[Development, validity and reliability of the speech prosody comprehension test]

The communication process includes both verbal and nonverbal elements. Nonverbal behavior or body language includes facial expression, eye contact, posture and prosody. Prosody conveys semantic or affective information to a listener. Nonetheless, so far in Iran no report on assessment of speech prosody comprehension in patients has ever been published. The aim of this study was to measure the validity and reliability of the prosody comprehension test specifically designed for the Persian language and culture. This study is a type of test development. 73 sentences were orated by 22 professional vocalists in eight different prosodies. A total of 6582 voices were prepared which were listened by 200, 18-30 year-old students and a voice specialist. Having the content validity calculated for all voices, 1473 voices were found to be unanimously agreed upon by all participants in terms of emotional status which were analyzed by a voice specialist. Eventually, 169 voices were selected for developing the prosody comprehension test including the following four subtests: none motional prosody discrimination, emotional discrimination, naming of prosody and naming conflicts. Reliability of the test was determined by performing the test on 32, 18-60 year-old normal people. The designed test of comprehension prosody had 100% content validity ratio and 94% reliability and the correlation of test of prosody was 89% [p=0.001]. This test in Persian language has appropriate validity and reliability and is appropriate for assessment of prosody comprehension

Effects of phoneme type on pronouncing the initial phoneme of a word in normal 5-6 year-old Persian-speaking children

Pronouncing phonemes is one of phoneme awareness skills that influences on reading and writing skills. The development of this skill stats in ages 5-6, but doesn't evolve in these ages. Many variables [the number of phonemes, the position of phonemes in word and the type of phonemes] may influence on this skill. In this study, the ability of pronouncing initial phonemes and the effects of type of phoneme on this skill were evaluated. This analytic-descriptive study was performed on 100 normal and 5-6 year-old Persian-speaking children [50 girls and 50 boys] who were randomly selected. The tool of this study was pronouncing initial phonemes task. This task was included of 6 questions. The responses of children were recorded and registered and analyzed using paired sample t-test. The comparison of data between girls and boys was assessed by independent t-test the ability of pronouncing initial phonemes in 5-6 year-old Persian-Speaking children was 0.68. The effects of the manner of articulation was significantly more than those of articulation position and voiced and voiceless [p=0.000]. The ability of children in pronouncing fricative phonemes was significantly more than other phonemes [p=0.000]. Mean scores of girls and boys was not significantly different [p=0.57]. The ability of pronouncing initial phonemes develops in early 5-6 ages. The type of phoneme influences on the ability of pronouncing initial phonemes in 5 to 6 year-old children. It seems that the effects of manner of articulation is more than the position of articulation and voiced and voiceless. The ability of pronouncing initial fricative phonemes was significantly more than other phonemes in 5-6 year-old children. In this task, the skills of girls and boys were the same

[Syllabic elision ability in 5 to 6 year-old normal Persian-speaking children of Tehran kindergarten, Iran]

Phonological awareness skill is an integrated ability that is manifested in 4 skills including syllable, rhyme, and phoneme awareness and alliteration. The aim of the present study is to explore development of syllabic elision skill as an aspect of syllabic awareness. It was descriptive-analytic cross-sectional study. Thirty normal Persian-speaking children, 15 girls and 15 boys, were randomly selected throughout Tehran kindergarten. The participants were monolingual. Children should eliminate a syllable from any word presented, and to state the remaining section of the word. The responses were analyzed using SPSS software. Ability of 5 to 6 year-old children in eliminating a syllable in two syllabic words was significantly higher than those of three and four syllabic words and syllabic elision of three and four syllabic words as significantly different [p=0.000]. Two, three and four syllabic task correlations were statistically significant and the correlation between syllabic elision ability and the syllabic construct and the positioning of elision syllable was significant [p<0.05]. Syllabic elision skill blossoms in 5 to 6 year-old Persian-speaking children. The maximum ability of syllabic elision evolves after phonological recording and after learning reading and writing skills. Syllabic elision ability is also influenced by the syllabic construct and the positioning of elision syllable

[Development and comparison of tasks for assessment of first phoneme of word in normal 5 to 6 year-old Persian-speaking children]

Phonological awareness skills are referred to awareness and manipulation of linguistic phonemes without semantics. One of important phonological awareness subtest is [phoneme awareness] that is evaluated by many tasks. The aim of this study was to development two sections of phoneme awareness [diagnosis of a word with different first phoneme and expressing word with same first phoneme] and then comparison of them in 5 to 6 year-old Persian-speaking in Tehran. In this study, 100 normal 5 to 6 year-old Persian-speaking children [50 girls and 50 boys] were selected randomly. Children were mono linguistic and normal. Diagnosis of a word with different first phoneme and expressing word with same first phoneme was selected as a tool. The results showed that both sections have appropriate validity and reliability. Mean of two sections was significantly different [diagnosis of a word with different first phoneme= 1.09 and expressing word with same first phoneme= 4.67] [P=0.000]. In addition, the mean scores of girls and boys were not statistically different. Both sections for assessment of first phoneme of word have good validity and reliability and the ability of children were different in two tasks, but girls and boys were same in performing of these tasks