bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Priming the Visual Recognition of Spoken Words
Authors: Lansing Charissa R. , Helgeson Christine L.
Published: July 2014

A preliminary investigation was conducted to understand the effects of word visibility and prime association factors on visual spoken word recognition in lipreading, using a related/ unrelated prime-target paradigm. Prime-target pairings were determined on the basis of paper-and-pencil word associations completed by 85 participants with normal hearing. Spoken targets included 60 single-syllable Modified Rhyme Test words, prerecorded on laser video disc. Participants included 20 individuals with normal hearing and at least average lipreading skill for sentence-length materials. In related prime-target pairings, more targets with a high prime association were identified than with a low prime association. In unrelated prime-target pairings, a larger number of more-visible than less-visible targets was correctly identified. Individual participant differences were not statistically significant. Results from the present study suggest implications for models of visual spoken word recognition.
Older Adult Performance on the Communication Profile for the Hearing Impaired
Authors: Garstecki Dean C. , Erler Susan F.
Published: July 2014

The Communication Profile for the Hearing Impaired (CPHI) (Demorest & Erdman, 1986) is a self-assessment inventory that was developed on a clinical population that included predominantly male, active-duty military personnel. They spanned a 50-year age range (
M
= 39.5 years) and typically demonstrated bilateral, noise-induced, high-frequency, sensorineural hearing loss. The present study examined CPHI data obtained from approximately equal numbers of advantaged older men and women (
M =
75 years) with acquired, mild-moderate, sensorineural hearing loss. Mean, standard deviation, t-test, omega-squared statistics, response frequency distribution, and skewness data are reported. Comparisons of hearing handicap in older adults and generally younger members of the military group are highlighted. Performance differences potentially related to age, personality, lifestyle, and other factors are identified. Results describe the older adult’s approach to self-management of hearing loss and associated communication problems. Clinical implications are discussed.
Glottal Airflow Characteristics of Women's Voice Production Along an Aging Continuum
Authors: Sapienza Christine M. , Dutka Jeniffer
Published: July 2014

Anatomical and physiological changes of the speech production mechanism that occur with aging may result in phonatory distinctions between older and younger speakers. This investigation examined amplitude-based glottal airflow characteristics from sustained vowel production in healthy adult women. Sixty women participated in this study, 10 each in six age groups of 20-, 30-, 40-, 50-, 60-, and 70-year-olds. Measures included peak, alternating, and minimum glottal airflow. Additionally, a ratio of minimum to peak glottal airflow was calculated. Results from an analysis of variance indicated no significant group mean difference for any of the dependent measures. A greater variability in peak glottal airflow for the 70-year-old age group as compared to the 20-year-old age group was found. None of the dependent variables were significantly related to age and therefore were not good predictors of age. The results imply that laryngeal senescence in healthy women may not be significant enough to affect the magnitude of phonatory function parameters. Either the assumed anatomical changes produce less significant phonatory change in the healthy individual or the healthy individual is more capable of using strategies to counteract degenerative laryngeal changes.
Stuttering and Phonological Disorders in Children: Examination of the Covert Repair Hypothesis
Authors: Yaruss J. Scott , Conture Edward G.
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the Covert Repair Hypothesis (CRH; Postma & Kolk, 1993), a theory designed to account for the occurrence of speech disfluencies in adults who stutter, can also account for selected speech characteristics of children who stutter and demonstrate disordered phonology. Subjects were 9 boys who stutter and exhibit normal phonology (S + NP; mean age = 61.33 months;SD= 10.16 months) and 9 boys who stutter and exhibit disordered phonology (S + DP; mean age = 59.11 months;SD= 9.37 months). Selected aspects of each child’s speech fluency and phonology were analyzed on the basis of an audio/videotaped picture-naming task and a 30-min conversational interaction with his mother. Results indicated that S + NP and S + DP children are generally comparable in terms of their basic speech disfluency, nonsystematic speech error, and self-repair behaviors. CRH predictions that utterances produced with faster articulatory speaking rates or shorter response time latencies are more likely to contain speech errors or speech disfluencieswere notsupported. CRH predictions regarding the co-occurrence of speech disfluencies and speech errorsweresupported for nonsystematic (“slip-of-the-tongue”), but not for systematic (phonological process/rule-based), speech errors. Furthermore, neither S + NP nor S + DP subjects repaired their systematic speech errors during conversational speech, suggesting that systematic deviations from adult forms may not represent true “errors,” at least for some children exhibiting phonological processes. Findings suggest that speech disfluencies may not represent by-products of self-repairs of systematic speech errors produced during conversational speech, but that self-repairs of nonsystematic speech errors may be related to children’s production of speech disfluencies.
The Problem of Generalizing to a Language Population: A "Random" Controversy
Authors: Leonard Carol L. , Orchard Darla
Published: July 2014

The rationale behind the use of item statistics as well as objections to their use are reviewed. It is argued that investigators conducting language research with disordered populations should follow the example of those conducting language research with normal populations and consider calculating item statistics if they wish their results to generalize beyond the specific items tested.
A Longitudinal Evaluation of the Speech Perception Capabilities of Children Using Multichannel Tactile Vocoders
Authors: Eilers Rebecca E. , Cobo-Lewis Alan B. , Vergara Kathleen C. , Oller D. Kimbrough , Friedman Karen E.
Published: July 2014

Thirty children (mean age 6:11, range 4:3 to 11:0,
SD =
2:3) with profound hearing impairments were followed longitudinally over a 3-year period and evaluated every 6 months with a battery of speech perception tests. The battery spanned several levels of perception, from pattern perception to open-set word recognition. The children were all enrolled in a single full-day educational program that used multichannel tactile aids in addition to hearing aids. Testing was conducted in Auditory alone (A), Tactile plus Auditory (TA), Tactile alone (T), and in one instance, Tactile plus Auditory plus Vision (TAV) conditions because the primary interest of the work was the relationship between auditory and tactile training on perception. Results indicated that children’s performance improved with age, with the oldest children achieving open-set speech recognition in the TA condition. Performance in the TA condition generally exceeded that in both A and T conditions. Outcomes were compared to those from two studies in the literature for children of similar age with cochlear implants and tactile aids on the same tests. Results suggest that performance of children who had cochlear implants for an average of 21 months was similar to TA and TAV performance of children in the present study who had tactile experience over a similar period.
Tracking Children From Poverty at Risk for Specific Language Impairment: A 3-Year Longitudinal Study
Authors: Fazio Barbara B. , Naremore Rita C. , Connell Phil J.
Published: July 2014

A 3-year longitudinal study of the language performance of children from poverty was designed to address the problem of separating children with a specific language impairment (SLI) from low-scoring normal children in the borderline area on the continuum of language performance where normal ends and abnormal begins. Two approaches to definition were compared: an experimental approach (using story-retelling, rote-memory ability, and invented-morpheme learning) and a traditional approach (using standardized-test discrepancy scores). Results indicated that 6 of 34 children tracked from kindergarten through second grade appeared to be SLI at the end of the study. The best kindergarten predictor for the outcome status of these 6 children was a combination of the score on the Oral Vocabulary subtest of the TOLD-2P and the score on a combination of the experimental tasks. The best single kindergarten predictor of the academic status of the 15 children in the study who received academic remediation was story-retelling. Children’s scores on the experimental and standardized tests of language performance and nonverbal intelligence were profiled over the 3 years of the study, and patterns of change in many instances reveal the lifting of the early influences of poverty.
Classification of Adults for Family Studies of Developmental Language Disorders
Authors: Plante Elena , Shenkman Kenneth , Clark Melinda M.
Published: July 2014

A variety of approaches has been used to classify the status of adult subjects in familial studies of developmental language disorders. In this report, we directly compare the results of four different methods that appear in the research literature. Two of the approaches rely on case history reports, and two are performance-based methods. Subjects included 24 parents (12 mothers, 12 fathers) of children with developmental language disorders and 24 unrelated adult control subjects (12 female, 12 male) who completed case history items and standardized language testing designed for classification purposes. All classification methods identified more parents than control subjects as “affected.” However, classification by case history methods resulted in fewer affected adults than classification through standardized testing. This outcome suggests that the variability in classification rates in studies to date may be the result of method rather than subject sample differences.
Effect of Step Size on Clinical and Adaptive 2IFC Procedures in Quiet and in a Noise Background
Authors: Marshall Lynne , Hanna Thomas E. , Wilson Richard H.
Published: July 2014

Audibility thresholds for a 1000-Hz sinusoid were measured with a standard clinical (CLIN) procedure and a two-interval, forced-choice (2IFC) adaptive procedure bracketing 79% correct. Both used 2- and 5-dB step sizes in quiet and in a continuous, broadband noise background. Clinical thresholds were from 2 to 4 dB higher than 2IFC thresholds, depending on the condition. Step size had a larger effect on the CLIN thresholds than the 2IFC thresholds. For the CLIN procedure, thresholds with a 2-dB step size were 1.4 dB lower than with a 5-dB step size. For the 2IFC procedure, thresholds with a 2-dB step size were 0.8 dB higher than with a 5-dB step size. Reliability, as measured by the intrasubject standard deviation, was better for the 2IFC than for the CLIN procedure and better in noise than in quiet. Reliability was unaffected by step size. Adding extra trials to the 2IFC adaptive track decreased the variability across threshold estimates, but more for the noise background than the quiet background. The efficiency of the 2IFC procedure was fairly constant across track length in noise, but decreased for longer track lengths in quiet. In both quiet and noise backgrounds, CLIN procedures were much more efficient than 2IFC procedures.
Generalizability of Speechreading Performance on Nonsense Syllables, Words, and Sentences
Authors: Demorest Marilyn E. , Bernstein Lynne E. , DeHaven Gale P.
Published: July 2014

Ninety-six adults with normal hearing viewed three types of recorded speechreading materials (consonant-vowel nonsense syllables, isolated words, and sentences) on 2 days. Responses to nonsense syllables were scored for syllables correct and syllable groups correct; responses to words and sentences were scored in terms of words correct, phonemes correct, and an estimate of visual distance between the stimulus and the response. Generalizability analysis was used to quantify sources of variability in performance. Subjects and test items were important sources of variability for all three types of materials; effects of talker and day of testing varied but were comparatively small. For each type of material, alternative models of test construction and test-score interpretation were evaluated through estimation of generalizability coefficients as a function of test length. Performance on nonsense syllables correlated about .50 with both word and sentence measures, whereas correlations between words and sentences typically exceeded .80.
Speech Outcomes of a Prolonged-Speech Treatment for Stuttering
Authors: Onslow Mark , Costa Leanne , Andrews Cheryl , Harrison Elisabeth , Packman Ann
Published: July 2014

It has been shown that people who stutter can speak with greatly reduced stuttering after treatments that use variations of Goldiamond's (1965) prolonged-speech (PS). However, outcome research to date has not taken account of several important issues. In particular, speech outcome measures in that research have been insufficient to show that lasting relief from stuttering has been achieved by clients outside the clinic for meaningful periods. The present study used extensive speech outcome measures across a variety of situations in evaluating the outcome of an intensive PS treatment (Ingham, 1987). The speech of 12 clients in this treatment was assessed on three occasions prior to treatment and frequently—on eight occasions—after discharge from the residential setting. For 7 clients, a further assessment occurred at 3 years posttreatment. Concurrent dependent measures were percent syllables stuttered, syllables per minute, and speech naturalness. The dependent measures were collected in many speaking situations within and beyond the clinic. Dependent measures were based on speech samples of substantive duration, and covert assessments were included in the study. Detailed data were presented for individual subjects. Results showed that 12 subjects who remained with the entire 2-3-year program achieved zero or near-zero stuttering. The majority of subjects did not show a regression trend in %SS or speech naturalness scores during the posttreatment period, either within or beyond the clinic. Some subjects showed higher posttreatment %SS scores during covert assessment than during overt assessment. Results also showed that stuttering was eliminated without using unusually slow and unnatural speech patterns. This treatment program does not specify a target speech rate range, and many clients maintained stutter-free speech using speech rates that were higher than the range typically specified in intensive PS programs. A significant correlation was found between speech rate and perceived posttreatment speech naturalness.
Influence of Verbal and Nonverbal Contexts on the Sentence Intelligibility of a Speaker With Dysarthria
Authors: Garcia Jane Mertz , Cannito Michael P.
Published: July 2014

The influence of verbal and nonverbal contextual factors on intelligibility was examined using sentences produced under varying conditions by a speaker with severe flaccid dysarthria. Contextual factors included (a) concurrent production of communication gestures, (b) predictiveness of message content, (c) relatedness of sentences to specific situational contexts, and (d) prior familiarization with the speaker. Sentences produced by the speaker were audio- and video-recorded and presented to 96 listeners/viewers who were assigned to three different methods of presentation of the stimuli: (a) audio + video, (b) audio-only, or (c) video-only conditions. Results indicated that gestures, predictiveness, and context influenced intelligibility; however, complex interactions were observed among these factors and methods of presentation of the stimuli. Results were interpreted in light of Lindblom's "mutuality model," indicating that when signal fidelity is poor, as in the present speaker with dysarthria, differing combinations of signal-independent information may be employed to enhance listener understanding of spoken messages.
Conversational Repair by Individuals With Dementia of the Alzheimer's Type
Authors: Orange J. B. , Lubinski Rosemary B. , Higginbotham D. Jeffery
Published: July 2014

Conversational repair was examined in videotaped samples of spontaneous mealtime talk of 6 normal elderly adults, 5 subjects with early stage dementia of the Alzheimer's type (EDAT) and 5 subjects with middle stage DAT (MDAT) with a family member who acted as a conversational partner. The overall percentage of utterances involved in communication breakdown and repair and the specific proportions of utterances related to conversation problems, signals identifying problems, and repairs, were evaluated. Using the normal dyads as a control group, results showed the differential effects of DAT onset and progression on the conversational repair behavior of both subjects with DAT and their conversational partner. The percentage of conversation involved in repair was significantly higher for MDAT versus control and EDAT dyads. Despite the increase of conversational troubles with DAT onset and progression, the difficulties were repaired successfully the majority of the time. Subjects with EDAT produced more requests for repair than did their conversational partners. However, conversational partners of EDAT subjects used more elaboration repairs than did EDAT subjects. The opposite pattern was observed in the MDAT group where subjects with MDAT created and repaired more conversational problems than did their conversational partner. MDAT subjects produced more discourse trouble sources than did EDAT subjects. It was also observed that MDAT subjects and conversational partners frequently used nonspecific terms to signal misunderstandings. The findings have important implications for developing family caregiver communication enhancement strategies that are specific to the clinical stage of DAT.
Why Do Children With Specific Language Impairment Name Pictures More Slowly Than Their Peers?
Authors: Lahey Margaret , Edwards Jan
Published: July 2014

To examine the role of different cognitive processes in accounting for the slower naming times of children with specific language impairment (SLI) relative to peers with no language impairment (NLI), three tasks designed to stress different types of processing were administered: naming pictures with the signal to respond presented at various delay intervals, naming following different durations of exposure to identical and unrelated primes, and vocally responding to nonlinguistic stimuli. Children with SLI, aged 4 to 9.5 years, were significantly slower than their NLI age peers on naming and on responding to nonlinguistic stimuli, but the effect of delay interval before naming and of duration of prime exposure before naming was similar for both groups. Results suggested that speed of naming is related to the slower nonlinguistic response processing of children with SLI and not to speed of their linguistic or perceptual processing. To examine differences in processing that might relate to pattern of language performance we examined responses of two subgroups of SLI. The subgroup of children whose language problems involved expressive but not receptive skills was not significantly slower than their NLI peers. The children whose problems involved both expressive and receptive language were significantly slower, but this was influenced by age. Findings are discussed in terms of language performance, age, task variables, and a generalized rate-limiting factor.
Evaluation of Auditory Enhancement and Auditory Suppression in Listeners With Normal Hearing and Reduced Speech Recognition in Noise
Authors: Thibodeau Linda M.
Published: July 2014

A number of individuals complain of difficulties with speech recognition in noise in spite of normal hearing. This has prompted a search for disruptions in other areas of auditory processing that may account for these deficits. Two processes that may be related to speech recognition, auditory suppression and auditory enhancement, were evaluated in five listeners with normal speech recognition in noise (NSRN) and five listeners with reduced speech recognition in noise (RSRN). Although differences between the two groups were not observed for enhanced forward masking, significant differences were observed in two-tone suppression when the duration of the suppressor was varied. Those with RSRN showed greater suppression than those with NSRN when the suppressor onset preceded the masker onset.
Negative Intraoral Air Pressures of Deaf Children With Cochlear Implants
Authors: Higgins Maureen B. , Carney Arlene Earley , McCleary Elizabeth , Rogers Shawn
Published: July 2014

The primary purpose of this investigation was to examine deaf children’s use of negative intraoral air pressures (–P
o
’s) from a physiological and a phonological perspective, with the hope of gathering insight into the strategies these children use to produce speech. A secondary purpose was to compare the effectiveness of two methods of treating these deviant productions. Subjects were four profoundly deaf children, age 6:6–9:2, who used cochlear implants and had demonstrated persistent use of –P
o
’s. –P
o
’s were collected during production of CV syllables with initial [p] and [b] and a variety of vowel contexts. Two of the children used –P
o
’s more often before low than high vowels. We suggest that this vowel-based pattern may result when deaf children learn to lower their larynges in response to visible jaw lowering cues. Another child presented with a pattern of more frequent –P
o
’s before front than back vowels, suggesting that she may have expanded her pharynx anteriorly as she attempted to achieve an anterior tongue placement. Two children also clearly used –P
o
’s more frequently for voiced than voiceless stops, possibly resulting from a tendency to use the degree rather than the timing of vocal fold adduction to distinguish voiceless and voiced phonemes. Two of the children were enrolled in a single-subject multiple baseline study to compare the effectiveness of traditional articulation treatment and visual-feedback treatment. The child who was a far less proficient talker demonstrated rapid and sustained change, whereas the better talker demonstrated minimal change with treatment. This study provides evidence that (a) deaf children use speech production strategies quite unlike those of normally hearing children and (b) deviant speech behaviors of deaf children should be treated before they become part of functional phonological systems. This work highlights the need to consider the unique speech behaviors of deaf children, and their reliance on alternate feedback mechanisms, when developing assessment and treatment procedures.
Tactile Perception of Spatial Stimuli on the Lip Surface by Young and Older Adults
Authors: Wohlert Amy B.
Published: July 2014

Although older adults are subject to both subtle changes and major disorders of the oral sensorimotor system, relatively little is known about oral sensory function in old age. Accurate assessment of oral tactile perception is needed to document disability, aid prognosis, and plan treatment for older adults with disorders affecting speech or feeding. However, normative information currently available for older adults is mainly based on two-point discrimination, a problematic measure of tactile spatial resolution. Grating orientation discrimination, a technique developed to provide a clear and reliable measure of spatial resolution, was used to test sensitivity of the upper and lower lip vermilion, on right and left sides, in a sample of 40 young adults and 40 adults age 66–85. Results indicated that spatial acuity at the lip vermilion declines significantly in old age and that women tend to have better acuity than men. No significant differences were found in acuity between the upper and lower lips or between right and left sides for either age group. Peripheral changes in receptor density and lip tissue composition are suggested as likely causes for the age-related decline.
Interactive Focused Stimulation for Toddlers With Expressive Vocabulary Delays
Authors: Girolametto Luigi , Pearce Patsy Steig , Weitzman Elaine
Published: July 2014

This study explores the effects of training parents to administer focused stimulation intervention to teach specific target words to their toddlers with expressive vocabulary delays. Twenty-five mothers and their late-talking toddlers were randomly assigned to treatment and delayed-treatment (control) groups. Vocabulary targets were individually selected for each toddler based on the child's phonetic repertoire and parent report of vocabulary development. Following treatment, mothers' language input was slower, less complex, and more focused than mothers in the control group. Concomitantly, their children used more target words in naturalistic probes, used more words in free-play interaction, and were reported to have larger vocabularies overall as measured by parent report. In addition, the treatment had an effect on language development—children in the experimental group used more multiword combinations and early morphemes than children in the control group. The implications of these results are discussed with regard to the role of focused stimulation intervention for children with expressive vocabulary delays.
The Effects of Life Stressors and Daily Stressors on Stuttering
Authors: Blood Ingrid M. , Wertz Heidi , Blood Gordon W. , Bennett Stephanie , Simpson Kathleen C.
Published: July 2014

This study systematically documented the effect of perceived daily stress on subjective and objective measures of disfluencies in 12 adults who stuttered and 12 adults who did not stutter. Subjects participated in a prospective research study for 22 consecutive days. Measures of life stress, daily stress, and self-ratings of fluency were obtained. Subjects were trained in rating their fluency levels (self-ratings of fluency) and perceived daily stress levels (frequency and perceived impact of daily stressors). Results revealed a significantly higher number of daily stressors endorsed by subjects who stutter. Subjects who stuttered also displayed a significantly greater number of disfluencies and higher self-ratings of disfluencies on "high-stress" days. No significant differences were found between the mean total scores for life stress or impact scores for daily stress for the two groups. These data suggest that day-to-day variations in stuttering could be related to multiple, minor, daily stressors in some persons who stutter. Implications for treatments involving cognitive restructuring and desensitization are discussed.
Interaction Among Preschoolers With and Without Disabilities
Authors: Goldstein Howard , English Kris , Shafer Karin , Kaczmarek Louise
Published: July 2014

We examined the effects of a peer-mediated intervention package that taught typically developing children to be more aware of communicative attempts of classmates with disabilities, to use a small set of facilitative strategies ("Stay, play, talk"), and to distribute strategy use across the school day. A multiple baseline design across subjects was instituted with two cohorts of preschool children. Following baseline observations, a total of 8 target children with moderate developmental disabilities were eventually paired with trained peers who received "buddy training." Once trained peers were taught facilitative strategies and encouraged to use them during classroom activities, consistent improvements in social interaction on the part of the trained peers and target children were demonstrated. Similar or more frequent interactions were demonstrated when trained peers were reassigned to different target children during generalization probes. In addition, treatment effects were revealed when comparing sequential analyses applied to the specific communicative behaviors across experimental conditions, in changes in target children's sociometric ratings, and in social validity judgments of videotapes from before and after treatment. This peer intervention approach has promise for improving the communicative interaction and social integration of children with disabilities attending inclusive preschools.
Experimental Investigation of the Effects of Frequency-Altered Auditory Feedback on the Speech of Adults Who Stutter
Authors: Ingham Roger J. , Moglia Richard A. , Frank Peter , Ingham Janis Costello , Cordes Anne K.
Published: July 2014

A series of single-subject experiments evaluated the effects of frequency-altered auditory feedback (FAF) on the speech performance of four adult males who stutter. Using alterations of plus or minus one octave, FAF was compared with normal auditory feedback (NAF) in oral reading and spontaneous speech with measurements made of stuttered intervals, stutter-free speech rate, and speech naturalness. The effects of extended FAF conditions on spontaneous speech were also evaluated for two subjects who demonstrated a positive response to FAF. Results showed no consistencies across subjects in responses to FAF: One subject showed no response, another produced an initial temporary response, a third showed a deterioration in speech quality with minimal reductions in stuttering, and a fourth displayed substantial and sustained improvements in speech performance. Some implications of these findings for current research and theory about the relationship between stuttering and FAF are discussed.
A Preliminary Account of the Effect of Otitis Media on 15-Month-Olds' Categorization and Some Implications for Early Language Learning
Authors: Roberts Kenneth
Published: July 2014

In the present study, 24 infants 14 to 16 months old (M=15.3 months) with a history of otitis media (OM) and tube placement were tested for categorical responding within a visual familiarization-discrimination paradigm (cf. Roberts & Jacob, 1991; Roberts, 1995a). Sixteen infants were, on average, 4.6 months post-tubes. At the time of testing, hearing was reported to be normal. During both the familiarization and testing phases, reiterant speech utterances (e.g., “ti ti the sasasa,” “bo bo the sasasa,” “gu gu the sasasa,” “sasasa”) were randomly presented contingent on infants' looking at line drawings of selected animals. The inclusion of the article the in these utterances provides an important grammatical cue signaling an upcoming noun label. Using these same procedures, utterances, and animal stimuli, normal-hearing 15-month-olds without a reported history of OM had categorized successfully in two previous experiments. In contrast, the OM infants did not respond categorically under these conditions. This suggests that even mild hearing loss may adversely affect categorical responding under specific input conditions and that this effect may persist after normal hearing is restored. A plausible account is that fluctuating hearing loss may cause the low-phonetic-substance article to vacillate above and below some attentional threshold. The resulting inconsistency in the article's availability would disrupt the co-occurrence relation between the article and cues already connected to joint attentional/referential interactions and categorical treatment of objects (cf. Roberts, 1995a). Such a disruption has implications for the acquisition of words and other aspects of language.
The Genetic Basis of Persistence and Recovery in Stuttering
Authors: Ambrose Nicoline Grinager , Cox Nancy J. , Yairi Ehud
Published: July 2014

Although past research has provided evidence of a genetic component to the transmission of susceptibility to stuttering, the relationship between the genetic component to stuttering and persistence and recovery in the disorder has remained unclear. In an attempt to characterize this relationship, the immediate and extended families of 66 stuttering children were investigated to determine frequencies of cases of persistent and recovered stuttering. Pedigree analysis and segregation analysis were used to examine patterns of transmission. The following questions were investigated:

1. Is there a sex effect in recovery from stuttering? Here, we sought to test the hypothesis that females are more likely to recover than males, leading to the change in sex ratio from approximately 2:1 males to females close to onset of the disorder, to 4 or 5:1 in adulthood.

2. Is persistence/recovery in stuttering transmitted in families? If recovery/persistence appears to be transmitted, (a) are recovered and persistent stuttering independent disorders?; (b) is recovery a genetically milder form of persistent stuttering?; or (c) is persistence/recovery transmitted independent of the primary susceptibility to stuttering?

Results indicated sharply different sex ratios of persistent versus recovered stutterers in that recovery among females is more frequent than among males. It was found that recovery or persistence is indeed transmitted, and further, that recovery does not appear to be a genetically milder form of stuttering, nor do the two types of stuttering appear to be genetically independent disorders. Data are most consistent with the hypothesis that persistent and recovered stuttering possess a common genetic etiology, and that persistence is, in part, due to additional genetic factors. Segregation analyses supported these conclusions and provided statistical evidence for both a single major locus and polygenic component for persistent and recovered stuttering.
Epidemiological and Offspring Analyses of Developmental Speech Disorders Using Data From the Colorado Adoption Project
Authors: Felsenfeld Susan , Plomin Robert
Published: July 2014

Although the adoption design is the most powerful method to disentangle nature and nurture, it has not been applied previously to developmental speech or language disorders. The present study examined the speech outcomes of 156 adopted and nonadopted children at varying risk for speech disorders based upon self-reported parental speech history. The sample consisted of four groups: a) 16 adopted children with an affected biological parent; (b) 19 adopted children with an affected adoptive parent; (c) 31 nonadopted children with an affected natural parent; and (d) 90 low-risk adopted and nonadopted children with no parental speech disorder history. Results revealed that 25% of the children with a genetic background of speech disorder displayed questionable speech, language, or fluency skills at age 7, in comparison to 9% of the children with no known genetic history. Logistic regression analyses indicated that positive biological parental background was the best predictor of offspring affected status. The child’s Full-Scale IQ and the HOME Scale of family environment were not significantly associated with speech outcome. These results provide additional evidence that genetic factors contribute importantly to the vertical transmission of some developmental speech disorders of unknown origin.
Auditory Processing in Individuals With Mild Aphasia
Authors: Murray Laura L. , Holland Audrey L. , Beeson Pelagie M.
Published: July 2014

This study examined the effects of lesion location (frontal vs. posterior) and nature of distraction (nonverbal vs. verbal secondary, competing task) on mildly aphasic individuals’ performances of listening tasks that required semantic judgments and lexical decisions under isolation, focused attention, and divided attention conditions. Despite comparable accuracy among all groups during isolation conditions, the aphasic groups responded less accurately and more slowly than the normal control group during focused and divided attention conditions. Generally, the two aphasic groups performed similarly, quantitatively and qualitatively. Demographic characteristics such as time post stroke did not correlate with performance decrements. Independent of group, all individuals showed greater disruption of auditory processing skills when the secondary task was verbal rather than nonverbal. Within a limited-capacity model of attention, the results suggest that aphasic individuals display impairments of attention and resource allocation and that these impairments negatively interact with their auditory processing abilities.
Relationships Between Subjective Ratings and Objective Measures of Performance in Speechreading Sentences
Authors: Demorest Marilyn E. , Bernstein Lynne E.
Published: July 2014

Ninety-six participants with normal hearing and 63 with severe-to-profound hearing impairment viewed 100 CID Sentences (Davis & Silverman, 1970) and 100 B-E Sentences (Bernstein & Eberhardt, 1986b). Objective measures included words correct, phonemes correct, and visual-phonetic distance between the stimulus and response. Subjective ratings were made on a 7-point confidence scale. Magnitude of validity coefficients ranged from .34 to .76 across materials, measures, and groups. Participants with hearing impairment had higher levels of objective performance, higher subjective ratings, and higher validity coefficients, although there were large individual differences. Regression analyses revealed that subjective ratings are predictable from stimulus length, response length, and objective performance. The ability of speechreaders to make valid performance evaluations was interpreted in terms of contemporary word recognition models.
Development of a Two-Stage Procedure for the Automatic Recognition of Dysfluencies in the Speech of Children Who Stutter
Authors: Howell Peter , Sackin Stevie , Glenn Kazan
Published: July 2014

This program of work is intended to develop automatic recognition procedures to locate and assess stuttered dysfluencies. This and the preceding article focus on developing and testing recognizers for repetitions and prolongations in stuttered speech. The automatic recognizers classify the speech in two stages: In the first the speech is segmented and in the second the segments are categorized. The units segmented are words. The current article describes results for an automatic recognizer intended to classify words as fluent or containing a repetition or prolongation in a text read by children who stutter that contained the three types of words alone. Word segmentations are supplied and the classifier is an artificial neural network (ANN). Classification performance was assessed on material that was not used for training. Correct performance occurred when the ANN placed a word into the same category as the human judge whose material was used to train the ANNs. The best ANN correctly classified 95% of fluent, and 78% of dysfluent words in the test material.
Multisensory Speech Perception of Young Children With Profound Hearing Loss
Authors: Kishon-Rabin Liat , Haras Nava , Bergman Moe
Published: July 2014

The contribution of a two-channel vibrotactile aid (Trill VTA 2/3, AVR Communications LTD) to the audiovisual perception of speech was evaluated in four young children with profound hearing loss using words and speech pattern contrasts. An intensive, hierarchical, and systematic training program was provided. The results show that the addition of the tactile (T) modality to the auditory and visual (A+V) modalities enhanced speech perception performance significantly on all tests. Specifically, at the end of the training sessions, the tactile supplementation increased word recognition scores in a 44-word, closed-set task by 12 percentage points; detection of consonant in final position by 50 percentage points; detection of sibilant in final position by 30 percentage points; and detection of voicing in final position by 25 percentage points. Significant learning over time was evident for all test materials, in all modalities. As expected, fastest learning (i.e., smallest time constants) was found for the AVT condition. The results of this study provide further evidence that sensory information provided by the tactile modality can enhance speech perception in young children.
Cognition and Communication
Authors: Johnston Judith R. , Smith Linda B. , Box Peggy
Published: July 2014

Ten children with specific language impairment and 10 children with normal language development were asked to describe objects so that a listener could select them. Each trial targeted two out of a group of three toys. The targeted objects were identical or were similar in size or color. Children in the two groups did not differ in referential success, although children in both groups found the size items more difficult. Content analysis of the messages did reveal differences in the referential strategies used most frequently. Children with specific language impairment were more likely to mention the attributes of each object separately, rather than to describe the characteristics common to a pair of objects. Children in both groups talked about separate objects more often when talking about size than about color or object type. Use of this strategy could indicate the effects of attentional capacity on children's solutions to communication tasks.
Learning a New Poem
Authors: Fazio Barbara B.
Published: July 2014

This research examined rote memory for connected speech in low-income children with and without specific language impairment (SLI). Sixteen children with SLI were matched to 16 typically developing children on nonverbal cognition and 16 younger, typically developing peers on language measures. The children learned a new poem under four presentation conditions: with or without accompanying hand motions related to the poem or with or without a simple melody. Compared with their cognitive and language peers, children with SLI had significantly more difficulty learning the poem under all presentation conditions. Furthermore, when asked to recite the poem after a 2-day delay, the performance of the children with SLI was significantly better in the poem with accompanying hand motions condition. It appears that learning the poem with an additional modality aids recall for children with SLI. Phonological awareness task findings revealed that all the children had difficulty with such tasks. However, compared with the children in the cognitive-matched peer group, the children with SLI and their language-matched peers had significantly more difficulty finding pairs of words that rhymed or words that began with the same initial sound. Intervention issues and the relationship between phonological processing and serial memory in children with SLI are discussed.
A Prospective, Double-Blind, Randomized Study on the Use of a Topical Anesthetic, Vasoconstrictor, and Placebo During Transnasal Flexible Fiberoptic Endoscopy
Authors: Leder Steven B. , Ross Douglas A. , Briskin Kenneth B. , Sasaki Clarence T.
Published: July 2014

The purpose of the present study was to compare patient comfort levels following administration of a topical anesthetic, vasoconstrictor, placebo, or nothing to the nasal mucosa prior to flexible fiberoptic transnasal endoscopy. Using a prospective, double-blind, randomized design, 152 consecutive patients were randomly assigned to receive a topical anesthetic (
N
= 54), vasoconstrictor (
N
=50), or placebo (
N
=48). No significant differences were found among the three variables. An additional 50 consecutive patients had endoscopy performed without administration of any substance to the nares, and no significant differences were found among the four variables (
N
=202). It was concluded that speech-language pathologists can perform independent and comfortable transnasal endoscopy without administration of any substance to the nasal mucosa. Flexible fiberoptic endoscopy, however, should be performed by experienced clinicians with care taken to examine visually the patency of both nares for ease and comfort of scope insertion.
Spectral Properties of Fricatives in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Authors: Tjaden Kris , Turner Greg S.
Published: July 2014

Spectral characteristics of word initial /s/and /∫/produced by individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and healthy controls were quantified using spectral moment analysis. Coefficients of the first four moments were used as descriptive indices of central tendency, spread of energy, shape, and peakedness. The relationship between select moment coefficients and consonant precision ratings was investigated to explore potential perceptual correlates of the acoustic measures. To examine whether spectra for ALS and healthy speakers were influenced similarly by context, first moment coefficients for three occurrences of /s/in “some” were inspected for individual speakers. Select moment coefficients also were compared to hand-derived spectral measures for a subset of speakers. Results suggest articulatory differences in /s/and /∫/for the present group of ALS speakers and healthy controls, as indexed by between-group differences in first moment coefficients. A linear function accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in the relationship between consonant precision ratings and the frequency difference between the first moment for /s/and /∫/. Inspection of first moment coefficients for multiple occurrences of /s/in “some” suggests context influences the first moment in a similar manner for ALS and healthy speakers. The subanalysis comparing moment coefficients and hand-derived spectral measures revealed both similarities and differences in the manner the two measurement techniques reflect spectral shape.
Velopharyngeal Closure Force and Levator Veli Palatini Activation Levels in Varying Phonetic Contexts
Authors: Kuehn David P. , Moon Jerald B.
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this study was to measure velopharyngeal closure force in varying phonetic contexts for normal men and women subjects. Levator veli palatini muscle activity was measured as well. Place and manner of articulation, voicing, and the effects of consonant sequencing were studied in different vowel contexts. When the data were grouped by sex of subject, no differences were found in absolute values of velopharyngeal closure force for the men versus women subjects. As expected, nonnasal consonants were produced with greater velopharyngeal closure force than nasal consonants. High vowels were produced with greater closure force than low vowels. Closure force was greater for voiceless than for voiced consonants but only for the men and only within /i/ and /u/ contexts. The lingua-dorsal consonant was associated with greater closure force than the lingua-apical consonant but only for the men and only in the high-back vowel environment. Significant differences in closure force were not found between fricatives or stops. A tendency for greater closure force for the fricative consonant was observed when the fricative followed rather than preceded the nasal consonant. Vowel identity had an effect on closure force during consonant production in the men in that closure force was greater for /s/ and /n/ in high versus low vowel contexts. Men exhibited a larger number of significant differences in closure force than did the women. The results suggest that velopharyngeal closure force is not controlled by a single muscle (the levator veli palatini) but that other muscles and mechanical factors are likely contributors.
Me or My
Authors: Rispoli Matthew
Published: July 2014

This paper investigates why some young children prefer to replace
I
with
me
(
me
-children), whereas others prefer to replace
I
with
my
(
my
-children). The data come from 12 children, observed monthly, from 1;0 to 3;0. It was found that the percentage of errors in which
me
replaced
I
(the
me
-error rate) was positively correlated with the correct production of
me
as an objective pronoun (the
me
-total). The
me
for
I
and
my
for
I
errors were antagonistic, with one of the patterns almost always dominating over the other, resulting in a clear individual difference between
me
-children and
my
-children. It was also found that the
me
-total during the period in which
my
for
I
replacements first emerged prefigured whether a child would become a
me
-child or a
my
-child.