role of proprioception in speech and oral motor control was investigated by applying tendon vibration to the masseter during vowel production and nonspeech oral movements. Measures were made of peak jaw-opening amplitude, jaw-opening velocity, and movement time in both vibration and nonvibration conditions. Generally, the tendon vibration caused a consistent and marked reduction in the amplitude and velocity of jaw-opening movements for each subject in both tasks. Movement time remained consistent across the vibration conditions for both tasks. These results indicate that masseter tendon vibration causes significant changes in jaw kinematics during simple speech gestures and nonspeech movements. These findings are consistent with the documented effects of tendon vibration on limb movements. The study demonstrates that tendon vibration is a potent tool for investigating proprioception in speech and oral motor control.
Perceptual Discrimination of Speech Sounds in Developmental Dyslexia
Authors: Serniclaes Willy , Sprenger-Charolles Liliane , Carré René , Demonet Jean-Francois
Published: April 2006

Experiments previously reported in the literature suggest that people with dyslexia have a deficit in categorical perception. However, it is still unclear whether the deficit is specific to the perception of speech sounds or whether it more generally affects auditory function. In order to investigate the relationship between categorical perception and dyslexia, as well as the nature of this categorization deficit, speech specific or not, the discrimination responses of children who have dyslexia and those of average readers to sinewave analogues of speech sounds were compared. These analogues were presented in two different conditions, either as nonspeech whistles or as speech sounds. Results showed that children with dyslexia are less categorical than average readers in the speech condition, mainly because they are
better
at discriminating acoustic differences between stimuli belonging to the same category. In the nonspeech condition, discrimination was also better for children with dyslexia, but differences in categorical perception were less clear-cut. Further, the location of the categorical boundary on the stimulus continuum differed between speech and nonspeech conditions. As a whole, this study shows that categorical deficit in children with dyslexia results primarily from an increased perceptibility of within-category differences and that it has a speech-specific component. These findings may have profound implications for learning and re-education.
The Intelligibility of Time-Domain-Edited Esophageal Speech
Authors: Prosek Robert A. , Vreeland Lori L.
Published: April 2006

The intelligibility of esophageal speech has been shown to be significantly lower than that of normal laryngeal speech. The current study investigated the possibility of enhancing the intelligibility of esophageal speech by manipulating samples in the time domain. Specifically, injection noises and nonphrasal pauses were digitally edited from the speech samples of 5 esophageal talkers. Twenty-five sentences were selected and edited in the time domain and presented to 15 naive listeners who were instructed to write down the words that they heard. The percentage of correct words heard for each sentence was determined and compared across listeners, sentences, and talkers. The overall effect of the editing was a small but significant gain in the intelligibility of the esophageal speech. The improvement in intelligibility, however, depended on the individual talker, the speech material, and the number of editing changes made to a particular sample.
Word Frequencies in Toddlers’ Lexicons
Authors: Rescorla Leslie , Alley Amie , Christine Joanne Book
Published: April 2006

Word frequencies in toddlers’ lexicons were examined in two studies using the Language Development Survey (LDS), a vocabulary checklist completed by parents (Rescorla, 1989). In Study 1, a high degree of consistency in LDS word frequencies was found when six samples of 24-month-olds were compared (total
N
=758). Word frequency correlations in the .90s were found between large, unselected samples of toddlers of roughly similar socioeconomic status (SES). Correlations were somewhat lower but still highly significant when groups varying widely in SES were compared. In Study 2, LDS word frequencies in a sample of 40 late talkers traced from age 2 to 3 were compared to those in a large community sample from Study 1. Both lexicon size and age of the late talker influenced the degree of consistency found with respect to the community sample. The most common words reported in the lexicons of a sample of 422 24-montholds were consistent with those identified in diary studies as among the highest frequency words used by young children in their early vocabularies.
Grammatical Morphology Deficits in Spanish-Speaking Children With Specific Language Impairment
Authors: Bedore Lisa M. , Leonard Laurence B.
Published: April 2006

The focus of this study was the use of grammatical morphology by Spanish-speaking preschoolers with specific language impairment (SLI). Relative to both same-age peers and younger typically developing children with similar mean lengths of utterance (MLUs), the children with SLI showed more limited use of several different grammatical morphemes. These limitations were most marked for noun-related morphemes such as adjective-agreement inflections and direct object clitics. Most errors on the part of children in all groups consisted of substitutions of a form that shared most but not all of the target’s grammatical features (e.g., correct tense and number but incorrect person). Number errors usually involved singular forms used in plural contexts; person errors usually involved third person forms used in first person contexts. The pattern of limitations of the children with SLI suggests that, for languages such as Spanish, additional factors might have to be considered in the search for clinical markers for this disorder. Implications for evaluation and treatment of language disorders in Spanish-speaking children are also discussed.
Effect of Duration of Pitch-Shifted Feedback on Vocal Responses in Patients With Parkinson's Disease
Authors: Kiran Swathi , Larson Charles R.
Published: April 2006

Study of the pitch-shift reflex is useful for the investigation of how auditory feedback is used in the control of voice fundamental frequency. The present study was an attempt to learn if the basal ganglia are involved in central mechanisms of the pitch-shift reflex by comparing measures of the reflex in a group of Parkinson's disease patients with those measures in a group of control participants. The effect of varying duration of the pitch-shift stimulus (PSS) on the voice fundamental frequency (F0) response in 10 Parkinson's disease (PD) patients and 10 age-matched unaffected participants was investigated. Participants were instructed to vocalize into a microphone while their voice was fed back to them over headphones. This feedback of the vocal signal was shifted in pitch either up or down, with the duration of this shift systematically manipulated at 100 ms, 500 ms, and 1000 ms. Although the participants were on medication, making interpretation of the results problematic with regard to basal ganglia function, it was reasoned that positive effects could nevertheless suggest basal ganglia involvement in this reflex and motivate further research. Results indicated that both groups responded to increased stimulus duration of the pitch-shift stimulus with increases in reflex peak time, magnitude, and end times. However, PD patients had significantly longer peak times and end times than control participants for stimulus durations of 100 ms. These results suggest that basal ganglia dysfunction may affect mechanisms relating to the execution and termination of the pitch-shift reflex for brief stimulus durations. The results also support hypotheses of impaired sensory integration of auditory feedback in PD patients.
Effects of Speaking Rate on the Control of Vocal Fold Vibration
Authors: Boucher Victor , Lamontagne Mario
Published: April 2006

Stevens (1991) has suggested that, while speakers control glottal apertures in producing consonants, the buildup of intraoral pressure during an oral closure creates decreases in transglottal flow, which can, in itself, reduce or halt vocal fold vibrations. The object of this study was to determine whether speakers can take advantage of such pressure effects in controlling the voicing attributes of intervocalic stops. Intraoral pressure, vocal fold vibration (Lx portions of electroglottograms), and electromyographic (EMG) activity of the orbicularis oris inferior were monitored for 6 subjects while they produced at “slow,” “normal,” and “fast” speaking rates utterances containing intervocalic stops /p/ and /b/. Product-moment correlations between the intervocalic pressure rises and the amplitude contour of Lx showed strong negative relationships at normal-to-fast rates of speech. However, this relationship was not maintained at slower rates, where decreases in the amplitude of Lx sometimes occurred before the onset of EMG activity in the labial adductor. The findings suggest that, at normal-to-fast rates of speech, speakers can use the passive effects of pressure in controlling vocal fold vibration for stop consonants.
Modeling Tongue Surface Contours From Cine-MRI Images
Authors: Stone Maureen , Davis Edward P. , Douglas Andrew S. , Aiver Moriel Ness , Gullapalli Rao , Levine William S. , Lundberg Andrew Jon
Published: April 2006

This study demonstrated that a simple mechanical model of global tongue movement in parallel sagittal planes could be used to quantify tongue motion during speech. The goal was to represent simply the differences in 2D tongue surface shapes and positions during speech movements and in subphonemic speech events such as coarticulation and left-to-right asymmetries. The study used tagged Magnetic Resonance Images to capture motion of the tongue during speech. Measurements were made in three sagittal planes (left, midline, right) during movement from consonants (/k/, /s/) to vowels (/i/, /a/, /u/). MR image-sequences were collected during the C-to-V movement. The image-sequence had seven time-phases (frames), each 56 ms in duration.

A global model was used to represent the surface motion. The motions were decomposed into translation, rotation, homogeneous stretch, and in-plane shear. The largest C-to-V shape deformation was from /k/ to/a/. It was composed primarily of vertical compression, horizontal expansion, and downward translation. Coarticulatory effects included a trade-off in which tongue shape accommodation was used to reduce the distance traveled between the C and V. Left-to-right motion asymmetries may have increased rate of motion by reducing the amount of mass to be moved.
Speech Motor Stability in IPD
Authors: Kleinow Jennifer , Smith Anne , Ramig Lorraine Olson
Published: April 2006

Increasing phonatory effort, an integral component of the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment, LSVT, has been identified as an effective management strategy for adults with hypokinetic dysarthria associated with Parkinsonism. The present study compares the effects of increased loudness on lower lip movements to those of changes in speaking rate, another approach to the treatmentm of hypokinetic dysarthria. Movements of the lower lip/jaw during speech were recorded from 8 adults with IPD, 8 healthy aged adults, and 8 young adults. The spatiotemporal index (STI), a measure of spatial and temporal variability, revealed that for all speaker groups slow rate was associated with the most variability. Compared to the other conditions, STI values from the loud condition were closest to those from habitual speech. Also, the normalized movement pattern for the loud condition resembled that of habitual speech. It is hypothesized that speaking loudly is associated with a spatial and temporal organization that closely resembles that used in habitual speech, which may contribute to the success of the LSVT.
Acoustic and Perceptual Consequences of Articulatory Rate Change in Parkinson Disease
Authors: McRae Paul A. , Tjaden Kris , Schoonings Barbra
Published: April 2006

This study sought to characterize the relationship among voluntary rate modification, vocal tract acoustic output, and perceptual impressions of speech for individuals with idiopathic Parkinson disease (PD). Healthy control speakers were studied for comparison purposes. Four research questions were addressed: (1) How is rate modification evidenced in acoustic measures of segmental and global timing? (2) What is the impact of rate modification on measures of acoustic working space for select vowels and consonants? (3) What is the impact of rate modification on perceptual impressions of severity? (4) Are rate-induced changes in measures of acoustic working space related to perceptual impressions of severity? Speakers read the Farm Passage at habitual, slow, and fast rates. The vowels /i/, /æ/, /u/, and /a/ and the fricatives /s/ and /∫/ were of interest. Acoustic measures included articulatory rate, segment durations, vowel formant frequencies, and first moment coefficients. Measures of acoustic working space for vowels and fricatives also were derived. The results indicated that temporal acoustic measures changed in the expected direction across rate conditions, with a tendency toward slightly faster rates for the PD group. In addition, the relative rate change for the Fast and Slow conditions compared to the Habitual condition was similar across groups. Rate did not strongly affect measures of acoustic working space for the PD group as a whole, but there was a tendency for slower rates to be associated with larger measures of acoustic working space. Finally, there was not a strong relationship between perceived severity and measures of acoustic working space across the rate continuum for either group. Rather, the relationship between perceived severity and measures of acoustic working space was such that the PD group exhibited smaller measures of acoustic working space and more severe perceptual estimates than the control speakers, irrespective of rate condition.
Speaking and Breathing in High Respiratory Drive
Authors: Bailey E. Fiona , Hoit Jeannette D.
Published: April 2006

Pulmonary ventilation during speech breathing reflects the sum of the airflow changes used to speak and to meet the metabolic needs of the body. Studying interactions between speaking and breathing may provide insights into the mechanisms of shared respiratory control. The purposes of this study were to determine if healthy subjects exhibit task-specific breathing behaviors in high respiratory drive and to document subjects' perceptions during breathing and speaking under these conditions.

Ten men were studied in air and high CO
2
. Magnetometers were used to estimate lung volume, rib cage and abdomen volumes, minute volume, breathing frequency, tidal volume, inspiratory and expiratory duration, and inspiratory and expiratory flow. Subjects' perceptions were assessed informally.

Results indicated that the chest wall kinematic behaviors associated with breathing and speaking in high drive were similar in pattern but differed in the magnitudes of lung volume and rib cage volume events and in inspiratory and expiratory flow. Linguistic influences remained strong, but not as strong as under normal conditions. All subjects reported a heightened sense of breathing-related discomfort during speaking as opposed to breathing in high respiratory drive.

We conclude that in healthy subjects breathing behavior associated with speaking in high respiratory drive is guided continuously by shared linguistic and metabolic influences. A parallel-processing model is proposed to explain the behaviors observed.
An Evaluation of the Facilitative Effects of Inverted Yes-No Questions on the Acquisition of Auxiliary Verbs
Authors: Fey Marc E. , Loeb Diane Frome
Published: April 2006

According to the Auxiliary Clarification Hypothesis (ACH), yes-no questions with sentence-initial auxiliaries (i.e., inverted questions) facilitate children's initial acquisition of auxiliary verbs. Sixteen 3-year-old children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 18 2-year-olds with typical language (TL) participated in an experiment to evaluate the ACH. The children were not yet making use of auxiliaries. Half of the children participated in twenty 30-min "enrichment" sessions over a 2-month period, during which an assistant produced 30 inverted question recasts in response to the child's own utterances. Fifteen question recasts contained the auxiliary
is
, and 15 contained the modal
will
. The other half of the children participated in play sessions but were not exposed to inverted
is
and
will
questions. Contrary to predictions based on the ACH, the results revealed no positive effects of the enrichment for
is
, for
will
, or for the broader
BE
and
Modal
auxiliary categories for either group of children. The children with TL demonstrated advantages over the children with SLI for the general category of
BE
forms but not for the category of
Modals
. Inverted questions may be too complex to foster the initial acquisition of auxiliaries in children not already using them productively.
Narrative Discourse in Young Children With Histories of Early Corrective Heart Surgery
Authors: Hemphill Lowry , Uccelli Paola , Winner Kendra , Chang Chien-ju , Bellinger David
Published: April 2006

Narrative attainment was assessed in a group of 76 four-year-old children at risk for brain injury because of histories of early corrective heart surgery. Elicited personal experience narratives were coded for narrative components, evaluative devices, and information adequacy and were contrasted with narratives produced by a comparison group of typically developing 4-year-olds. The production of autonomous narrative discourse was identified as an area of special vulnerability for children with this medical history. Despite considerable heterogeneity in narrative performance, children with early corrective heart surgery produced fewer narrative components than typically developing children. Results suggest that the elaboration of events and contextual information, the expression of subjective evaluation and causality, and clarity and explicitness of information reporting may constitute special challenges for this population of children. Implications of these findings for clinical assessment and possible risks for socioemotional relationships and academic achievement are discussed.
Semantic Representation and Naming in Young Children
Authors: McGregor Karla K. , Friedman Rena M. , Reilly Renée M. , Newman Robyn M.
Published: April 2006

Children's semantic representations and semantic naming errors were the focus of this study. In Experiment 1, 25 normally developing children (mean age=5 years 4 months) named, drew, and defined 20 age-appropriate objects. The results suggested that functional and physical properties are core aspects of object representations in the semantic lexicon and that these representations are often organized and accessed according to a taxonomic hierarchy. Results of a new procedure, comparative picture naming/picture drawing, suggested that the degree of knowledge in the semantic lexicon makes words more or less vulner-able to retrieval failure. Most semantic naming errors were associated with limited semantic knowledge, manifested as either lexical gaps or fragile representations. Comparison of definitions for correctly named and semantically misnamed objects provided converging evidence for this conclusion. In Experiment 2, involving 16 normally developing children (mean age=5 years 5 months), the comparative picture naming/picture drawing results were replicated with a stimulus set that allowed a priori matching of the visual complexity of items drawn from correct and semantic error pools. Discussion focuses on the dynamic nature of semantic representations and the relation between semantic representation and naming during a period of slow mapping. The value of comparative picture naming/ picture drawing as a new method for exploring children's semantic representa-tions is emphasized.
Fundamental Frequency Onset and Offset Behavior
Authors: Robb Michael P. , Smith Allan B.
Published: April 2006

Short-term changes in vowel fundamental frequency (F
0
) immediately preceding (F
0
offset) and following (F
0
onset) production of voiceless obstruents were examined in groups of 4-year-olds, 8-year-olds, and 21-year-olds. Definitive patterns of laryngeal behavior were observed for each measure. F
0
was found to significantly lower at vowel offset across age groups, with no significant differences noted between groups, suggesting that F
0
offset is simply an acoustic consequence of producing a voiceless obstruent preceded by a vowel. The F
0
at vowel onset was high and significantly decreased thereafter. Age-related differences were identified for F
0
onset with 4-year-olds in that their F
0
rose to a lesser degree than that of adults. However, adult females demonstrated a greater change in both F
0
onset and F
0
offset behavior than adult males and children, suggesting that age-related differences in F
0
behavior are likely to be influenced by sex. The results are discussed with regard to the physiologic constraints of F
0
surrounding voiceless obstruent production in children and adults.
Coarticulation and Formant Transition Rate in Young Children Who Stutter
Authors: Chang Soo-Eun , Ohde Ralph N. , Conture Edward G.
Published: April 2006

The purpose of this study was to assess anticipatory coarticulation and second formant (F2) transition rate (FTR) of speech production in young children who stutter (CWS) and who do not stutter (CWNS). Fourteen CWS and 14 age- and gender-matched CWNS in three age groups (3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds) participated in a picture-naming task that elicited single-word utterances. The initial consonant-vowel (CV) syllables of these utterances, comprising either bilabial [b m] or alveolar [d n s z] consonants and a number of vowels [i I e ε æ u o @αI α@], were used for acoustic analysis. To assess coarticulation and speech movement velocity, the F2 onset frequency and F2 vowel target frequency (for coarticulation) and FTR (for speech movement velocity) were computed for each CV syllable and for each participant. Based on these measures, locus equation statistics of slope, y-intercept, and standard error of estimate as well as the FTR were analyzed. Findings revealed a significant main effect for place of articulation and a significantly larger difference in FTR between the two places of articulation for CWNS than for CWS. Findings suggest that the organization of the FTR production for place of articulation may not be as contrastive or refined in CWS as in CWNS, a subtle difficulty in the speed of speech-language production, which may contribute to the disruption of their speech fluency.
Picture Naming in Early Sequential Bilinguals
Authors: Kohnert Kathryn
Published: April 2006

In a previous study, a cross-sectional approach was used to investigate developmental changes in basic-level lexical production and cognitive processing in early sequential bilinguals, exploring the effects of age and years of experience during single-language (Spanish or English) and mixed-language (alternating between Spanish and English) picture naming (K. Kohnert, E. Bates, & A. E. Hernandez, 1999). The current study reports on the performance, 1 year later, of a subgroup of these original study participants (
n
=28; mean age=10.2 years) on the same experimental task. Overall, from Time 1 to Time 2 testing, gains were greater in English than in Spanish and in the high-competition mixed-language processing condition than in the single-language processing condition. These results reinforce previous findings of a shift toward greater strength in L2 with increasing age (and years of language experience), as well as the primary role of cognitive development in control of the dual-language system. In addition, examination of individual performance revealed a complex non-monotonic pattern of L1–L2 change across time within an overall pattern of increasing speed, accuracy, and control of the dual-lexical system.
Stuttering Frequency on Content and Function Words in Adults Who Stutter
Authors: Dayalu Vikram N. , Kalinowski Joseph , Stuart Andrew , Holbert Donald , Rastatter Michael P.
Published: April 2006

This study investigated stuttering frequency as a function of grammatical word type (i.e., content and function). Ten adults who stutter participated. Participants recited aloud a list of 126 words consisting of an equal number of content and function words, which were presented individually and visually via a laptop computer. Each word belonged to a single grammatical category. Further, words were matched for initial sound and approximate number of syllables. The results indicated that adults who stutter exhibited significantly greater stuttering frequency on content words when presented in isolation (
p
=0.018). It was conjectured that the responsible factor contributing to differences in stuttering frequency in adults who stutter resides in word frequency disparities between the two classes of words categories. That is, because the function words are limited in number and are used frequently, repeated use on the part of adults who stutter may lead to a generalized adaptation effect for function words and hence reduced stuttering frequency (as compared with content words).
A Screening Version of the Swedish Communicative Development Inventories Designed for Use With 18-Month-Old Children
Authors: Eriksson Mårten , Westerlund Monica , Berglund Eva
Published: April 2006

An instrument designed to assess young children's communicative skills at 18 months is described. The instrument consists of a 103-item parental report checklist based on the Swedish version of the Communicative Development Inventories (SECDI). We present descriptive data from a study at the Swedish Community Health Care Centres, including parental reports of 1021 18-month-old children. The response rate was 88%. Performance at the 10th percentile consisted of 8 communicative gestures, 45 comprehended words, and 7 spoken words. The overall results indicate that the instrument is reliable and has validity approximating that of the SECDI. Furthermore, parents of the children with the poorest vocabulary indicated approval of the assessment procedure in interviews especially directed to this group.
Phoneme Recognition and Confusions With Multichannel Cochlear Implants
Authors: Välimaa Taina T. , Määttä Taisto K. , Löppönen Heikki J. , Sorri Martti J.
Published: April 2006

The aim of this study was to investigate how postlingually severely or profoundly hearing-impaired adults relearn to recognize consonants after receiving multichannel cochlear implants. Consonant recognition of 19 Finnish-speaking subjects was studied for a minimum of 6 months and a maximum of 24 months using an open-set nonsense-syllable test in a prospective repeated-measure design. Responses were coded for phoneme errors, and proportions of correct responses and 95% confidence intervals were calculated for recognition and confusions. Two years after the switch-on, the mean recognition of consonants was 71% (95% confidence interval = 68–73%). The manner of articulation was easier to classify than the place of articulation, and the consonants [s], [r], [k], [t], [p], [n], and [j] were easier to recognize than [h], [m], [l], and [υ]. Adaptation to electrical hearing with a multichannel cochlear implant was successful, but consonants with alveolar, palatal, or velar transitions (high F2) were better recognized than consonants with labial transitions (low F2). The locus of the F2 transitions of the consonants with better recognition was at the frequencies 1.5–2 kHz, whereas the locus of the F2 transitions of the consonants with poorer recognition was at 1.2–1.4 kHz. A tendency to confuse consonants with the closest consonant with higher F2 transition was also noted.
Contralateral Acoustic Reflex Thresholds for Tonal Activators Using Wideband Energy Reflectance and Admittance
Authors: Feeney M. Patrick , Keefe Douglas H. , Marryott Lindsay P.
Published: April 2006

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a new method for estimating the acoustic reflex threshold incorporating wideband (250–8000 Hz) measures of energy reflectance and admittance (M. P. Feeney & D. H. Keefe, 2001). The wideband technique incorporates both a correlation method to assess the pattern of the reflex-induced shifts in reflectance and admittance across frequency and a magnitude method to determine if the amplitude of the shifts exceeds baseline variability. Contralateral reflex thresholds for 1000- and 2000-Hz activators were obtained for 34 young adults with both the wideband method and a clinical method using a 226 Hz probe tone. Average reflex thresholds obtained with the new method were 12 to 13.7 dB lower than those obtained with the clinical method. When the bandwidth of analysis of admittance and reflectance responses was limited to 250 to 2000 Hz, the reduction in reflex thresholds was accompanied by the rejection of 96% of nonactivator-baseline responses as reflexes. The method holds promise for extending reflex threshold testing to patients with reflexes elevated beyond current equipment limits, for reducing the sound levels used in reflex testing, and for obtaining sensitive measures of reflex threshold in infants.
Quick Incidental Verb Learning in 4-Year-Olds
Authors: Brackenbury Tim , Fey Marc E.
Published: April 2006

This study examined the abilities of young children to identify and generalize new verbs from an indirect teaching context. Forty 4-year-olds were shown a story that presented the following manner-of-motion verbs:
frolic, saunter, scurry, strut
, and
trudge
. The experimental group (
N
= 20) heard the label of each verb 13 times while viewing the story, whereas the control group (
N
= 20) did not hear the verbs' labels. The performances of these two groups were compared to each other and to a group of adults (
N
= 22) who did not view the story but presumably had prior knowledge of the verbs. The experimental group correctly identified the target verbs in their prototypical form significantly more often than the control group but less often than the adult group. Generalization measures were evaluated for the children in the experimental group who correctly identified more than half of the target verbs (
N
= 6), their age-matched control group peers (
N
= 9), and the adult group. The experimental subgroup and the adults correctly generalized the verb labels to actions in which unimportant motion features had been altered. However, unlike the adult group, the experimental subgroup responded inconsistently to generalization questions in which important movement features of the actions had been altered. These results suggest that, even in their initial representations of manner-of-motion verbs, young children are sensitive to the relative importance of the different movements that make up these actions.
Effectiveness of Communication Strategies Used by Caregivers of Persons With Alzheimer's Disease During Activities of Daily Living
Authors: Small Jeff A. , Gutman Gloria , Makela Saskia , Hillhouse Beth
Published: April 2006

Communication difficulties between individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and their caregivers are commonly reported. Caregivers carry the burden of managing breakdowns in communication because people with AD are often unable to modify their communicative behavior. To assist caregivers in this endeavor, clinicians and caregiving professionals have offered a variety of strategies aimed at accommodating the individual's declining abilities. Many of these strategies are intuitively appealing, but they lack empirical support. This study investigated the effectiveness of 10 frequently recommended communication strategies when employed by family caregivers of persons with AD. In particular, we assessed (a) which strategies family caregivers report using and with what degree of success, (b) which of these strategies are used by caregivers in actual interactions with their spouses, and (c) which strategies contribute to improved communication. The study included a self-report questionnaire and wireless audio-recorded interactions between 18 persons with AD and their spousal caregivers during activities of daily living. The findings validate the effectiveness of certain communication strategies (e.g., simple sentences) but not others (e.g., slow speech). The results should be of interest to both family members and professionals who want to enhance communication and the quality of their interactions with persons with Alzheimer's disease.
Repair Behavior in Children With Intellectual Impairments
Authors: Levy Y. , Tennebaum A. , Ornoy A.
Published: April 2006

This paper tested the prediction that children with cognitive impairments who can use language intentionally will be able to carry out the metalinguistic operations involved in speech monitoring and repair. The specific linguistic characteristics of responses to requests for clarification given by 4 children with lower than normal IQ, ages 3 years 5 months to 6 years 10 months, were investigated. The analysis focused on children's ability to locate the specific errors that provoked neutral requests for clarification and produce repair. Three children could locate their errors and partly succeed in providing repair. It is suggested that ability to perform metaprocedures such as are implicated in repair behavior may be preserved in children with intellectual disabilities and that this ability does not implicate conscious awareness, nor does it depend on mature linguistic competence.
Outcomes of Early Language Delay
Authors: Bishop Dorothy V. M. , Price Thomas S. , Dale Philip S. , Plomin Robert
Published: April 2006

Genes are known to play an important role in causing specific language impairment, but it is unclear how far a similar etiology is implicated in transient language delay in early childhood. Two-year-old children with vocabulary scores below the 10th centile were selected from a cohort of over 2,800 same-sex twin pairs whose language was assessed by parental report at 2, 3, and 4 years of age. These children with early language delay (ELD) were divided into cases of transient and persistent language difficulties on the basis of outcome at 3 and 4 years. A DeFries-Fulker analysis (J. C. DeFries & D. W. Fulker, 1985) was used to compute group heritability (h2g) of 2-year vocabulary delay separately for those with transient and persistent difficulties. When 3-year and 4-year language attainments were used to categorize outcomes, h2gwas similar and modest (.25 or less) for both transient and persistent difficulties. However, when persistent difficulties were defined according to whether parents expressed concern about language at 3 years or according to whether a professional had been consulted about language difficulties at 4 years, heritability was significantly higher. For 289 children with no professional involvement at 4 years, heritability of 2-year vocabulary delay was close to zero, whereas for 134 children with professional involvement, a significant h2gof .41 (SE=.127) was found. Early language delay appears largely environmental in origin for 2-year-olds whose parents do not go on to seek professional help.
The Performance of Low-Income, African American Children on the Preschool Language Scale—3
Authors: Qi Cathy Huaqing , Kaiser Ann P. , Milan Stephanie E. , Yzquierdo Zina , Hancock Terry B.
Published: April 2006

This study examined the performance of 701 low-income African American preschoolers (36 to 52 months old) on the Preschool Language Scale-3 (PLS-3, I. L. Zimmerman, V. G. Steiner, & R. E. Pond, 1992). On average, African American children performed about 1 SD below the expected means for their ages on both the Expressive Communication and Auditory Comprehension subscales. Independent sample
t
tests showed no significant differences between African American children and a comparison sample of 50 European American children. Item analysis was used to examine the potentially problematic items of the PLS-3 for each age cohort of children. We found that 6 items appeared to be particularly difficult for the African American sample. The findings suggest that the PLS-3 is generally an informative language test for African American preschoolers; however, scores should be interpreted with caution.