bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Vocal Tract Control in Parkinson's Disease
Authors: Logemann Jeri A. , Fisher Hilda B.
Published: July 2014

Consonant articulation patterns of 200 Parkinson patients were defined by two expert listeners from high fidelity tape recordings of the sentence version of the Fisher-Logemann Test of Articulation Competence (1971). Phonetic transcription and phonetic feature analysis were the methodologies used. Of the 200 patients, 90 (45%) exhibited some misarticulations. Phonetic data on these 90 dysarthric Parkinson patients revealed articulatory errors highly consistent in detailed production characteristics. Manner changes predominated. Phoneme classes that were most affected were the stop-plosives, affricates, and fricatives. In terms of perception features (Chomsky & Halle, 1968), the stop-plosives and affricates, which are normally [– continuant] were produced as [ + continuant] fricatives; fricatives that are [+ strident] were produced as [– strident]. There is no implication, however, that Parkinsonism involves a perception deficit. Analysis of the articulatory deficit reveals inadequate tongue elevation to achieve complete closure on stop-plosives and affricates, which can be expressed in production features as a change from [+ stop] to [+ fricative]. There was also inadequate close construction of the airway in lingual fricatives, which in articulatory features can be expressed as a change from [+ fricative] to [– fricative]. Both the incomplete contact for stops and the partial constriction for fricatives represent and inadequate narrowing of the vocal tract at the point of articulation. These results are discussed in relation to recent EMG studies and other physiologic examinations of Parkinsonian dysarthria.
Establishing Generalized, Productive Verb-Noun Phrase Usage in a Manual Language System with Moderately Handicapped Children
Authors: Karlan George R. , Brenn-White Bonnie , Lentz Amie , Hodur Pamela , Egger Debra , Frankoff Denise
Published: July 2014

Strategies for producing generalized language skills continue to be of considerable interest to those working with severely language-delayed children. Research on generalized instruction-following suggested that strategies employing linguistic elements (verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc.) arranged in systematic combination matrices were successful in producing generalized and novel responses among handicapped children. The efficacy of a training matrix in the development of expressive verb-noun phrase usage was demonstrated. Two of the three students showed considerable gains in trained responses as well as predicted, novel responses, while a third who had much less training, showed some gains. Increases were also found in the overall development of expressive language tests. This approach is discussed in relation to other experimental approaches to language development.
The Effects of Different Masking Noises on Children with /s/ or /r/ Errors
Authors: Yanez Elizabeth A. , Siegel Gerald M. , Garber Sharon R. , Wellen Constance J.
Published: July 2014

Children with /s/ or /r/ misarticulations were administered an articulation test for their target phoneme in three conditions. In the first condition, the children spoke in quiet. In the second condition, half of the children spoke while hearing an 80 dB SPL s-noise (high pass 2000 Hz) and the other half spoke under 80 dB of r-noise (low pass 1250 Hz). In the third condition, the noises were switched. It was assumed that a noise selected to overlap with the frequency range of the target phoneme would be most disruptive to articulation in the final stages of phoneme mastery. The hypothesis was borne out for the children with /s/ errors. The children had more errors under the s-noise that the r-noise. However, both noises caused a breakdown of articulation among children with /r/ errors. Though a feedback explanation can be reduced in both instances, there does seem to be a differences between these two speech defective populations.
Airway Resistance during Esophageal Phonation
Authors: Weinberg Bernd , Horii Yoshiyuki , Blom Eric , Singer Mark
Published: July 2014

Prosthesis airway resistance calculations were completed for five Blom-Singer prostheses and esophageal source airway resistance estimated were made of five laryngectomized patients using the Singer-Blom voice restoration method. Airway resistance of the Blom-Singer prostheses ranged from 46 to 121 cmH
2
O/LPS, while source airways resistance in these subjects ranged from about 155 to 270 cmH
2
O/LPS. These results revealed that the opposition of the voicing sources used in esophageal speech production to airflow through them is substantial and larger than that established for the normal, laryngeal source. Findings are interpreted to highlight major advantages the Singer-Blom (1980) method of speech/voice restoration has over esophageal speech/voice produced on a conventional basis and to reveal specific reasons for the failure of may laryngectomized patients to develop consistent voice and functionally serviceable speech.
Tournament Strategies in Hearing Aid Selection
Authors: Montgomery Allen A. , Schwartz Daniel M. , Punch Jerry L.
Published: July 2014

Recently, the elimination tournament has been proposed as an approach to hearing aid selection. In the present study the effects of seeding on the reliability, clinical utility, and validity of the single and double elimination tournament as methods for selecting hearing aids were examined. In an earlier study of round robin tournaments, 12 hearing-impaired subjects were asked to make paired-comparison intelligibility judgments of all possible pairings of eight relatively homogeneous hearing aids. The present study employed these data in a computer-aided simulation of single and double elimination tournaments based on all possible seedings of the eight aids. The results indicated that while group performance was reliable and correlated well with nonsense-syllable identification, the distribution of tournament winners for individual listeners was unreliable and highly dependent on the effects of seeding. These findings were due in part, however, to the similarity of the intelligibility characteristics of the aids employed. Further investigation of the elimination tournament as a method for hearing aid selection is warranted.
Effects of Hearing Levels at the Activator and Other Frequencies upon the Expected Levels of the Acoustic Reflex Threshold
Authors: Gelfand Stanley A. , Piper Neil , Silman Shlomo
Published: July 2014

Multiple linear regression equations were derived to define the expected levels of acoustic reflex thresholds (ARTs) at 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz predictable from hearing levels as 500–4000 Hz in 646 ears. When the hearing level at the activator frequency is ⩽50 dB HL, ARTs tend to be best defined by a constant value of 86–90 dB HL with small adjustments due to the loss at the activator or higher frequencies. When the hearing level at the activator frequency is 55–90 dB HL, the ART is best predicted by a constant plus the degree of loss at that frequency plus the loss at 4000 Hz. These data present the clinician with empirically derived bases for determining the effects of other frequencies on a given ART. Application of these findings permits the clinician to apply known relationships in determining whether a particular ART is representative of those expected for normal and/or cochlear impaired ears, elevated or depressed, without having to rely on vague intuitions of such relationships. Clinical applications are discussed.
The Onset of Stuttering in Two- and Three-Year-Old Children
Authors: Yairi Ehud
Published: July 2014

Data on the onset of stuttering in 22 children 2 and 3 years of age were obtained through systematic parent interviews using a coded questionnaire. All children were reported to have begun stuttering prior to 36 months of age. The results indicated more similar sex distribution and greater diversity in manner of onset than was reported in past investigations. Most parents perceived early stuttering to be associated with some degree of tensions and force. The length of syllable and word repetition as reported appeared to be above the average for normally disfluent children of similar ages. Directions for future research of early childhood stuttering and clinical implications of the data are discussed.
From Pronoun Reversals to Correct Pronoun Usage
Authors: Schiff-Myers Naomi B.
Published: July 2014

Personal pronoun confusion ("I/me" for "you" and "you" for "me/I") was studied longitudinally in the language of a highly imitative preschool child with normally developing language. The proportion of pronoun confusion was compared with proportion of imitative utterances and with level of linguistic complexity. Over a 5-month period, pronoun confusion decreased as imitation decreased and linguistic complexity increased. The developmental changes that occurred were qualitative as well as quantitative. Several categories of pronoun confusion were observed. These were similar to pronoun confusions reported in older language-disordered children. Pronoun confusion was related to (a) a tendency to imitate utterances of others, (b) early production of "you" as a productive linguistic form, and (c) a tendency to use a pronoun rather than a noun for self-reference. Clinical implications are presented.
Threshold of Octave Masking as a Predictor of Temporary Threshold Shift Following Repeated Noise Exposure
Authors: Chermak Gail D. , Dengerink Joan E. , Dengerink Harold A.
Published: July 2014

Cumulative auditory effects of repeated exposure to a 3-min 110 dB SPL white noise were examined in 20 subjects (10 male, 10 female). Statistical analysis revealed greater 8-kHz temporary threshold shift in female ears despite equivalent preexposure 8-kHz thresholds across gender. Cumulative effects were seen in thresholds of octave masking scores, especially in female subjects, possibly reflecting increased susceptibility following the second noise exposure.
Speech Perception Development in Language-Impaired Children
Authors: Bernstein Lynne E. , Stark Rachel E.
Published: July 2014

A group of specifically language-impaired (SLI) children was compared with a matched group of non-SLI children (i.e., children displaying normal language) on tests of speech perception and language ability. The tests were administered longitudinally at times separated by an interval of 4 years. Initially (i.e., Time 1), the groups differed significantly in discrimination, sequencing, and rate processing of and serial memory for synthesized /ba/ and /da/ stimuli. At Time 1, age effects were also observed among both groups of children. That is, performance improved as a function of increased age. At follow-up (i.e., Time 2), performance was at or near ceiling for subjects in both groups, indicating that perceptual development occurred in both groups of children. Results are discussed in relation to the hypothesis that perceptual deficits play a causal role in specific language impairment.
Intrinsic Laryngeal Muscle Activity in a Spastic Dysphonia Patient
Authors: Shipp Thomas , Izdebski Krzysztof , Reed Charles , Morrissey Philip
Published: July 2014

EMG activity from four intrinsic laryngeal muscles (thyroarytenoid, posterior cricoarytenoid, interarytenoid, and cricothyroid) was obtained from one female spastic dysphonia patient while she performed a variety of speech and nonspeech tasks. These tasks were performed before and during a period of temporary unilateral laryngeal muscle paralysis. In the nonparalyzed condition, adductory muscle activity showed intermittent sudden increases that coincided with momentary voice arrests. These muscle patterns and accompanying voice interruptions were not present either when speech was produced in falsetto register or at anytime during the paralysis condition. The data suggest that individuals with this type of spastic dysphonia have normal morphology of recurrent laryngeal nerves and intrinsic laryngeal muscles, which means that the triggering mechanism(s) for spastic dysphonia symptoms must be located at some point neurologically upstream from the larynx.
Effects of Glycerol on Cochlear Frequency Selectivity in Patients with Menière's Disease
Authors: Harrison Robert V. , Dauman Rene , Tavartkiladze George A. , Aran Jean-Marie
Published: July 2014

During transtympanic electrocochleography, action potential (AP) tuning curves were derived as a measure of cochlear frequency selectivity. In 18 out of 21 patients with symptoms of Menière's disease, a poor frequency selectivity was observed. In 12 subjects the effects on frequency selectivity of oral glycerol were measured, and in 5 patients AP tuning curves indicated an improvement in sharpness of tuning by a factor of 1.5–2.5. These changes started approximately 30 min after oral glycerol administration. In 2 subjects there was a deterioration in AP tuning. In 5 patients no significant changes were observed.
Effect of Monaural Hearing Aid Use on Dichotic Test Results for Individuals with High-Frequency Hearing Impairment
Authors: Surr Rauna K. , Montgomery Allen A. , Mueller H. Gustav
Published: July 2014

It is well documented that the majority of individuals with normal hearing have a right ear advantage for dichotic speech material. There is evidence, however, that individuals with flat sensorineural hearing loss demonstrate a left ear advantage after they have used amplification on the left side. The present study examined whether these findings could be extended to a population with high-frequency hearing impairment. The subjects were administered dichotic consonant-vowel syllable tests prior to a monaural hearing aid fitting, and the tests were repeated after 1 month and again after 6 months of hearing aid use. The results revealed a group right ear advantage prior to the hearing aid fitting, although there was considerable individual variability. No consistent changes in the test scores were shown to be associated with monaural hearing aid use in either the right ear or the left ear.
Prevalence of Speech and Language Disorders in 5-Year-Old Kindergarten Children in the Ottawa-Carleton Region
Authors: Beitchman Joseph H. , Nair Rama , Clegg Marjorie , Patel P. G.
Published: July 2014

A representative sample of 5-year-old kindergarten children was assessed for speech and/or language disorder. Of the 1,655 children tested, 180 were identified as having speech or language impairment. It is estimated that within the total reference population, between 16.2% and 21.8% would show some impairment; for the boys, the rate would be 15.5% to 20.7% and for the girls, between 19.1% and 25.1%. Most of these children would show some language impairment as opposed to speech problems only. Approximately 36% of the identified boys and 30% of the girls would have speech problems only, the remainder having speech and language problems or language problems only. Followup studies of these children are needed to ascertain their outcome and language status in middle childhood.
Incidental Language Teaching
Authors: Warren Steven F. , Kaiser Ann P.
Published: July 2014

Incidental language teaching refers to interactions between an adult and a child that arise naturally in an unstructured situation and are used systematically by the adult to transmit new information or give the child practice in developing a communication skill. The purposes of this paper are to review and critique current research on incidental language teaching, briefly discuss the theoretical reasons why incidental teaching might be expected to be effective, and to discuss directions for future research on this teaching approach with children who are language impaired and mentally retarded.
Phonetic Development in Identical Twins Differing in Auditory Function
Authors: Kent Raymond D. , Osberger Mary Joe , Netsell Ronald , Hustedde Carol Goldschmidt
Published: July 2014

The subjects of this report are identical (monozygotic) twin boys who differ in auditory function. One has normal hearing; the other has a profound hearing loss bilaterally. These boys offered a rare opportunity to study the effects of hearing loss on vocal development with reasonable control over environmental and genetic factors. This initial report focuses on their vocal development over the sampled ages of 8, 12, and 15 months. Acoustic-phonetic differences in the babbling of the two boys were evident in the 8-month sample (the first recording opportunity), and some differences between them became greater over the succeeding samples at 12 and 15 months. The major differences were in (a) the formant patterns of vocalic elements; (b) the frequency of occurrence of fricatives, affricates, and trills; (c) histograms of syllable type; and (d) variation in vowel usage. The data hold implications for the early identification of infants at risk for communication disorder and for the understanding of auditory-motor processes in phonetic development during infancy.
Group Designs in Clinical Research
Authors: Siegel Gerald M. , Young Martin A.
Published: July 2014

Single-subject research designs, with their concentration on the individual subject over extended time durations, are similar in form to the design of therapy and have been represented as the best, if not the only, appropriate method for carrying out clinical research. Despite the similarity between single-subject research sessions and clinical sessions, it is argued that such designs are not intrinsically more appropriate than group designs for clinical research. Single-subject and group research strategies are alternative and often competing approaches to the same research question, and the choice resides as much in the predilections of the researcher as in any intrinsic advantage in one or the other research strategy.
Augmenting Communicative Interaction Between Handicapped and Nonhandicapped Preschool Children
Authors: Goldstein Howard , Ferrell Dianne Raeke
Published: July 2014

A peer-mediated intervention designed to promote communicative interaction by 3 handicapped children with behavioral, social, and communicative deficits in an integrated preschool was evaluated. All 6 normally developing preschoolers in the class were taught facilitative strategies. A multiple baseline design across subjects was used in combination with withdrawal designs for 2 of the subjects. Significant increases in communicative interaction occurred when the peers were prompted to use the strategies with the 3 handicapped classmates. In particular, increases in the handicapped children's response rates were demonstrated during free play observations. In addition, fewer initiations by the handicapped children during the peer intervention was shown to be attributable to reductions in teacher prompting. Generalization to other settings was demonstrated by 1 subject. Although most strategy use by peers was prompted during the initial intervention phases, prompting dropped gradually while peer strategy use was maintained by the end of the study. Results of this study have implications for refining our ability to tailor interventions individually to improve treatment effectiveness based upon the characteristics of handicapped children.
Electroacoustic Calibration for Sound Field Warble Tone Thresholds
Authors: Cox Robyn M. , McCormick Virginia A.
Published: July 2014

Walker, Dillon, and Byrne (1984) suggested reference equivalent threshold sound pressure levels (RETSPLs) for warble tones with specific modulation parameter values audited from a test position at the critical distance in a semireverberant sound field. This study evaluated these RETSPLs in two typical audiometric rooms and with typically encountered FM tones. Thresholds were measured under earphones and in two sound fields for 6-11 normal hearers at six test frequencies. Results indicated that there was a small but statistically significant difference between earphone and sound field thresholds in 4 of 24 comparisons. However, in both sound fields, 99% of the sound field thresholds were within 10 dB of the earphone thresholds. It is concluded that these RETSPLs are appropriate for electroacoustic calibration of sound field warble tones similar to those used in this study.
Establishment of Symbolic Communication in Persons with Severe Retardation
Authors: Romski Mary Ann , Sevcik Rose A. , Pate James L.
Published: July 2014

For persons with severe retardation, learning to communicate symbolically is a complex long-term process requiring the coordination of many components to succeed. Three of four institutionalized adolescents and young adults with severe retardation who participated in this study learned to use lexigrams to request foods and, subsequently, objects. Although their request skill did not initially generalize to labeling and to comprehension tasks, additional request experience with lexigrams resulted in consistent improvement in performance in both tasks. The emergence of subject-initiated lexigram communications and the facilitation of spoken language comprehension and/or production were also observed.
Developmental Phonology
Authors: Preisser Debra A. , Hodson Barbara W. , Paden Elaine P.
Published: July 2014

Utterances of 60 normally developing children, who were within 6 months of their second birthdays, were analyzed for occurrences of phonological processes. The subjects were divided equally into three chronological age groups: (a) 1:6–1:9, (b) 1:10–2:1, and (c) 2:2–2:5. The most prevalent phonological processes evidenced by all three groups were cluster reduction and deviations involving liquids (e.g., gliding). Phonological process percentage-of-occurrence means were considerably lower for the middle group than for the youngest group, with the most dramatic differences occurring for syllable reduction and postvocalic singleton omission. Potential clinical applications of the data for ascertaining what constitutes disordered phonological development in preschool children are discussed, as well as implications for specifying remediation priorities.
Efficacy of a Distinctive Feature Model of Therapy for Hearing-Impaired Adolescents
Authors: Subtelny Joanne , Snell Karen B.
Published: July 2014

Extensive measures of speech production and perception were secured before and after the individualized training of 75 hearing-impaired postsecondary students to evaluate the efficacy of therapy. Additional measures of hearing, reading, writing, nonverbal intelligence, and manual and simultaneous communication reception were made to explore variables that might influence response to training. Significant improvements in vowel, word and sentence production, and word and sentence perception were observed. Pretherapy measures of speech production and perception were the most powerful factors explaining variability in posttest scores. Other variables predicting the outcome of speech therapy were residual hearing and linguistic competence. Clinical implications are discussed.
An Analysis of Commitments Made by Student Clinicians in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology
Authors: Shapiro David A. , Anderson Jean L.
Published: July 2014

This study identified and classified commitments made by student clinicians in speech-language pathology and audiology supervisory conferences and provides a methodology for documenting change in supervisees' behavior as a result of supervisory interaction. Five different types of commitments were isolated and served as the basis of the Commitment Classification System. They included clinical procedures, clinical process administration, supervisory procedures, supervisory process administration, and academic information/teaching function. The independent variables were condition (written agreement or no written agreement between supervisee and supervisor), order of conditions, experience level of supervisee, week number within each condition, and type of commitments. Frequency data were collected for 6 consecutive weeks. The resulting 1,389 commitments made by 64 student clinicians in 384 individual conferences at 12 universities were analyzed within a multiple analysis of variance. Significant findings (p < .05) indicated that the greatest number of commitments made involved planning, analysis, and evaluation of the clinical process with particular attention on client behavior; and the number of commitments made was a function of written accountability and order of conditions.
Otitis Media and Language Development at 1 Year of Age
Authors: Wallace Ina F. , Gravel Judith S. , McCarton Cecelia M. , Ruben Robert J.
Published: July 2014

The effect of otitis media on emerging language was examined in a group of 1-year-olds. Based on pneumatic otoscopy, 15 babies were considered to be free of otitis media in both ears at 80% or more of their first year medical visits (otitis free) and 12 infants had bilaterally positive otoscopy results at 30% or more of their visits (otitis positive). Outcome measures at 1 year included the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (Bayley, 1969) and the Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development (SICD; Hedrick, Prather, & Tobin, 1984) Receptive and Expressive scales. No significant differences were detected on either the Bayley or the SICD Receptive scale. However, the otitis positive group exhibited significantly lower expressive language scores than the otitis free group, suggesting that impairments in language expression may be evident as early as 1 year of age in children with otitis media.
Phonological and Spatial Processing Abilities in Language- and Reading-Impaired Children
Authors: Kamhi Alan G. , Catts Hugh W. , Mauer Daria , Apel Kenn , Gentry Betholyn F.
Published: July 2014

In the present study, we further examined (see Kamhi & Catts, 1986) the phonological processing abilities of language-impaired (LI) and reading-impaired (RI) children. We also evaluated these children's ability to process spatial information. Subjects were 10 LI, 10 RI, and 10 normal children between the ages of 6:8 and 8:10 years. Each subject was administered eight tasks: four word repetition tasks (monosyllabic, monosyllabic presented in noise, three-item, and multisyllabic), rapid naming, syllable segmentation, paper folding, and form completion. The normal children performed significantly better than both the LI and RI children on all but two tasks: syllable segmentation and repeating words presented in noise. The LI and RI children performed comparably on every task with the exception of the multisyllabic word repetition task. These findings were consistent with those from our previous study (Kamhi & Catts, 1986). The similarities and differences between LI and RI children are discussed.
Ipsilateral Acoustic-Reflex Adaptation Testing for Detection of Facial-Nerve Pathology
Authors: Silman Shlomo , Silverman Carol A. , Gelfand Stanley A. , Lutolf John , Lynn Deborah J.
Published: July 2014

Abnormal acoustic-reflex adaptation monitored in the same ear for both contralaterally and ipsilaterally presented tonal activators is reported in three cases. One case had Bell's palsy, whereas the other two cases had no clinically observable evidence of seventh-nerve involvement. These cases show that the existence of abnormal acoustic-reflex adaptation in the absence of Bell's palsy does not necessarily implicate the presence of eighth-nerve pathology.
Longitudinal Changes in Auditory Discrimination in Normal Children and Children with Language-Learning Problems
Authors: Elliott Lois L. , Hammer Michael A.
Published: July 2014

Two groups of children—one progressing normally in school and the other exhibiting language-learning problems—were tested in each of 3 years on a set of fine-grained auditory discrimination tasks that required listening for small acoustic differences. Children's ages ranged from 6 to 9 years; there were 21 children per group. The children with language-learning problems, despite having normal intelligence and normal pure-tone sensitivity, showed poorer auditory discrimination than normal children for temporally based acoustic differences. This effect continued across the 3 years. Children with language-learning problems also exhibited poorer receptive vocabulary and language performance as well as more deviations from standard Midwest articulation than children making normal progress in school. All children had hearing within the normal range, but at some frequencies there was a significant association of pure-tone sensitivity with performance on the auditory discrimination, receptive language, and speech production tasks.
Referential Communication by Aphasic and Nonaphasic Adults
Authors: Busch Cynthia R. , Brookshire Robert H. , Nicholas Linda E.
Published: July 2014

Nonaphasic and nonfluent, mixed, and anomic aphasic adults participated in a referential communication task in which they described pictures to a nonaphasic listener so that the listener could point to the picture being described from an array of four. Both aphasic and nonaphasic subjects were able to determine what information was crucial for identifying pictures and communicate that information to a listener. The major differences between nonaphasic and aphasic subjects were in efficiency and accuracy of communication. Nonaphasic and nonfluent aphasic subjects were more efficient in communicating information than mixed or anomic aphasic subjects were. Nonfluent aphasic subjects were as efficient as nonaphasic speakers in this respect. Aphasic subjects communicated significantly more inaccurate information than nonaphasic speakers did. However, no more than 5% of the information communicated by aphasic subjects was inaccurate. Finally, aphasic speakers modified their descriptions in response to apparent communication failure in the same way that nonaphasic speakers did.
Recovery from OME-Related Phonologic Delay Following Tube Placement
Authors: Paden Elaine Pagel , Matthies Melanie L. , Novak Michael A.
Published: July 2014

Subjects with documented histories of frequent or persistent otitis media with effusion (OME) who were judged to be below age level phonologically prior to placement of pressure equalization (PE) tubes were reassessed at 4-month intervals. Group A (n = 22) subjects caught up with their peers by the age of 4 years; Group B (n = 14) subjects' progress was delayed and phonologic intervention was advised. At initial testing the two groups were found to differ significantly in scores on postvocalic singleton obstruent omission, velar deviation, and stridency deletion. Elapsed time between initial diagnosis of OME and beginning of the first remission of 6 months or more also differed significantly, as did scores on the first phonologic reassessment. Subject scores on initial phonologic adequacy, retest adequacy, and elapsed time from diagnosis to remission appropriately classified all but 2 subjects by group. A formula is provided that appears to make early prediction of eventual need for phonologic intervention a practical possibility.
Effects of Elicitation Procedures on the Narratives of Normal and Closed Head-Injured Adults
Authors: Liles Betty Z. , Coelho Carl A. , Duffy Robert J. , Zalagens Mary Rigdon
Published: July 2014

Stories were elicited under two conditions—story retelling and story generation—from a group of 23 normal young adults and 4 closed head-injured (CHI) adults who had reached a high level of language recovery. Sentence production, intersentential cohesion, and story grammar were analyzed. The results demonstrated that the two elicitation tasks differentially influenced the performance of both normal and CHI subjects at all levels of analysis, and the two groups differed in the cohesive and story grammar measures only in the story generation task. It is concluded that comparing performance across tasks of story retelling and story generation is a useful procedure for characterizing the discourse problems of CHI subjects with recovery of high-level language skills.
Narrative Analysis
Authors: Merritt Donna DiSegna , Liles Betty Z.
Published: July 2014

Narratives were produced by groups of language-disordered and nonimpaired children ages 9:0–11:4 (years:months) in story generation and story retelling tasks. The stories were analyzed in terms of the number of story grammar components, number of complete episodes, relative frequency of story components, and story length. For both groups of children, the results indicated strong overall homogeneity between story generation and story retelling. The retold narratives were longer and contained more story grammar components and complete episode structures for both groups of children. Clause length within complete episodes differentiated story generation from story retelling for the language-disordered children but not for the control group. The clinical advantages of using story retelling in language assessment are discussed.
The Language of Children with Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus
Authors: Byrne Karen , Abbeduto Leonard , Brooks Penelope
Published: July 2014

Children with hydrocephalus are thought to exhibit deficiencies in their linguistic performance, including the production of numerous off-topic utterances and semantically immature responses to linguistically posed problems (e.g., questions, word definitions). The hydrocephalic children included in many previous studies, however, have been mentally retarded. We sought to determine whether these language problems also characterized intellectually average children with hydrocephalus. A second purpose was to evaluate the hypothesis that the language problems of hydrocephalic children occur predominantly on tasks with high cognitive or linguistic demands. A third purpose was to reexamine the claim that despite their semantic-pragmatic deficiencies, the syntax of hydrocephalic children is age appropriate. Our hydrocephalic subjects dealt with the semantic-pragmatic requirements of linguistically posed problems in an age-appropriate manner, and although their performance on these problems declined as task demands increased, the decline was no more than that seen for nondisabled age-matches. The hydrocephalic children did not differ significantly from nondisabled age-matches on measures of productive syntactic maturity.
Phoneme-Specific Nasal Emission in Children with and without Physical Anomalies of the Velopharyngeal Mechanism
Authors: Peterson-Falzone Sally J. , Graham Minnie S.
Published: July 2014

Phoneme-specific nasal emission was identified in 36 children ranging in age from 3 years, 3 months to 16 years, 5 months; 19 children had no physical anomalies of the orofacial mechanism, whereas 17 had findings ranging from minor to severe. Five patterns of phoneme-specific nasal emission were exhibited by 2 or more children. An additional eight patterns were exhibited by 1 child each. Sibilants were clearly the most frequently affected phonemes. There was no significant correlation between the number of phonemes affected by nasal emission and the number of phonologic processes exhibited by the children in either subject group. The two subject groups were more alike than different in the speech behaviors observed, underscoring a fundamental homogeneity among speakers who exhibit phoneme-specific nasal emission.
A Spinach with A

V

on it
Authors: Raghavendra Parimala , Fristoe Macalyne
Published: July 2014

To aid young children in learning and using Blissymbols, the characters are often enhanced by the drawing of additional components. Thirty standard or 30 enhanced Blissymbols, designed to represent familiar actions (10), attributes (10), and objects/entities (10), were shown to 20 normal 3-year-old children, who were asked to guess what they mean. Their responses were examined to learn what children perceive when they see such symbols. They mainly identified perceptual features and related elements of symbols to something with which they were familiar. The number of their guesses that referred to the embellishments of the enhanced Blissymbols was twice as great as the number that referred to the standard Blissymbol base. The results are discussed in terms of the role of enhancements and possible applications to symbol introduction, as well as an early glimpse at emerging literacy.
Speech-Related Reaction Times of Stutterers and Nonstutterers
Authors: Bakker Klaas , Brutten Gene J.
Published: July 2014

Speech-related reaction time measures (laryngeal premotor and adjustment time for /a/, labial initiation and physiological voice onset time for /pa/) and fluency-related measures (number of stutterings, number of normal disfluencies, and time needed to complete an oral reading) of 24 stutterers and a like number of nonstutterers were assessed to determine their diagnostic discriminative power.

Discriminant analysis showed that stutterers were most effectively differentiated from normally fluent speakers by the total number of stutterings and normal disfluencies during oral reading and by the duration of laryngeal adjustments prior to cued phonation. Factor analysis revealed that the fluency failure and reaction time measures clustered independently for both stutterers and nonstutterers. These findings suggest that both fluency failures and the duration of laryngeal adjustment time are useful diagnostic measures for discriminating stutterers from those who are normally fluent.
Validity and Reliability of Judgments of Authentic and Simulated Stuttering
Authors: Moore Sulyn Elliott , Perkins William H.
Published: July 2014

This exploratory study was undertaken to determine if the concept has merit that the information by which a stutterer identifies stuttering at time of occurrence is qualitatively different from that by which listeners identify stuttering. If it is not the same, then perceptually equivalent stuttered and nonstuttered speech disruptions should be experienced by the stutterer as qualitatively different, even though recordings of these disruptions would sound alike to listeners. To test this hypothesis a criterion was developed to validate a stutterer's ability to accurately identify her stuttering at time of occurrence. She simulated her own stuttering and then judged acoustical recordings of authentic and simulated samples at five intervals following occurrence. Listener judgments were also obtained. Listeners were able to distinguish simulated and authentic samples with 57% accuracy. The stutterer's judgments were never inaccurate at time of occurrence of a speech disruption, but her accuracy decreased rapidly following occurrence, plateauing at 54%. These results supported the concepts that the production of stuttered and nonstuttered speech disruptions are experienced as being qualitatively different, that the difference is involuntary blockage, that only stutterers can validly recognize this difference, and only when it occurs, and that stuttering is a speaker/production rather than a listener/perceptual disorder.
A Comparison of Habitual and Derived Optimal Voice Fundamental Frequency Values in Normal Young Adult Speakers
Authors: Britto Anthea I. , Doyle Philip C.
Published: July 2014

The purpose of this study was to compare habitual (modal) and derived optimal pitch (fundamental frequency) values in 40 young adults. The individual habitual F
0
values of 20 male and 20 female nonsmokers with normal larynges, normal voices, and no history of laryngeal pathology or formal vocal training were obtained from high-quality recordings of spontaneous monologue, oral reading, and sustained phonation. Optimal fundamental frequency (F
0
) was derived from each individual's phonational range using the 25% Method (Fairbanks, 1960; Pronovost, 1942). Using correlative analyses, the predicted optimal F
0
values that were derived were compared to habitual F
0
values for the male and female speaker groups, and for specific vocal tasks used to identify habitual F
0
(i.e., spontaneous monologue vs. oral reading vs. sustained phonation). Results indicate that habitual F
0
was not consistent with derived optimal F
0
values using the 25% Method; rather, habitual F
0
in our normal adults occurred between 8% and 10% up the phonational range from basal F
0
. Clinical implications of these data and the related limitations associated with the concept of optimal pitch (F
0
) are discussed.
Expressive Language Recovery in Severely Brain-Injured Children and Adolescents
Authors: Campbell Thomas F. , Dollaghan Christine A.
Published: July 2014

The spontaneous expressive language abilities of 9 severely brain-injured children and adolescents and their age-matched normal controls were examined seven times over a 12-month period following injury. Analysis of conversational language samples revealed a relatively stable pattern of language performance for the normal subjects over this time interval. The brain-injured subjects, as a group, demonstrated improvement on the majority of measures, but only a few reached the level of their control subjects and interindividual variability was considerable. Results suggest that the prognosis for clinically significant improvement in severely brain-injured subjects is good; however, deficits in expressive skills remain apparent up to at least 12 months following injury.
Impairment of Speech Intelligibility in Men with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Authors: Kent Raymond D. , Kent Jane F. , Weismer Gary , Sufit Robert L. , Rosenbek John C. , Martin Ruth E. , Brooks Benjamin R.
Published: July 2014

Speech intelligibility was studied in a group of 25 male patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The object of the study was to determine the phonetic impairments underlying the speech intelligibility deficits that frequently accompany ALS. Analyses with a word intelligibility test indicated that the most disrupted phonetic features involved phonatory (voicing contrast) function, velopharyngeal valving, place and manner of articulation for lingual consonants, and regulation of tongue height for vowels. The mean error proportion for the five most severely affected features correlated highly (0.97) with the intelligibility score (percent correct). The phonetic feature analyses are one index of bulbar muscle impairment in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and also may help to direct the speech management in these individuals.
Normative Data in Quiet, Broadband Noise, and Competing Message for Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 by a Female Speaker
Authors: Wilson Richard H. , Zizz Carol A. , Shanks Janet E. , Causey G. Donald
Published: July 2014

Two descriptive experiments were performed on a version of the Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 (NU No. 6) recorded by a female speaker that is included on an audio compact disc recently produced by the Department of Veterans Affairs. In Experiment 1, normative psychometric functions for the female speaker version of the NU No. 6 materials were established on 24 young adults for three monaural listening conditions (in quiet, in 60-dB SPL broadband noise, and in 60-dB SPL competing message). The 60-dB SPL broadband noise shifted the psychometric function for the NU No. 6 words 33 dB, whereas the 60-dB SPL competing message shifted the function only 18–22 dB. In contrast to the slopes of the quiet and noise conditions (4.5%/dB), the slope of the competing message function was more gradual (3.5%/dB). In Experiment 2, comparisons between the psychometric functions for the female and the original male speaker versions of NU No. 6 in quiet and in broadband noise were made on 8 young adults. In comparison to the psychometric functions for the male speaker version of NU No. 6, the functions for the female speaker version of NU No. 6 were displaced between the 10–90% correct points to higher sound-pressure levels by 10–13 dB in quiet and by 12–16 dB in noise. The difference in performance on the two versions of NU No. 6 is attributed to spectral differences between the two sets of materials that produced a calibration anomaly.
The Iowa Articulation Norms Project and its Nebraska Replication
Authors: Smit Ann Bosma , Hand Linda , Freilinger J. Joseph , Bernthal John E. , Bird Ann
Published: July 2014

The purpose of the Iowa Articulation Norms Project and its Nebraska replication was to provide normative information about speech sound acquisition in these two states. An assessment instrument consisting of photographs and a checklist form for narrow phonetic transcription was administered by school-based speech-language pathologists to stratified samples of children in the age range 3–9 years. The resulting data were not influenced by the demographic variables of population density (rural/urban), SES (based on parental education), or state of residence (Iowa/Nebraska); however, sex of the child exerted a significant influence in some of the preschool age groups. The criteria used to determine acceptability of a production appeared to influence outcomes for some speech sounds. Acquisition curves were plotted for individual phoneme targets or groups of targets. These curves were used to develop recommended ages of acquisition for the tested speech sounds, with recommendations based generally on a 90% level of acquisition. Special considerations were required for the phonemes /n s z/.
Phoneme—Sound Generalization as a Function of Phoneme Similarity and Verbal Unit of Test and Training Stimuli
Authors: Winitz Harris , Bellerose Betty
Published: July 2014

Phoneme generalization as a function of phoneme similarity and the verbal unit in which the phonemes appeared was investigated. Subjects were children from the first and second grades. For all ten pretraining trials correct responses were reinforced. The test trial was presented on the eleventh trial. For all conditions the test and training stimuli were presented as part of a syllable and in some cases the syllables were words. Test and training stimuli were formed by altering the initial consonant of the syllables. For all conditions the training stimuli were either /c/ or /θ/ and the test stimuli were one of the following: /t∫/, /s/, /θ/, and /t/.

The results indicated that stimulus generalization occurred with the test stimuli /t∫/ and /s/. The verbal unit of the test and training stimuli was found to influence generalization, although the findings were not consistent for the experimental sounds employed in the present study. It was also found that stimulus generalization can, for the most part, be maintained with reinforcement.
The International Standard Reference Zero for Pure-Tone Audiometers And Its Relation to the Evaluation of Impairment of Hearing
Authors: Davis Hallowell , Kranz Fred W.
Published: July 2014

International reference zero levels for pure-tone audiometers have been agreed upon and recommended by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and are under consideration for inclusion in a new American Standard for Audiometers. The new ISO levels are desirable because (1) the shape of the threshold contour is more accurate, (2) the threshold levels are reproducible from laboratory to laboratory and from country to country, and (3) they represent the only apparent escape from permanent ambiguity and confusion in international exchange of audiometric information. The new ISO levels differ significantly from the American Standard values of 1951, in terms of which our present rules and laws for calculating percentage impairment of hearing for compensation purposes are written. The apparent difficulties arising from the numerical differences can be easily overcome, however, because it is possible to go from the 1964 ISO scale to the 1951 ASA scale by a simple subtraction before beginning such calculations. For the average of the three frequencies 500, 1 000 and 2 000 c/s the difference to be subtracted is 11 dB.