Reduced versus nonreduced models in language training of MR children.
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Auditory Perception↗
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Sentence length--duration relationships in an auditory assembly task.
A sentence assembly performance task related to sentence duration and length was studied using sentences four to eight words in length. Durational constraints were imposed through utilization of 30% speech compression of words in addition to insertion of silent intervals (200 or 1000 msec) between each word. Tape recordings of sentences were played to 60 preschool children. All responses were tape recorded and analyzed according to total ereors, error type and location of the error within the sentence. Results suggest that successful assembly performance is significantly related to the number of words in a sentence and not to the duration of the sentence.
Auditory Perception↗
Testing for a specific syntactic structure.
Nine language delayed children who had failed the "is interrogative" test item on the Programmed Conditioning for Language Test served as subjects. A comparison was made of subjects' syntactic performance on six language tasks designed by the investigators to elicit the "is interrogative" structure. These tasks ranged along an imitative-to-spontaneous continuum demonstrating varying degrees of communicative intention, presence or absence of contextual referents, and varying levels of task structure. Analyses indicated all nine subjects produced complete grammatical "is interrogative" utterances on one or more of the language tasks. The most effective tasks for eliciting the specific structure were those that required communicative intention, included specific contextual referents, and provided a relatively structured situation. The direct imitative task was less effective, although it elicited more correct productions than the spontaneous language sampling task. However, the relative eliciting potential of each task was not the same for each child. Theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.
Child↗
Elicited imitation in language assessment: a tool for formulating and evaluating treatment programs.
Four different clinical populations were administered an elicited imitation task before and after therapy to determine the usefulness of elicited imitation procedures for formulating and evaluating language treatment programs. Children's imitations were analyzed according to the numbers and patterns of omission errors, substitution errors, and correct responses. Results indicated that (1) patterns of responding could be identified; (2) specific patterns were associated with different clinical populations; (3) performance on pretherapy measures could be efficiently analyzed and utilized for formulating language treatment programs; and (4) changes in posttherapy performance could be readily evaluated using this procedure. The data suggest that the elicited imitation procedures can be effectively used to increase the precision of the evaluation and clinical programming of children with language disorders.
Adolescent↗
Disfluency changes in children as a function of the systematic modification of linguistic complexity.
This investigation determined the influence of modeling on the complexity of language in 5-year-old youngsters, and the effect of simple and complex language usage on the occurrence and topography of disfluency. Forty children balanced for age, sex, and educational level served as subjects, and a repeated measures design was implemented to examine changes in linguistic complexity and disfluency between "simple" and "complex" language modeling conditions. The investigation demonstrated a significant modeling effect and suggested a significant relationship between linguistic complexity and disfluency in children. The results are discussed in terms of grammatical load and its possible effect on speech interruption.
Child Language↗
Pragmatics and elicited imitation: children's performance on discursively related and discursively unrelated sentences.
Two experiments were conducted to determine the elicited imitation performance of preschool children when the stimulus sentences were meaningfully related to each other in a story as compared to when the sentences were arranged in a random order. Experiment 1 used a repeated-measures design and found a practice effect demonstrating less errors during the second trial regardless of experimental condition. Experiment 2 implemented a group design with one group imitating the related (story) sentences and the other imitating the randomly arranged sentences. The results showed no significant difference in the mean number of errors occurring in the "story" versus the "random" condition. The implications of the practice effect found in Experiment 1 are discussed and the error pattern during the second trial is evaluated. The efficacy of using discursively related as opposed to unrelated sentences in elicited imitation tasks is discussed from a pragmatic point of view.
Child Language↗
A comparision of nonimitative modeling and mimicry procedures for training the singular copula in black preschool children.
The singular form of the copula was trained in 10 normal four-yr-old Black dialect speakers using two different techniques. One group was trained using mimicry and the other was trained using nonimitative modeling. Multiple naive trainers and picture stimuli were counterbalanced across subjects. The results indicated that the two training methods did not differ significantly in baseline/generalization responses. Implications of this and similar studies are discussed.
Black or African American↗
Training speech pathologists through microtherapy.
Two microtraining methods were evaluated for training speech pathologists in the acquisition of skills utilized in treating misarticulations. Fifteen subjects in an introductory class in speech pathology were randomly placed in two groups (modeling, video replay, and counseling versus video replay and counseling). The training included reading a manual about the skills and a sequence of three teach sessions. The control group did not view the video model. According to the results, the model group made a greater gain score (M = 8.38) than the nonmodel group (M = 3.88). Significant gains were made for both experimental groups between teach sessions one and two, but no significant gains were made between the second and third teach sessions.
Books↗
Linguistic processing and performance in articulation-disordered subgroups of language-impaired children.
The linguistic and dichotic listening performances of three groups of nine children were studied. The groups were divided as follows: (1) Language-disordered children whose articulatory errors were primarily omissions; (2) language-disordered children whose articulatory errors were primarily substitutions; (3) communicatively normal children. All subjects participated in articulation testing, imitative language tests, analysis of a spontaneous language sample, and a dichotic word task. The articulatory omission group differed significantly from the substitution group on the imitative language test but not on the developmental sentence analysis. All groups demonstrated a right ear advantage, suggesting left hemispheric processing of the dichotic stimuli. The results of the present study and prior research are discussed in terms of possible sources of variability.
Child↗
Matching prosodic and sound features: performance of Down's syndrome preschoolers.
Eight Down's Syndrome children between the ages of 2.2 and 3.75 yr (X = 2.73) participated in a study designed to determine if children with intellectual and language delay would show any consistent patterns in their imitations of adult vocalizations that were systematically varied in pitch, duration, and loudness. This performance was compared with the learner's proficiency in imitating speech sounds. Results yielded no overall relationship between learners' performance in the prosodic task and performance in the task using speech sounds as stimuli. All children matched at least some of the prosodic features examined. However, no particular prosodic features appeared more likely than others to be imitated. Results are discussed in terms of intersubject variability and the possible use of prosodic features as imitative stimuli in the early components of a communication interaction strategy.
Down Syndrome↗
Speech shadowing characteristics of stutterers under diotic and dichotic conditions.
The purpose of this study was to compare adult stutterers' and adult nonstutterers' fluent speech patterns produced during one nonshadowed reading and two speech shadowing conditions. Subjects' speech error rates, shadowing strategies, and fluent speech segment durations were obtained during baseline, diotic speech shadowing, and dichotic speech shadowing conditions. Results indicated that stutterers produced fewer speech production errors (i.e., omissions, substitutions, and insertions) than nonstutterers during each shadowing condition. Stutterers also favored the use of a word-by-word speech shadowing strategy, while nonstutterers utilized both word-by-word and small phrase shadowing strategies. Finally, stutterers exhibited significantly longer vowel and phrase durations than nonstutterers during the shadowing conditions.
Adult↗
The effect of pictured visual cues on elicited sentence imitation.
In one experiment language-normal 6 1/2-year-old and 4 1/2-year-old children (N = 68) were asked to imitate sentences with or without pictured visual cues. In a second experiment groups of language-disordered children (N = 43) also 4 1/2 and 6 1/2 years of age were asked to imitate sentences with and without pictured visual cues. In both experiments there was no significant difference in the syntactical and grammatical quality of elicited imitations between conditions. Older children performed better than young children in both experiments. It was concluded that pictured visual cues do not affect the syntactical and grammatical quality of language-normal and language-disordered children's elicited sentence imitations.
Child↗
Repetition deficits in three aphasic syndromes.
This study examined the repetition errors of three aphasic subgroups during a repetition task. A total of 95 subjects, including 32 conduction, 38 Broca's, and 25 Wernicke's aphasics, repeated phrases and sentences from the Repeating Phrases Subtest of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination. Conduction aphasics exhibited a greater number of phonemic attempts, word revisions, and word and phrase repetitions. Broca's aphasics demonstrated more phonemic errors and omissions. Finally, Wernicke's aphasics showed more unrelated words and jargon.
Adult↗
Factors associated with speech-sound stimulability.
Speech-sound stimulability as a clinical procedure has been used in speech-language pathology for more than 60 years although review of the archival literature on this clinical construct provides little information on what factors may be associated with it. In this study, the factors found to relate to stimulability were articulation visibility, the child's age, the family's socioeconomic status, and the child's overall imitative abilities. Perception, severity, otitis media history, language abilities, consistency of productions, amount of stimulations provided, and willingness to self-correct were not associated with stimulability. Potential explanations are provided on the basis of prior research.
Child↗
The role of stimulability in the assessment and treatment of Spanish-speaking children.
Stimulability has been used successfully in planning treatment of phonological disorders in English-speaking children. The effectiveness of stimulability on the treatment of phonological disorders in speakers of languages other than English has not been investigated. Specifically, its role in treatment planning of phonological disorders in Spanish-speaking children has yet to be explored. The purpose of this article is to discuss the role of stimulability in the assessment and treatment of phonological disorders in Spanish-speaking children. Further, a case study applying these principles to a Spanish-speaking child with a phonological disorder is presented.
Child, Preschool↗
Stimulability considerations in the phonological treatment of a child with a persistent disorder of speech-sound production.
The term "persistent sound system disorder" has been used to describe the speech problems of a relatively small group of children that does not respond readily to treatment. This group includes children who have been given diagnoses such as development apraxia of speech. In this article, a rationale is developed for one approach to the treatment of persistent sound system disorder. This approach, which involves broadening of the phonetic inventory early in the treatment process, is contrasted with more traditional motor-programming treatments that emphasize stabilization of a restricted set of inconsistently produced sounds. The treatment procedures advocated in this article are illustrated in a case study. The article concludes with a discussion of evolving theories and technologies that are likely to impact upon the assessment and treatment of children with persistent sound system disorders in the future.
Articulation Disorders↗
Enhancing stimulability: a treatment program.
Recent research on stimulability and generalization suggests that treatment of nonstimulable sounds results in maximum treatment gains (Powell, Elbert, & Dinnsen, 1991). It has also been suggested, however, that nonstimulable sounds are more difficult to teach, especially to young children with very small phonetic inventories. In this article, we describe a treatment program designed to increase the size of the phonetic inventory by "teaching" stimulability. Application of the treatment approach is demonstrated in a case study.
Child, Preschool↗
Assessing stimulability in toddlers.
This article describes the development and use of a novel, script-based stimulability task for toddlers. A detailed description of the task and procedures for administration is provided. The task assesses stimulability for fricatives, affricates, and liquids in isolation and single words through presentation of toys and objects in a script format during play. Three different levels of cueing are provided to elicit the desired sounds/words. Selected findings from examination of the performance of 10 toddlers with normal speech-language development and 10 with delayed development at an initial assessment and a 6-month reassessment are also described. Results suggest that stimulability testing may be successful with toddlers through the use of a scripted task and that they are more responsive to direct elicitations. Both groups added stimulable sounds; however, there was considerable individual variation with respect to specific sounds added and the addition of nonstimulable sounds as well. Stimulability testing is clinically useful as a dynamic assessment tool for toddlers because it may reveal information regarding a child's speech that is not obtainable with other measures and is also beneficial for individualized intervention planning.
Child, Preschool↗