Purpose To develop a reliable and valid questionnaire of bilingual language status with predictable relationships between self-reported and behavioral measures Method In Study 1, the internal vali

The Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire (LEAP-Q): assessing language profiles in bilinguals and multilinguals.

Race and Racism w “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” featuring Dr. Beverly Tatum’s book. w “Recovering from Racism: Redefining What it Means to be White.” w “50th Anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education.” w “The Mis-Education of the Negro” featuring Dr. Carter Woodson’s book. w “Moving Past the Margins: Creating successful strategies for Black males on campus,” presenting the Black Male Development Initiative (BMDI). w “He had a Dream... What is Yours?” Addressing Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and its current relevance in our society. w “Demystifying Malcolm X.” w “Racial Stereotyping and Responses to Terrorism.” w “Racial Stereotyping – Responding to Fear.” w “Free, White and (over) 21: Being White in a Multicultural World.” w “Constructing Race and Ethnicity in the 21st Century.” w “How did I Learn about Culture and Race?” Sharing your personal experiences and memories of moments where you become aware of similarities and differences among people. w “ABC: American-Born... and Confused?” w “The Invisible Asian: Where are the Asians in Diversity?” w “100 Years of Race Talk: Is It Enough?”

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria

The long‐term average speech spectrum (LTASS) and some dynamic characteristics of speech were determined for 12 languages: English (several dialects), Swedish, Danish, German, French (Canadian), Japanese, Cantonese, Mandarin, Russian, Welsh, Singhalese, and Vietnamese. The LTASS only was also measured for Arabic. Speech samples (18) were recorded, using standardized equipment and procedures, in 15 localities for (usually) ten male and ten female talkers. All analyses were conducted at the National Acoustic Laboratories, Sydney. The LTASS was similar for all languages although there were many statistically significant differences. Such differences were small and not always consistent for male and female samples of the same language. For one‐third octave bands of speech, the maximum short‐term rms level was 10 dB above the maximum long‐term rms level, consistent across languages and frequency. A ‘‘universal’’ LTASS is suggested as being applicable, across languages, for many purposes including use in hearing aid prescription procedures and in the Articulation Index.

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An international comparison of long‐term average speech spectra

Purpose Children with language impairment (LI) often perform below the level of typically developing peers on measures of both processing speed and working memory. This study examined the relations...

Speed of Processing, Working Memory, and Language Impairment in Children

Noise is a pervasive and influential source of stress. Whether through the acute effects of impulse noise or the chronic influence of prolonged exposure, the challenge of noise confronts many who must accomplish vital performance duties in its presence. Although noise has diffuse effects, which are shared in common with many other chronic forms of stress, it also exerts its own specific influences on various forms of cognitive and motor response. We present a quantitative evaluation of these influences so that their harmful effects can be mitigated, their beneficial effects exploited, and any residual effects incorporated and synthesized into selection, training, and design strategies to facilitate human performance capacities. Predictions of single and joint moderator effects were made on the basis of major theories of noise and performance, specifically those explanations based on arousal, masking, or cognitive-resource mechanisms. These predictions were tested through moderator analyses of effects as a function of task type, performance measure, noise type and schedule, and the intensity and duration of exposure. Observed outcome effects (797 effect sizes derived from 242 studies) varied as a function of each of these moderators. Collective findings identified continuous versus intermittent noise, noise type, and type of task as the major distinguishing characteristics that moderated response. Mixed evidence was obtained for the traditional arousal and masking explanations for noise effects. The overall pattern of findings was most consistent with the maximal adaptability theory, a mental-resource-based explanation of stress and performance variation.

Noise Effects on Human Performance: A Meta-Analytic Synthesis

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.

Breadth and Depth of Diversity in MinnesotaChallenges to Clinical Competency

Speech scientists have long proposed that formant exaggeration in infant-directed speech plays an important role in language acquisition. This event-related potential (ERP) study investigated neural coding of formant-exaggerated speech in 6–12-monthold infants. Two synthetic ⁄ i ⁄ vowels were presented in alternating blocks to test the effects of formant exaggeration. ERP waveform analysis showed significantly enhanced N250 for formant exaggeration, which was more prominent in the right hemisphere than the left. Time-frequency analysis indicated increased neural synchronization for processing formantexaggerated speech in the delta band at frontal-central-parietal electrode sites as well as in the theta band at frontal-central sites. Minimum norm estimates further revealed a bilateral temporal-parietal-frontal neural network in the infant brain sensitive to formant exaggeration. Collectively, these results provide the first evidence that formant expansion in infant-directed speech enhances neural activities for phonetic encoding and language learning.

https://www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2010.01004.x

Neural coding of formant-exaggerated speech in the infant brain

Although the general slowing hypothesis of language impairment (LI) is well established, the conventional method to test the hypothesis is controversial. This paper compares the usual method, ordinary least squares regression (OLS), with another method, hierarchical linear modeling with random coefficients (HLM). The analyses used available response time (RT) data from studies of perceptual-motor, cognitive, and language skills of LI and chronological-age-matched (CA) groups. The data set included RT measures from 25 studies investigating 20 different tasks (e.g., auditory detection, mental rotation, and word recognition tasks). OLS and HLM analyses of the RT data yielded very different results. OLS supported general slowing for the LI groups, and indicated that they were significantly slower than CA groups across studies by an overall estimate of 10%. HLM indicated a larger average extent of LI slowing (18%). However, the variability around this average was much greater than that yielded by OLS, and the ...

General Slowing in Language Impairment: Methodological Considerations in Testing the Hypothesis

Purpose To construct a table for upper and lower limits of the 95% critical range for changes in word recognition scores obtained with monosyllabic word lists (of lengths 10, 25, 50, and 100 words) using newly available methods. Although such a table has been available for nearly 30 years (A. R. Thornton & M. J. M. Raffin, 1978), the earlier table was constructed by calculation and used an approximation to the variance of the difference score between 2 administrations of word lists of identical size. It has been used clinically, reproduced, and recommended for use by clinicians in handbooks and textbooks. Method The new table was created using computer simulation of the relevant distributions and a direct estimate of the variance of the difference score between 2 tests, calculated using the simulated results. Results The new table differed from the previous table in 23% of entries. Critical ranges were both narrowed (82%) and expanded (18%). No range changed by more than 1 word correct in any direction. T...

Critical Difference Table for Word Recognition Testing Derived Using Computer Simulation

Purpose To estimate false-positive rates for rules proposed to identify early noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) using the presence of notches in audiograms. Method Audiograms collected from school-age children in a national survey of health and nutrition (the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey [NHANES III]; National Center for Health Statistics, 1994) were examined using published rules for identifying noise notches at various pass–fail criteria. These results were compared with computer-simulated “flat” audiograms. The proportion of these identified as having a noise notch is an estimate of the false-positive rate for a particular rule. Results Audiograms from the NHANES III for children 6–11 years of age yielded notched audiograms at rates consistent with simulations, suggesting that this group does not have significant NIHL. Further, pass–fail criteria for rules suggested by expert clinicians, applied to NHANES III audiometric data, yielded unacceptably high false-positive rates. Co...

Edward Carney

Papers

Breadth and Depth of Diversity in MinnesotaChallenges to Clinical Competency

Neural coding of formant-exaggerated speech in the infant brain

General Slowing in Language Impairment: Methodological Considerations in Testing the Hypothesis

Critical Difference Table for Word Recognition Testing Derived Using Computer Simulation

Are False-Positive Rates Leading to an Overestimation of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss?