Measuring speech intelligibility with deaf and hard-of-hearing children: A systematic review.

There is great variability in the ways in which the speech intelligibility of d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children who use spoken language as part, or all, of their communication system is measured. This systematic review examined the measures and methods that have been used when examining the speech intelligibility of children who are DHH and the characteristics of these measures and methods. A systematic database search was conducted of CENTRAL; CINAHL; Cochrane; ERIC; Joanna Briggs; Linguistics, Language and Behavior Abstracts; Medline; Scopus; and Web of Science databases, as well as supplemental searches. A total of 204 included studies reported the use of many different measures/methods which measured segmental aspects of speech, with the most common being Allen et al.'s (2001, The reliability of a rating scale for measuring speech intelligibility following pediatric cochlear implantation. Otology and Neurotology, 22(5), 631-633. https://doi.org/10.1097/00129492-200109000-00012) Speech Intelligibility Rating scale. Many studies included insufficient details to determine the measure that was used. Future research should utilize methods/measures with known psychometric validity, provide clear descriptions of the methods/measures used, and consider using more than one measure to account for limitations inherent in different methods of measuring the speech intelligibility of children who are DHH, and consider and discuss the rationale for the measure/method chosen.

Acquisition of the feature [+spread glottis] in Icelandic.

The feature [+spread glottis] ([+s.g.]) denotes that a speech sound is produced with a wide glottal aperture with audible voiceless airflow. Icelandic is unusual in the degree to which [+spread glottis] is involved in the phonology: in /h/, pre-aspirated and post-aspirated stops, voiceless fricatives and voiceless sonorants. The ubiquitousness of the feature could potentially affect the rate and process of its acquisition. This paper investigates the development of [+s.g.] in Icelandic, both in general and in a range of contexts, in a cross-sectional study of 433 typically developing Icelandic-speaking children aged two to seven years. As a feature, [+s.g.] is acquired early in Icelandic, although specific sound classes lag behind due to other output constraints. Children reach mastery of [+s.g.] by age three except in word-initial post-aspirated stops and voiceless nasals. Findings are interpreted in light of the literature on the feature and its development.

Maximise your impact: Sustainable Development Goals-Focussed content in communication intervention and teaching.

PURPOSE: Communication specialists strive to develop communication skills of students and clients using evidence-based practices. There is limited discussion of the topic content of speech-language pathology interventions and language education strategies that act as the vehicle to deliver intervention/education. In this commentary we demonstrate ways materials based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; United Nations, 2015) can be integrated into daily practices when working with people with communication disability and people acquiring additional languages. RESULT: Examples are provided as to how any or all SDGs can be used as the content base within speech-language pathology interventions and language education. A number of situations are presented illustrating SDG-focussed content across diverse settings. CONCLUSION: This commentary paper focusses on how content from all 17 SDGS that can be embedded into speech-language pathology and language education services to enhance the speech, language, and literacy skills and SDG knowledge of both children and adults. In addition, educational and therapy resource developers are called to rise to the challenge of creating materials based on the SDGs.

Uncommon timing variation in the speech of an Icelandic-speaking child with protracted phonological development.

The following paper presents an Icelandic-speaking child with protracted phonological development (PPD) over an intervention period (age 4;10 to 5;3) as a contribution to a special crosslinguistic issue describing individual profiles in PPD. Along with typical mismatch ("error") patterns, the child showed one pervasive and rare mismatch for Icelandic: compensatory lengthening of vowels when postvocalic consonant sequences reduced. Segment length is phonemic in Icelandic; thus, this pattern decreased her intelligibility considerably. A constraints-based nonlinear phonological framework served as a basis for analysis and intervention planning. Need addressed across the phonological hierarchy were: (1) accurate mapping between the timing tier (word structure level) and consonant and vowel tiers, through a focus on word-medial (WM) pre-aspirated stops; (2) onset complexity (word-initial (WI) /s/-clusters); and (3) a positional target, WI /f/. During intervention (17 sessions), she successfully produced training words for all targets. Monthly probes and a post-test at 5;3 revealed generalization to untrained words for pre-aspirated stops and labiodentals but not for /s/-clusters. Overall, compensatory vowel lengthening reduced substantially. The nonlinear analysis pointed specifically to the nature of the timing mismatches, supporting system-wide change.

Icelandic Children's Acquisition of Consonants and Consonant Clusters.

Purpose This study investigated Icelandic-speaking children's acquisition of singleton consonants and consonant clusters. Method Participants were 437 typically developing children aged 2;6-7;11 (years;months) acquiring Icelandic as their first language. Single-word speech samples of the 47 single consonants and 45 consonant clusters were collected using Málhljóðapróf ÞM (ÞM's Test of Speech Sound Disorders). Results Percentage of consonants correct for children aged 2;6-2;11 was 73.12 (SD = 13.33) and increased to 98.55 (SD = 3.24) for children aged 7;0-7;11. Overall, singleton consonants were more likely to be accurate than consonant clusters. The earliest consonants to be acquired were /m, n, p, t, j, h/ in word-initial position and /f, l/ within words. The last consonants to be acquired were /x, r, rÌ¥, s, θ, nÌ¥/, and consonant clusters in word-initial /sv-, stl-, str-, skr-, θr-/, within-word /-ðr-, -tl-/, and word-final /-klÌ¥, -xt/ contexts. Within-word phonemes were more often accurate than those in word-initial position, with word-final position the least accurate. Accuracy of production was significantly related to increasing age, but not sex. Conclusions This is the first comprehensive study of consonants and consonant cluster acquisition by typically developing Icelandic-speaking children. The findings align with trends for other Germanic languages; however, there are notable language-specific differences of clinical importance.

The recovery rate of early stuttering.

PURPOSE: Across studies there is great variability in reported rates of stuttering recovery. This study examined the impact that different definitions of recovery had on calculation of recovery rates and factors associated with recovery within the same sample of children. METHOD: Speech samples and parents and child reports of their experiences of stuttering were collected from 38 children who stuttered aged 2-5 years of age (Occassion-1) and again at 9-13 years of age (Occassion-2). Four different criteria for recovery that were developed representing variations in criteria reported in previous research were applied to data from these children. RESULTS: . The majority of the participants (82%) showed very little disfluent speech (<1% syllables stuttered) at Occasion 2. Recovery rate varied greatly depending on the criteria used, ranging from 13.2%-94.7%. Definitions ordered from least to greatest recovery that were (a) parent and clinician report no stuttering and no stuttering observed (13.2 %); (b) ≤1% syllables stuttered; severity rated at ≤1; parent, clinician, and child report recovery (55.3 %); (c) ≤1% syllables stuttered; severity rated at ≤1; parent and clinician report recovery (71.1 %); (d) <3.0 % syllables stuttered (94.7 %). Five participants were considered recovered and two were considered persistent stutters across all criteria. Different factors were associated with recovery from stuttering depending on the criterion used. CONCLUSION: The concept of recovery from stuttering is complex and estimations of recovery rate are likely to be greatly affected by differences in definitions and measurement across studies. This has a flow-on effect in determining the factors associated with recovery from stuttering.

Word-initial /r/-clusters in Icelandic-speaking children with protracted versus typical phonological development.

Rhotics are generally acquired late across languages (Jiménez, 1987; Tar, 2006; Blumenthal and Lundeborg, 2014). Prior research suggests some possible differences in acquisition across languages, however (Másdóttir and Stokes, 2016). The current study set out to examine acquisition of /r/ in Icelandic, focusing primarily on match (accuracy) and mismatch data for word-initial (WI) /r/-clusters, but also comparing /r/-clusters with WI singleton /r/ and /l/ plus /l/-clusters. Single-word data were collected for 27 Icelandic-speaking preschoolers with protracted phonological development (PPD) and compared with data from age- and gender-matched typically developing peers. Results showed lower match levels for clusters versus singletons, /r/ versus /l/ and the children with PPD. Most frequent substitutions were approximant [ð̞] and [l]. Younger children with PPD showed more deletion in clusters and a greater variety of substitutions for both consonants. The data support general cross-linguistic trends in rhotic acquisition with the [ð̞] substitution being one difference.

Influence of consonant frequency on Icelandic-speaking children's speech acquisition.

PURPOSE: A developmental hierarchy of phonetic feature complexity has been proposed, suggesting that later emerging sounds have greater articulatory complexity than those learned earlier. The aim of this research was to explore this hierarchy in a relatively unexplored language, Icelandic. METHOD: Twenty-eight typically-developing Icelandic-speaking children were tested at 2;4 and 3;4 years. Word-initial and word-medial phonemic inventories and a phonemic implicational hierarchy are described. RESULT: The frequency of occurrence of Icelandic consonants in the speech of 2;4 and 3;4 year old children was, from most to least frequent, n, s, t, p, r, m, l, k, f, ʋ, j, ɵ, h, kÊ°, c, [Formula: see text], É°, pÊ°, tÊ°, cÊ°, ç, [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]. CONCLUSION: Consonant frequency was a strong predictor of consonant accuracy at 2;4 months (r(23) = -0.75), but the effect was weaker at 3;4 months (r(23) = -0.51). Acquisition of /c/, /[Formula: see text]/ and /l/ occurred earlier, relative to English, Swedish, Dutch and German. A frequency-bound practice effect on emerging consonants is proposed to account for the early emergence of /c/, /[Formula: see text]/ and /l/ in Icelandic.

Fricative acquisition in English- and Icelandic-speaking preschoolers with protracted phonological development.

Few studies have directly compared fricative development across languages. The current study examined voiceless fricative production in Icelandic- versus English-speaking preschoolers with protracted phonological development (PPD). Expected were: a low fricative match (with age effect), highest match levels for /f/ and non-word-initial fricatives, developmentally early mismatch (error) patterns including deletion, multiple feature category mismatches or stops, and developmentally later patterns affecting only one feature category. Crosslinguistic differences in phonetic inventories were predicted to provide different options for mismatch patterns, e.g. affricates in English, [+spread glottis] segments in Icelandic. For each language, native speakers audio-recorded and transcribed single-word speech samples for thirteen 3-year-olds and ten 4-year-olds. Predictions regarding mismatches were generally confirmed. Accuracy data were partially confirmed, /f/ having a lower match than /s/ overall for the Icelandic children. Other results reflected language or group differences. The data provide confirmation that phonological acquisition reflects crosslinguistic, language-specific and child-specific influences.