Defective Articulation Research Articles

Distinctive Feature Confusions in Production and Discrimination of Selected Consonants

Twenty five children with defective articulation and 25 normally speaking children were matched for age and IQ score. They identified pictures representing 18 consonants. The consonant confusions were analysed in terms of six selected distinctive features. The subjects also listened to syllable pairs containing consonants separated by one and two of the six features. Comparison of the performance on the discrimination task with that on the articulation task revealed that children with articulation disorders had significantly greater difficulty discriminating between consonants separated by one and two features than did the normally speaking children. In addition, children with defective articulation also had significantly greater difficulty discriminating auditorily between sounds separated by one feature than they did between consonants separated by two features. A tendency for the same feature to be confused in both the discrimination and the production of consonants was not noted. In addition, there was no carry over of distinctive feature confusion from consonants removed by a particular feature to consonants removed by that feature plus one other feature in auditory discrimination.

Fairy tales and symbols in hypnotherapy of children with certain speech disorders.

Abstract An approach to hypnotherapy in 2 children chosen out of a successfully treated group with speech defects is described utilizing fairy tales, folklore, and symbols. The first child typifies stuttering, the second exemplifies disturbances in the mechanism of speech production resulting in defects of articulation. The patients are committed by cooperation and participation with the doctor in a creative endeavor of the imagination which engenders self-approval, confidence, and strong motivation. Concurrently, a cogent defense is created against outer and inner harmful or destructive forces, rendering them ineffectual. The meshing of feedback mechanisms, which should integrate phonation with the auditory awareness of speech, is probably interfered with when psychic factors cause disturbances in verbalization.

Auditory processing factors in language disorders: the view from Procrustes' bed.

A failure in auditory processing is often cited as a major or contributing cause of language and learning disorders in children and adults, including defective articulation, aphasia, dyslexia, and specific learning disability. The claim persists in spite of the relatively limited and weak evidence for such a factor and the inconsistency of this conclusion with current findings in speech perception research. The implications for traditional educational, diagnostic, and therapeutic procedures involving basic auditory skills such as speech-sound discrimination are discussed.

Watts Articulation Test for Screening: evaluation of a screening test.

Of 90 children tested in Grades 1 to 3, 10 were identified by the Templin-Darley and 20 by the Watts Articulation for Screening (WATS) as having articulation defects. Compared to the Revised Hemplin-Darley Screening Test, the WATS (1) was administered in less time, (2) used words more familiar to school-aged children, (3) was preferred by at least 90% of the children tested, (4) identified more children for diagnostic evaluation, (5) selected children in a similar manner for diagnostic testing. The WATS Record chart appeared time saving, easy to score, and informative.

Disorders of articulation: some clinical applications of distinctive feature theory.

The application of distinctive feature theory to the analysis of the speech of children with defective articulation is suggested as a clinical approach. Distinctions are made between children with phonetic disorders and children with phonemic disorders. Distinctive feature analyses were made of the articulation test data of a child receiving speech therapy for an articulation disorder at three intervals, at ages 5-2, 5–8, and 6-3. Each analysis was compared with the adult model to reveal the rules of the child’s phonological competence at that time. Each analysis is compared with the preceding one(s) to show the changes in the rule system as the child’s speech gradually approached the adult model. Discussion of these analyses suggests some specific applications of the resulting data to clinical management and some limitations of this approach.

Articulatory effectiveness, stimulability, and children's performances on perceptual and memory tasks.

The performances of 70 children, 35 from kindergarten and 35 from first grade, were studied on four auditory measures and one oral sensory discrimination task. Each group of 35 children included seven subjects with superior articulation, seven with deviant articulation and poor speech sound stimulability, seven with deviant articulation and good stimulability, seven with articulation defects and poor stimulability, and seven with articulation defects and good stimulability. Performances on a speech sound stimulability task were not found to be related to performances on any of the auditory measures and only slightly to the oral sensory task. Superior articulators had significantly better scores than the deviant and defectives on the oral sensory discrimination task, but scores on the auditory tasks were not significantly different. Comparison of the performances of /s/ and /r/ defectives revealed the latter group to be inferior on some auditory tasks compared with the superior articulators. Some relationships were found between subject performances on certain auditory tasks.

Dysarthria in multiple sclerosis.

Less than half of a series of 168 patients with multiple sclerosis presented significant speech deviations. The most frequent speech deviations observed were impaired loudness control and harshness; less frequently occurring deviations were defective articulation, restricted use of vocal variations for emphasis, poor pitch control, hypernasality, inappropriate pitch level, and breathiness. “Scanning speech” was not a prominent characteristic. Speech deviations were not solely attributable to cerebellar involvement. Their incidence was positively related to severity of neurologic involvement, becoming more prominent as additional motor systems were implicated.

Operation of the auditory feedback monitoring loop in children with articulatory defects

This study constitutes a preliminary evaluation of the utilization of auditory feedback for the acquisition of normal speech in normal speaking children and children having functional articulatory errors. The degree to which this is utilized for the organization and control of motor activity was inferred by delaying auditory feedback in time and quantitating the resulting disturbances in the speech behaviour. Evidence was found to support the following hypotheses: I. There is a breakdown of speech under DAF. 2: Children with multiple articulatory disorders exhibit less severe breakdown effects under DAF than their normal peers. 3. There appears to be a strong relationship between increasing age and articulatory ability. 4. There tends to be a relationship between increasing age and the breakdown of speech under DAF. 5. Monitoring of speech is a highly skilled control system which tends to develop with age and experience, and is not operating as strongly in the child with articulation-defects. From the results of the study, it seems that the auditory feedback monitoring loop for speech is not operating as successfully in the child with multiple articulatory errors as it operates in the normal child, and that the development of a closed loop system appears to be retarded in some way.

"Functional" defective articulation: an oral sensory disturbance.

Some sources of disordered articulation may be related to oral sensory disabilities alone. One method of evaluating oral sensory functioning is to test for lingual stereognostic capability. Two groups, aged 12 to 16, of 10 children considered to be normal speakers (Group A) and 10 children considered to have “functional” articulation (Group B) as judged by a speech pathologist were free of sensory and motor defects. 20 geometric plastic forms, developed by the National Institute of Dental Research (NIDRs 20) were used to assess perceptual discrimination: eye, finger tip, tongue tip, and tongue blade. In general, larger mean differences were found between the normal and “functional” articulation groups than within them. The groups differed consistently in the general performance levels on the oral stereognostic tasks and in the oral-tactile performance not only within groups but between groups. Ss with “functional” articulation disorders (Group B) made more and different types of errors than normal speakers. Articulation disorders considered “functional” might be studied in relation to classical therapeutic procedures.

Oral and Limb Apraxia in Mentally Retarded Children with Deviant Articulation

A children's version of the De Renzi, Pieczuro and Vignolo Test for Oral and Limb Apraxia was developed and administered to 33 children of normal intelligence with articulatory disorders and 30 retarded children and adults with defective articulation matched in mental age with the non-retardates. The retarded group was also divided into two etiological categories, organic and non-organic, based on diagnosis of the residential institution. Results indicated significant between group differences with the organic retardates exhibiting significant degrees of apraxia as defined by the test. Non-organic retardates exhibited significant but less apraxic involvement. Correlational techniques revealed no significant association of apraxia with defective articulation but an association of apraxia with vocabulary mental age and intelligence.

CHAPTER IX NON‐NUTRITIONAL SUCKING IN AGES FROM INFANCY UP TO 8 YEARS OF AGE

SummaryThe origin, frequency and gradual decrease of the habit of finger sucking during the first 8 years have been studied in 212 children involved in a longitudinal study of growth. This extra sucking of the whole group stops at a median age of 12.9 months. Comforter‐A sex difference with a significant dominance of girls becomes evident on each level from l to 8 years. It is possible, however, that the time of cessation of nutritional sucking, which is relatively late for the boys in this sample, may determine the indicated sex difference.Significance teat8 were made of the correlation between fingereucking and the mode of feeding. Breast‐ or bottle‐feeding makes no differen ce but the time of cessation of nutritional sucking, the duration of the sucking meal, and the satisfaction at this meal are inversely cox related to prolonged thumbsucking in a way which cannot be coincidental.Eleven psychological and four social vmiables have been significance‐tested in their relations to the prolonge sucking habit and are illustrated in tabular form. It has not been possible to prove that emotional stress symptoms distinguish long‐term thumbsuckers from others. Housewifes have more fingersuckers than mothers gainfully employed during early ages of the children.The effects of habitual fingersucking with respect to malocclusion and articulation defects have beesl studied. Slight discrepancies in pronunciation occur significantly more often in 4 ‐ 5 year old thumb suckers than in others. In the poup with sucking habits 13 more children had symptoms of malocclusion than in the group with minimal or no eucking. “he difference is not statistically significant but even concerning special malocclusions it alweys pointed in the same.

A comparative study of two procedures for assessment of oral tactile perception

The authors explore the effectiveness of several oral sensory receptiveness techniques as predictors of defective articulation.

Perceptual factors in articulatory defects.

Perceptual factors in articulatory defects.

General language deficits in children with articulation problems.

Sixteen 7 year-old children with normal articulation, and sixteen 7 year-old children with defective articulation were compared as to their performance on series of language tests designed to assess the child's knowledge of form class, sentence structure, and phonological composition in English. Results showed that children in the defective articulation group gave significantly fewer paradigmatic responses in a word-association test, were less able to discriminate possible from impossible phoneme sequences in English, and were able to repeat fewer sentences correctly than children in the normal articulation group. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for present articulation therapy, which stresses the production of individual sounds and often provides little or no remedial experience in the wider aspects of language usage such as would seem required by results of the present study.

The effects of response contingent punishment upon a defective articulation response.

The effects of response contingent punishment upon a defective articulation response.

Visual Motor Disabilities in Children with Functional Articulation Defects

This investigation attempted to determine if the presence of visual-motor integration disabilities, as measured by the Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration, was greater in preschool and primary grade children having functional articulation defects than in those without articulation defects - that is, normal speakers. Statistical analysis of the data revealed that the subjects possessing functional articulation defects showed a significantly higher degree of visual-motor integration disability than did the controls. Other statistical comparisons revealed that the male subjects with functional articulation defects performed significantly less well than did the control males on the Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration. However, this difference was not found between the female subjects and female controls. A positive correlation was found to exist between visual-motor integration ages and the chronological and mental ages of the sample population.

The relationship between articulatory deficits and syntax in speech defective children.

The relationship between articulatory deficits and the development of syntax in children with severe articulation problems was investigated. Subjects in the experimental group were 30 normal elementary school children, enrolled in grades one through three, who had severe problems with articulation. Thirty normal children, free from any articulation errors, served as a control group. Children with defective articulation performed significantly less well in the areas of grammatical usage, and used shorter sentences. The relationship between phonological and syntactical errors is discussed, with implications for therapy.

Voice and articulatory defects from paralysis by glomus jugulare tumor.

Voice and articulatory defects from paralysis by glomus jugulare tumor.

Body awareness in certain types of speech defective individuals.

Summary Of 24 boys between the ages of 8 and 12 years who were tested individually with the Rorschach, 8 were stutterers in treatment, 8 were in treatment for articulation defects, and 8 were selected randomly from a group of individuals with normal speech. The Rorschach responses were scored from body-interior awareness and body-boundary awareness. The null hypothesis was that there would be no significant differences among the groups. Stutterers scored significantly (p < .01) higher than the other 2 groups on the body-boundary dimension. No other significant differences were found. Stutterers seem more aware than articulation-defectives and normals of their body boundaries.

Comparison of traditional and condensed articulation tests examining the same number of sounds.

The same recorded speech samples of subjects with articulation defects were presented to judges under two listening conditions. Under one condition each judge was to listen for only one sound per sample word, the traditional method for testing articulation. Under the second condition each judge was to listen for one, two, or three sounds in the various sample words, a quicker method for testing the same number of sounds. Comparisons of the results showed that there was little difference in the judges' performance under the two listening conditions. This suggests that speech pathologists can effectively evaluate more than one sound per word and that a condensed type of test will give approximately the same amount of information as the longer, traditional type of test.