Purpose

This exploratory study examined predictive relationships between 5 types of behaviors and the trajectories of vocabulary and language development in young children with autism over 2 years.

Method

Participants were 69 children with autism assessed using standardized measures prior to the initiation of early intervention (T1) and 6 months (T2), 12 months (T3), and 24 months (T4) later. Growth curve modeling examined the extent to which behaviors at T1 and changes in behaviors between T1 and T2 predicted changes in development from T1 to T4.

Results

Regardless of T1 nonverbal IQ and autism severity, high scores for inattentive behaviors at T1 predicted lower rates of change in vocabulary production and language comprehension over 2 years. High scores for social unresponsiveness at T1 predicted lower rates of change in vocabulary comprehension and production and in language comprehension over 2 years. Scores for insistence on sameness behaviors, repetitive stereotypic motor behaviors, and acting-out behaviors at T1 did not predict the rate of change of any child measure over 2 years beyond differences accounted for by T1 autism severity and nonverbal IQ status.

Conclusions

The results are discussed with regard to their implications for early intervention and understanding the complex factors that affect developmental outcomes.

Purpose

To investigate whether It Takes Two to Talk—The Hanen Program for Parents of Preschool Children With Cerebral Palsy is associated with change in interaction between children who have motor disorders and their parents.

Method

Eleven children aged 19–36 months who had nonprogressive motor disorders that affected their communication, and their mothers, were observed 4 months and 1 month before mothers attended It Takes Two to Talk training, and 1 month and 4 months after its completion.

Results

Interaction patterns were stable prior to training. After training, mothers initiated less and produced more responses and fewer requests. Children produced more initiations, as well as more requests and provisions of information, after training. Mothers' linguistic input did not change in amount or complexity. Changes were maintained 4 months later. Mothers' views of parenting did not change.

Conclusions

It Takes Two to Talk may be associated with positive communication change for this group. Further investigation of its clinical effectiveness is warranted.

Purpose

To examine the communicative profiles of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in the second year of life.

Method

Communicative acts were examined in 125 children 18 to 24 months of age: 50 later diagnosed with ASD; 25 with developmental delays (DD); and 50 with typical development (TD). Precise measures of rate, functions, and means of communication were obtained through systematic observation of videotaped behavior samples from the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales Developmental Profile (A. Wetherby & B. Prizant, 2002).

Results

Children with ASD communicated at a significantly lower rate than children with DD and TD. The ASD group used a significantly lower proportion of acts for joint attention and a significantly lower proportion of deictic gestures with a reliance on more primitive gestures compared with the DD and TD groups. Children with ASD who did communicate for joint attention were as likely as other children to coordinate vocalizations, eye gaze, and gestures. Rate of communicative acts and joint attention were the strongest predictors of verbal outcome at age 3.

Conclusion

By 18 to 24 months of age, children later diagnosed with ASD showed a unique profile of communication, with core deficits in communication rate, joint attention, and communicative gestures.

Purpose

The aims of this study were (a) to locate the breakpoints of a balanced translocation (7;13) within a mother (B) and daughter (T); (b) to describe the language and cognitive skills of B and T; and (c) to compare this profile with affected family members of the KE family who have a mutation within FOXP2.

Method

The breakpoint locations for T and B were identified by use of fluorescent in situ hybridization analysis followed by DNA sequencing using long-range polymer chain reaction amplification methods. The cognitive and language characteristics were obtained via the use of standardized tests of intelligence, receptive and expressive vocabulary and sentence use, and a spontaneous language sample.

Results

The translocation breakpoints in T and B were found in FOXP2 on chromosome 7 and in RFC3 on chromosome 13. T and B’s pattern of relative strengths and weaknesses across their cognitive and language performance was found to be similar to descriptions of the affected KE family members.

Conclusions

Prior reports of individuals with chromosomal rearrangements of FOXP2 have emphasized their speech impairment. This study provides additional evidence that language—in particular, grammar—is likely to be influenced by abnormalities of FOXP2 function.

Purpose

In this study, the authors evaluated literacy outcome in children with histories of speech sound disorder (SSD) who were characterized along 2 dimensions: broader language function and persistence of SSD. In previous studies, authors have demonstrated that each dimension relates to literacy but have not disentangled their effects.

Methods

Two groups of children (86 SSD and 37 controls) were recruited at ages 5–6 and were followed longitudinally. The authors report the literacy of children with SSD at ages 7–9, compared with controls and national norms, and relative to language skill and SSD persistence (both measured at age 5–6).

Results

The SSD group demonstrated elevated rates of reading disability. Language skill but not SSD persistence predicted later literacy. However, SSD persistence was associated with phonological awareness impairments. Phonological awareness alone predicted literacy outcome less well than a model that also included syntax and nonverbal IQ.

Conclusions

Results support previous literature findings that SSD history predicts literacy difficulties and that the association is strongest for SSD + language impairment (LI). Magnitude of phonological impairment alone did not determine literacy outcome, as predicted by the core phonological deficit hypothesis. Instead, consistent with a multiple deficit approach, phonological deficits appeared to interact with other cognitive factors in literacy development.

Purpose

Conceptual and methodological confounds occur when non(sense) word repetition tasks are administered to speakers who do not have the target speech sounds in their phonetic inventories or who habitually misarticulate targeted speech sounds. In this article, the authors (a) describe a nonword repetition task, the Syllable Repetiton Task (SRT), that eliminates this confound and (b) report findings from 3 validity studies.

Method

Ninety-five preschool children with speech delay and 63 with typical speech completed an assessment battery that included the Nonword Repetition Task (NRT; C. Dollaghan & T. F. Campbell, 1998) and the SRT. SRT stimuli include only 4 of the earliest occurring consonants and 1 early occurring vowel.

Results

Study 1 findings indicated that the SRT eliminated the speech confound in nonword testing with speakers who misarticulate. Study 2 findings indicated that the accuracy of the SRT to identify expressive language impairment was comparable to findings for the NRT. Study 3 findings illustrated the SRT’s potential to interrogate speech processing constraints underlying poor nonword repetition accuracy. Results supported both memorial and auditory–perceptual encoding constraints underlying nonword repetition errors in children with speech-language impairment.

Conclusion

The SRT appears to be a psychometrically stable and substantively informative nonword repetition task for emerging genetic research and other research with speakers who misarticulate.

Purpose

To draw on multiple sources of information to determine prevalence of speech and language impairment in young Australian children.

Method

Information about 4,983 children (ages 4–5 years) from Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2007) was obtained via parent interviews and questionnaires, teacher questionnaires, and direct assessment. Data were statistically weighted to the Australian population of 253,202 children in the target age group.

Results

Parent-reported prevalence: 25.2% had concerns about how their child talked and made speech sounds (11.8% “concerned”; 13.4% “a little concerned”), and 9.5% had concerns about how their child understood language (4.4% “concerned”; 5.1% “a little concerned”). Parents who reported concerns identified “speech not clear to others” as the most frequent area of difficulty (12.0%). Teacher-reported prevalence: 22.3% of children were considered to be less competent than others in their expressive language ability (6.7% “much less competent”; 15.6% “less competent”); 16.9% were considered to be less competent than others in their receptive language ability (4.0% “much less competent”; 12.9% “less competent”). The match between parent and teacher identification was higher for expressive speech and language concern than for receptive language. Direct assessment: 13.0% of children were 1–2 SDs below the mean on the Adapted Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test–III (S. Rothman, 2003), and a further 1.7% were > 2 SDs below the mean. Parent and teacher reports were significantly correlated with scores obtained via direct assessment. Period prevalence: Parents and teachers reported that 14.5% of children had accessed speech-language pathologist (SLP) services. 2.2% indicated that they needed but could not access an SLP.

Conclusion

Multiple indicators of speech and language impairment in diverse contexts confirmed the high prevalence of this condition in early ...

Purpose

This work is aimed at addressing a seeming contradiction related to the use of noise-reduction (NR) algorithms in hearing aids. The problem is that although some listeners claim a subjective improvement from NR, it has not been shown to improve speech intelligibility, often even making it worse.

Method

To address this, the hypothesis tested here is that the positive effects of NR might be to reduce cognitive effort directed toward speech reception, making it available for other tasks. Normal-hearing individuals participated in 2 dual-task experiments, in which 1 task was to report sentences or words in noise set to various signal-to-noise ratios. Secondary tasks involved either holding words in short-term memory or responding in a complex visual reaction-time task.

Results

At low values of signal-to-noise ratio, although NR had no positive effect on speech reception thresholds, it led to better performance on the word-memory task and quicker responses in visual reaction times.

Conclusions

Results from both dual tasks support the hypothesis that NR reduces listening effort and frees up cognitive resources for other tasks. Future hearing aid research should incorporate objective measurements of cognitive benefits.

Purpose

This study examined the head orientation of young children in naturalistic settings and the acoustics of their everyday environments for quantifying the potential effects of directionality.

Method

Twenty-seven children (11 with normal hearing, 16 with impaired hearing) between 11 and 78 months of age were video recorded in naturalistic settings for analyses of head orientation. Reports on daily activities were obtained from caregivers. The effect of directionality in different environments was quantified by measuring the Speech Transmission Index (STI; H. J. M. Steeneken & T. Houtgast, 1980).

Results

Averaged across 4 scenarios, children looked in the direction of a talker for 40% of the time when speech was present. Head orientation was not affected by age or hearing status. The STI measurements revealed a directional advantage of 3 dB when a child looked at a talker but a deficit of 2.8 dB when the talker was sideways or behind the child. The overall directional effect in real life was between −0.4 and 0.2 dB.

Conclusions

The findings suggest that directional microphones in personal hearing devices for young children are not detrimental and have much potential for benefits in real life. The benefits may be enhanced by fitting directionality early and by counseling caregivers on ways to maximize benefits in everyday situations.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to explore the nature and extent of variability in tongue movement during healthy swallowing as a function of aging and gender. In addition, changes were quantified in healthy tongue movements in response to specific differences in the nature of the swallowing task (discrete vs. sequential swallows).

Method

Electromagnetic midsagittal articulography (EMMA) was used to study the swallowing-related movements of markers located in midline on the anterior (blade), middle (body), and posterior (dorsum) tongue in a sample of 34 healthy adults in 2 age groups (under vs. over 50 years of age). Participants performed a series of reiterated water swallows, in either a discrete or a sequential manner.

Results

This study shows that age-related changes in tongue movements during swallowing are restricted to the domain of movement duration. The authors confirm that different tongue regions can be selectively modulated during swallowing tasks and that both functional and anatomical constraints influence the manner in which tongue movement modulation occurs. Sequential swallowing, in comparison to discrete swallowing, elicits simplification or down-scaling of several kinematic parameters.

Conclusion

The data illustrate task-specific stereotyped patterns of tongue movement in swallowing, which are robust to the effects of healthy aging in all aspects other than movement duration.

Purpose

To consider interactions of vocal tract change with growth and perceived output patterns across development, the influence of nonuniform vocal tract growth on the ability to reach acoustic–perceptual targets for English vowels was studied.

Method

Thirty-seven American English speakers participated in a perceptual categorization experiment. For the experiment, an articulatory-to-acoustic model was used to synthesize 342 five-formant vowels, covering maximal vowel spaces for speakers at 5 growth stages (from 6 months old to adult).

Results

Results indicate that the 3 vowels /i u æ/ can be correctly perceived by adult listeners when produced by speakers with a 6-month-old vocal tract. Articulatory-to-acoustic relationships for these 3 vowels differ across growth stages. For a given perceived vowel category, the infant’s tongue position is more fronted than the adult’s. Furthermore, nonuniform vocal tract growth influences degree of interarticulator coupling for a given perceived vowel, leading to a reduced correlation between jaw height and tongue body position in infantlike compared with adult vocal tracts.

Conclusion

Findings suggest that nonuniform vocal tract growth does not prevent the speaker from producing acoustic–auditory targets related to American English vowels. However, the relationships between articulatory configurations and perceptual targets change from birth to adulthood.

Purpose

To investigate the effects of 4 fluency-inducing (FI) conditions on self-rated speech effort and other variables in adults who stutter and in normally fluent controls.

Method

Twelve adults with persistent stuttering and 12 adults who had never stuttered each completed 4 ABA-format experiments. During A phases, participants read aloud normally. During each B phase, they read aloud in 1 of 4 FI conditions: auditory masking, chorus reading, whispering, and rhythmic speech. Dependent variables included self-judged speech effort and observer-judged stuttering frequency, speech rate, and speech naturalness.

Results

For the persons who stuttered, FI conditions reduced stuttering and speech effort, but only for chorus reading were these improvements obtained without diminishing speech naturalness or speaking rate. By contrast, speech effort increased during all FI conditions for adults who did not stutter.

Conclusions

Self-rated speech effort differentiated the effects of 4 FI conditions on speech performance for adults who stuttered, with chorus reading best approximating normally fluent speech. More generally, self-ratings of speech effort appeared to constitute an independent, reliable, and validly interpretable dimension of fluency that may be useful in the measurement and treatment of stuttering.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to conduct the initial psychometric analyses of the Communicative Participation Item Bank—a new self-report instrument designed to measure the extent to which communication disorders interfere with communicative participation. This item bank is intended for community-dwelling adults across a range of communication disorders.

Method

A set of 141 candidate items was administered to 208 adults with spasmodic dysphonia. Participants rated the extent to which their condition interfered with participation in various speaking communication situations. Questionnaires were administered online or in a paper version per participant preference. Participants also completed the Voice Handicap Index (B. H. Jacobson et al., 1997) and a demographic questionnaire. Rasch analyses were conducted using Winsteps software (J. M. Linacre, 1991).

Results

The results show that items functioned better when the 5-category response format was recoded to a 4-category format. After removing 8 items that did not fit the Rasch model, the remaining 133 items demonstrated strong evidence of sufficient unidimensionality, with the model accounting for 89.3% of variance. Item location values ranged from −2.73 to 2.20 logits.

Conclusions

Preliminary Rasch analyses of the Communicative Participation Item Bank show strong psychometric properties. Further testing in populations with other communication disorders is needed.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to determine whether deliberate increases in speaking rate would serve to decrease the amount of nasality in the speech of severely hearing-impaired individuals.

Method

The participants were 11 severely to profoundly hearing-impaired students, ranging in age from 12 to 19 years (M = 16 years). Each participant provided a baseline speech sample (R1) followed by 3 training sessions during which participants were trained to increase their speaking rate. Following the training sessions, a second speech sample was obtained (R2). Acoustic and perceptual analyses of the speech samples obtained at R1 and R2 were undertaken. The acoustic analysis focused on changes in first (F₁) and second (F₂) formant frequency and formant bandwidths. The perceptual analysis involved listener ratings of the speech samples (at R1 and R2) for perceived nasality.

Results

Findings indicated a significant increase in speaking rate at R2. In addition, significantly narrower F₂ bandwidth and lower perceptual rating scores of nasality were obtained at R2 across all participants, suggesting a decrease in nasality as speaking rate increases.

Conclusion

The nasality demonstrated by hearing-impaired individuals is amenable to change when speaking rate is increased. The influences of speaking rate changes on the perception and production of nasality in hearing-impaired individuals are discussed.

Purpose

In this study, the authors examined whether rhythm metrics capable of distinguishing languages with high and low temporal stress contrast also can distinguish among control and dysarthric speakers of American English with perceptually distinct rhythm patterns.

Methods

Acoustic measures of vocalic and consonantal segment durations were obtained for speech samples from 55 speakers across 5 groups (hypokinetic, hyperkinetic, flaccid-spastic, ataxic dysarthrias, and controls). Segment durations were used to calculate standard and new rhythm metrics. Discriminant function analyses (DFAs) were used to determine which sets of predictor variables (rhythm metrics) best discriminated between groups (control vs. dysarthrias; and among the 4 dysarthrias). A cross-validation method was used to test the robustness of each original DFA.

Results

The majority of classification functions were more than 80% successful in classifying speakers into their appropriate group. New metrics that combined successive vocalic and consonantal segments emerged as important predictor variables. DFAs pitting each dysarthria group against the combined others resulted in unique constellations of predictor variables that yielded high levels of classification accuracy.

Conclusions

This study confirms the ability of rhythm metrics to distinguish control speech from dysarthrias and to discriminate dysarthria subtypes. Rhythm metrics show promise for use as a rational and objective clinical tool.

Purpose

The objective of this study was to extend previous published findings in the authors' laboratory using a new automated technology to quantitatively characterize nonparticipatory perioral stiffness in healthy male adults.

Method

Quantitative measures of perioral stiffness were sampled during a nonparticipatory task using a computer-controlled linear servo motor to impose a series of tensile displacements over a span of approximately 24 mm at the oral angle in 20 healthy young male adults. Perioral electromyograms were simultaneously sampled to confirm nonparticipation or passive muscle state. Perioral stiffness, derived as a quotient from resultant force (ΔF) and oral span (ΔX), was modeled with regression techniques and subsequently compared to previously reported perioral stiffness data for female adults.

Results

Multilevel regression analysis revealed a significant quadratic relation between the perioral stiffness and interangle span; however, no significant difference was found between adult males and females.

Conclusion

These normative measures will have application to future studies designed to objectively assess the effects of pathology (i.e., progressive neuromotor disease, traumatic brain insult) and intervention (pharmacologic, neurosurgical, and reconstructive surgery of the face [i.e., cleft lip, trauma, missile injuries]) on facial animation and speech kinematics.

Purpose

Current electrolarynx (EL) devices produce a mechanical speech quality that has been largely attributed to the lack of natural fundamental frequency (F0) variation. In order to improve the quality of EL speech, in the present study the authors aimed to develop and evaluate an automatic F0 control scheme, in which F0 was modulated based on variations in the root-mean-square (RMS) amplitude of the EL speech signal.

Method

Recordings of declarative sentences produced by 2 male participants before and after total laryngectomy were used to develop procedures for calculating F0 contours for EL speech. Specifically, the positive linear relationship between F0 and RMS amplitude observed in pre-laryngectomy speech was used as the basis for generating an F0 contour based on the amplitude variation of EL speech. An analysis-by-synthesis approach was used to modify the F0 contour, and a perceptual experiment was conducted to examine its impact on the quality of the EL speech.

Results

The results of perceptual experiments showed that modulating the F0 of EL speech using a linear relationship between amplitude and frequency made it significantly more natural sounding than EL speech with constant F0.

Conclusions

The current study provides preliminary support for amplitude-based control of F0 in EL speech.

Purpose

To compare the perceived articulation rate of boys with fragile X syndrome (FXS) with that of chronologically age-matched (CA) boys and to determine segmental and/or prosodic factors that account for perceived rate.

Method

Ten listeners used direct magnitude estimation procedures to judge the articulation rates of 7 boys with FXS only, 5 boys with FXS and a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and 12 CA boys during sentence repetition. Sentences had similar articulation rates in syllables per second as determined acoustically. Four segmental/prosodic factors were used to predict perceived rate: (a) percentage consonants correct, (b) overall fundamental frequency (F₀) level, (c) sentence-final F₀ drop, and (d) acoustically determined articulation rate with the final word of the sentence excluded.

Results

Boys with FXS and ASD were judged to talk faster than CA controls. Multiple linear regression indicated that articulation rate with the final word of the sentence excluded and sentence-final F₀ drop accounted for 91% of the variance for perceived rate.

Conclusions

Descriptions of speakers with FXS as having fast and/or fluctuating articulation rates may be influenced by autism status. Also, atypical sentence-final prosody may be related to perceived rate in boys with FXS and ASD.