Book synopsis: Investigations in Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics is a sequel to the eighth mee... more Book synopsis: Investigations in Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics is a sequel to the eighth meeting of the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association, attended by delegates from 26 different countries. This book reflects the scope of the subject area of clinical phonetics and linguistics, the balance of input into it with respect to the different kinds of research being carried on, and the representation of researchers from different parts of the world. Its scope includes the application of all levels of linguistic analysis and the chapters of the book have been ordered as far as possible according to linguistic level, beginning with pragmatics and ending with acoustics. It will be immediately apparent that a greater number of chapters are concerned with applications of phonetics and phonology then with any other levels.
Preschool children with delayed development of communication perform poorly on measures of speech... more Preschool children with delayed development of communication perform poorly on measures of speech, language and/or literacy. On standard tests of language and literacy, most are at the bottom of, or just below, the normal range, with qualitative phonological analyses showing errors typical of a younger child (Dodd, 2005a). It is not surprising, then, that children with delayed phonology are the largest group of children referred to speech language pathologists (around 60% of children with speech difficulties, Broomfield & Dodd, 2004). Recent evidence from a large community cohort study suggests that 57% of children with phonological delay, at age 4, had resolved by 7 years (Morgan et al., 2017), unlike children with disordered phonological development, whose difficulties are more likely to persist. Children with delayed communication pose a problem for paediatric speech-language pathology services. They require significant resources because of their number, but deciding whether to i...
Studies in health technology and informatics, 2016
One in twenty Australian children suffers from a speech disorder. Early detection of such problem... more One in twenty Australian children suffers from a speech disorder. Early detection of such problems can significantly improve literacy and academic outcomes for these children, reduce health and educational burden and ongoing social costs. Here we present the development of a prototype and feasibility tests of a screening and decision support tool to assess speech disorders in young children. The prototype incorporates speech signal processing, machine learning and expert knowledge to automatically classify phonemes of normal and disordered speech. We discuss these results and our future work towards the development of a mobile tool to facilitate broad, early speech disorder screening by non-experts.
This paper reports a normative study on the phonological development of British English-speaking ... more This paper reports a normative study on the phonological development of British English-speaking children. Speech samples of 684 children, aged between 3;0 and 6;11 years, randomly selected from nurseries and schools in eight different areas throughout the UK, were collected and analysed to obtain normative data. This paper reports on two aspects of speech development: the age of acquisition of sounds (phonetic acquisition) and the age that error patterns were suppressed (phonemic acquisition). It discusses the effects of age, gender and socio-economic status on speech sound development. The study found that older children had more accurate production and fewer error patterns in their speech. It found no gender differences in the younger age groups. However, in the oldest age group, it found the phonological accuracy measures of girls' better than boys. It found no significant effects of socio-economic status on any of the phonological accuracy measures.
Early identification of phonological disorders is important for Speech Language Pathologists who ... more Early identification of phonological disorders is important for Speech Language Pathologists who assess and treat children aged under three years. Normative data justifies identification and standard scores can evaluate intervention that might prevent the negative consequences associated with phonological disorder. Two studies evaluated the reliability and predictive validity of the Toddler Phonology Test (TPT). Study 1 assessed 18 Australian toddlers, comparing their performance with normative data and reassessing them one month later to examine test–retest reliability. Study 2 assessed the predictive validity of the TPT’s quantitative and qualitative normative data by reassessing 24 British children between four and nine months after their first assessment and examining number and type of errors. Study 1 found no significant difference between the first and second assessment one month later for percent consonants and vowels correct but a drop in the number of atypical errors. Positive correlations for all performance measures showed strong test–retest ranking for children. Study 2 indicated that both quantitative and qualitative TPT data predicted phonological development over 4–9 months. Case data suggested that phonological disorder was best predicted by qualitative data. The results indicated that phonological disorder can be reliably diagnosed at two years of age.
The variable language abilities of children with severely and profoundly impaired hearing have of... more The variable language abilities of children with severely and profoundly impaired hearing have often been explained in terms of age, onset, cause of deafness, or type of intervention. Recent research, however, suggests that such explanations are inadequate. In order to examine this issue, the early language development of sixteen children born with severely-profoundly impaired hearing were assessed over a period of three years at about eight-monthly intervals. The children attended preschool intervention programs and schools where the mode of communication was simultaneously signed and spoken English. A range of expressive and receptive language skills, including speechreading were assessed. The results indicated that the children’s acquisition of language remained very delayed throughout the period of the longitudinal study, despite age appropriate performance on non-linguistic tasks. Speechreading skills were highly correlated with other language skills at four of the five assessment sessions. Further, speechreading skills at initial assessment was predictive of language test performance at subsequent assessments. The finding that speechreading ability played such an influential role was surprising given the children’s exposure to a signed language.
This study evaluated whether core vocabulary intervention (CVT) improved single word speech accur... more This study evaluated whether core vocabulary intervention (CVT) improved single word speech accuracy, consistency and intelligibility in four 9−11-year-old children with profound sensori-neural deafness fitted with cochlear implants and/or digital hearing aids. Their speech was characterized by inconsistent production of different error forms for the same lexical item. The children received twice weekly therapy sessions for eight weeks. Fifty target words were drilled and changes in production assessed for accuracy and consistency. Generalization of consistency and accuracy was assessed on non-targeted words. There were four assessment points: six weeks pre-therapy; immediately before therapy; immediately following therapy and six weeks post-therapy. In addition, 10 unfamiliar listeners judged the intelligibility of audio recordings of the children’s speech before and after therapy. The children’s consistency and accuracy of single word production improved following CVT. Consistency...
This study evaluated whether core vocabulary intervention (CVT) improved single word speech accur... more This study evaluated whether core vocabulary intervention (CVT) improved single word speech accuracy, consistency and intelligibility in four 9-11 year-old children with profound sensori-neural deafness fitted with cochlear implants and/or digital hearing aids. Their speech was characterised by inconsistent production of different error forms for the same lexical item. The children received twice weekly therapy sessions for eight weeks. Fifty target words were drilled and changes in production assessed for accuracy and consistency. Generalisation of consistency and accuracy was assessed on non-targeted words. There were four assessment points: six weeks pre-therapy; immediately before therapy; immediately following therapy and six weeks post-therapy. In addition, ten unfamiliar listeners judged the intelligibility of audio recordings of the children’s speech before and after therapy. The children’s consistency and accuracy of single word production improved following CVT. Consistency generalised to untreated words. Sentence intelligibility ratings improved and more target words were identified after therapy. These case studies suggest that CVT merits further investigation as an effective intervention approach for deaf children, enhancing consistency, accuracy and intelligibility of speech.
Children with unintelligible speech differ in severity, underlying deficit, type of surface error... more Children with unintelligible speech differ in severity, underlying deficit, type of surface error patterns and response to treatment. Detailed treatment case studies, evaluating specific intervention protocols for particular diagnostic groups, can identify best practice for children with speech disorder. Three treatment case studies evaluated the efficacy of Core Vocabulary intervention for three boys with inconsistent speech disorder. The cases examined the effects of previous intervention, use of default preferred word plans and behaviour disorder on intervention outcome. Inconsistent speech disorder was diagnosed after Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology assessment. A Core Vocabulary approach to intervention was selected to focus on planning whole word production rather than surface error patterns or specific sound features. Individual differences between cases led to different amounts of intervention and the number of words taught during intervention. All three b...
International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 2001
... Address for correspondence: Professor Barbara M d , &+ partment of Speech, University... more ... Address for correspondence: Professor Barbara M d , &+ partment of Speech, University of Newcastle, hg ... study, 61 children with speech impair-ment ages 3;6 to 5;O were exposed to ... (1999) study showed improved phonological awareness without concur-rent improvement in ...
The Dynamic Assessment of Preschoolers’ Proficiency in Learning English (DAPPLE) was developed in... more The Dynamic Assessment of Preschoolers’ Proficiency in Learning English (DAPPLE) was developed in response to a clinical need to obtain information about bilingual children’s English language learning ability, particularly in the absence of detailed information regarding their proficiency in their other language/s. The assessment looked at children’s responses to opportunities to learn in the three areas of vocabulary, sentence structure and phonology (speech sounds). Twelve bilingual children aged between 3 and 5 years who had been referred to speech and language therapy were assessed. Their responses across the three areas were explored to derive profiles of strength and weakness across language areas. One of the 12 children was found to possess good language learning abilities across all areas, which may reflect an inappropriate referral. All of the remaining children demonstrated difficulties with learning within one or more areas of the DAPPLE, with one child having difficultie...
ABSTRACT Aim: The cognitive-linguistic abilities of 2 subgroups of children with speech impairmen... more ABSTRACT Aim: The cognitive-linguistic abilities of 2 subgroups of children with speech impairment were compared to better understand underlying deficits that might influence effective intervention. Methods: Two groups of 23 children, aged 3;3 to 5;6, performed executive function tasks assessing cognitive flexibility and nonverbal rule abstraction. Following the system of differential diagnosis of speech disorders first described by Dodd, Leahy, and Hambly (1989), one group was identified as having delayed speech development, as their non–age-appropriate speech error patterns were typical of younger children. The other group was diagnosed as disordered because children consistently used at least one speech error pattern atypical of any age group in an assessments' normative sample (Dodd, Zhu, Crosbie, Holm, & Ozanne, 2002). Results and Conclusions: The disordered group performed less well than the delayed group: They had poorer cognitive flexibility and difficulty abstracting nonlinguistic rules. They made more consonant errors and different types of errors. The 2 groups did not differ on measures of language, vowel accuracy, or consistency of multiple productions of the same words. The findings suggest that different interventions, reflecting knowledge of underlying deficits, might benefit specific subgroups of children with speech impairment.
Book synopsis: Investigations in Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics is a sequel to the eighth mee... more Book synopsis: Investigations in Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics is a sequel to the eighth meeting of the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association, attended by delegates from 26 different countries. This book reflects the scope of the subject area of clinical phonetics and linguistics, the balance of input into it with respect to the different kinds of research being carried on, and the representation of researchers from different parts of the world. Its scope includes the application of all levels of linguistic analysis and the chapters of the book have been ordered as far as possible according to linguistic level, beginning with pragmatics and ending with acoustics. It will be immediately apparent that a greater number of chapters are concerned with applications of phonetics and phonology then with any other levels.
Preschool children with delayed development of communication perform poorly on measures of speech... more Preschool children with delayed development of communication perform poorly on measures of speech, language and/or literacy. On standard tests of language and literacy, most are at the bottom of, or just below, the normal range, with qualitative phonological analyses showing errors typical of a younger child (Dodd, 2005a). It is not surprising, then, that children with delayed phonology are the largest group of children referred to speech language pathologists (around 60% of children with speech difficulties, Broomfield & Dodd, 2004). Recent evidence from a large community cohort study suggests that 57% of children with phonological delay, at age 4, had resolved by 7 years (Morgan et al., 2017), unlike children with disordered phonological development, whose difficulties are more likely to persist. Children with delayed communication pose a problem for paediatric speech-language pathology services. They require significant resources because of their number, but deciding whether to i...
Studies in health technology and informatics, 2016
One in twenty Australian children suffers from a speech disorder. Early detection of such problem... more One in twenty Australian children suffers from a speech disorder. Early detection of such problems can significantly improve literacy and academic outcomes for these children, reduce health and educational burden and ongoing social costs. Here we present the development of a prototype and feasibility tests of a screening and decision support tool to assess speech disorders in young children. The prototype incorporates speech signal processing, machine learning and expert knowledge to automatically classify phonemes of normal and disordered speech. We discuss these results and our future work towards the development of a mobile tool to facilitate broad, early speech disorder screening by non-experts.
This paper reports a normative study on the phonological development of British English-speaking ... more This paper reports a normative study on the phonological development of British English-speaking children. Speech samples of 684 children, aged between 3;0 and 6;11 years, randomly selected from nurseries and schools in eight different areas throughout the UK, were collected and analysed to obtain normative data. This paper reports on two aspects of speech development: the age of acquisition of sounds (phonetic acquisition) and the age that error patterns were suppressed (phonemic acquisition). It discusses the effects of age, gender and socio-economic status on speech sound development. The study found that older children had more accurate production and fewer error patterns in their speech. It found no gender differences in the younger age groups. However, in the oldest age group, it found the phonological accuracy measures of girls' better than boys. It found no significant effects of socio-economic status on any of the phonological accuracy measures.
Early identification of phonological disorders is important for Speech Language Pathologists who ... more Early identification of phonological disorders is important for Speech Language Pathologists who assess and treat children aged under three years. Normative data justifies identification and standard scores can evaluate intervention that might prevent the negative consequences associated with phonological disorder. Two studies evaluated the reliability and predictive validity of the Toddler Phonology Test (TPT). Study 1 assessed 18 Australian toddlers, comparing their performance with normative data and reassessing them one month later to examine test–retest reliability. Study 2 assessed the predictive validity of the TPT’s quantitative and qualitative normative data by reassessing 24 British children between four and nine months after their first assessment and examining number and type of errors. Study 1 found no significant difference between the first and second assessment one month later for percent consonants and vowels correct but a drop in the number of atypical errors. Positive correlations for all performance measures showed strong test–retest ranking for children. Study 2 indicated that both quantitative and qualitative TPT data predicted phonological development over 4–9 months. Case data suggested that phonological disorder was best predicted by qualitative data. The results indicated that phonological disorder can be reliably diagnosed at two years of age.
The variable language abilities of children with severely and profoundly impaired hearing have of... more The variable language abilities of children with severely and profoundly impaired hearing have often been explained in terms of age, onset, cause of deafness, or type of intervention. Recent research, however, suggests that such explanations are inadequate. In order to examine this issue, the early language development of sixteen children born with severely-profoundly impaired hearing were assessed over a period of three years at about eight-monthly intervals. The children attended preschool intervention programs and schools where the mode of communication was simultaneously signed and spoken English. A range of expressive and receptive language skills, including speechreading were assessed. The results indicated that the children’s acquisition of language remained very delayed throughout the period of the longitudinal study, despite age appropriate performance on non-linguistic tasks. Speechreading skills were highly correlated with other language skills at four of the five assessment sessions. Further, speechreading skills at initial assessment was predictive of language test performance at subsequent assessments. The finding that speechreading ability played such an influential role was surprising given the children’s exposure to a signed language.
This study evaluated whether core vocabulary intervention (CVT) improved single word speech accur... more This study evaluated whether core vocabulary intervention (CVT) improved single word speech accuracy, consistency and intelligibility in four 9−11-year-old children with profound sensori-neural deafness fitted with cochlear implants and/or digital hearing aids. Their speech was characterized by inconsistent production of different error forms for the same lexical item. The children received twice weekly therapy sessions for eight weeks. Fifty target words were drilled and changes in production assessed for accuracy and consistency. Generalization of consistency and accuracy was assessed on non-targeted words. There were four assessment points: six weeks pre-therapy; immediately before therapy; immediately following therapy and six weeks post-therapy. In addition, 10 unfamiliar listeners judged the intelligibility of audio recordings of the children’s speech before and after therapy. The children’s consistency and accuracy of single word production improved following CVT. Consistency...
This study evaluated whether core vocabulary intervention (CVT) improved single word speech accur... more This study evaluated whether core vocabulary intervention (CVT) improved single word speech accuracy, consistency and intelligibility in four 9-11 year-old children with profound sensori-neural deafness fitted with cochlear implants and/or digital hearing aids. Their speech was characterised by inconsistent production of different error forms for the same lexical item. The children received twice weekly therapy sessions for eight weeks. Fifty target words were drilled and changes in production assessed for accuracy and consistency. Generalisation of consistency and accuracy was assessed on non-targeted words. There were four assessment points: six weeks pre-therapy; immediately before therapy; immediately following therapy and six weeks post-therapy. In addition, ten unfamiliar listeners judged the intelligibility of audio recordings of the children’s speech before and after therapy. The children’s consistency and accuracy of single word production improved following CVT. Consistency generalised to untreated words. Sentence intelligibility ratings improved and more target words were identified after therapy. These case studies suggest that CVT merits further investigation as an effective intervention approach for deaf children, enhancing consistency, accuracy and intelligibility of speech.
Children with unintelligible speech differ in severity, underlying deficit, type of surface error... more Children with unintelligible speech differ in severity, underlying deficit, type of surface error patterns and response to treatment. Detailed treatment case studies, evaluating specific intervention protocols for particular diagnostic groups, can identify best practice for children with speech disorder. Three treatment case studies evaluated the efficacy of Core Vocabulary intervention for three boys with inconsistent speech disorder. The cases examined the effects of previous intervention, use of default preferred word plans and behaviour disorder on intervention outcome. Inconsistent speech disorder was diagnosed after Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology assessment. A Core Vocabulary approach to intervention was selected to focus on planning whole word production rather than surface error patterns or specific sound features. Individual differences between cases led to different amounts of intervention and the number of words taught during intervention. All three b...
International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 2001
... Address for correspondence: Professor Barbara M d , &+ partment of Speech, University... more ... Address for correspondence: Professor Barbara M d , &+ partment of Speech, University of Newcastle, hg ... study, 61 children with speech impair-ment ages 3;6 to 5;O were exposed to ... (1999) study showed improved phonological awareness without concur-rent improvement in ...
The Dynamic Assessment of Preschoolers’ Proficiency in Learning English (DAPPLE) was developed in... more The Dynamic Assessment of Preschoolers’ Proficiency in Learning English (DAPPLE) was developed in response to a clinical need to obtain information about bilingual children’s English language learning ability, particularly in the absence of detailed information regarding their proficiency in their other language/s. The assessment looked at children’s responses to opportunities to learn in the three areas of vocabulary, sentence structure and phonology (speech sounds). Twelve bilingual children aged between 3 and 5 years who had been referred to speech and language therapy were assessed. Their responses across the three areas were explored to derive profiles of strength and weakness across language areas. One of the 12 children was found to possess good language learning abilities across all areas, which may reflect an inappropriate referral. All of the remaining children demonstrated difficulties with learning within one or more areas of the DAPPLE, with one child having difficultie...
ABSTRACT Aim: The cognitive-linguistic abilities of 2 subgroups of children with speech impairmen... more ABSTRACT Aim: The cognitive-linguistic abilities of 2 subgroups of children with speech impairment were compared to better understand underlying deficits that might influence effective intervention. Methods: Two groups of 23 children, aged 3;3 to 5;6, performed executive function tasks assessing cognitive flexibility and nonverbal rule abstraction. Following the system of differential diagnosis of speech disorders first described by Dodd, Leahy, and Hambly (1989), one group was identified as having delayed speech development, as their non–age-appropriate speech error patterns were typical of younger children. The other group was diagnosed as disordered because children consistently used at least one speech error pattern atypical of any age group in an assessments' normative sample (Dodd, Zhu, Crosbie, Holm, & Ozanne, 2002). Results and Conclusions: The disordered group performed less well than the delayed group: They had poorer cognitive flexibility and difficulty abstracting nonlinguistic rules. They made more consonant errors and different types of errors. The 2 groups did not differ on measures of language, vowel accuracy, or consistency of multiple productions of the same words. The findings suggest that different interventions, reflecting knowledge of underlying deficits, might benefit specific subgroups of children with speech impairment.
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