Showing papers in "Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research in 1996"
TL;DR: A set of morphemes that mark Tense, which includes -s third person singular, -ed regular past, BE, and DO, is evaluated, showing that children in an EOI stage who are likely to mark T tense optionally at the same time know a great deal about the grammatical properties of finiteness and agreement in the adult grammar.
Abstract: A critical clinical issue is the identification of a clinical marker, a linguistic form or principle that can be shown to be characteristic of children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). In t...
874 citations
TL;DR: Results were extended to speakers with laryngeal pathologies and to conduct tests using connected speech in addition to sustained vowels to evaluate the effectiveness of acoustic measures in predicting breathiness ratings.
Abstract: In an earlier study, we evaluated the effectiveness of several acoustic measures in predicting breathiness ratings for sustained vowels spoken by nonpathological talkers who were asked to produce nonbreathy, moderately breathy, and very breathy phonation (Hillenbrand, Cleveland, & Erickson, 1994). The purpose of the present study was to extend these results to speakers with laryngeal pathologies and to conduct tests using connected speech in addition to sustained vowels. Breathiness ratings were obtained from a sustained vowel and a 12-word sentence spoken by 20 pathological and 5 nonpathological talkers. Acoustic measures were made of (a) signal periodicity, (b) first harmonic amplitude, and (c) spectral tilt. For the sustained vowels, a frequency domain measure of periodicity provided the most accurate predictions of perceived breathiness, accounting for 92% of the variance in breathiness ratings. The relative amplitude of the first harmonic and two measures of spectral tilt correlated moderately with breathiness ratings. For the sentences, both signal periodicity and spectral tilt provided accurate predictions of breathiness ratings, accounting for 70%-85% of the variance.
513 citations
TL;DR: The performance of the EpiSLI diagnostic system was examined on a sample of 1,502 kindergarten children and it was shown that this diagnostic system yielded results that were consistent with clinician rating and previous research results.
Abstract: A valid and reliable diagnostic standard for language impairment is required for the conduct of epidemiologic research on specific language disorder. A rationale is provided for such a diagnostic s...
403 citations
TL;DR: Following treatment, mothers' language input was slower, less complex, and more focused than mothers in the control group, and the treatment had an effect on language development-children in the experimental group used more multiword combinations and early morphemes than children in thecontrol group.
Abstract: This study explores the effects of training parents to administer focused stimulation intervention to teach specific target words to their toddlers with expressive vocabulary delays. Twenty-five mo...
315 citations
TL;DR: Key-word scores for materials produced by a professional talker were inversely correlated with speaking rate, but conversational rate scores did not approach those of clear speech for other talkers.
Abstract: The contribution of reduced speaking rate to the intelligibility of “clear” speech (Picheny, Durlach, & Braida, 1985) was evaluated by adjusting the durations of speech segments (a) via nonuniform ...
209 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the reliability of acoustic measures obtained from these programs remains unknown, particularly when they are a voice analysis software, and they are used for the analysis of dysphonic voices.
Abstract: Dysphonic voices are often analyzed using automated voice analysis software. However, the reliability of acoustic measures obtained from these programs remains unknown, particularly when they are a...
208 citations
TL;DR: The finding that variations in speaking rate had a disproportionate impact upon word learning for children with SLI was interpreted within a framework of limited processing capacity.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of speaking rate variations in the linguistic input provided to children during a novel word learning task. Thirty-two school-age children participated in this investigation, including 16 children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 16 normal language (NL) controls matched on mental age (MA). The younger half of the NL group also served as a vocabulary level comparison for the older half of the children with SLI. No significant rate effects were found for comprehension of novel words, with all children performing at relatively high levels of accuracy. The group with SLI demonstrated the same recognition accuracy pattern as MA matched controls for target labels versus phonetically similar/dissimilar foils only for words trained at slow rate. Rate effects were most pronounced for items with the highest difficulty level, namely production of novel words. Children with SLI produced significantly fewer words that had been presented at fast rate during training than NL children matched on mental age or vocabulary level. Individual differences and production error patterns on fast rate items were examined. The finding that variations in speaking rate had a disproportionate impact upon word learning for children with SLI was interpreted within a framework of limited processing capacity.
200 citations
TL;DR: A bidirectional model is proposed for the expressive deficits in SLI-E, in which the child's limited phonetic capacity interacts with propensities in caretaker interaction to further reduce opportunities for expressive language learning and practice.
Abstract: Spontaneous language samples of 30 24-month-old toddlers diagnosed with Specific Expressive Language Impairment (SLI-E) were compared with samples produced by an age-matched group of 30 typically d...
179 citations
TL;DR: It is suggested that speed of naming is related to the slower nonlinguistic response processing of children with SLI and not to speed of their linguistic or perceptual processing.
Abstract: To examine the role of different cognitive processes in accounting for the slower naming times of children with specific language impairment (SLI) relative to peers with no language impairment (NLI
163 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors review and critique the research in this area and conclude that failure to consider epidemiologic factors has probably biased previous results regarding the genetics of stuttering and suggest that spontaneous recovery and chronicity are influenced by genetic factors.
Abstract: The fact that stuttering runs in families has been documented over a long period and has led to speculations and research about the role of a genetic component to this disorder. Although the genetic factor cannot be proved by familial aggregation and twin studies alone, such research has continued to provide support for a relationship between stuttering and genetics. The purposes of this article are to review and critique the research in this area. The article first assesses research methodologies that have been employed in familial studies of stuttering. It proceeds to review and critique incidence, twin, and aggregation studies. In addition, it includes sections on subgroups, genetic models of stuttering, and implications for future research as well as for clinical work. With a focus on improved methodology and recent findings, a current perspective on our knowledge of the genetic component to stuttering is provided. Among other conclusions, the article emphasizes that failure to consider epidemiologic factors has probably biased previous results regarding the genetics of stuttering. New preliminary data also appear to provide evidence that spontaneous recovery and chronicity are influenced by genetic factors. Generally, however, the review of incidence and twin studies, as well as of evidence for the various inheritance models, confirms previous conclusions about the interaction between genetic and environmental factors in stuttering.
161 citations
TL;DR: Differences in groups of preschool children clinically diagnosed as SLI who were and were not identified as SLI through standard psychometric discrepancy criteria are examined, and the validity of quantitative measures of mean length of utterance, syntax, and pragmatics derived from a spontaneous language sample as criteria for discriminating clinically diagnosed preschoolers from normally developing preschoolers are examined.
Abstract: Criteria for identification of children as specifically language impaired (SLI) vary greatly among clinicians and researchers. Standardized psychometric discrepancy criteria are more restrictive and perhaps less sensitive to language impairment than is clinical judgment based on a child's language performance in naturalistic contexts. This paper examines (a) differences in groups of preschool children clinically diagnosed as SLI who were and were not identified as SLI through standard psychometric discrepancy criteria, and (b) the validity of quantitative measures of mean length of utterance (MLU), syntax, and pragmatics derived from a spontaneous language sample as criteria for discriminating clinically diagnosed preschoolers from normally developing preschoolers. Spontaneous language data indicated that children clinically identified as SLI produced a significantly higher percentage of errors in spontaneous speech than normal children whether they met psychometric discrepancy criteria or not. Logistic regression analysis indicated that a combination of MLU, percent structural errors, and chronological age was the optimal subset of variables useful for predicting a clinical diagnosis of SLI. This combined criterion captured a larger proportion of the clinically identified SLI children than even the best psychometric discrepancy criteria.
TL;DR: The conclusion of this review is that, generally, treatment for aphasia is efficacious.
Abstract: This article presents a brief overview of aphasia, followed by a summary of research studies and program evaluation data addressed to answering the question of the efficacy of treatment for aphasia. Selected studies are reviewed in terms of the quality of evidence they present. In addition, a number of questions that remain unanswered are also presented. Several tables, designed to provide clarifying information concerning several aspects of research design (number and types of patients studied, examples of well-designed small-group or single-subject studies, clinical techniques for which efficacy data are available), are included. The conclusion of this review is that, generally, treatment for aphasia is efficacious.
TL;DR: Target acquisition was more rapid under conversational recast treatment for both groups and SLI children sometimes can learn grammatical structures as efficiently as language-normal children if similar language input is tailored to their specific developmental language levels.
Abstract: The purpose of the study was to compare the relative effectiveness of imitative treatment and conversational recast treatment in children with language impairment and in a group of children with no...
TL;DR: All three treatments for children aged 9-14 who stutter were very successful in the long term for over 70% of the group, though the EMG feedback and home-based treatments were superior when percentages falling below a cutoff point were used to discriminate between groups.
Abstract: This paper presents the results of a controlled trial of child stuttering treatment. The aim of the study was, first, to compare the effectiveness of three viable treatments, and, second, to compar...
TL;DR: This study employed a point-light technique to help isolate the salient kinematic aspects of a visible articulating face and found that these images could significantly improve comprehension for adults with normal hearing and that the images became more effective as participants gained experience with the stimuli.
Abstract: Seeing a talker's face can improve the perception of speech in noise. There is little known about which characteristics of the face are useful for enhancing the degraded signal. In this study, a po...
TL;DR: Children with slow expressive language development as toddlers and a control group of children with normal language development (NL) were followed to early school age, and narratives were analyzed for MLU, lexical diversity, amount of information included, proportion of complete cohesive ties, and overall stage of narrative maturity.
Abstract: Children with slow expressive language development (SELD) as toddlers and a control group of children with normal language development (NL) were followed to early school age. Children with SELD wer...
TL;DR: The findings suggest that the combination of increased vocal fold adduction and subglottal pressure is a key in generating posttreatment increases in vocal intensity in idiopathic Parkinson disease (IPD).
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to document changes in aerodynamic and glottographic aspects of vocal function in patients with Parkinson disease who received two forms of high effort treatment. Previous reports (Ramig, Countryman, Thompson, & Horii, 1995) have documented increased sound pressure level (SPL) following treatment that trained phonation and respiration (Lee Silverman Voice Treatment: LSVT), but not for treatment that trained respiration only (R). In order to examine the mechanisms underlying these differences, measures of maximum flow declination rate (MFDR) and estimated subglottal pressure (Psub) were made before and after treatment. A measure of relative vocal fold adduction (EGGW) was made from the electroglottographic signal during sustained vowel phonation. Sound pressure level data from syllable repetition, sustained vowel phonation, reading, and monologue tasks were also analyzed to allow a more detailed understanding of treatment-related change in several contexts. Consistent with increases in SPL, significant increases in MFDR, estimated Psub, and EGGW were measured posttreatment in patients who received the LSVT. Similar changes were not observed following R treatment. These findings suggest that the combination of increased vocal fold adduction and subglottal pressure is a key in generating posttreatment increases in vocal intensity in idiopathic Parkinson disease (IPD).
TL;DR: Children's scores on the experimental and standardized tests of language performance and nonverbal intelligence were profiled over the 3 years of the study, and patterns of change in many instances reveal the lifting of the early influences of poverty.
Abstract: A 3-year longitudinal study of the language performance of children from poverty was designed to address the problem of separating children with a specific language impairment (SLI) from low-scorin...
TL;DR: This paper found that children with histories of chronic otitis media (OM) performed worse on phonemic awareness tasks than did children in the control group, and low-SES children performed worse still.
Abstract: The Developmental Weighting Shift (DWS) suggests that children adjust the weights they assign to the acoustic parameters of the speech signal as they gain experience with a native language, and that this developmental shift in perceptual weighting strategies is related to another developmental change: increased sensitivity to the phonetic structure of the speech signal. To test these claims, children presumed to differ in the amount of linguistic experience they had received during their preschool years participated in two kinds of tasks: a labeling task designed to estimate differences among groups in the weights assigned to various acoustic parameters, and tasks of phonemic awareness. The experimental groups were children from low-socioeconomic (low-SES) backgrounds, children with histories of chronic otitis media (OM), and children who experienced both conditions. A control group of children who experienced neither of these conditions also participated. The hypotheses were that, because of their diminished linguistic experience, children in the three experimental groups would display both more immature weighting strategies and poorer phonemic awareness than children in the control group, and that developmental advance in perceptual weighting strategies and phonemic awareness would be correlated. Results indicated that children with histories of chronic OM performed more poorly on both kinds of tasks than did children in the control group, and low-SES children performed more poorly still. Children experiencing both low-SES and chronic OM performed no differently than the low-SES children. These results provide support for the claim that the development of mature perceptual weighting strategies for speech and of phonemic awareness are related. Support is also provided for the claim that both depend on receiving sufficient and appropriate experience with a native language during the preschool years.
TL;DR: Both scientific and clinical evidence is presented that suggests that individuals with dysarthria benefit from the services of speech-language pathologists and the effectiveness of various types of speech treatment.
Abstract: The dysarthrias form a group of diverse, chronic motor speech disorders. The disorders of Parkinson's disease, stroke, traumatic brain injury, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and cerebral palsy are reviewed because they represent important clinical diagnoses in which dysarthria is a frequent and debilitating symptom. The roles played by speech-language pathologists include participation in differential diagnosis, provision of speech treatment, staging of treatment, and timely education so that clients and families can make informed decisions about communication alternatives. Both scientific and clinical evidence is presented that suggests that individuals with dysarthria benefit from the services of speech-language pathologists. Group-treatment studies, single-subject studies, and case reports illustrate the effectiveness of various types of speech treatment. Research into the effectiveness of augmentative and alternative communication systems for individuals with cerebral palsy is also presented.
TL;DR: A significant correlation was found between speech rate and perceived posttreatment speech naturalness, and many clients maintained stutter-free speech using speech rates that were higher than the range typically specified in intensive PS programs.
Abstract: It has been shown that people who stutter can speak with greatly reduced stuttering after treatments that use variations of Goldiamond's (1965) prolonged-speech (PS). However, outcome research to date has not taken account of several important issues. In particular, speech outcome measures in that research have been insufficient to show that lasting relief from stuttering has been achieved by clients outside the clinic for meaningful periods. The present study used extensive speech outcome measures across a variety of situations in evaluating the outcome of an intensive PS treatment (Ingham, 1987). The speech of 12 clients in this treatment was assessed on three occasions prior to treatment and frequently—on eight occasions—after discharge from the residential setting. For 7 clients, a further assessment occurred at 3 years posttreatment. Concurrent dependent measures were percent syllables stuttered, syllables per minute, and speech naturalness. The dependent measures were collected in many speaking situ...
TL;DR: The finding of coupled activation among mandibular antagonists during speech paralleled earlier comparisons of adult speech and nonspeech behaviors and did not support the suggestion that speech coordination emerges from earlier appearing oral motor behaviors.
Abstract: This investigation was designed to quantify the coordinative organization of mandibular muscles in toddlers during speech and nonspeech behaviors. Seven 15-month-olds were observed during spontaneo...
TL;DR: Results indicated that 3-year-olds were not as sensitive to changes in these acoustic cues as adults are, but that these age- related differences in auditory sensitivity could not entirely account for age-related differences in perceptual weighting strategies.
Abstract: Studies of children’s speech perception have shown that young children process speech signals differently than adults. Specifically, the relative contributions made by various acoustic parameters t...
TL;DR: Twenty elderly persons with hearing impairment were fit with binaural in-the-ear hearing aids and followed for a 6-month period post-fit, finding many of the measures to be both reliable and stable indicators of hearing-aid outcome.
Abstract: Twenty elderly persons with hearing impairment were fit with binaural in-the-ear hearing aids and followed for a 6-month period post-fit. Several hearing-aid outcome measures were obtained at 0, 7,...
TL;DR: Electrically evoked whole nerve action potentials (EAP) have been recorded from 20 ineraid cochlear implant users in response to bipolar and/or monopolar electrical stimulation of the cochlea and it is found that these particular physiological measures are related to the excitability of the auditory nerve to electrical stimulation.
Abstract: Electrically evoked whole nerve action potentials (EAP) have been recorded from 20 Ineraid cochlear implant users in response to bipolar and/or monopolar electrical stimulation of the cochlea. EAP ...
TL;DR: Results showed the differential effects of DAT onset and progression on the conversational repair behavior of both subjects with DAT and their conversational partner, and it was observed that MDAT subjects and conversational partners frequently used nonspecific terms to signal misunderstandings.
Abstract: Conversational repair was examined in videotaped samples of spontaneous mealtime talk of 6 normal elderly adults, 5 subjects with early stage dementia of the Alzheimer's type (EDAT) and 5 subjects with middle stage DAT (MDAT) with a family member who acted as a conversational partner. The overall percentage of utterances involved in communication breakdown and repair and the specific proportions of utterances related to conversation problems, signals identifying problems, and repairs, were evaluated. Using the normal dyads as a control group, results showed the differential effects of DAT onset and progression on the conversational repair behavior of both subjects with DAT and their conversational partner. The percentage of conversation involved in repair was significantly higher for MDAT versus control and EDAT dyads. Despite the increase of conversational troubles with DAT onset and progression, the difficulties were repaired successfully the majority of the time. Subjects with EDAT produced more reques...
TL;DR: Children with SLI were significantly slower than peers, but speed of word recognition was not correlated with measures of language comprehension, and time to detect an auditory signal and initiate a vocal response did not account for the differences between groups.
Abstract: To determine whether children with specific language impairment (SLI) take longer than age peers to recognize sequences of sounds that represent words in their lexicon, we compared auditory lexical...
TL;DR: The temporal reliability of four quantitative measurements of operationally defined linguistic behaviors observed in a naturalistic setting reached acceptable levels, not only for research purposes, but for diagnostic purposes as well.
Abstract: The present study examined the temporal reliability of four quantitative measurements of operationally defined linguistic behaviors observed in a naturalistic setting. The measures of language prod...
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The role of the speech-language pathologist includes assessment of all aspects of communication, as well as the communicative implications of cognitive deficits, and swallowing; treatment planning and programming, as determined by the individual's stage of recovery; client and family training/counseling; and interdisciplinary consultation as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) may result in a broad array of cognitive-communicative impairments. Cognitive-communicative impairments are the result of deficits in linguistic and nonlinguistic cognitive functions. The speech-language pathologist functions as a member of the multidisciplinary team of professionals that collaboratively assess and treat individuals with TBI. The role of the speech-language pathologist includes assessment of all aspects of communication, as well as the communicative implications of cognitive deficits, and swallowing; treatment planning and programming, as determined by the individual's stage of recovery; client and family training/counseling; and interdisciplinary consultation. The effectiveness of speech and language intervention for specific cognitive deficits (e.g., attention, memory, executive functions) as well as general issues of social-skills training and early intervention are illustrated by scientific and clinical evidence from group-treatment and single-subject studies as well as case studies.
TL;DR: Analysis of static assessment profiling and dynamic assessment results indicated that dynamic assessment outcomes were most highly correlated with immediate language growth, followed by discrepancy in receptive and expressive language age.
Abstract: Initial language assessments are used not only to determine the presence of a language problem and establish eligibility for intervention, but also to provide information about a child’s readiness ...