Biomedical subjects

Stephanie F Stokes

Publications and source records attributed to Stephanie F Stokes.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2004

Three measures of language production for Cantonese-speaking school-age children in a story-retelling task.

Little is known about language development in school-age children in Asian countries. This research reports on 3 measures of language development in 100 Cantonese-speaking children age 5 to 9 years. Word scores, structure scores, and the mean length of communication units (MLCU) were derived from a story-retelling task. The structure score was significantly different for all, except the 8- and 9-year-old groups. The word score and MLCU were significantly different in groups separated by 2 or more years of age. All 3 measures were strongly and significantly correlated with age. The structure score and word score accounted for 64% and 5% of the variance in age, respectively. The order of development of the 6 grammatical structures (e.g., subordinate clauses) included in this study is also reported.

Child↗

PubMed2002

The interaction of ambient frequency and feature complexity in the diphthong errors of children with phonological disorders.

This study examined the interaction of ambient frequency and feature complexity in the diphthong errors produced by Cantonese-speaking children with phonological disorders. A total of 611 diphthongs produced by 13 Cantonese-speaking children with speech disorders were subjected to perceptual analysis. The percentage accuracy of production and error patterns was examined. Perceptual analysis showed that /(see text)i/ and /ui/ were most frequently in error, whereas /ei/, /ou/, and /(see text)u/ were least frequently in error. Diphthong errors (usually diphthong reduction) arise as a function of both ambient frequency and feature complexity. The combination of ambient frequency and feature complexity yields a complexity metric reflecting accuracy of production. Treatment guidelines include consideration of three basic factors: ambient frequency, feature complexity, and error patterns.

Child↗

PubMed2002

Vowel and diphthong development in Cantonese-speaking children.

Spontaneous speech samples were collected from 40 Cantonese-speaking children aged between 10 and 27 months. Over 7,000 vowels and diphthongs were transcribed and analysed to determine the accuracy of production of Cantonese vowels and diphthongs. A model of feature complexity was derived from the distinctive features of vowels to predict the route of development of vowels and diphthongs. Two factors were found to affect development: a linguistic factor (frequency of occurrence in the ambient language) and an articulatory factor (feature complexity). Early dependence on the feature complexity of segments at 15-18 months is superseded by ambient language influences by 24 months of age.

Child↗

PubMed2002

Feature development in Cantonese.

The phonetic inventories of 122 typically developing Cantonese-speaking children, aged from 0;10 to 4;7, were examined in terms of feature distinctions. The applicability of Dinnsen. Chin, Elbert and Powell's implicational feature hierarchy to these data was investigated. Results show that modifications to the hierarchy are necessary for the Cantonese phonetic system. A revised hierarchy for Cantonese is proposed. Differences between this proposal and the original work are discussed. The implicational nature of the proposed hierarchy was also tested on longitudinal data from ten children (aged from 0;10 to 3;5 at the beginning of the study) over a 1 year period. The proposed hierarchy successfully predicted the route of sound change of these inventories. Implications for further research on feature development are discussed.

Child Language↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Levels of complexity in phonological disorders: evidence from Cantonese.

Longitudinal data from ten phonologically disordered Cantonese-speaking boys were analysed for distinctive features (manner and place). The children labelled 95 pictures, attempting each initial Cantonese segment at least five times. The applicability of Dinnsen et al.'s implicational hierarchy to this data was examined. Categorization of each child's system according to an implicational hierarchy was successful for nine of the ten children when phonetic inventories were considered. In addition, a phonemic inventory based on Dinnsen et al.'s phonetic inventory captured the system of phonological contrasts used by eight of the ten children. The patterns of the children who did not match the hierarchy were considered deviant rather than delayed. The ability of the hierarchy to predict the route of development in this group of children was also examined. The hierarchies (both phonetic and phonemic) successfully predicted the route of change in these cases. Implications for the use of an implicational hierarchy in phonological assessment and treatment are discussed. Further research on feature-based phonological development, in both typically-developing and disordered phonological systems is required.

Articulation Disorders↗