Speech Intelligibility In Children Research Articles

Speech-Language Outcomes in the COVID-19 Milieu for Multilingual Jamaican Preschoolers and Considerations for Telepractice Assessments.

The purpose of this study was to characterize the communicative participation and functional speech intelligibility (i.e., how children use communication and how well they are understood across everyday life) of typically developing (TD) bilingual Jamaican preschoolers and those with functionally defined speech sound disorders (fSSDs) in the COVID-19 milieu. Findings were also compared to an existing corpus of baseline data to document and explore differences in children's speech-language outcomes secondary to pandemic-related social restrictions. Thirty bilingual Jamaican preschoolers, 21 TD and nine with fSSDs, were assessed during the pandemic via telepractice. Association and univariate mean testing were completed to characterize children's communicative participation and functional speech intelligibility. Data were then compared to an existing corpus of baseline data (collected in person between 2013 and 2019), which included direct child assessment and parent reports and consisted of TD (n = 226) Jamaican Creole-English-speaking preschoolers and those with fSSDs (n = 39) to compare performance profiles across data sets. All participants attended schools in Kingston, Jamaica. Measures of communicative participation remained stable in the context of the COVID-19 milieu for children in the TD and fSSD groups, but functional speech intelligibility outcomes for children with fSSDs deviated between in-person findings collected from children pre-pandemic. Between-groups differences were also found on measures of speech production accuracy but were no longer significant when considering telepractice as a covariate. Findings from this investigation serve to characterize the communicative participation and functional speech intelligibility of TD bilingual Jamaican preschoolers and those with fSSDs in the COVID-19 milieu. By extension, the results comparing data from preschoolers collected during the pandemic to an existing corpus of baseline data from a different group of preschoolers provide critical insights about multilingual children's speech-language outcomes in the context of acutely changing environmental circumstances. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25461505.

Spatial Hearing in Children With and Without Hearing Loss: Where and What the Speech Is Matters for Local Speech Intelligibility.

This study examined children's ability to perceive speech from multiple locations on the horizontal plane. Children with hearing loss were compared to normal-hearing peers while using amplification with and without advanced noise management. Participants were 21 children with normal hearing (9-15 years) and 12 children with moderate symmetrical hearing loss (11-15 years). Word recognition, nonword detection, and word recall were assessed. Stimuli were presented randomly from multiple discrete locations in multitalker noise. Children with hearing loss were fit with devices having separate omnidirectional and noise management programs. The noise management feature is designed to preserve audibility in noise by rapidly analyzing input from all locations and reducing the noise management when speech is detected from locations around the hearing aid user. Significant effects of left/right and front/back lateralization occurred as well as effects of hearing loss and hearing aid noise management. Children with normal hearing experienced a left-side advantage for word recognition and a right-side advantage for nonword detection. Children with hearing loss demonstrated poorer performance overall on all tasks with better word recognition from the back, and word recall from the right, in the omnidirectional condition. With noise management, performance improved from the front compared to the back for all three tasks and from the right for word recognition and word recall. The shape of children's local speech intelligibility on the horizontal plane is not omnidirectional. It is task dependent and shaped further by hearing loss and hearing aid signal processing. Front/back shifts in children with hearing loss are consistent with the behavior of hearing aid noise management, while the right-side biases observed in both groups are consistent with the effects of specialized speech processing in the left hemisphere of the brain.

Parent’s Perspective about Intelligibility of Speech in Children with Cerebral Palsy

Background: The term cerebral palsy (CP) refers to a collection of long-term abnormalities of posture and movement development that limit an individual's activities. These abnormalities are thought to be caused by non-progressive disruptions in the growing fetal or infant brain. Aim: To identify the speech Intelligibility of children with cerebral palsy with different communicative partners Methods: This study employed convenient sampling over two months, conducted within the Pakistan Society for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled (PSRD) and Rising Sun Institute for Special Children. Data collection involved the ICS questionnaire, capturing parents' ratings on their child's speech intelligibility in various social contexts. Results: Out of 119 participants, predominantly aged 4 to 12 years, the study revealed varying levels of speech intelligibility. Scores on the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS). Parents exhibited a high level of understanding, with a mean score of 4.32±0.96 SD, signifying a substantial level of intelligibility. Immediate family members, extended family members, and the child's teachers also demonstrated relatively high mean scores, ranging from 3.91 to 3.87. In contrast, strangers had a markedly lower mean score of 2.94±1.49 SD, indicating heightened challenges in comprehending the speech of children with cerebral palsy. Conclusion: The speech of children with cerebral palsy is most easily understood by parents, while strangers encounter more significant challenges. This reinforces the crucial role of familiarity in shaping speech intelligibility for these children. The observed difficulties in communication with unfamiliar individuals emphasize the need for targeted interventions and support to address the unique challenges faced by children with cerebral palsy in diverse social contexts. Keywords: Cerebral Palsy, Speech Intelligibility, Parental Perspective, Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS)

Phonemic Feature Scoring as a Tool for Progress Monitoring During Language Interventions for Children With Autism and Minimal Verbal Skills.

An increasing number of studies focus on verbal treatments for children with autism and minimal verbal skills. However, clinical tools for progress monitoring during interventions are lacking. The aim of this clinical focus article is to provide illustrations on the utility of a phonemic feature scoring system as a progress-monitoring tool, focusing on benefits and limitations as well as indications for use. Current practices for progress monitoring during language interventions with children with autism and minimal verbal skills are reviewed. A phonemic feature scoring tool is provided to aid clinicians in assessing the accuracy and consistency of expressive word productions. The authors illustrate the use of phonemic feature scoring as a progress-monitoring tool for two children with autism and minimal verbal skills, contrasting the phonemic feature scoring system to correct/incorrect, phoneme-level, and whole-word scoring. Case 1 demonstrates a scenario where the child's speech intelligibility is low and clinical use of the phonemic feature scoring system captures discrete changes in speech production progress not represented by correct/incorrect, phoneme-level, and whole-word scoring. However, Case 2 represents a situation where once a child's speech intelligibility improves, the phonemic feature scoring system is no longer needed, and correct/incorrect scoring may be sufficient. The phonemic feature scoring system allows clinicians to track phonemic feature changes in word productions and provides detailed progress monitoring information, leading to adaptations of the intervention for each individual.

A Comparative Study of Voice Characteristics in Children With Cochlear Implants and Typically Hearing Children: Insights From an Indian Context.

Purpose The aim of the study was to evaluate speech outcomes in children with cochlear implants compared to normally hearing children in terms of fundamental frequency, shimmer, and jitter. The study also aims to assess the intelligibility of speech in children with cochlear implants using a speech intelligibility rating scale. Methods This was a hospital-based comparative study conducted at JIPMER, a major tertiary referral center. A total of 25 prelingually deaf children with profound deafness, who underwent cochlear implantation at the institute, were recruited from the outpatient department of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology. Twenty-five children under seven years of age who underwent cochlear implantation and received a minimum of 36 speech therapy sessions were included in the study. Subjects with incomplete electrode array insertion and any neurological maldevelopment were excluded. Age- and gender-matched controls comprising 25 individuals were selected from the Ophthalmology Outpatient Department at JIPMER. Study procedure The study commenced in January 2019. Test subjects were asked to visit the Audiology and Speech and Language Pathology Department at JIPMER. Voice recordings were conducted in a soundproof room using a microphone, with the mouthpiece held at a distance of 10-15 cm from the patient. The patient was instructed to say "a" three times. Their voice was recorded and analyzed using Praat software (Version 6.1.15, developed by Paul Boersma and David Weenink, Phonetic Sciences, University of Amsterdam). Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 19 (Released 2010; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York) (Department of Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA), and the results were derived. Results The mean fundamental frequency for Group 1 (CI) was 266.03 ± 57.46 Hz, compared to 312.97 ± 22.15 Hz for Group 2 (NH). There was a statistically significant difference between the values of both groups, indicating that cochlear implantation positively impacted the fundamental frequency of speech. The study revealed a significant change in the fundamental frequency when children were implanted at an early age and received effective speech therapy post-implantation. This change was assessed after one year post-implant. Perturbation measures such as shimmer and jitter were lower in the cochlear implant group but were not statistically significant. Conclusion Children with congenital bilateral severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss tend to have higher values of the fundamental frequency of speech. However, when implanted at an early age, they showed a significant difference in the fundamental frequency of speech (p < 0.001). Speech perturbation was lower in the post-cochlear implant group, with a statistically significant difference in the values of shimmer alone. The study concludes that children with cochlear implants can achieve normal voice parameters with early intervention and training. However, the variability range is much higher than in typically hearing individuals.

Facultys Awareness to the Situation of Students with Mild Hearing Loss in a Single School in a Large City in China

Plenty of research has shown that noisy environment has significant impact on childrens speech recognition, especially on children with different degrees of hearing impairment. Modifications on the construction of classroom and improvement in study environment help assist children with MHL to perceive more information in class. Several research studies assessing environment of classrooms in normal schools which are for normal children and children with hearing loss in China have found that traffic noise, speech shape masking, babble noise and other typical noises around school sites impose negative impact on Chinese speech intelligibility of children in elementary school. By analyzing the result of a designed questionnaire, this research focused on the facultys awareness to the situation of students with mild hearing loss in a single school in Wuhan, a large city in China in order to find possible measurements that can be taken by the faculty to improve the learning experience of students with hearing loss at school.

Effects of multitasker babble noise on speech intelligibility in children with velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI).

Intelligibility measurement is influenced by the characteristics of a speaker, listener and contextual factors. This study addresses the clinical problem of measuring speech intelligibility in children with velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) in real-world conditions. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of background noise on speech intelligibility in speakers with velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) compared to typical speech. The study further determined the contribution of nasalance and articulation accuracy in judgments of intelligibility. Fifteen speakers diagnosed with VPI and their typical peers provided audio recordings of 20 sentences from the Hearing in Noise Test. Speech samples were presented over quiet and noise (+5dB signal-to-noise ratio) conditions to 70 naïve listeners. Intelligibility scores from naïve listeners' orthographic transcriptions were obtained as the percentage of correctly identified words. A repeated-measures analysis of variance showed diagnosis of VPI (F(1, 28) = 13.44, p = 0.001, and presence of noise (F(1, 28) = 39.18, p < 0.001) significantly affected the intelligibility scores. There was no interaction between the diagnosis of VPI and noise (F(1, 28) = 0.06, p = 0.80). The multivariate regression analysis indicated that nasalance and articulation accuracy explain a significant amount of variance in the intelligibility scores of VPI speakers in quiet (F(2, 12) = 7.11, p < 0.05, R2 = 0.55, R2 Adjusted = 0.47) and noise (F(2, 12) = 6.32, p < 0.05, R2 = 0.51, R2 Adjusted = 0.43), but the significance mainly came from the effect of percentage of consonants correct (β = 0.97, t(12) = 2.90, p = 0.01). Percentage of consonants correct significantly increased the speech intelligibility in either with or without noise conditions. The current work suggests that background noise will significantly affect reductions in intelligibility in both groups; the effect is more prominent in VPI speech. It was also further noted that articulation accuracy significantly affected intelligibility in quiet and noise rather than nasalance scores. What is already known on the subject Intelligibility measurement is influenced by the characteristics of a speaker, listener and contextual factors. Accordingly, it is essential to determine the degree to which speech assessments in the clinic can predict communication difficulties in the presence of background noise in real life. Background noise can adversely cause speech intelligibility degradation in individuals with speech disorders. What this study adds The study examined the effects of background noise on speech intelligibility in speakers with velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) secondary to cleft palate compared to typical speech. The study results suggested that the presence of background noise will significantly affect reductions in intelligibility in both groups; however, the effect is more prominent in VPI speech. What are the clinical implications of this work? We found out that the intelligibility of VPI speech is lower in the presence of background noise, and therefore, assessments of speech intelligibility in clinical settings should take this into account. To ensure effective communication in noisy environments, recommended strategies include selecting quiet locations, eliminating potential distractions and supplementing communication with nonverbal cues. It is important to recognize that the effectiveness of these strategies may vary depending on the individual and the specific communication context.

Vowel Production in Children and Adults With Down Syndrome: Fundamental and Formant Frequencies of the Corner Vowels.

Atypical vowel production contributes to reduced speech intelligibility in children and adults with Down syndrome (DS). This study compares the acoustic data of the corner vowels /i/, /u/, /æ/, and /ɑ/ from speakers with DS against typically developing/developed (TD) speakers. Measurements of the fundamental frequency (f o) and first four formant frequencies (F1-F4) were obtained from single word recordings containing the target vowels from 81 participants with DS (ages 3-54 years) and 293 TD speakers (ages 4-92 years), all native speakers of English. The data were used to construct developmental trajectories and to determine interspeaker and intraspeaker variability. Trajectories for DS differed from TD based on age and sex, but the groups were similar with the striking change in f o and F1-F4 frequencies around age 10 years. Findings confirm higher f o in DS, and vowel-specific differences between DS and TD in F1 and F2 frequencies, but not F3 and F4. The measure of F2 differences of front-versus-back vowels was more sensitive of compression than reduced vowel space area/centralization across age and sex. Low vowels had more pronounced F2 compression as related to reduced speech intelligibility. Intraspeaker variability was significantly greater for DS than TD for nearly all frequency values across age. Vowel production differences between DS and TD are age- and sex-specific, which helps explain contradictory results in previous studies. Increased intraspeaker variability across age in DS confirms the presence of a persisting motor speech disorder. Atypical vowel production in DS is common and related to dysmorphology, delayed development, and disordered motor control.

Who speaks "kid?" How experience with children does (and does not) shape the intelligibility of child speech.

Child speech deviates from adult speech in predictable ways. Are listeners who routinely interact with children implicitly aware of these systematic deviations, and thereby better at understanding children? Or do idiosyncratic differences in how children pronounce words overwhelm these systematic deviations? In Experiment 1, we use a speech-in-noise transcription task to test who "speaks kid" among four listener groups: undergraduates (n = 48), mothers of young children (n = 48), early childhood educators (n = 48), and speech-language pathologists (SLPs; n = 48). All listeners transcribed speech by typically developing children and adults. In Experiment 2, we use a similar task to test an additional group of mothers (n = 50) on how intelligible they found their own child versus another child. Contrary to previous claims, we find no evidence for an experience-based general child speech intelligibility advantage. However, we do find that mothers understand their own child best. We also observe a general task advantage by SLPs. Our findings demonstrate that routine (and even extensive) exposure to children may not make all children more intelligible, but that it may instead make particular children one has experience with more intelligible. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Developmental Cut-Points for Atypical Speech Intelligibility in Children With Cerebral Palsy.

Early identification of speech motor involvement (SMI) in children with cerebral palsy (CP) is difficult because of overlapping features with many aspects of typical speech development. Quantitative measures of speech intelligibility have the potential to differentiate between children with SMI and those with no SMI (NSMI). We examined thresholds for speech intelligibility development in children with CP relative to the low end of age-specific typical developmental expectations. We sought to determine whether there were intelligibility differences between children with CP and NSMI versus typically developing (TD) age-mates across the range of development and whether there were differences between children with CP who have NSMI and those with CP who have SMI across the range of development based on speech intelligibility. We used two large existing data sets that included speech samples from children between the ages of 2.5 and 8 years. One data set included 511 longitudinal speech samples from children with CP; the other included 505 cross-sectional speech samples from TD children. We examined receiver operating characteristic curves and sensitivity/specificity results by age for differentiating among groups of children. TD children versus those with CP and NSMI showed differentiation in their speech intelligibility across all ages, but the strength of differentiation was only marginally above chance. Children with CP and NSMI showed clear differentiation in their speech intelligibility from those with CP and SMI beginning at the earliest age point. Children with CP who have intelligibility below 40% at the age of 3 years have a very high probability of having SMI. Early intelligibility screening should be performed in children diagnosed with CP. Those with intelligibility below 40% at 3 years of age should be referred immediately for speech assessment and treatment.

Cochlear Implantation and Assessment of Speech in Children

Cochlea is a hollow, spiral shaped bone in the inner ear that has sense of hearing and to produce sound. Cochlear problems, or its damage can result in loss of hearing. This study was designed to access intelligibility of speech in children with cochlear implants. A total of 30 subjects (7 to 42 months) from Fatima Memorial College of Medicine and Dentistry were considered which were implanted with cochlea from October 2012 to December 2012. A pre-designed questionnaire was used for the data collection in order to collect the views from the parents of children with cochlear implants regarding the intelligibility of conversational speech produced by their children. It was noticed a 26 (86.7%) of the 30 youngsters who had cochlear implants were able to understand what was being said by their speakers. Moreover, parents and other listeners try to understand the conversation that cochlear implant’s recipients make. It was concluded cochlear implants found useful and recommended for improving hearing of impaired individuals.

Outcomes of cochlear implantation in children with Usher syndrome: a long-term observation.

To evaluate auditory performance and speech intelligibility of children with Usher syndrome up to 10years after cochlear implantation. Thirty-five children with USH were compared to 46 non-syndromic patients regarding age at implantation. Auditory performance and speech intelligibility was assessed with standard tools. Genetic counseling, vestibular tests, imaging studies, and ophthalmological findings were evaluated, depending on the availability. The mean age of implantation in USH children was 6.3years (SD 4.6, range 0.3-17.6years). Post-implantation values of the studied parameters were compared between USH and NS children and presented as follows: PTA = 25.0dB HL vs. 28.4, CAP = 5.3 vs. 5.1, SIR = 4.1 vs. 3.9, MAIS = 82.3% vs. 80.5%, MUSS = 81.8% vs. 76.6%. There were no statistically significant differences between the USH and NS groups (p > 0.005). USH patients reached a higher score ceiling earlier compared to NS patients. Children implanted before 3years of age achieved significantly higher results than older children in USH and NS groups (p < 0.005). In all patients with USH, the electroretinogram was abnormal. Vestibular examination was abnormal in 29 of 31 patients with USH1. Imaging studies revealed no inner ear or auditory nerve anomalies in patients with USH. Cochlear implantation successfully improves auditory performance and speech intelligibility in patients with USH, especially those implanted under 3years of age. The electroretinogram is the only reliable test to establish a diagnosis of USH. Logopedic outcomes are associated with early implantation, and early diagnosis of USH contributes to optimizing speech therapy.

Speech Intelligibility in Children with Cochlear Implants Compared to Normal-Hearing Peers Matched for Chronological Age and Hearing Age

Background and Aim: Cochlear implants (CIs) can lead to the development of verbal communication in areas such as sound repertoire, speech intelligibility (SI), and conversational skills. The SI refers to the ability to make recognizable speech sounds. Children with CIs may experience poorer SI than normal- hearing (NH) children. This study aims to compare the SI between children with CIs and NH peers matched for chronological age and hearing age.&#x0D; Methods: The speech samples of 40 monolingual Persian-speaking children, including 20 children with CIs and 20 NH children were used in this study. The children’s SI was analyzed using three measures of the percentage of correct consonants, percentage of correct vowels, and percentage of intelligible words. One speech-language pathologist and two non-professional listeners transcribed each speech sample.&#x0D; Results: The results showed no significant difference in any measures of SI between CI children and NH hearing age-matched peers, but there was a significant difference between CI children and NH chronological age-matched peers (p&lt;0.05).&#x0D; Conclusion: The SI in Persian-speaking children with CIs is the same as in NH hearing age-matched peers, but it was poorer compared to NH chronological age-matched peers. If the children with hearing impairments receive CIs sooner, their SI can be greater. Cochlear implantation improves SI by increasing the hearing experience.&#x0D; Keywords: Speech intelligibility; percentage of correct consonants; percentage of correct vowels; percentage of intelligible words; cochlear implant; hearing age

ANALIZA BŁĘDÓW ARTYKULACJI POPEŁNIANYCH PRZEZ POSŁUGUJĄCE SIĘ JĘZYKIEM MALAJALAM DZIECI Z NIEDOSŁUCHEM UŻYWAJĄCE CYFROWYCH APARATÓW SŁUCHOWYCH: BADANIE WSTĘPNE

BackgroundSpeech sound errors are often exhibited by children with hearing impairment. Articulatory error pattern analyses show a tendency towards vowel substitutions and consonant omissions. There is a dearth of literature on the articulatory characteristics of Indian children who use digital hearing aids. Such information is crucial for speech language pathologists in correcting articulation errors. Hence this study examined the nature of speech sound errors in Malayalam speaking children with hearing impairment who use digital hearing aids.Material and methodsA total of 7 monolingual Malayalam speaking children aged 3–7 years who were diagnosed as having spoken-language disorder secondary to congenital hearing impairment (&gt; 70 dB HL bilaterally) were analysed. Frequently misarticulated vowels and consonants were ascertained from recorded speech samples. Additional error analysis was performed based on error type and the place, manner, and voicing features of the consonants.ResultsThe short vowel /u/ and long vowel /i:/ were found to be the most frequently misarticulated vowels. The most frequently misarticulated consonants were trills (/r/), affricates (/ʤ/, /ʧ/), and fricatives (/ʂ/, /ʃ/). Substitution errors were the most common error type. Place–manner errors and place errors were more frequent than other types of errors.ConclusionsTargeting frequently misarticulated speech sounds supports effective intervention, leading to improved speech intelligibility in children with hearing impairment.

How do noise and face masks affect speech intelligibility for cochlear implanted children?

Due to the recent pandemic event related to COVID-19, many countries are mandating the use of face masks to reduce the spread of the virus. Unfortunately, those masks can have a detrimental effect on speech communication, particularly for vulnerable listeners like children with hearing loss. This work investigates which type of face mask yields the highest level of speech intelligibility for children with cochlear implants. Fourteen children with cochlear implants aged 7–15 years have been involved, together with a control group of six normal-hearing children. Online speech intelligibility tests (simplified Italian matrix sentence test) were performed testing different masks at different signal to noise ratios. The listening difficulty was also evaluated on a 5-points scale. The results of this study showed which type of face masks are recommended to maximize intelligibility for children with cochlear implants.

Utility of the Intelligibility in Context Scale for Predicting Speech Intelligibility of Children with Cerebral Palsy.

The Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) is a widely used, efficient tool for describing a child’s speech intelligibility. Few studies have explored the relationship between ICS scores and transcription intelligibility scores, which are the gold standard for clinical measurement. This study examined how well ICS composite scores predicted transcription intelligibility scores among children with cerebral palsy (CP), how well individual questions from the ICS differentially predicted transcription intelligibility scores, and how well the ICS composite scores differentiated between children with and without speech motor impairment. Parents of 48 children with CP, who were approximately 13 years of age, completed the ICS. Ninety-six adult naïve listeners provided orthographic transcriptions of children’s speech. Transcription intelligibility scores were regressed on ICS composite scores and individual item scores. Dysarthria status was regressed on ICS composite scores. Results indicated that ICS composite scores were moderately strong predictors of transcription intelligibility scores. One individual ICS item differentially predicted transcription intelligibility scores, and dysarthria severity influenced how well ICS composite scores differentiated between children with and without speech motor impairment. Findings suggest that the ICS has potential clinical utility for children with CP, especially when used with other objective measures of speech intelligibility.

Speech intelligibility of children with an auditory brainstem implant: a triple-case study

ABSTRACT Auditory brainstem implantation (ABI) is a relative recent development in paediatric hearing restoration. Consequently, young-implanted children’s productive language has not received much attention. This study investigated speech intelligibility of children with ABI (N = 3) in comparison to children with cochlear implants (CI) and children with typical hearing (TH). Spontaneous speech samples were recorded from children representing the three groups matched on cumulative vocabulary level. Untrained listeners (N = 101) rated the intelligibility of one-word utterances on a continuous scale and transcribed each utterance. The rating task yielded a numerical score between 0 and 100, and similarities and differences between the listeners’ transcriptions were captured by a relative entropy score. The speech intelligibility of children with CI and children with TH was similar. Speech intelligibility of children with ABI was well below that of the children with CI and TH. But whereas one child with ABI’s intelligibility approached that of the control groups with increasing lexicon size, the intelligibility of the two other children with ABI did not develop in a similar direction. Overall, speech intelligibility was only moderate in the three groups of children, with quite low ratings and considerable differences in the listeners’ transcriptions, resulting in high relative entropy scores.

TỔNG QUAN CÁC TIÊU CHUẨN CHẨN ĐOÁN RỐI LOẠN ÂM LỜI NÓI Ở TRẺ EM

Speech sound disorders (SSD) is a common communication disorder with long-term consequences in children. Diagnosis and assessment play an important role in the identification of SSD and its severity, to assist goal setting and intervention planning and to measure progression. In order to define and describe diagnostic criteria regarding SSD in children, this review paper uses content analysis of 14 studies reporting on children with SSD. Results reveal that diagnostic criteria for SSD in children include: 1) Mean scores of percentage phonemes correct (e.g., percentage of consonants correct, PCC, and percentage of vowels correct, PVC); 2) phonological processes; 3) “concern” from parents, teachers, and children themselves about children’s speech and pronunciation; and 4) children's speech intelligibility. While mean scores of the percentage of consonants correct were varied between studies, diagnostic criteria for identifying SSD were achieving a PCC score between one and two standard deviations below the mean for the child’s age. Some children with SSD were reported to use phonological processes that are occasional (&gt;10%) and rare (&gt;5%), or are still being used at an older age compared to typically developing children. Many children with SSD had parents and teachers who were concerned about their speech and pronunciation. Mean scores of young children’s speech intelligibility measured by the Intelligibility in Context Scale were typically below 4.0. This review provides useful information and a foundation for research and clinical practice in a language in which diagnosis criteria for SSD have not been established.

Agreements between speech language pathologists and naïve listeners’ judgements of intelligibility in children with cleft palate

ABSTRACT Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) working in interdisciplinary craniofacial teams need to know how much their judgments of speech intelligibility could predict the patient’s communication difficulties with non-clinical communicative partners. This study examines the relationship between experienced SLPs and naïve listeners in judgments of speech intelligibility in speakers with cleft palate. A speech perception study was conducted using speech samples from 20 speakers with velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) following cleft palate. Speech samples were presented to 70 naïve listeners and 10 SLPs who were experts in cleft palate treatment. Speech intelligibility scores from naïve listeners’ orthographic transcriptions were obtained as the percentage of correctly identified words. Speech intelligibility scores from SLPs were obtained using a five-point rating scale. Spearman rank correlation indicated a very high level of overall agreement between naïve listeners and SLPs at the speaker level scores (rs = −.94, p < .001). While the listeners’ judgment seems highly related across highly intelligible speakers, the differences in agreements increase when the speaker is unintelligible. The high correlations between scores for naïve listeners and SLPs suggest that speech intelligibility in children with VPI could be predicted by ratings done in the clinic by expert SLPs.

TỔNG QUAN MÔ TẢ VỀ THANG ĐO TÍNH DỄ HIỂU THEO NGỮ CẢNH

Speech intelligibility describes the degree of understanding messages between speakers and listeners. Speech intelligibility plays an important role in examining children’ speech, in diagnosing speech sound disorders, in setting goals, planning intervention, and evaluating effectiveness of speech interventions. The Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) is one of the most popular speech intelligibility measurement tools and has been translated into more than 60 languages across the world. This paper presents a scoping review of 39 publications including five describing, 19 norming and validation studies and 15 studies reporting on the use of ICS. Based on content analysis, this paper describes the development and translation, norming, validation and use of the ICS with children speaking English (five descriptions and nine papers), children speaking 14 other languages across the world (21 papers), and children speaking Vietnamese in Vietnam (four papers). Participants in the ICS studies were: monolingual, bilingual and multilingual; with and without speech sound disorders; and from 1-2 years old to adults but mainly in the preschool age range. The ICS’s mean scores, internal reliability, internal consistency, sensitivity, specificity as well as other psychometric properties were reported in ICS studies. These indicators reveal evidence that ICS is a reliable scale to use in research and clinical practice to measure speech intelligibility of children speaking different languages across the world including children speaking northern and southern Vietnamese dialects.