1/26. Speech patterns in Kabuki make-up syndrome: a case report.The case of a girl aged 3 years and 8 months with Kabuki make-up syndrome is reported. At presentation, she had normal cognitive functioning, and she also had a history of otitis media, a submucous cleft palate, and some hypotonia. language testing showed normal receptive skills and good expressive vocabulary but poor morphosyntactic abilities. Speech analysis showed that she was capable of producing most of the sounds of her native language but demonstrated high variability in production of the sounds. In addition, she inconsistently simplified words by application of several phonologic processes. Possible explanations for the communication problems demonstrated are discussed.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = process (Clic here for more details about this article) |
2/26. Comparison of cross-language generalisation following speech therapy.Little is known about the phonological development of children who acquire two languages sequentially in the preschool years. Some of these children will be referred for assessment of speech disorder. Distinguishing between delayed development due to the language learning environment and disorder is problematic in the absence of normative data on the typical phonological development of bilingual children. Another major issue concerns whether both languages require intervention, or only one because of generalisation to the other language. Treatment efficacy studies of 2 bilingual children are reported. The data indicate that different patterns of cross-language generalisation occur depending upon the deficit in the speech processing chain underlying the speech disorder.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = process (Clic here for more details about this article) |
3/26. Pattern-based approaches to phonological therapy.Pattern-based approaches to phonological disorders emerged in the 1970s and 1980s after researchers realized that phonological "rules" used to describe speech patterns of adults could be used in the analysis of children's speech. In this article, a pattern-based approach to assessment and treatment of phonological disorders is described, based on identification and treatment of phonological processes. Means of identifying and quantifying phonological processes are provided and assessment tests are described. Principles underlying the use of phonological processes in intervention programs are presented and decisions regarding target selection are discussed. A case study of the treatment program for one child illustrates the application of phonological processes within a cycles approach.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 4keywords = process (Clic here for more details about this article) |
4/26. From phonological therapy to phonological awareness.Children with speech difficulties often have delayed phonological awareness development and associated literacy problems. Speech-language pathologists (S-LPs) typically use phonological and articulatory approaches in their treatment of such children. However, it is unclear to what extent phonological awareness training, originally designed to promote literacy skills, might also improve children's speech output. This article adopts a psycholinguistic approach to examine the nature and development of phonological awareness and to explore the relationship between phonological awareness training and phonological therapy. The role of phonological awareness in predicting literacy development in children is discussed, and principles for analyzing the psycholinguistic properties of therapy tasks are presented. Phonological awareness cannot be dealt with independently as it is an integral part of articulation and phonological intervention. Further, phonological awareness is a necessary "on-line" skill in the dynamic communication process between therapist and child. Failure to take this into account will result in inappropriately targeted therapy and pragmatic breakdown between the child and S-LP.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = process (Clic here for more details about this article) |
5/26. Acoustic phonetics in a clinical setting: a case study of /r/-distortion therapy with surgical intervention.Acoustic measures are used to document the speech of a 6-year-old child with persistent /r/-distortion through several treatment interventions. The child originally presented a complex of speech disorders and was treated by a speech-language pathologist using phonological process techniques. The procedures successfully corrected most of his speech problems, although /r/ remained severely distorted. The primary acoustic manifestation of this distortion was a high third formant. Surgical correction of a banded lingual frenulum, along with adenoton-sillectomy indicated for sleep apnea, is shown to have had a small effect in lowering the third formant. A dramatic change was seen on reintroduction of therapy, when an extreme drop in third formant frequencies for /r/ was observed. The acoustic data are interpreted using speaker-internal controls derived from a dialect-appropriate adult model.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = process (Clic here for more details about this article) |
6/26. Changes in linguapalatal contact patterns during therapy for velar fronting in a 10-year-old with Down's syndrome.BACKGROUND: Articulation errors in the speech of people with Down's syndrome are frequent and often resistant to speech therapy. This preliminary study investigates the use of electropalatography (EPG) to diagnose and treat abnormal articulation patterns associated with velar fronting in a 10-year-old girl. AIMS: The study measured changes in the accuracy and stability of linguapalatal (tongue-palate) contact patterns during a 14-week course of visual feedback therapy using EPG. Therapy aimed to resolve a pattern of velar fronting whereby targets /k, g, eta/ had alveolar placement [t, d, n]. methods & PROCEDURES: The participant was a girl (P) with Down's syndrome aged 10;11 years. P had a moderate-severe speech disorder, which included velar fronting. Her speech was recorded with EPG on three occasions during a 14-week course of therapy: first, before therapy; second, midway through therapy; and third, after therapy. Three analyses were conducted on the EPG data. The first used an EPG classification scheme that identified accuracy of placement for /t/ and /k/ targets. The second was a centre of gravity measure that detected whether P produced a significant difference between /t/ and /k/ targets. The third was a variability index that quantified the stability of contact patterns. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: The results of the EPG classification showed that before therapy, /t/ and /k/ targets had identical alveolar placement, reflecting the process of velar fronting. The results after therapy showed that 87% of /k/ targets had accurate velar placement. The centre of gravity measure showed no difference in contact patterns for /t/ and /k/ before therapy, but a statistically significant difference at the second and third recordings. The variability index showed stable contact patterns before therapy for /t/ and /k/ targets, but both became highly unstable midway through therapy, with a return to stability at the third recording. We embed a discussion of P's increased articulation instability during therapy in a recent theoretical framework--dynamic systems--that attempts to account for the emergence of new behavioural forms. CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary results suggest that EPG has potential as an effective diagnostic and therapy procedure for articulation errors in people with Down's syndrome. A major issue still to be addressed, however, is the extent to which others will benefit from this approach to intervention.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 32.63861905304keywords = alveolar, process (Clic here for more details about this article) |
7/26. Using electropalatography (EPG) to diagnose and treat articulation disorders associated with mild cerebral palsy: a case study.Some children with mild cerebral palsy have articulation disorders that are resistant to conventional speech therapy techniques. This preliminary study investigated the use of electropalatography (EPG) to diagnose and treat a long-standing articulation disorder that had not responded to conventional speech therapy techniques in an 8-year-old boy (D) with a congenital left hemiplegia. The targets for EPG therapy were speech errors affecting velar targets /k, g, eta/, which were consistently fronted to alveolar placement [t, d, n]. After 15 sessions of EPG therapy over a 4-month period, D's ability to produce velars improved significantly. The EPG data revealed two features of diagnostic importance. The first was an unusually asymmetrical pattern of tongue-palate contact and the second was unusually long stop closure durations. These features are interpreted as a subtle form of impaired speech motor control that could be related to a mild residual neurological deficit. The results suggest that EPG is of potential benefit for diagnosing and treating articulation disorders in individuals with mild cerebral palsy.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 15.81930952652keywords = alveolar (Clic here for more details about this article) |
8/26. Inner speech in anarthria: neuropsychological evidence of differential effects of cerebral lesions on subvocal articulation.The role of articulation in verbal short-term memory was investigated in two anarthric patients, C.M. and F.C., both showing normal comprehension for written and spoken language, above average intelligence and visuo-spatial abilities. Based on experimental results, we propose that subvocal articulation might be impaired in anarthric patients in different ways, according to the site of lesion: in 'locked-in' patients only the articulatory rehearsal processes necessary to enhance memory performances is involved, while in cortical anarthric patients the lesion affects the articulatory recoding processes involved in transferring visually presented material into an articulatory form for better retention.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 2keywords = process (Clic here for more details about this article) |
9/26. Esophageal speaker articulation of /s,z/: a dynamic palatometric assessment.Esophageal talker linguapalatal contact patterns and durations during /s/ and /z/ productions were examined using dynamic palatometry instrumentation. It was found that sibilant groove narrowing is a physiologic compensation for a reduced air supply in esophageal speech. The place of esophageal /s, z/ articulation was on the anterior portion of the alveolar ridge as seen in normal speakers. Average medial groove width for esophageal /s/ was narrower than the 5-7-mm groove characteristic of normal speakers. Groove widths averaged 3 mm for /s/ and 4 mm for /z/. Systematic changes in groove widths across speech sounds, syllable position, and vowel context were also observed. Use of a narrower lingual groove was interpreted as a significant articulatory maneuver to meter out a limited intraoral air supply and effect more normal fricative durations.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 15.81930952652keywords = alveolar (Clic here for more details about this article) |
10/26. Developmental verbal dyspraxia. II: A developmental perspective on two case studies.A longitudinal study of the speech errors of two school-age children with what was described as developmental verbal dyspraxia is presented. By comparing them with a group of normally developing children matched on articulation age, it was possible to identify speech errors not typical of earlier speech development, involving problems with syllable structure planning and vocal tract coordination. The speech-disordered children could produce more words correctly than the controls, but, when they did make speech errors, these were more serious than those found in the younger children. The speech-disordered children were followed up 4 years later. Although their speech had improved, they presented with the same profile of error types. They had increased intelligibility by adding more word-specific articulations but still had difficulties with novel and complex material. The adoption of a developmental framework in this study allowed the identification of different levels of breakdown within the speech production process. The case-study method is recommended to investigate how these levels may interact and the clinical implications of the findings are outlined.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = process (Clic here for more details about this article) |
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