Speech Production Development Research Articles

The potential impact of literacy intervention on speech sound production in students with intellectual disability and communication difficulties

ABSTRACT A small body of research and reports from educational and clinical practice suggest that teaching literacy skills may facilitate the development of speech sound production in students with intellectual disabilities (ID). However, intervention research is needed to test the potential connection. This study aimed to investigate whether twelve weeks of systematic, digital literacy intervention enhanced speech sound production in students with ID and communication difficulties. A sample of 121 students with ID were assigned to four different groups: phonics-based, comprehension-based, a combination with both phonics- and comprehension-based intervention and a comparison group with teaching-as-usual. Speech sound production was assessed before and after the intervention. The results on the data without the imputed variable suggested a significant positive effect of systematic, digital literacy interventions on speech sound production. However, results from sensitivity analyses with imputed missing data was more ambiguous, with the effect only approaching significance (ps = .05–.07) for one of the interventions. Nonetheless, we tentatively suggest that systematic, digital literacy intervention could support speech development in students with ID and communication difficulties. Future research should be done to confirm and further elucidate the functional mechanisms of this link, so that we may have a better understanding and can improve instruction and the pivotal abilities of speech and reading.

The Feel of Speech: Multisystem and Polymodal Somatosensation in Speech Production.

The oral structures such as the tongue and lips have remarkable somatosensory capacities, but understanding the roles of somatosensation in speech production requires a more comprehensive knowledge of somatosensation in the speech production system in its entirety, including the respiratory, laryngeal, and supralaryngeal subsystems. This review was conducted to summarize the system-wide somatosensory information available for speech production. The search was conducted with PubMed/Medline and Google Scholar for articles published until November 2023. Numerous search terms were used in conducting the review, which covered the topics of psychophysics, basic and clinical behavioral research, neuroanatomy, and neuroscience. The current understanding of speech somatosensation rests primarily on the two pillars of psychophysics and neuroscience. The confluence of polymodal afferent streams supports the development, maintenance, and refinement of speech production. Receptors are both canonical and noncanonical, with the latter occurring especially in the muscles innervated by the facial nerve. Somatosensory representation in the cortex is disproportionately large and provides for sensory interactions. Speech somatosensory function is robust over the lifespan, with possible declines in advanced aging. The understanding of somatosensation in speech disorders is largely disconnected from research and theory on speech production. A speech somatoscape is proposed as the generalized, system-wide sensation of speech production, with implications for speech development, speech motor control, and speech disorders.

Exposure to Canadian French Cued Speech Improves Consonant Articulation in Children With Cochlear Implants: Acoustic and Articulatory Data.

One of the strategies that can be used to support speech communication in deaf children is cued speech, a visual code in which manual gestures are used as additional phonological information to supplement the acoustic and labial speech information. Cued speech has been shown to improve speech perception and phonological skills. This exploratory study aims to assess whether and how cued speech reading proficiency may also have a beneficial effect on the acoustic and articulatory correlates of consonant production in children. Eight children with cochlear implants (from 5 to 11 years of age) and with different receptive proficiency in Canadian French Cued Speech (three children with low receptive proficiency vs. five children with high receptive proficiency) are compared to 10 children with typical hearing (from 4 to 11 years of age) on their production of stop and fricative consonants. Articulation was assessed with ultrasound measurements. The preliminary results reveal that cued speech proficiency seems to sustain the development of speech production in children with cochlear implants and to improve their articulatory gestures, particularly for the place contrast in stops as well as fricatives. This work highlights the importance of studying objective data and comparing acoustic and articulatory measurements to better characterize speech production in children.

Persisting speech difficulties at 7–8 years of age – a longitudinal study of speech production in internationally adopted children with cleft lip and palate

Aim To longitudinally investigate speech production (consonant proficiency, consonant errors and perceived velopharyngeal competence) in 17 internationally adopted (IA) children with unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) at three time points. Method Consonant proficiency (percent consonants correct, consonant inventory) and number and type of consonant errors were calculated based on blind phonetic transcriptions of words from the Swedish Test of Articulation and Nasality (SVANTE). Velopharyngeal competence was perceptually rated by three blinded experienced speech-language pathologists at the ages of 3, 5 and 7–8 years. Results A significant positive development of speech production was found, although most children still scored very low for consonant proficiency at the age of 7–8 compared with normative values: the median for percent consonants correct was 79.7 and many children still had persisting cleft-related and developmental consonant errors. At the age of 7–8, almost half of the children were rated as having a competent velopharyngeal function and only three as having an incompetent velopharyngeal function. Conclusion Persisting speech difficulties at school age in IA children with UCLP were found in the present study, which is one of the very few longitudinal studies. Our results highlight the need for detailed follow-up of speech production in clinical settings. Speech disorders may have a severe impact on a child’s intelligibility and participation with peers, and there is a need for more studies investigating the actual everyday effect of the difficulties found.

MIPA: A theory of phonological acquisition and speech motor control

Despite long-standing interest in the relation of early speech production and phonological development, little is known about how speech motor skills develop in tandem with emerging phonological representations in childhood. Recent experimental work in our laboratory has shown that better speech motor control at young ages is associated with better outcomes at later ages in phonological sensitivity. In this talk we will advance a new, theoretical model to account for these findings. It is termed MIPA (Motor Involvement in Phonological Acquisition) and proposes that highly developed sensorimotor maps for speech support the acquisition of detailed phonological representations. We will begin by providing an overview of the model, its core predictions, and compare it to existing frameworks. We will then describe experimental studies designed to explore the conceptual merits of the model by testing children longitudinally on a set of measures assessing the coordination of vocal-tract gestures, phonological sensitivity, and the relationship between those two skills. Application of the model to the study and treatment of children with developmental disabilities that affect speech production, such as stuttering, as well as language-related disorders arising from poor sensitivity to phonological structure, such as dyslexia, will also be briefly described.

The Speech Production in People with Autism (Case Study on a Girl Named Aliya Salsabila Ramadhani)

The study was conducted with the aim of finding out how speech production in people with autism with the object of research on a girl named Aliya Salsabila Ramadhani who is 9 years old. This research tried to explain the development of language and the production of Aliya speech. This study uses descriptive qualitative methods with psycholinguistic approaches that seek to describe the development of aliya language and speech production with narrative and brief exposure with primary data retrieval techniques through observation of video documentation of activities carried out and through questionnaires and interviews. In addition, this study also uses secondary data in the form of relevant references as study material so that holistic and thorough discussion results are obtained. From the characteristics that seem to be known that Aliya is classified as experiencing mild austism. It is also obtained through the analysis of language development and how Aliya interacts with the environment and the surrounding people. The development of language and speech production Aliya experienced significant progress after she received growth and speech therapy and attended the school of children with special needs although the resulting speech is still not perfect and there are certain phoneme pronunciations that are not right.

Validation of LittlEARS® Early Speech Production Questionnaire in Arabic-speaking children with normal hearing.

Objectives:To validate an Arabic version of the LittlEARS® Early Speech Production Questionnaire (LEESPQ), which assesses the early development of speech and language in infants between 0 and 18 months, in Arabic-speaking children with normal hearing in Saudi Arabia.Methods:This is a cross-sectional study conducted in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia between September and December 2020. Parents completed the LEESPQ regarding their child’s speech production development. To assess the ability of normal hearing children aged 0-18 months in developing speech and language production, a norm curve has been generated based on the standardized values that were calculated from the Arabic normal-hearing data set.Results:A total of 198 questionnaires were analyzed. The total score on the LEESPQ correlated with age, gender, and bilingualism. A norm curve for early speech production in children with normal hearing was created.Conclusion:The Arabic version of LEESPQ appears to be a valid questionnaire that can be used in the assessment of early language and speech development of Arabic-speaking children with normal hearing in the age range of 0-18 months. The Arabic version of the LEESPQ might also be a useful tool to detect developmental delays and hearing disorders in young children.

Projecting health promotion speech creative activity of students in modern system of language education

Text manipulation suggests active speech production activity of students in comprehending, reproducing and producing texts. The authors of the article have proved the need to use health-saving technology in the process of speech production development of students. It is concluded that projecting health promotion speech creative activity of students contributes to didactic solutions. The possibilities of using health-saving technology in the process of speech production development of students have been considered by means of an example of organizing speech creative project and speech creative work en plein air in high school, and an overall conclusion about the effectiveness of using this technology in the process of teaching Russian language and literature has been made.

Impact of cochlear implant on auditory and speech perception, and language development in prelingual deaf children

Profound deafness during childhood affects the normal development of auditory and speech perception, speech production, and language skills. Cochlear implants (CIs) have revolutionized the scenario of rehabilitation of profoundly deaf individuals. A prelingual deaf is one who is congenitally deaf or whose hearing loss occurred before speech development. The current review was undertaken to assess the impact of cochlear implants (CIs) in prelingual deaf children on their hearing and speech perception, speech production and language development.

Impact of Cochlear Implant on Auditory and Speech Perception and Language Development in Prelingual Deaf Children.

Abstract Profound deafness during childhood affects the normal development of auditory and speech perception, speech production and language skills. Cochlear implants (CIs) have revolutionized the scenario of rehabilitation of profoundly deaf individuals. A prelingual deaf is one who is congenitally deaf or whose hearing loss occurred before speech development. The current review was undertaken to assess the impact of cochlear implants (CIs) in prelingual deaf children on their hearing and speech perception, speech production and language development.

Impact of Cochlear Implant on Auditory and Speech Perception, and Language Development in Prelingual Deaf Children

Profound deafness during childhood affects the normal development of auditory and speech perception, speech production, and language skills. Cochlear implants (CIs) have revolutionized the scenario of rehabilitation of profoundly deaf individuals. A prelingual deaf is one who is congenitally deaf or whose hearing loss occurred before speech development. The current review was undertaken to assess the impact of cochlear implants (CIs) in prelingual deaf children on their hearing and speech perception, speech production and language development.

An incremental model of second language speech production mechanisms: Developmental evidence from object ellipsis in second language Chinese speech production

Aims: This study investigates object ellipsis in English and Korean speakers’ second language (L2) Chinese speech production and the effects of first language (L1) influence in L2 Chinese speech production. Design: 59 English speakers and 64 Korean speakers at various Chinese proficiency levels, as well as 16 native speakers of Chinese, participated in the study. In addition to an acceptability judgement test, an utterance-recall task was employed in the study to prime participants for relevant structures. Findings: There are early stages where derivations, such as move, deletion, etc., are not implemented in L2 speech production, although at later stages L2 speech production mechanisms can converge with that of native speakers. No evidence of L1 influence is found, and L2 learners are found to behave differently in the utterance-recall task and the sentence acceptability judgement task. Originality: The study includes data from L2 Chinese learners from beginner to advanced levels and provides a comprehensive picture of structural priming effects on the development of L2 speech production. Implications: There is a discontinuity in the development of L2 speech production mechanisms, and the development of the mechanisms is incremental in nature. Mechanisms for L2 language comprehension are different from those for L2 speech production, at least as far as L2 at the early stages is concerned.

Audiological Management of Pediatric Oncology Patients

Audiological Management of Pediatric Oncology Patients

우리나라 아동의 지역별 말소리 발달 차이

This study aimed to investigate regional differences in the development of speech production in Korean children. A total of 619 children aged 2 to 7 years from the Jeolla, Seoul/Gyeonggi, Chungcheong, and Gyeongsang areas were included in this study. The subjects were assessed with the UTAP2 word-level test. In PWC, PMLU, and PWP, the performance was significantly lower in Gyeongsang at 2 years 11 months and in Jeolla and Chungcheong at 3 years 5 months than in Seoul/Gyeonggi. The total PCC of Gyeongsang and Chungcheong and UTAP PCC of Chungcheong were significantly lower at 2 years 11 months compared with those of Seoul/Gyeonggi, while Jeolla and Chungcheong showed significantly lower total PCC and UTAP PCC than Seoul/Gyeonggi at 3 years 5 months. However, no regional difference was observed in any indicators after the age of 3 years 6 months. These results suggest that there are regional differences in the ability to produce speech sounds at a very young age, and that the differences can be explained by the differences between Seoul/Gyeonggi and the other provinces rather than by the individual characteristics of specific regions.

An ultrasound study of American English laterals produced by first graders

Longitudinal studies of child speech production development have traditionally relied on perceptual evaluation and acoustics to track acquisition norms and phonological patterns. The present study administers novel techniques in speech imaging to investigate the articulation and acoustics of speech sounds in developing children, focusing on the lateral sound /l/ as produced by first graders. Real-time three-dimensional ultrasound images with synchronous audio and video recordings were collected from L1 English speaking children. The stimuli were sourced from the GFTA-3—a clinical picture-naming instrument—which was administered by a speech-language pathology student-clinician. Three-dimensional tongue surface reconstructions and the accompanying audio signals were then compared across tokens and across speakers to find common and divergent patterns for lateral sounds. The results show highly variable articulatory strategies that nevertheless can be categorized into three groups. The wide articulatory variety is not obviously tied to acoustic variability, which is relatively small; formant positions are relatively consistent across tokens and across subjects, with few outliers. From the acoustics alone, these children consistently produce what is traditionally described as the dark /l/, but articulation suggests greater variety. Longitudinal studies of child speech production development have traditionally relied on perceptual evaluation and acoustics to track acquisition norms and phonological patterns. The present study administers novel techniques in speech imaging to investigate the articulation and acoustics of speech sounds in developing children, focusing on the lateral sound /l/ as produced by first graders. Real-time three-dimensional ultrasound images with synchronous audio and video recordings were collected from L1 English speaking children. The stimuli were sourced from the GFTA-3—a clinical picture-naming instrument—which was administered by a speech-language pathology student-clinician. Three-dimensional tongue surface reconstructions and the accompanying audio signals were then compared across tokens and across speakers to find common and divergent patterns for lateral sounds. The results show highly variable articulatory strategies that nevertheless can be categorized into three groups. The wide articulatory vari...

Influence of Neuropsychological Development of Children on Their Verbal Abilities

Learning disabilities in childhood are often caused by certain delays in language and higher mental functions development. So nowadays comprehensive research of child language development and its neuropsychological base is of great demand. The objective of the present study was to discover relationships between children’s age, certain characteristics of speech production, neuropsychological and neurolinguistic development. 126 students (51 first-graders and 75 second-graders) were recruited. They underwent complete neuropsychological assessment along with the trial “Creating a Story based on the series of pictures”. The results show that age is an important factor of neuropsychological development from the first to second grade. It concerns especially frontal lobe development. Neuropsychological development also correlates with neurolinguistical level: children who are better at programming and control, analytic and holistic strategies would be more successful in the trial “Creating a Story based on the series of pictures”, their speech would be more correct lexically as well as grammatically and syntactically. We also show that speech particularitiesand their correlation with neuropsychological indexes would vary in first- and second grades.
 Keywords: Lurian neuropsychology; child neuropsychology; neurolinguistics; neuropsychological development; Creating a Story based on the series of pictures; speech.

Parent-mediated communication interventions for improving the communication skills of preschool children with non-progressive motor disorders.

Children with motor disorders can have difficulties in producing accurate and consistent movements for speech, gesture or facial expression (or a combination of these), making their communication difficult to understand. Parents may be offered training to help recognise and interpret their child's signals and to stimulate their children's development of new communication skills. To assess the effectiveness of parent-mediated communication interventions, compared to no intervention, treatment as usual or clinician-mediated interventions, for improving the communication skills of preschool children up to five years of age who have non-progressive motor disorders. We searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, 12 other databases and three trials registers in July 2017. We also searched the reference lists of relevant papers and reviews, and contacted experts working in the field to find unpublished studies. We included studies that used randomised or quasi-randomised designs; compared a parent-mediated communication intervention with no treatment, treatment as usual or clinician-mediated therapy; and included children with non-progressive motor disorders up to five years of age. We used the standard methodological procedures expected by Cochrane. This review included two randomised controlled trials involving 38 children (20 boys, 18 girls), aged 15 to 96 months, and their mothers. All children had developmental disabilities; 10 had motor disorders, but it was unclear if these motor disorders affected their gestural, vocal or verbal communication. Mothers attended eight group training sessions over 11 to 12 weeks and received two or three home visits. Outcomes were assessed immediately after training. We found no report of longer-term follow-up. One study took place at an intervention centre in Canada and the other in South Korea.Both studies recruited small numbers of participants from single centres. Since it is not possible to blind participants attending or therapists providing training to group allocation, we considered both studies to be at high risk of performance bias. We also rated one study at high risk of attrition bias, and both studies at low risk of reporting bias.There was very low-quality evidence for all outcomes assessed. There was no evidence of an effect of training for children's initiation of conversation or engagement in joint attention during interaction with their mothers. Mothers who received training became more responsive to their children's communication, but there were no differences in the extent to which they controlled conversation by directing their children. Missing data meant that we were unable to evaluate the effects of training on children's frequency of communication, frequency of spoken language in conversation, speech production, or receptive or expressive language development. There were no effects on maternal stress. We found no reports of the effects of parent training on children's use of individual communication skills, such as asking questions or providing information, on their generic participation or adverse outcomes. Neither did we find reports of mothers' satisfaction with treatment, its acceptability or their compliance with it. There is only limited, very low quality evidence that parent-mediated communication interventions may be associated with improvements in interaction between mothers and their preschool children who have motor disorders. The indirectness of the study samples and high risk of bias in the included the studies significantly limits our confidence in the evidence, as do issues with study design and lack of detail in results. It is not clear if training has been tested with children whose motor disorders limit the consistency and accuracy of movements underpinning spoken or gestural communication. Some speech and language therapists currently provide communication training for parents. Further research, with larger numbers of children whose movement disorders affect their speech and gestures, coupled with detailed reporting of children's baseline skills, is needed to test whether communication training for parents can help them to promote the communication development of their young children with movement disorders.

PEMEROLEHAN BAHASA PERTAMA MELALUI PIVOT GRAMMAR

<p>ABSTRACT<br />The purpose of this study was to assess the child's first language syntax acquisition two years of age through the<br />pivot grammar. The first source of this research is Francesca Sophia, Superkids student, Kemang, South Jakarta.<br />This research used descriptive analysis and data collected, captured, recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. The<br />results of this study are: <br />Keywords: first language acquisition, pivot grammar, Speech production development</p>

Validation of the second version of the LittlEARS® Early Speech Production Questionnaire (LEESPQ) in German-speaking children with normal hearing.

The introduction of neonatal hearing screening and the increasingly early age at which children can receive a cochlear implant has intensified the need for a validated questionnaire to assess the speech production of children aged 0‒18. Such a questionnaire has been created, the LittlEARS® Early Speech Production Questionnaire (LEESPQ). This study aimed to validate a second, revised edition of the LEESPQ. Questionnaires were returned for 362 children with normal hearing. Completed questionnaires were analysed to determine if the LEESPQ is reliable, prognostically accurate, internally consistent, and if gender or multilingualism affects total scores. Total scores correlated positively with age. The LEESPQ is reliable, accurate, and consistent, and independent of gender or lingual status. A norm curve was created. This second version of the LEESPQ is a valid tool to assess the speech production development of children with normal hearing, aged 0‒18, regardless of their gender. As such, the LEESPQ may be a useful tool to monitor the development of paediatric hearing device users. The second version of the LEESPQ is a valid instrument for assessing early speech production of children aged 0‒18 months.

Speech communication in older adults: an acoustic and perceptual investigation – ESRC

Speech communication can be difficult for older people, due to the combined effects of age-related hearing loss, which is common over the age of 65, age-related decline in the quality of phonation and speech articulation, and cognitive problems such as poorer short-term memory and processing speed. Past studies of how older individuals perceive and produce speech sounds have tended to consider these abilities independently of each other using controlled materials, such as read words or sentences. These studies tell us little about how older speakers function when using speech for communicative purposes, and how these various factors interact. In our project, we gained a comprehensive account of older people's speech production and perception in situations involving communication with another individual. Older adults with age-related hearing loss and the rarer group of older adults with normal hearing were included in the study, as well as younger adult controls. In Study 1, participants were recorded while they completed a problem-solving task with another person. Communication between the participants was either in good listening conditions, where both speakers could hear each other normally, or in adverse conditions. There, one of the participants had to get their message across to another speaker who has a simulated hearing loss or when both were speaking in a noisy background. These comparisons enabled us to get a sense of the degree to which an older person is able to adapt their speech to overcome difficult listening conditions, a skill which is of paramount importance in speech communication in everyday life. High-quality recordings were made of these interactions and these were used to carry out acoustic analyses of their speech and also analyses of interactional features such as eye gaze and turn-taking. In Study 2, older and younger listeners with normal and impaired hearing were presented some of the materials recorded in Study 1 in good and adverse listening conditions. Intelligibility tests will be run to see what impact age and hearing status have on speech understanding and to see whether the 'clear speech' adaptations made by older speakers to counter the effects of poor communication conditions gave the same benefit to that of younger speakers. This project aims to lead to a better understanding of the effects of ageing on speech communication and of the various contributing factors to potentially degraded speech communication in a population of 'healthy aged' individuals. These benchmarks will be of use for practitioners such as speech and language therapists and audiologists who work on aspects of communication with older people who have health complications. A better understanding of communication difficulties that older individuals experience and of their strategies to overcome these difficulties also assists professionals such as social workers and care professionals who work to improve quality of life for older people, as well as developers of speech technology devices for telemedicine and remote monitoring. Importantly, this research also contributes to our basic understanding of speech perception and production development across the lifespan.