Speech Of Young Children Research Articles

A longitudinal investigation of duration and temporal variability in children’s speech production

A number of cross-sectional, acoustic studies have found that young children's speech segments tend to be longer and more variable than those of older children and adults. However, very little longitudinal information of this nature is available that considers changes across time for individual children. The present investigation is a longitudinal analysis of several temporal characteristics of the speech of 12 children of various ages who were each seen twice, approximately 1 1/2 years apart. For the group, durations decreased on average from the initial to the follow-up recordings by approximately 10%, and temporal variability decreased by about 40%. For the individual children, however, it was found that some of them showed few, if any, changes in some of the temporal measurements made at the two different times, whereas others showed substantial differences. Younger children also did not necessarily show longer durations or greater variability than older children, nor did younger children always show greater changes across time than older children. Thus, although cross-sectional studies indicate that there is a general tendency when comparing groups for increased age to be associated with shorter durations and reduced variability, individual children may not evidence such patterns or changes across time.

Acoustic correlates of stress in young children's speech.

This study examined the acoustic correlates of stress in children's productions of familiar words. Previous research has employed experimental words rather than familiar words to examine children's phonetic marking of stress, or has not adequately controlled for phonetic environment. Subjects in this study included 22 children, aged 18-30 months, and 6 adults. Fundamental frequency, duration, and amplitude measures were extracted from stressed and unstressed syllables in two types of comparisons: one that controlled phonetic environment and syllable position (interword) and one that measured the relative effects of stress within the same word (intraword). When the tokens were analyzed on the basis of target stress pattern, results revealed no differences between adults and children in their acoustic marking of stress. Listener judgments showed that approximately 30% of children's two-syllable productions were coded unreliably or were perceived as inaccurately stressed. Overall findings indicate that children control fundamental frequency, amplitude, and duration to derive perceptually identifiable stress contrasts in the majority of their productions but they are not completely adult-like in their marking of stress.

Working on Phonology with Young Children with Down Syndrome – A Pilot Study

This paper describes a pilot study of a therapy programme aimed at remediating unintelligible speech in young children with Down Syndrome. The programme utilised amplification and structured exposure to the contrastive values of phonemes in an attempt to encourage experimentation and promote change. The results obtained with six children indicated that major restructuring occurred in their phonological systems within short time spans and that the increased intelligibility facilitated growth in expressive syntax.

Young children's private speech as a precursor to metacognitive strategy use during task engagement

The overall purpose of these three investigations was to test the usefulness of private speech utterances as a means for understanding children's verbal self‐guidance during school task performance. A private speech coding system was derived from synthesizing the literature on private speech (e.g., Berk, 1986a), self‐regulated learning (e.g., Rohrkemper, 1989), and metacognition (Brown, 1987; Meichenbaum, 1977). Also, Vygotsky's theory of verbal self‐regulation (1934/1962, 1934/1987) served as the guiding theoretical perspective. To analyze verbal self‐guidance and to gather information about the importance of student characteristics (namely, autonomy, n = 118; academically advanced, n = 34; and creativity, n = 16), three separate studies using a different data source for each study, were conceptualized. Similar patterns of findings emerged; groups designated as more autonomous and more academically advanced used significantly less task‐irrelevant private speech; all groups used less nonfacilitative task‐...

The effects of verbal scaffolding instruction on young children's private speech and problem-solving capabilities

This investigation examined the efficacy of a verbal scaffolding instructional program designed to teach young children how to use private speech while working on school tasks and problems. Two different contexts for solving problems were used; common school tasks and analogical reasoning problems. Thirty-four 5-year olds who attended public school kindergartens were assigned to either the comparison group or the treatment group. Comparison group subjects were presented with a series of 8 lessons which focused on a cognitive strategy to be used in the solutions of geometric analogy problems. Treatment group subjects were presented with a series of 8 lessons which employed cognitive self-instruction in a verbal scaffolding format. After initial instruction using self-verbalizations, treatment group subjects were shown how to apply the cognitive self-instruction to routine school tasks and geometric analogy problems. The data analysis revealed that there was an effect on the treatment group's use of 3 of the 4 levels of private speech. When the two groups were compared, the treatment group used significantly less task irrelevant private speech and significantly more task relevant private speech. There were no significant differences between the two groups on the post-assessment of geometric analogy reasoning. Additionally, when the two groups were compared there were positive effects of the instructional program on the treatment group's classroom behavior (near transfer) and locus of control scores (far transfer). The results of this study provide support for the use of cognitive self-instruction to improve young children's problem-solving private speech in the context of a public school classroom.

Relationships Among Private Speech and Creativity Measurements of Young Children

The purpose of this study was to examine relationships among thought processes represented in young children's private speech and creativity assessments of the same children. A secondary purpose was to study the role of affective private speech and its association with creativity measures. The sample was 42 preschool and kindergarten children on whom creativity measures were obtained using the Torrance Thinking Creatively in Action and Movement (TCAM) assessment instrument. Private speech was collected from the same children. Each private speech utterance was coded into one of five levels: (a) task irrelevant speech (T-1); (b) nonfacilitative, task relevant speech (T-2); (c) task relevant speech (T-3); (d) coping/reinforcing speech (T-4); and (e) solving speech (T-5). Statistical analysis revealed significant positive relationships among creativity measures, solving speech, and coping/reinforcing speech. Furthermore, coping and reinforcing private speech were consistently linked with high creativity measures, demonstrating that the affective domain may play a critical role in creative thinking.

Creativity and private speech: Developmental trends

Abstract The first purpose of this article was to identify developmental patterns for creativity measures and levels of private speech in young children. The second purpose was to examine the semantic content of private speech to determine patterns and characteristics of creative‐thought development. Creativity measures and private‐speech utterances were taken from 42 kindergarten and preschool children. Each private‐speech utterance was coded into one of five levels. Descriptive statistical analysis was applied to the data using mean ages and frequency counts for variables under study. Developmental trends for three measures of creativity and two higher levels of private speech declined during the preschool years. However, the pattern reversed around the age of 5 years resulting in an upward movement. These changes may suggest a qualitative transformation in conceptual‐thought formation at a very young age as predicted by Vygotsky.

Developmental and linguistic effects on the coarticulation of fricative‐vowel productions

Previous work (Nittrouer, Studdert‐Kennedy, and McGowan, 1989) supports the notion that children attack the acquisition of speech and language in larger‐than‐segment units, as evidenced by greater coarticulatory interactions in young children's speech that diminish with age. In this study, the experimental design from Nittrouer et al. was expanded to include familiarity versus nonfamiliarity with a stimulus item. The notion of familiarity included two factors, meaningfulness of the stimulus item, and relative amount of motor practice. Results of acoustic measurements of children's (3‐, 5‐, and 7‐year‐olds) and adult's productions confirm that children do exhibit a greater effect of a following vowel (/i/ vs /u/) on the preceding fricative (/s/ vs /∫/) when compared to adults. In addition, relative meaningfulness of a stimulus item appears to decrease the degree of coarticulatory interaction between these segments, regardless of age of the individual. These results are discussed with regard to traditional models of coarticulation and traditional theories of speech and language acquisition.

Function morphemes in young children's speech perception and production.

Function morphemes in young children's speech perception and production.

Function morphemes in young children's speech perception and production.

Function morphemes in young children's speech perception and production.

Children's speech act comprehension strategies and early literacy experiences

Our previous research showed a developmental shift in young children's speech act processing, from more context-dependent to more lan guage-dependent strategies. To what extent is this shift related to early literacy experiences and knowledge? The first study examined the speech act comprehension of 64 three- and four-year-old subjects from a university preschool. Subjects were required to choose one of two paraphrases which most closely matched the pragmatic intention of a stimulus utterance. These stimulus forms were presented with puppets in a simulated preschool context previ ously shown to predispose children's interpretations of stimulus items toward request uptakes. Subjects were exposed to both grammatical and ungrammatical examples of a range of these request types. Dif ferences in literacy experience were identified by means of a parental questionnaire. All subjects discriminated pragmatic intention significantly more reliably on grammatical items than on ungrammatical ones, but children with more extensive experiences of literacy performed poorly on the ungrammatical input, regardless of age. A second study of 41 children investigated the links between their early concepts about literacy and speech act comprehension strategies. Performance on the speech act comprehension task was analysed by grouping subjects according to their performance on two separate measures of early concepts of literacy, Clay's Concepts About Print, and Downing's Linguistic Awareness in Reading Readiness, with age group confounded. Children on the higher ends of both literacy measures again experienced difficulty when confronted with ungrammatical input in the speech act comprehension task. Results of both studies are interpreted in the context of the develop ment of linguistic awareness, and within the larger framework of the development of metacognitive representational ability.

Bending‐beam model of vocal‐fold vibration

Recent theoretical developments have shown that a model based on the theory of bending beams is the best predictor of the fundamental frequencies of young children's speech [Bickley, Proc. 11th Int. Congr. Phon. Sci. (1987)]. For children of age 3 years and younger, the values predicted by a spring‐mass model are too low, and the values of a vibrating‐string model are too high. In the current study, the effect of growth of the vocal‐fold structure on fundamental frequency is analyzed. The vocal‐fold structure grows nonuniformly; for example, a 1‐year‐old's vocal folds are approximately one‐fifth as long as an adult's folds but only 10% thinner. The bending‐beam model is an improvement over other models because it reflects the structure of the vocal folds and the attachments of the vocal‐fold tissue to the arytenoid and thyroid cartilages, characteristics previously ignored. The fundamental frequency of the new model depends on both the beamlike characteristics of the vocal folds and the springiness of the structure. Changes in fundamental frequency are predicted from the model as a function of age.

A Comparison of Two Teaching Strategies to Increase Intelligibility of Young Children's Speech

Abstract Young children whose speech is characterized by severe articulation Problems frequently demonstrate associated problems in production of the intonation patterns and rhythm of the language. It has been suggested that teaching appropriate intonation patterns may facilitate the listener's ability to understand the speech of the child. This study was designed to compare the effects of intonation training and phonological training on the intelligibility of the speech of two severely unintelligible children. The results indicated an increase in intelligibility is facilitated through training in the production of intonation patterns. The implications of the results are discussed in relation to classroom teachers and parents.

The Social Nature of Private Speech of Preschoolers During Problem Solving

Extending Vygotsky's theory, young children's private speech during problem solving is conceptualised as having a dual nature; as a reaction to the task and as, at the same time, an indirect appeal to a potentially helpful person. The interactional function of private speech is elaborated within a developmental pragmatic frame of explanation. Based on the dual nature conceptualisation of private speech, the hypothesis was tested that children would produce more private speech during problem solving following interaction with a collaborative adult than following interaction with a non-collaborative adult, the adult being non-actively present during the child's execution of the cognitive task. Twenty-two children (ages: 4 years 2 months to 4 years 10 months) participated in the experiment. Support was found for the main hypothesis. No reliable relationship was found between the amount of private speech produced and the quality of task performance. Results are discussed in relation to other studies of private speech, two of which are re-interpreted in accordance with a dual nature conceptualisation of private speech. The role of private speech in the regulation of non-verbal task performance is critically analysed. It is emphasised that private speech should be studied while taking into account the interactional framework in which the child has been functioning.

The development of young children's speech act comprehension: How much language is necessary?

ABSTRACTTwo experimental studies investigate the extent of 3- and 4-year-olds' relative dependence upon contextual and linguistic information as they discriminate between presentations of Requests from Offers, and Requests from Questions presented in contexts. Contexts are manipulated systematically, and quantity of linguistic information in the presentations is progressively reduced. While younger subjects' discrimination of each speech act appeared relatively unaffected by reduction of linguistic information, the older subjects' performance was relatively adversely affected. We consider a developmental shift in speech act comprehension strategy from an early more context-based approach to a later, more heavily text-dependent approach, perhaps linked to continuing development of linguistic awareness.

Syntactic categories in the speech of young children.

Syntactic categories in the speech of young children.

Syntactic categories in the speech of young children.

This article demonstrates that very young children have knowledge of a range of syntactic categories. Speech samples from six children aged 2 years to 2 years, 5 months, with Mean Lengths of Utterance (MLUs) ranging from 2.93 to 4.14, were examined for evidence of six syntactic categories: Determiner, Adjective, Noun, Noun Phrase, Preposition, and Prepositional Phrase. Performance was evaluated by the conformance of the children's speech to criteria developed for each category. Known syntactic diagnostics served as models for the criteria developed; the criteria exploited distributional regularities. All children showed evidence of all categories, except for the lowest MLU child, whose performance was borderline on Adjectives and Prepositional Phrases. The results suggest that children are sensitive very early in life to abstract, formal properties of the speech they hear and must be credited with syntactic knowledge at an earlier point than heretofore generally thought. The results argue against various semantic hypotheses about the origin of syntactic knowledge. Finally, the methods and results may be applicable to future investigations of why children's early utterances are short, of the nature of children's semantic categories, and of the nature of the deviance in the speech of language-deviant children and adults. The grammars of mature speakers consist of rules and principles that capture generalizations about the language. Languages have (minimally) semantic, syntactic, and phonological regularities, and mature grammars represent all three levels of regularities. Three enduring questions of language acquisition are to what extent a child's grammar resembles a mature grammar, how a child's grammar develops over time, and how the components of the child's grammar are interrelated. Since syntactic regularities are stated in terms of syntactic categories like Adjective, Noun, and Noun Phrase, categories are particularly important entities. If the child's grammar lacks syntactic categories, it also lacks a level of syntactic description, and thus differs from a mature grammar in a crucial way. By what point in development has the child acquired the basics of formal grammatical categories like Adjective and Noun? The present study addresses a special case of this question by examining corpora of 2-year-olds for evidence of formal regularities characterizing six categories. The results bear on several theoretical concerns about acquisition. First, from a semantic viewpoint, treatments of semantic roles presuppose a phrasal segmentation of the sentence, with the senses of Noun Phrases identifying roles like agent of the action or recipient of the action (e.g., Hardy & Braine, 1981;

Peer interaction in young deaf children: The effect of partner hearing status and familiarity.

The present study had two major objectives: (a) to explore the role of language in peer interaction and play of deaf children and (b) to examine the effect of three partner characteristics (hearing status, familiarity, and experience) on dyadic interaction of deaf children. Fourteen deaf 5- to 6-year-olds were videotaped playing once with each of four partners: a familiar deaf playmate, a familiar hearing playmate, an unfamiliar hearing child who was a playmate of another deaf child, and an unfamiliar hearing child who had little experience playing with deaf children. Formal language did not seem to play a major role in the deaf children's peer interaction: they rarely used language, and formal language use was not related to measures of interaction or play even when playing with another deaf child. Instead, interaction and pretense seemed to be related to the deaf children's nonlinguistic communication abilities. Two partner characteristics affected interaction. Partner hearing status primarily affected communication, with communication between deaf playmates more visual (both linguistic and nonlinguistic) and less object-based than communication between deaf and hearing playmates. Comparisons among the deaf-hearing dyads indicated that familiarity played a larger role than experience in improving interaction between deaf and hearing children. The hearing children were more responsive to and used more visual communication devices with their deaf playmate than an unfamiliar deaf child. But the hearing playmates were no better at playing with an unfamiliar deaf child than were hearing children who had little experience playing with deaf children. Implications for our understanding of young children's communication abilities and for deaf educational programs are discussed. Recent research suggests that communication between peers plays an important role in the dynamics of peer interaction and play. Contrary to Piaget's hypotheses concerning the monologue nature of children's peer-directed speech, the majority of young children's speech to their peers has been found to be socially directed and response appropriate (Garvey & Hogan, 1973; Mueller, 1972). In addition, Garvey and Berndt (1977) has shown that the framing and setting up of pretend play of preschool children depends largely on linguistic exchanges. Therefore, it is not surprising that past research indicates that deaf children whose language skills are delayed have more difficulty engaging in prolonged peer interaction than do

Conditional statements in young children's spontaneous speech.

Conditional statements in young children's spontaneous speech.

Experimental evidence for agent–patient categories in child language

ABSTRACTEvidence provided by contrastive word order for agent and patient semantic categories in young children's spontaneous speech is confounded. Agents (effectors of the action) tend to be animate; patients (entities acted upon) tend to be inanimate. In an experiment designed to circumvent this confounding and to test young children's linguistic sensitivity to the role an entity plays in the action, nine children (2; 4·0–2; 11·5) described actions involving animate and inanimate entities playing both agent and patient roles. Four linguistic measures were observed. On every measure agents were treated differently from patients. For the most part, these agent–patient differences persisted when animate and inanimate entities were examined separately. These results provide evidence for the child's intention to talk about the role an entity plays, independent of its animateness, and also suggest that the child uses role-defined linguistic categories like AGENT and PATIENT to communicate these relational intentions.