bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Shared Storybook Reading as an Intervention Context
Authors: Kaderavek Joan , Justice Laura M.
Published: April 2006

Speech-language pathologists are increasingly using shared storybook reading as a context for providing language intervention to young children. This trend has also been observed in recent applied studies on intervention approaches. There are, however, potential pitfalls in using the shared book-reading context for intervention purposes. This article serves three purposes: (a) to describe how the use of shared book reading in clinical practice and research activities reflects contemporary trends in speech-language pathology, (b) to discuss potential pitfalls that may be associated with the use of storybook reading as an intervention context, and (c) to present recommendations for avoiding such pitfalls.
Breadth and Depth of Diversity in Minnesota
Authors: Kohnert Kathryn , Kennedy Mary R. T. , Glaze Leslie , Kan Pui Fong , Carney Edward
Published: April 2006

This study explored the impact of recent demographic changes on clinical service delivery in the state of Minnesota. A Web-based survey was used to ask speech-language pathologists in Minnesota about their training, clinical caseloads, and professional experiences with respect to diversity. Primary survey goals were to (a) determine if, and how, recent changes in the overall state demographics were reflected on caseloads of speech-language pathologists, and (b) identify challenges clinicians faced in meeting the needs of an increasingly diverse population. The authors considered the breadth or range of economically, racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse populations represented on caseloads, relative to depth of diversity. Survey results are discussed with respect to challenges inherent in providing services to a diverse caseload, together with the competencies needed in order to meet these professional challenges.
Relations Among Maternal, Child, and Demographic Factors and the Persistence of Preschool Language Impairment
Authors: LaParo Karen M. , Justice Laura , Skibbe Lori E. , Pianta Robert C.
Published: April 2006

This research used the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care database of 1,364 children to identify children at 3 years of age who could generally be characterized as exhibiting specific language impairment. Seventy-three identified children were classified into 2 groups on the basis of standardized assessment of language skills at 4.5 years: children whose language impairment had resolved (n= 33) versus those whose language impairment persisted (n= 40). A logistic regression model using measures of maternal sensitivity, maternal depression, child externalizing behaviors, child health history, family income-to-needs ratio, and quality of home environment was used to predict group membership. Maternal sensitivity and maternal depression contributed significantly to the prediction model for group membership. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical and clinical implications.
The Single Exposure
Authors: Wagovich Stacy A. , Newhoff Marilyn
Published: April 2006

A critical aspect of the assessment of children's word learning processes is the examination of word knowledge growth over time. The purpose of this study was to examine the types of partial word knowledge (PWK) growth that occurred from 1 exposure to unfamiliar words in text, taking into account the roles of part of speech and individual language skills. Sixth-grade children with normal language read stories containing unfamiliar nouns and verbs. The children then completed 2 tasks to assess PWK. Results were that at least 1 type of PWK developed: knowledge that a word exists as a lexical entry in the language. Part of speech appeared to play a role; significant PWK at posttest was apparent for verbs but not for nouns. Children's language skills did not appear to impact the amount of PWK demonstrated at posttest.
Children’s Responses to Educators’ Questions in Day Care Play Groups
Authors: Rivera Christina de , Girolametto Luigi , Greenberg Janice , Weitzman Elaine
Published: April 2006

An exploratory study examined adults’ questions to small groups of children to determine how questions influenced their response rate and complexity of response. Thirteen educators of toddlers and 13 educators of preschoolers were videotaped during free-play. Both groups of educators used an equivalent frequency of open-ended and closed questions, but the preschool educators used more topic-continuing questions. Consistent with their developmental level, preschoolers responded more frequently than toddlers. Toddlers demonstrated few effects of question type. In contrast, preschoolers used more multiword utterances following open-ended questions and topic-continuing questions. Implications for in-service education for staff of early childhood settings include increasing the use of both open-ended and topic-continuing questions.
Counseling in Audiology, or Learning to Listen
Authors: English Kris , Mendel Lisa Lucks , Rojeski Tom , Hornak Joan
Published: April 2006

Because of a "technology explosion," audiologists have more options than ever in providing for their patients' hearing needs. However, relatively few individuals with hearing loss seek out amplification, and those who do frequently report dissatisfaction with the quality of their interactions with audiologists. Most audiologists did not have coursework in counseling in their graduate programs, which may account for patient complaints. As part of a course development evaluation of an audiology counseling course, a preliminary study was conducted to examine two student learning objectives: to learn how to differentiate between content messages and affective messages and to learn how to respond to each type of message appropriately. Pre- and postcourse data collected from two cohorts of audiology graduate students indicated that (a) before taking the course, students were likely to provide informational responses to personal adjustment comments (a type of "communication mismatch"), and (b) at the end of the class, they were much more likely to match or mirror affective statements with affective responses.
Predictive Validity of a Procedure for Pediatric Hearing Instrument Fitting
Authors: Seewald Richard C. , Moodie K. Shane , Sinclair Sheila T. , Scollie Susan D.
Published: April 2006

In 1994, Moodie, Seewald, & Sinclair described the development of a clinical procedure for predicting real-ear hearing instrument performance in young children. The purpose of the present study was to determine the validity of this procedure for predicting the real-ear aided gain (REAG) and real-ear saturation response (RESR) of hearing instruments worn by children. To this end, both the REAG and RESR were measured, through probe-microphone measures, and predicted, using the Moodie et al. procedure. The findings confirmed that the 2-cc coupler-based procedure, with individualized acoustic transforms, described by Moodie et al., resulted in highly accurate predictions of real-ear hearing instrument performance for both REAG and RESR at five test frequencies. The implications of these findings for the clinical fitting of hearing instruments in infants and young children are discussed.
Making Sense of Directional Microphone Hearing Aids
Authors: Ricketts Todd , Mueller H. Gustav
Published: April 2006

We have witnessed a large increase in the availability of directional microphone hearing aids over the past few years. Directional microphone technology is now available in analog, digitally controlled analog, and digital hearing aids, and has been implemented into both behind-the-ear and in-the-ear styles. This Short Course reviews basic design differences across directional microphone hearing aids. A number of different laboratory and clinical evaluation methods used for assessment of both electroacoustic and behavioral directivity are then reviewed. In addition, the potential impact of test conditions such as room reverberation and type and position of competing noise(s), on listener performance when fit with directional hearing aids are considered. Recommendations and suggestions relating to the clinical and laboratory assessment of directional hearing aids are provided.
Internet Application to Tele-Audiology—“Nothin’ but Net”
Authors: Givens Gregg D. , Elangovan Saravanan
Published: April 2006

The Telehealth program at East Carolina University has developed a system for real-time assessment of auditory thresholds using computer driven control of a remote audiometer via the Internet. The present study used 45 adult participants in a double-blind study of 2 different systems: a conventional audiometer and an audiometer operated remotely via the Internet. The audiometric thresholds assessed by these 2 systems varied by no more than 1.3 dB for air conduction and 1.2 dB for bone conduction. The results demonstrated the feasibility of this new "telehearing" audiometric system. With the rapid development of Internet-based applications, telehealth has the potential to provide important healthcare coverage for rural areas where specialized audiological services are lacking.
Evaluating the Benefit of Speech Recoding Hearing Aids in Children
Authors: Miller-Hansen Denise R. , Nelson Peggy B. , Widen Judith E. , Simon Stephen D.
Published: April 2006

Children with significant high-frequency hearing loss may be difficult to fit with hearing aids using conventional amplification. Frequency-lowering hearing aids using dynamic speech recoding (DSR) technology have been proposed as a possible means to achieve full speech audibility. The current study investigated 78 children from ages 1.3 to 21.6 years (M= 10.6 years) who wore DSR hearing aids. These hearing aids provided significant improvements in pure-tone average (PTA; mean improvement for the aided versus unaided condition of 49 dB) and high-frequency PTA (mean improvement for the aided versus unaided condition of 56 dB). A subgroup of 19 children were previous users of conventional hearing aids. These participants demonstrated a mean improvement of 11 dB in PTA and 12.5% in word recognition scores for DSR versus conventional amplification. However, DSR hearing aids required repair 3 times as often as conventional hearing aids. The greatest benefit was observed in children whose word recognition scores were poorest using conventional hearing aids.
Morphological Analyses of the Human Tongue Musculature for Three-Dimensional Modeling
Authors: Takemoto Hironori
Published: April 2006

Skilled movements of the tongue in speech articulation reflect complex formation of the tongue musculature, although its description in the anatomical literature is rather limited for developing a realistic computational model of the tongue. This study presents detailed descriptions of the muscular structure of the human tongue based on macroscopic and microscopic observations and provides threedimensional schemata of the tongue musculature. Histologic examination revealed that the tongue consists of five strata, stacked along the courses of the fibers of the genioglossus muscle in proximal-distal directions. This stratum structure exists in the entire tongue tissue, indicating that the lingual musculature can be divided into the inner and outer regions. The former consisted of the "stem" and "core," and the latter of the "cover" and "fringe." In gross dissection, the tongue was cut into wedge-like blocks along the course of the genioglossus muscle to examine muscle fiber arrangement. Using this approach, it was determined that serial repetitions of "structural units" composed the inner musculature of the tongue. Each unit consisted of a pair of thin muscle fiber laminae; one was composed of the genioglossus and vertical muscles, and the other of the transverse muscle. In the apex, the laminae lacked the fibers of the genioglossus. These findings have been incorporated in three-dimensional schemata of the tongue musculature.
Production of English Finite Verb Morphology
Authors: Norbury Courtenay Frazier , Bishop Dorothy V. M. , Briscoe Josie
Published: April 2006

The performance on production of finite verb morphology of 19 children (ages 5;9–10;7) with mild-moderate sensorineural hearing impairment (SNH) was compared with that of 14 children with specific language impairment (SLI) (ages 7;2–10;9) and age-matched and language-matched control groups. On average, the SNH group outperformed the SLI group and was comparable to controls. However, a subset of the SNH group (
n
= 6) was impaired on one or both of these tasks. Degree of hearing loss or age of receiving hearing aids was not directly related to performance, but other language measures were. The subset was also significantly younger than the rest of the SNH group, suggesting that acquisition of finite verb morphology may be delayed in children with hearing impairments. Verb regularity had no effect on performance of any group, but word frequency and phonological complexity did exert an influence. The findings are discussed in relation to causative theories of SLI.
Parental Reports of Spoken Language Skills in Children With Down Syndrome
Authors: Berglund Eva , Eriksson Mårten , Johansson Iréne
Published: April 2006

Spoken language in children with Down syndrome and in children in a normative group was compared. Growth trends, individual variation, sex differences, and performance on vocabulary, pragmatic, and grammar scales as well as MaxLU (maximum length of utterance) were explored. Subjects were 330 children withDown syndrome (age range: 1–5 years) and 336 children in a normative group (1;4–2;4 years;months). The Swedish Early Communicative Development Inventory-words and sentences (SECDI-w&s) was employed. Performance of children with Down syndrome at ages 3;0 and 4;0 was comparable with that ofchildren in the normative group at ages 1;4 and 1;8 respectively. In comparison with children in the normative group of similar vocabulary size, children with Down syndrome lagged slightly on pragmatic and grammar scales. The early development proceeded in most cases with exponential or logistic growth. This stresses the great potential of early intervention.
Relative Treatment Effects of Two Prelinguistic Communication Interventions on Language Development in Toddlers With Developmental Delays Vary by Maternal Characteristics
Authors: Yoder Paul J. , Warren Steven F.
Published: April 2006

This paper tests whether two prelinguistic communication interventions have a differential effect on productive and receptive language development 6 and 12 months after the end of treatment. We predicted that treatment effects on language development would vary as a function of pretreatment maternal responsivity or amount of mothers' formal education. Fifty-eight prelinguistic children with developmental delays and their mothers participated in the study. Children were randomly assigned to one of two staff-implemented treatments that were designed to increase intentional communication ability. Results confirmed the prediction that treatment effects on children's receptive and expressive language 6 and 12 months after the end of interventions vary as a function of pretreatment maternal responsivity and education level.
Relationships Among Speech Perception, Production, Language, Hearing Loss, and Age in Children With Impaired Hearing
Authors: Blamey Peter J. , Sarant Julia Z. , Paatsch Louise E. , Barry Johanna G. , Bow Catherine P. , Wales Roger J. , Wright Maree , Psarros Colleen , Rattigan Kylie , Tooher Rebecca
Published: April 2006

Eighty-seven primary-school children with impaired hearing were evaluated using speech perception, production, and language measures over a 3-year period. Forty-seven children with a mean unaided pure-tone-average hearing loss of 106 dB HL used a 22-electrode cochlear implant, and 40 with a mean unaided puretone-average hearing loss of 78 dB HL were fitted with hearing aids. All children were enrolled in oral/aural habilitation programs, and most attended integrated classes with normally hearing children for part of the time at school. Multiple linear regression was used to describe the relationships among the speech perception, production, and language measures, and the trends over time. Little difference in the level of performance and trends was found for the two groups of children, so the perceptual effect of the implant is equivalent, on average, to an improvement of about 28 dB in hearing thresholds. Scores on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals showed an upward trend at about 60% of the rate for normally hearing children. Rates of improvement for individual children were not correlated significantly with degree of hearing loss. The children showed a wide scatter about the average speech production score of 40% of words correctly produced in spontaneous conversations, with no significant upward trend with age. Scores on the open-set Consonant-Nucleus-Consonant (CNC) monosyllabic word test and the Bench-Kowal-Bamford (BKB) sentence test were strongly related to language level (as measured by an equivalent age on the PPVT) and speech production scores for both auditory-visual and auditory test conditions. After allowing for differences in language, speech perception scores in the auditory test condition showed a slight downward trend over time, which is consistent with the known biological effects of hearing loss on the auditory periphery and brainstem. Speech perception scores in the auditory condition also decreased significantly by about 5% for every 10 dB of hearing loss in the hearing aid group. The regression analysis model allows separation of the effects of language, speech production, and hearing levels on speech perception scores so that the effects of habilitation and training in these areas can be observed and/or predicted. The model suggests that most of the children in the study will reach a level of over 90% sentence recognition in the auditory-visual condition when their language becomes equivalent to that of a normally hearing 7-year-old, but they will enter secondary school at age 12 with an average language delay of about 4 or 5 years unless they receive concentrated and effective language training.
An Evaluation of the Effects of Two Treatment Approaches for Teachers With Voice Disorders
Authors: Roy Nelson , Gray Steven D. , Simon Mindy , Dove Heather , Corbin-Lewis Kim , Stemple Joseph C.
Published: April 2006

Teachers commonly report voice problems and often seek medical assistance for voice-related complaints. Despite the prevalence of voice disorders within this occupation, there are no studies evaluating the effectiveness of treatment programs designed to remedy the voice problems of teachers. To assess the functional effects of two voice therapy approaches, 58 voice-disordered teachers were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: vocal hygiene (VH,
n
=20), vocal function exercises (VFE,
n
=19), and a nontreatment control group (CON,
n
=19). Subjects completed the Voice Handicap Index (VHI) —an instrument designed to appraise the self-perceived psychosocial consequences of voice disorders—before and following a 6-week treatment phase. The VFE and VH subjects also completed a posttreatment questionnaire regarding the perceived benefits of treatment. Only the group who adhered to the VFE regimen reported a significant reduction in mean VHI scores (
p
<.0002). Furthermore, when compared to the VH group, the exercise group reported more overall voice improvement (
p
<.05) and greater ease (
p
<.02) and clarity (
p
<.01) in their speaking and singing voice after treatment. These findings suggest that the VFE should be considered as a useful alternative or adjunct to vocal hygiene programs in the treatment of voice problems in teachers.
Variation in Anticipatory Coarticulation With Changes in Clarity and Rate
Authors: Matthies Melanie , Perrier Pascal , Perkell Joseph S. , Zandipour Majid
Published: April 2006

This study tests the hypothesis that the relative timing, or coarticulation, of articulatory movements at VC and CV boundaries is influenced by both the listener's requirement for clarity and the speaker's strategy to economize effort. Movement and acoustic data were collected from 7 subjects who spoke in three conditions: normal, clear, and fast. It was predicted that fast speech would show more coarticulation and clear speech would show less coarticulation than normal speech. The speech materials were designed to investigate coarticulation in the movements of the upper lip and tongue. They consisted of repetitions of [iC
n
u] utterances embedded in carrier phrases, where the number of consonants,
n
, ranged from 1 to 3. Analyses focused on kinematic measures and the amount of coarticulation (overlap) of the /i-u/ transition movement with the acoustic interval of the /i/. The consonant-string duration was longest in the clear speaking condition and shortest in the fast condition. Compared to the normal condition, peak velocities were higher in the fast and clear speaking conditions, indicating increased effort. The influences of speaking condition on coarticulation and on the formants of the /i/ were small. Thus, even though there was evidence of increased effort in the clear and fast conditions, the hypothesized effects of a trade-off between clarity and economy of effort were minimally evident in formant values for /i/ and measures of coarticulation.
Detection of Irregular Verb Violations by Children With and Without SLI
Authors: Redmond Sean M. , Rice Mabel L.
Published: April 2006

Fifty-seven children (ages in years;months: 5;7–8;8) with and without Specific Language Impairment (SLI) participated in judgment and elicitation tasks designed to evaluate their understanding of restrictions associated with irregular verb forms. The performance of the SLI group was similar to the performances of the control groups in that all children demonstrated high levels of sensitivity to violations involving verb-agreement errors (e.g.,he am falling). The production and acceptance rates of past tense overregularizations (e.g.,he falled) by the SLI and language-match groups were similar, and both were higher than the agematch group. Differences between affected and unaffected children were observed in their productions and relative levels of sensitivity to infinitive errors in finite positions (e.g.,he fall off). As expected, children in the SLI group were more likely to produce and accept infinitive forms in finite positions. Children in the SLI group also accepted more finite form errors in VP complement positions (e.g.,he made him fell) than the control groups, although the latter occurred rarely in children’s productions. Implications for understanding morphophonological and morphosyntactic development in children with SLI are discussed.
Consistency of Voice Produced by Patients With Adductor Spasmodic Dysphonia
Authors: Cimino-Knight Ann Marie , Sapienza Christine M.
Published: April 2006

Adductor spasmodic dysphonia (ADSD) is an idiopathic focal laryngeal movement disorder causing involuntary and uncontrollable spasms in the vocal fold musculature, primarily during voice onset. Although phonatory instability has been reported through clinical observation and empirical study, no examination of phonatory performance consistency in ADSD has been done. Phonatory instability refers to phonatory unsteadiness and has been previously defined by the presence of acoustic aberrations during speech. Performance consistency pertains to variations in these phonatory aberrations across repeated trials or over time. This study focused on the phonatory performance consistency of those with ADSD by using three acoustic measures of phonatory instability. Twenty patients with ADSD were recorded during three trials of reading a standard passage. Eight of the 20 patients were recorded twice during two separate recording sessions held approximately 6 months apart.The number of phonatory breaks, frequency shifts, and aperiodic segments were the dependent measures. Data were subjected to inferential statistical analysis to test for significant differences among the measures in two conditions: across three trials produced within one recording session and across multiple trials produced during two distinct recording sessions. No significant differences were found for any of the measures either as a function of trials recorded on the same day or across the two recording sessions. The data suggest a need for describing phonatory instability and performance consistency as separate entities with regard to neurological voice disorders.
Neural Systems for Sentence Processing in Stuttering
Authors: Weber-Fox Christine
Published: April 2006

The role of neurolinguistic factors in stuttering was investigated by determining whether individuals who stutter display atypical neural functions for language processing, even with no speech production demands. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were obtained while 9 individuals who stutter (IWS) and 9 normally fluent speakers (NS) read sentences silently. The ERPs were elicited by: (a) closed-class words that provide structural or grammatical information, (b) open-class words that convey referential meaning, and (c) semantic anomalies (violations in semantic expectation). In standardized tests, adult IWS displayed similar grammatical and lexical abilities in both comprehension and production tasks compared to their matched, normally fluent peers. Yet the ERPs elicited in IWS for linguistic processing tasks revealed differences in functional brain organization. The ERPs elicited in IWS were characterized by reduced negative amplitudes for closed-class words (N280), open-class words (N350), and semantic anomalies (N400) in a temporal window of approximately 200–450 ms after word onsets. The overall pattern of results indicates that alterations in processing for IWS are related to neural functions that are common to word classes and perhaps involve shared, underlying processes for lexical access.
Phonological Similarity Effects in Memory for Serial Order of Cued Speech
Authors: Leybaert Jacqueline , Lechat Josiane
Published: April 2006

Experiment I investigated memory for serial order by congenitally, profoundly deaf individuals, 6–22 years old, for words presented via Cued Speech (CS) without sound. CS is a system that resolves the ambiguity inherent in speechreading through the addition of manual cues. The phonological components of CS are mouth shape, hand shape, and hand placement. Of interest was whether the recall of serial order was lower for lists of words similar in both mouth shape and hand placement, or similar in mouth shape only, or in hand placement only than for control lists designed to minimize these similarities. Deaf participants showed lower performance on the three similar lists than the control lists, suggesting that deaf individuals use the phonology of CS to support their recall. In Experiment II, the same lists were administered to two groups of hearing participants. One group, experienced producers of CS, received the CS stimuli without sound; the other group, unfamiliar with CS, received the CS stimuli audiovisually. Participants experienced with CS showed no effect of hand placement similarity, suggesting that this effect may be related to the linguistic experience of deaf participants. The recency effect was greater in the hearing group provided with sound, indicating that the traces left by auditory stimuli are perceptually more salient than those left by the visual stimuli encountered in CS.
Parental Language Input to Children at Stuttering Onset
Authors: Miles Stephanie , Ratner Nan Bernstein
Published: April 2006

Many programs for the indirect management of stuttering in early childhood counsel adjustment of parental language models, which are presumed to play an exacerbating influence on vulnerable children's fluency. We examined the relative levels of linguistic demand in maternal language to stuttering and nonstuttering children, adjusted for each child's current level of linguistic development. No significant or observable differences were detected in the relative level of linguistic demand posed by parents of stuttering children very close to onset of symptoms. Empirical support for current advisement and potential ramifications are discussed.
Vocal Development of 9-Month-Old Babies With Cleft Palate
Authors: Chapman Kathy L. , Hardin-Jones Mary , Schulte Julie , Halter Kelli Ann
Published: April 2006

This study compared the prelinguistic vocal development of 9-month-old babies with unrepaired cleft palate (n=30) and age-matched peers (n=15). Samples of the babies' spontaneous vocalizations were obtained while they interacted with their primary caregiver during play. The groups were compared on a number of variables including (a) canonical babbling ratios, (b) percentage of babies who reached the canonical babbling stage by 9 months, (c) syllable and segmental aspects of babbling, and (d) vocal frequency. Results indicated that the babies with cleft palate had smaller canonical babbling ratios than their age-matched peers, with just 57% of the babies with cleft palate reaching the canonical babbling stage by 9 months compared to 93% of the noncleft babies. Although syllable types and length were similar for the two groups, differences were noted for consonant characteristics. The babies with cleft palate had smaller consonant inventories, with fewer stops, glides, and velars noted. Glottals occurred more frequently in the vocalizations of the babies with cleft palate. Finally, no statisti-cally significant difference was noted in the number of vocalizations produced by the two groups. Some possible explanations for why babies with cleft palate are delayed in babbling are explored.
Understanding Bilingualism and Its Impact on Speech Audiometry
Authors: Hapsburg Deborah von , Peña Elizabeth D.
Published: April 2006

This tutorial provides a review of auditory research conducted with monolingual and bilingual speakers of Spanish and English. Based on a functional view of bilingualism and on auditory research findings showing that the bilingual experience may affect the outcome of auditory research, we discuss methods for improving descriptions of linguistically diverse research participants. The review delves into how the bilingual experience can affect auditory research outcomes and discusses ways in which experimental design can be adjusted when bilingual or monolingual participants are used for research needs. The goal of the tutorial is to increase awareness about the complexities of using bilinguals in auditory research, thereby improving the quality of auditory research involving bilingual research participants.
Final Consonant Discrimination in Children
Authors: Edwards Jan , Fox Robert A. , Rogers Catherine L.
Published: April 2006

Preschool-age children with phonological disorders were compared to their typically developing age peers on their ability to discriminate CVC words that differed only in the identity of the final consonant in whole-word and gated conditions. The performance of three age groups of typically developing children and adults was also assessed on the same task. Children with phonological disorders performed more poorly than age-matched peers, and younger typically developing children performed more poorly than older children and adults, even when the entire CVC word was presented. Performance in the whole-word condition was correlated with receptive vocabulary size and a measure of articulatory accuracy across all children. These results suggest that there is a complex relationship among word learning skills, the ability to attend to fine phonetic detail, and the acquisition of articulatory-acoustic and acoustic-auditory representations.
Botox Treatment in Adductor Spasmodic Dysphonia
Authors: Boutsen Frank , Cannito Michael P. , Taylor Merlin , Bender Brenda
Published: April 2006

Over the years many studies have been conducted to document the treatment effects of Botulinum toxin type A in adductor spasmodic dysphonia. The results of these studies have led to the view that overall Botulinum toxin treatment is moderately effective. This study reviews efficacy research qualitatively and quantitatively to determine the extent to which this conclusion is fully supported by the data. Although the data indicate moderate overall improvement as a result of Botulinum toxin treatment, they also suggest significant variation across patients, measurements, and treatment conditions. This result, together with methodological limitations and lack of standardization in BT efficacy research, justifies caution when making inferences regarding BT treatment benefit in adductor spasmodic dysphonia.
Verbal Short-Term Memory in Down Syndrome
Authors: Jarrold Christopher , Baddeley Alan D. , Phillips Caroline E.
Published: April 2006

The current study explored three possible explanations of poor verbal short-term memory performance among individuals with Down syndrome in an attempt to determine whether the condition is associated with a fundamental verbal shortterm memory deficit. The short-term memory performance of a group of 19 children and young adults with Down syndrome was contrasted with that of two control groups matched for level of receptive vocabulary. The specificity of a deficit was assessed by comparing memory for verbal and visuo-spatial information. The effect of auditory problems on performance was examined by contrasting memory for auditorily presented material with that for material presented both auditorily and visually. The influence of speech-motor difficulties was investigated by employing both a traditional recall procedure and a serial recognition procedure that reduced spoken response demands. Results confirmed that individuals with Down syndrome do show impaired verbal short-term memory performance for their level of receptive vocabulary. The findings also indicated that this deficit is specific to memory for verbal information and is not primarily caused by auditory or speech-production difficulties.
Use of the Language Development Survey (LDS) in a National Probability Sample of Children 18 to 35 Months Old
Authors: Rescorla Leslie , Achenbach Thomas M.
Published: April 2006

Data are reported from a national probability sample used to norm the Language Development Survey (LDS; L. Rescorla, 1989) and the Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 1 1/2–5 (CBCL/1 1/2–5; T. M. Achenbach & L. Rescorla, 2000). Participants were 278 children 18 to 35 months old who were highly diverse in socioeconomic status (SES), ethnic composition, and language background. Vocabulary scores increased markedly with age, were somewhat higher in girls, and were modestly correlated with SES. Children of non-Latino White ethnicity had significantly higher vocabulary scores and mean length of phrases than children of African American or ‘other’ ethnicity (Hispanics/Asians/Native Americans/ South Asians/mixed), even when SES was used as a covariate. Rate of language delay, using the cut-off of fewer than 50 words or no word combinations, was lower in the non-Latino White group (4%) than in the other two ethnicity groups (29% and 24%). Correlations between LDS scores and problem scores on the CBCL/1 1/2–5 were low, indicating that language delay and emotional/behavior problems were not closely associated in this general population sample of children 18 to 35 months old.
Semantic Representation and Naming in Children With Specific Language Impairment
Authors: McGregor Karla K. , Newman Robyn M. , Reilly Renée M. , Capone Nina C.
Published: April 2006

When 16 children with SLI (mean age=6;2) and 16 normally developing age-mates named age-appropriate objects, the SLI cohort made more naming errors. For both cohorts, semantic misnaming and indeterminate responses were the predominant error types. The contribution of limited semantic representation to these naming errors was explored. Each participant drew and defined each item from his or her semantic and indeterminate error pools and each item from his or her correctly named pool. When compared, the drawings and definitions of items from the error pools were poorer, suggesting limited semantic knowledge. The profiles of information included in definitions of items from the correct pool and the error pools were highly similar, suggesting that representations associated with misnaming differed quantitatively, but not qualitatively, from those associated with correct naming. Eleven members of the SLI cohort also participated in a forced-choice recognition task. Performance was significantly lower on erroneous targets than on correctly named targets. When performance was compared across all three post-naming tasks (drawing, defining, recognition), the participants evinced sparse semantic knowledge for roughly half of all semantic misnaming and roughly one third of all indeterminate responses. In additional cases, representational gaps were evident. This study demonstrates that the degree of knowledge represented in the child's semantic lexicon makes words more or less vulnerable to retrieval failure and that limited semantic knowledge contributes to the frequent naming errors of children with SLI.
Story Narratives of Adults With Closed Head Injury and Non-Brain-Injured Adults
Authors: Coelho Carl A.
Published: April 2006

Narratives were elicited in two story tasks, retelling and generation, from two groups of adults, 55 with closed head injury (CHI) and 47 non-brain-injured (NBI), recruited from rehabilitation facilities in three northeastern states. Participants were classified, on the basis of their socioeconomic status (SES), as professional, skilled worker, or unskilled worker. Narratives were analyzed using five discourse measures at the levels of sentence production, intersentential cohesion, and story grammar. Discourse performance was then compared across groups, tasks, and SES levels. Discourse performance of the CHI group was also compared with their scores from the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, a measure of executive functioning. Results indicated that two discourse measures distinguished the groups. The CHI participants produced significantly fewer words per T-unit and fewer T-units within episode structure than did the NBI group, which was attributed to difficulties with content organization. Performance on all five discourse measures differed for the story retelling versus the story generation tasks for both CHI and NBI groups. All participants produced longer and more grammatically complex T-units in the story generation task than in story retelling. However, cohesive adequacy and story grammar were better in the story retelling task than in the story generation task. It was therefore concluded that story generation was a more challenging task than story retelling for both groups. The only significant difference noted for SES involved the measure of intersentential cohesion. The unskilled workers demonstrated poorer cohesive adequacy than either the skilled workers or professionals, regardless of group or story task. Finally, modest correlations were noted between the discourse performance of the CHI group and scores from the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test in both story tasks.
Inferring Emotional Reactions in Social Situations
Authors: Ford Janet A. , Milosky Linda M.
Published: April 2006

Anticipating and responding to a partner’s emotional reactions are key components in the comprehension of daily social discourse. Kindergarten children with language impairment (LI) and age-matched controls (CA) were asked to label facial expressions depicting 1 of 4 emotions (happy, surprised, sad, mad) and to identify those expressions when given a verbal label. Children then chose among these facial expressions when asked to infer emotional reactions from stories (3- sentence scenarios) presented in 1 of 3 modalities: verbal, visual, and combined. Although all children were able to identify and label the facial expressions, children with LI had difficulty integrating emotion knowledge with event context in order to infer a character’s feelings. When these inferencing errors occurred, children in the LI group were more likely to provide emotions of a different valence (e.g., substituting happy for mad) than were children in the CA group. Inferencing ability was related to language comprehension performance on a standardized test. The findings suggest that inferencing errors made by children with LI occur during the early stages of social processing and may contribute to social difficulties often experienced by this group of children.
Outcomes of Early Language Delay
Authors: Dale Philip S. , Price Thomas S. , Bishop Dorothy V. M. , Plomin Robert
Published: April 2006

Parent-based assessments of vocabulary, grammar, nonverbal ability, and use of language to refer to past and future (displaced reference) were obtained for 8,386 twin children at 2 years of age. Children with 2 year vocabulary scores below the 10th centile were designated the early language delay (ELD) group, and their outcomes at 3 and 4 years were contrasted with the remainder of the sample, the typical language (TL) group. At 3 and 4 years old, children were designated as language impaired if their scores fell below the 15th centile on at least 2 of the 3 parent-provided language measures: vocabulary, grammar, and use of abstract language. At 3 years, 44.1% of the ELD group (as compared to 7.2% of the TL group) met criteria for persistent language difficulties, decreasing slightly to 40.2% at 4 years (as compared to 8.5% of the TL group), consistent with previous reports of frequent spontaneous resolution of delayed language in preschoolers. Although relations between language and nonverbal abilities at 2 years and outcome at 3 and 4 years within the ELD group were highly statistically significant, effect sizes were small, and classification of outcome on the basis of data on 2-year-olds was far too inaccurate to be clinically useful. Children whose language difficulties persisted were not necessarily those with the most severe initial difficulties. Furthermore, measures of parental education and the child's history of ear infections failed to substantially improve the prediction.
The Role of Syntactic Complexity in Treatment of Sentence Deficits in Agrammatic Aphasia
Authors: Thompson Cynthia K. , Shapiro Lewis P. , Kiran Swathi , Sobecks Jana
Published: April 2006

This experiment examined the hypothesis that training production of syntactically complex sentences results in generalization to less complex sentences that have processes in common with treated structures. Using a single subject experimental design, 4 individuals with agrammatic aphasia were trained to comprehend and produce filler-gap sentences with
wh
-movement, including, from least to most complex, object-extracted who-questions, object clefts, and sentences with objectrelative clausal embedding. Two participants received treatment first on the least complex structure (
who
-questions), and 2 received treatment first on the most complex form (object-relative constructions), while untrained sentences and narrative language samples were tested for generalization. When generalization did not occur across structures, each was successively entered into treatment. Results showed no generalization across sentence types when who-questions were trained; however, as predicted, object-relative training resulted in robust generalization to both object clefts and
who
-questions. These findings support those derived from previous work, indicating not only that generalization occurs across structures that are linguistically related, but also that generalization is enhanced when the direction of treatment is from more complex to less complex constructions. This latter finding supports the authors' newly coined "complexity account of treatment efficacy" (CATE).
Three Treatments for Teachers With Voice Disorders
Authors: Roy Nelson , Weinrich Barbara , Gray Steven D. , Tanner Kristine , Stemple Joseph C. , Sapienza Christine M.
Published: April 2006

Voice problems are a common occupational hazard of teaching school, yet few studies exist that have objectively evaluated treatment approaches aimed at rehabilitating these occupation-related voice disorders. This randomized clinical trial used patient-based treatment outcome measures to evaluate the effectiveness of three treatment programs. Sixty-four teachers with voice disorders were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatment groups: voice amplification using the ChatterVox portable amplifier (VA;n= 25), resonance therapy (RT;n= 19), and respiratory muscle training (RMT;n= 20). Before and after a 6-week treatment phase, all teachers completed (a) the Voice Handicap Index (VHI; B. H. Jacobson et al., 1997), an instrument designed to appraise the self-perceived psychosocial consequences of voice disorders, and (b) a voice severity self-rating scale. Both intention-to-treat and as-treated analyses revealed that only the VA and RT groups reported significant reductions in mean VHI scores and in voice severity selfratings following treatment. Furthermore, results from a posttreatment questionnaire regarding the perceived benefits of treatment showed that compared to RT and RMT, teachers in the VA group reported significantly more overall voice improvement, greater vocal clarity, and greater ease of speaking and singing voice following treatment. These findings replicate previous results from an earlier clinical trial confirming the efficacy of VA and provide new evidence to support RT as an effective treatment alternative for voice problems in teachers. The results are discussed in the context of uneven levels of self-reported compliance and disparate dropout rates among the treatment groups.
Children’s Productions of the Affix -edin Past Tense and Past Participle Contexts
Authors: Redmond Sean M.
Published: April 2006

Children’s productions of the affix -edin past tense and past participle contexts (e.g.,the boy kicked the ballvs.the ball was kicked) were examined in spontaneous conversations and elicited productions. The performances of 7 children with specific language impairment (SLI) were compared with those of 2 control groups of typically developing children (age matches, MLU matches). Children with SLI produced fewer obligatory contexts for both past tense and past participle forms than did the control children, and were more likely to omit past tense affixes. In contrast, few omissions of the past participle were observed across all 3 groups. Implications for theories regarding the morphological deficits associated with SLI are discussed.
The Stability of Primary Language Disorder
Authors: Tomblin J. Bruce , Zhang Xuyang , Buckwalter Paula , O'Brien Marlea
Published: April 2006

The rates of change in the language status of children with language impairment unaccompanied by other developmental or sensory disorders (primary language disorder) were studied in a longitudinal sample of 196 children who were followed from kindergarten through 4th grade. Previous studies have shown that children with such language impairments have moderate rates of improvement during this age range. Also, those with the most specific deficits have the greatest likelihood of improvement. Cole and colleagues have hypothesized that such results could be due to the effect of regression to the mean (K. Cole, I. Schwartz, A. Notari, P. Dale, & P. Mills, 1995). This study used a baseline measure of language that was independent of the measure used for diagnosis in order to control for factors leading to regression to the mean. Patterns of change using the kindergarten diagnostic measure were compared to those using the baseline measure. Rates of diagnostic change between kindergarten and subsequent observation intervals showed patterns of change similar to those of past research. Comparisons using the baseline measure revealed no significant change in relative language status across the 4-year time period. The results showed that when the conditions for regression to the mean were controlled, the poor language of children with language impairments was very likely to persist during the primary school years.