Articulation In Children Research Articles

Performance of EAL learners on a non-South African Articulation Test (GFTA-2)

:Research on the various aspects of child language development in South Africa has generally been an area neglected by specialists in the study of language. In South Africa's multilingual urban settings, English is the language of mutual understanding in most classrooms. The assessment of language (including speech sound production) in English additional language (EAL) pre-schoolers is hampered by the fact that insufficient standardised resources are available for use with young multilingual South African children. Research indicates that the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation – Second Edition (GFTA-2) is a popular formal assessment instrument used for assessing children's articulation abilities by many speech-language therapists in South Africa. The study described the performance of English second language learners, aged between four and nine years, on the GFTA-2 in an urban region in the Gauteng province of South Africa. A descriptive, dominant-less-dominant model research design was used. No significant difference in performance between the second language learners and the normative indicators was noted. The results illustrate the need to adapt the GFTA-2 for the South African context.

An Experimental Analysis of the Consonant Articulation Development of the Children in Multicultural Families and Its Implication to the Assessment of Their Language Development

The purpose of this study is to examine whether the standardized assessment of phonology designed for Korean monolingual children can also be applicable to the children in multicultural families. The data were collected using Kim et al.’s (2007) APAC(Assessment of Phonology & Articulation for Children) from the participants, ranging in age from 3 to 7, consisting of 21 Korean monolingual children and 21 children in multicultural families (Korean-Chinese, Philippine, Cambodian, Uzbek, Vietnamese, French or English). The results of this study indicated that while normal developmental error patterns were observed in the group of Korean monolingual children, non-developmental error patterns as well as developmental ones were observed in the group of children in multicultural families. However, the percent consonant correct did not exhibit the significantly big difference between two groups. These results contrast with those of previous studies on the children in multicultural families. This study shows that when the phonological development of children in multicultural families is evaluated through using a standardized monolingual assessment tool, its results should be interpreted with caution. It also shows that it is required to develop a language development assessment tool specified for those children.

Objective Analysis of Motor Speech Performance in Children with Cochlear Implants

Objectives: Objectively analyze speech and articulation in children with longstanding experience using unilateral cochlear implants. Methods: Cross-sectional study design at a tertiary pediatric hospital. Sixteen subjects (aged 8-17 years) using unilateral cochlear implants were studied. The subjects had a median of 7 years of cochlear implant experience, with excellent audiogram and speech perception scores. Speech was objectively assessed with the Motor Speech Profile (MSP) software and Computerized Speech Lab model 4500 (KayPentax, Lincoln NJ). Results were compared to previously published normative pediatric data. Results: Diadochokinetic rates were within normal limits for 69% of children with /pa/pa/pa/ and 73% of children with /pa/ta/ka/ spoken tasks. The magnitude and rate of the second formant transition were within normal limits for 56% and 83% of children, respectively. The variability in amplitude of intonation stimulability was within normal limits for 100% of children, but variability in frequency was within normal limits in 44% of children only. The syllabic rate and duration were both within normal limits for 88% of children. Overall, subjects demonstrated excellent articulation and timing but poor frequency intonation stimulability. Conclusions: Although the majority of the measured characteristics of speech were normalized after cochlear implantation, variability in frequency during intonation stimulability testing remained outside of the normal range in 56% of subjects even with long term cochlear implant use. This limitation may be perceived as a dampening of emotional expression during speech. Novel cochlear implant software programming and auditory verbal therapy strategies may be needed to address this finding.

Treatment strategy of rotatory dislocation of atlantoaxial articulation in children

To analyze appropriate strategy about treatment of rotatory dislocation of atlantoaxial articulation in children. From March 2005 to February 2009, 36 patients with rotatory dislocation of atlantoaxial articulation were retrospectively analyzed, including 25 males and 11 females, with the average age of 7.8 years (ranged 3 - 14 years). According to Fielding-Hawkins clinical classification, type I 24 cases, type II 8 cases, type III 2 cases, type IV 2 cases. All of the patients were assessed rotatory dislocation of atlantoaxial articulation and whether or not upper cervical spine malformation by X-ray, MRI and CT scan and three-dimensional reconstruction. Thirty-two cases received observational treatments which were reduction after cervical traction, without appearance of the deformity, without neurological symptoms. And another 4 serious cases (irreducible atlantoaxial dislocation or with os odontoideum) received posterior atlantoaxial fixed autograft fusion. Rotation of atlas decreased from 16.0° ± 4.4° (range, 5° to 26°) pre-therapy to 4.5° ± 1.5° (range, 0° to 8°) post-therapy in 35 cases, rotation of atlas had significant difference between pre-therapy and post-therapy (t = 14.75, P < 0.05). One patient pre-therapy rotation of atlas was 45°, post-therapy was 4°. All patients were followed up for 14 - 38 months (mean, 18 months), 32 cases who received cervical traction and external fixation resulted in satisfactory outcome in which all the ankylodeire were disappear, bilateral masses were symmetrical on anterior-posterior and good functional activities of cervical. All the 4 cases surgically treated obtained reduction, sound bony fusion and neural symptoms were improved obviously after operation. Conservative treatment has been proved to be very effective in most of rotatory dislocation of atlantoaxial articulation in children. However, operative treatment should be considered in the following situations: irreducible atlantoaxial dislocation or patients with os odontoideum.

Communication attitude and speech in 10-year-old children with cleft (lip and) palate: An ICF perspective

Many children born with cleft palate have impaired speech during their pre-school years, but usually the speech difficulties are transient and resolved by later childhood. This study investigated communication attitude with the Swedish version of the Communication Attitude Test (CAT-S) in 54 10-year-olds with cleft (lip and) palate. In addition, environmental factors were assessed via parent questionnaire. These data were compared to speech assessments by experienced listeners, who rated the children's velopharyngeal function, articulation, intelligibility, and general impression of speech at ages 5, 7, and 10 years. The children with clefts scored significantly higher on the CAT-S compared to reference data, indicating a more negative communication attitude on group level but with large individual variation. All speech variables, except velopharyngeal function at earlier ages, as well as the parent questionnaire scores, correlated significantly with the CAT-S scores. Although there was a relationship between speech and communication attitude, not all children with impaired speech developed negative communication attitudes. The assessment of communication attitude can make an important contribution to our understanding of the communicative situation for children with cleft (lip and) palate and give important indications for intervention.

Influence of adenotonsillar hypertrophy on /s/-articulation in children—effects of surgery

Tonsillar hypertrophy is common in young children and affects several aspects of the speech such as distortions of the dento-alveolar consonants. The study objective was to assess /s/-articulation, perceptually and acoustically, in children with tonsillar hypertrophy and compare effects of two types of surgery, total tonsillectomy and tonsillotomy. Sixty-seven children, aged 50–65 months, on the waiting list for surgery, were randomized to tonsillectomy or tonsillotomy. The speech material was collected preoperatively and 6 months postoperatively. Two groups of age-matched children were controls. /S/-articulation was affected acoustically with lower spectral peak locations and perceptually with less distinct /s/-production before surgery, in comparison to controls. After surgery /s/-articulation was normalized perceptually, but acoustic differences remained. No significant differences between surgical methods were found.

Clinical application of speech intelligibility research: The River Street Autism Program at Coltsville.

Introduction Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have severe deficits in communication. Because of this problem, behavioral researchers have sought to develop procedures to improve speech production in children with autism (cf. Koegel & Koegel, 1995; Lovaas, 1977; Lovaas, 2003). These researchers have developed powerful and effective strategies for teaching children to produce initial sounds, words, sentences, and conversational speech. Thus, many children have benefited from these procedures with the development of functional vocal repertoires. While some of these children have adequate intelligibility, there is a portion of this population with compromised intelligibility, due to a limited consonant inventory and less complex syllabic structure (National Research Council, 2001). To address this issue, this article will first review the research in this area and then discuss a model of intervention for children with ASD based on these research findings. Guidelines will be provided on how to: 1) assess intelligibility problems; 2) use the normal developmental model when selecting appropriate targets; 3) sequence treatment objectives; 4) improve intelligibility problems using behavioral interventions; 5) program for generalization; and 6) evaluate program success and troubleshooting. Finally, outcome data for five children on the autism spectrum who have received treatment within the context of this model will be provided. Review of the Research Assessment For children with intelligibility problems, speech language pathologists (SLPs) customarily assess sounds in initial, medial and final positions using picture cues with standardized articulation assessments (Newman & Creaghead, 1989). While this is effective in providing information that will guide treatment for the majority of children with intelligibility issues, these tests pose certain problems for children on the autism spectrum. Specifically, these children do not respond well to traditional assessment tools due to their characteristic language delays, excesses in problem behavior, and depressed motivation. Koegel, Koegel and Smith (1997) reported that modifications to the testing situation to respond to these problems will result in significantly higher test scores. Based on the success of this research, Dyer, Fitzgerald, Harris, and Harris (2005) developed an assessment tool that was designed to respond to these problems by: 1) decreasing demands on expressive language production that are often intrinsic to standardized articulation assessment; 2) providing external motivation with stimulus variation and child preferred items; 3) providing behavioral support through individual behavioral support plans and 4) presenting items in a discrete trial format (cf. Koegel & Schreibman, 1982). In addition, the assessment was delivered by a teacher who had stimulus control in a familiar setting, rather than an SLP who had limited contact with the child. The results of the study showed that this assessment method was more effective in providing information on the child's articulation ability than traditional assessment in the context of reversal designs for four children. This suggests that evaluators take steps to address deficits in motivation and language comprehension in the assessment process in order to gain a more representative sample of children's speech production. Treatment Accumulating studies have documented behavioral intervention techniques in the treatment of articulation for children with autism. Using discrete trial techniques described by Koegel and Schreibman (1982), Dyer, Santarcangelo, and Luce (1987) provided articulation treatment to two adolescents with ASD who had persistent articulation errors. After intervention, the first child met criterion on correct production of three separate sounds in less than 200 trials. The second child met criterion on seven sounds in less than 100 trials. …

Reversibility of thought: An instance in multiplicative tasks

In line with current efforts to understand the piece-by-piece structure and articulation of children’s mathematical concepts, this case study compares the reversibility schemes of two eighth-grade students. The aim of the study was to identify the mechanism through which students reverse their thought processes in a multiplicative situation. Data collected through clinical interviews depict the precise strategies that the participants used to work back to find the missing values in an inverse proportional task. This study also illustrates how a conceptual template generated by one of the participants afforded him considerable flexibility in the multiplicative task. Another outcome of the study is that it shows how the numerical characteristics of the parameters in the problem affected the students’ ability to reverse their thought processes. We infer that there is a need for further research on how students might represent their reversibility schemes in the form of algebraic equations.

Associations Between Key Language-Related Measures in Typically Developing School-Age Children

Associations Between Key Language-Related Measures in Typically Developing School-Age Children

Children's history of speech-language difficulties: genetic influences and associations with reading-related measures.

This study examined (a) the extent of genetic and environmental influences on children's articulation and language difficulties and (b) the phenotypic associations between such difficulties and direct assessments of reading-related skills during early school-age years. Behavioral genetic analyses focused on parent-report data regarding the speech-language skills of 248 twin pairs (M = 6.08 years) from the Western Reserve Reading Project. In addition, phenotypic associations between children's speech-language status and direct assessments of early reading-related abilities were examined through hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). Probandwise concordance rates and intraclass tetrachoric correlations indicated high heritability for children's difficulties in expressive language and articulation, with estimates of .54 and .97 accordingly. HLM results indicated that children with histories of speech-language difficulties scored significantly lower than unaffected children on various measures of early reading-related abilities. Results from the parent-report survey provided converging evidence of genetic effects on children's speech and language difficulties and suggest that children with a history of speech-language difficulties are at risk for lower performance on early reading-related measures. The extent of risk differed across measures and appeared greatest for children who demonstrated a history of difficulties across articulation, expressive language, and receptive language. Implications for future genetic research and clinical practice are discussed.

Perception of synthetic vowel exemplars of 4 year old children and estimation of their corresponding vocal tract shapes

Formant scalings for vowel exemplars of American 4 year olds who were imitating adult production were used along with published data of American adult male vowel production to synthesize /a, ae, u, i/. Other vowel exemplars were also synthesized. Adult listeners were asked to categorize these synthetic vowels in a forced choice task. With some exceptions, the formant frequencies preferred for the vowels /a, ae, u, i/ were close to the published data. In order to gain insight on children's articulation during imitation of vowels /a, ae, u, i/, a five-tube model was used in an algorithm to infer vocal tract shape from the first three formant frequencies of the adult productions, the formant frequencies derived for 4 year olds by scaling, and formant frequencies for 4 year olds derived based on the listening experiments. It was found that the rear tube length for the children, in proportionate terms, was nearly always greater than that of the adult. The rear tube length was proportionately twice as long in children compared to adults for the vowel /u/. Tongue root flexibility and the oblique angle between the pharynx and mouth may be more important than pharynx length in determining formant scalings for 4 year old children.

The clinical utility of nonword repetition for children living in the rural south of the US

Nonword repetition (NWR) tasks have been shown to minimize cultural biases in language assessment. In the current study, we further examined the clinical utility of NWR with 83 children who lived in the rural south of the US; 33 were African American and 50 were White, with 16 classified as specifically language impaired (SLI) 6‐year‐olds and 67 classified as either age‐matched or younger controls. Main effects were found for group, with the children in the SLI group earning lower NWR scores than the controls. A main effect for syllable length but not race was also documented. The group and syllable length effects could not be explained by differences in the children's articulation abilities or by potential differences in the children's use of vernacular dialect. Discriminant analysis indicated that NWR had a diagnostic accuracy rate of 81% for the 6‐year‐olds, but sensitivity was low (56%). When combined with scores from one other nonbiased assessment tool, however, the diagnostic accuracy of NWR increased to 90%, with rates of sensitivity and specificity above 80%.

A Difference-Centred Alternative to Theorization of Children's Citizenship Rights

The “rights revolution” has become a central feature of modern political consciousness and has resulted in a proliferation of theories about children's rights. Yet mainstream liberal theories in which children's rights are theorized rarely take children's rights as citizens seriously, due to the normative stance of liberal theories that construct children in terms of “not-yet-citizens”. This article argues for a difference-centred theory of children's citizenship rights by situating the analysis within feminist, anti-racist, gay, lesbian and transgendered theories of citizenship that are difference-centred. It discusses an alternative, difference-centred, articulation of children's citizenship rights through an analysis of their rights of liberty and equality. Through a broadening of liberal, normative notions of liberty defined around exercising individuated autonomous decision-making or the participation in citizenry duties, the article re-defines children's rights of liberty in relational terms that addresses their agency and acknowledges their presence as participating subjects in the multiple relationships in which they interact. It also re-articulates their rights of equality from a mainstream liberal interpretation of “equality-as-same” to one that treats children as “differently equal” members of the public culture in which they are full participants. Normative social institutional practices and assumptions become the focus of the analysis, which concludes that these have to change as they act as barriers that exclude and marginalize children's citizenship rights on the basis of their difference (real and constructed) from an adult norm assumed of citizens.

A preliminary investigation of the efficacy of oral motor exercises for children with mild articulation disorders

Although oral motor therapy is sometimes used to treat articulation disorders in school-age children, several reports question its efficacy. In this case study, four first-grade students, two boys and two girls, received 15 half-hour sessions of oral motor treatment based on Easy Does it for Articulation: An Oral Motor Approach (Strode and Chamberlain,1997). Pre- and post-test measures of the children's articulation indicated no real differences in speech production. These results question the efficacy of general and discrete oral motor exercises because they did not enhance the children's speech production.

Child-Centered Group Play Therapy with Children with Speech Difficulties.

The problem with which this investigation was concerned was that of determining the efficacy of child-centered group play therapy with pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children with speech difficulties as an intervention strategy for improving specific speech problems in the areas of articulation, receptive language, and expressive language. A second purpose was that of determining the efficacy of child-centered group play therapy in improving self-esteem, positive social interaction, and in decreasing anxiety and withdrawal behaviors among pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children with speech difficulties. The experimental group consisted of 11 children who received 25 group play therapy sessions one time a week in addition to their directive speech therapy sessions. The comparison group consisted of 10 children who received only their directive speech therapy sessions. The Goldman Fristoe Test of Articulation, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test - Revised, and the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals - 3 were used to measure receptive and expressive language skills. The Burks' Behavior Rating Scale was used to measure symptoms of anxiety, withdrawal, poor self-esteem, and poor social skills as observed by parents and teachers. Twelve hypotheses were tested using ANCOVA and Eta Squared. Child-centered group play therapy was shown to have a large practical significance in helping children improve their expressive language skills. Child-centered group play therapy was shown to have a medium practical significance in increasing children's receptive language skills. Small sample size may have contributed to the lack of statistical significance as calculated by the analysis of covariance. Child-centered group play therapy was shown to have a small yet positive impact upon children's articulation skills and anxiety. Although not significant at the .05 level, these results indicate a slightly larger increase in articulation skills and a slightly larger decrease in symptoms of anxiety among those children who received group play therapy as compared to those who did not. Child-centered group play therapy was shown to have a mixed effect upon children's self-esteem, withdrawal behaviors, and positive social interactions. This study supports the use of child-centered group play therapy as an effective intervention strategy for children with speech difficulties to improve expressive and receptive language skill development.

Behavioral treatment of children with phonological disorder: the efficacy of vocal imitation and sufficient-response-exemplar training.

This study examined whether sufficient-response-exemplar training of vocal imitation would result in improved articulation in children with phonological disorder, and whether improved articulation established in the context of vocal imitation would transfer to other verbal classes such as object naming and conversational speech. Participant 1 was 6 years old and attended first grade in a regular public school. Participant 2 was 5 years 4 months old and attended a public kindergarten. Both participants had normal hearing and no additional handicaps. A multiple baseline design across behaviors (target sounds or blends) was employed to examine whether the vocal imitation training resulted in improved articulation. Results showed that both participants improved articulation once training was implemented, and that the improved articulation transferred from vocal imitation to more natural speech such as object naming and conversational speech. Improvement established during training was maintained posttraining and at a 6-month follow-up.

Changes of voice and articulation in children with cochlear implants

Objective: The different speech sounds are formed by the primary voice signal and by the shape of the articulation tract. With this mechanism, specific overtones, the formants, are generated for each vowel. The objective of this study was to investigate the fundamental frequency (F0) of the voice signal and the first three formants (F1–F3) as a parameter of the articulation in prelingually deafened children at different timepoints after cochlear implantation (CI) compared with children with normal speech development. Methods: Using the Kay CSL 4300B, the fundamental frequency and the formants F1–F3 of the Swiss–German vowel /a/ were investigated at different timepoints after CI in 20 prelingually deafened children aged 3.8–10.2 years by means of spectrographic and linear predictive coding (LPC) analysis. Results: Children who had been operated before their fourth birthday showed no significant deviation in their fundamental frequency from age- and sex-matched peers, whereas a significant difference was documented in children who were older at the time of implantation. The first formant was very stable in every child and showed only discrete deviations from the normal range. The second and third formants, however, developed a broader scatter, but there was no systematic deviation of these formants to higher or lower values. The F1:F2 ratio was normal in children who were implanted at the age of up to 4 years and more centralized in children who were older at the time of implantation, as is known from the hearing impaired. Conclusions: Our results indicate that prelingually deaf children who receive a cochlear implant before their fourth birthday attain a better acoustic control over their speech, normalizing their fundamental frequencies and improving their articulatory skills.

Imitation of intonation contours by children with normal and disordered language development

This study investigated the relation between intonation and segmental phonology in children with developmental language impairment (LI). Eleven 4-year-olds with LI and 11 age-matched children with normal language development imitated sentences that were modelled with different nuclear tones. Instrumental analysis indicated that the children imitated falling tones more accurately than rising tones, but there were no group differences. Although the children with LI had age-appropriate intonation skills, they all demonstrated mild to moderate impairments in segmental phonology. This dissociation pattern was confirmed by correlation analyses, which indicated that the severity of a child's articulation disorder predicted how well he or she produced segmental contrastsA but not prosodic contrasts. The findings are discussed in relation to the hypothesis that prosody pertains to a different 'tier' of the grammar than other phonological systems, and that the speech of children with LI may reflect asymmetrical degrees of impairment across prosodic and non-prosodic tiers.

An item analysis of Australian English words for an articulation and phonological test for children aged 2 to 7 years

Item analysis information is rarely given for English tests of children's articulation and phonology. Therefore, there is little information about the sensitivity and specificity measures of these tests. Item difficulty and item discrimination scores were derived for 199 words that were varied for phonotactic shape, syllable numbers and stress. Fifty-nine normally speaking children and 40 children with speech impairments in the age range of 2-9 years named pictures depicting the above words. Most words had satisfactory item difficulty scores indicating ease of naming. The words that best differentiated between children with and without speech impairment were monosyllabic words containing word-initial and/or word-final clusters and polysyllabic words, that is, words of three or more syllables. Disyllabic and polysyllabic words beginning with a weak syllable also seemed to be highly discriminating. Monosyllabic words with a CV or CVC shape that contained the earlier developing sounds had unacceptable measures of item discrimination. It is recommended that the use of tests that contain a preponderance of monosyllabic words with a CVC shape and the normative data derived from them be critically reviewed, especially for children aged four years and older.

Childhood, Agency and Education Reform

This article provides commentary on the relationship between childhood and agency within the context of education reform. The prominence of a `child-centred' social science and the trends in childcare policy, at least in some countries, towards the articulation of children's voices suggest possibilities for children as both research subjects and competent members of society. The article will address these possibilities through the analysis of a series of local and global issues connected to organizational, curricular and pedagogic changes in schooling. Although the focus is British pupils, reference is made to changes taking place in other countries. The position of pupils in schools is examined with reference to several themes: the role of the market and the individualizing of education; the need to produce `schooled' citizens by drawing attention to the relationship between the school and the wider community; and public concerns over behavioural and curricular standards. Reference is also made to children's potential as social agents in schools, but the main thrust of the argument is that recent education reform provides few channels for pupil participation.