Monthly Archives: December 2009
Effects of Syntactic Complexity and Sentence-Structure Priming on Speech Initiation Time in Adults Who Stutter
Purpose: To test the hypotheses that adults who stutter will be slower in producing syntactically complex sentences than fluent adults and will benefit more from sentence-structure priming than will fluent adults.
Method: Adults who stutter (n = 15) and fluent adults (n = 15) participated in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, adults in both groups were administered a task that required memorization and production of sentences that varied in syntactic complexity. The same individuals who participated in Experiment 1 also participated in Experiment 2. The second experiment required all participants to create and produce sentences under primed and unprimed sentence-structure conditions.
Results: Relative to adults who do not stutter, the speech initiation time of fluent utterances of adults who stutter became increasingly slower as syntactic complexity increased, and they exhibited greater facilitative effects of sentence-structure priming. In addition, adults who stutter showed a significant correlation between syntactic complexity and priming facilitation.
Conclusion: Data from these experiments confirmed both hypotheses and provided evidence that a subgroup of adults who stutter have grammatical encoding differences when compared with adults who do not stutter.
Factorial Temperament Structure in Stuttering, Voice-Disordered, and Typically Developing Children
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether the underlying temperamental structure of the Dutch Children’s Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ; B. Van den Bergh & M. Ackx, 2003) was identical for children who stutter (CWS), typically developing children (TDC), and children with vocal nodules (CWVN).
Method: A principal axis factor analysis was performed on data obtained with the Dutch CBQ from 69 CWS, 149 TDC, and 41 CWVN. All children were between the ages of 3;0 (years;months) and 8;11.
Results: Results indicated a 3-factor solution, identified as Extraversion/Surgency, Negative Affect, and Effortful Control, for each of the participant groups, showing considerable similarity to previously published U.S., Chinese, Japanese, and Dutch samples. Congruence coefficients were highest for CWS and TDC and somewhat more modest when comparing CWVN and TDC. The Effortful Control factor consistently yielded the lowest congruence coefficients.
Conclusion: These data confirm that although stuttering, voice-disordered, and typically developing children may differ quantitatively with regard to mean scores on temperament scales, they are similar in terms of their overall underlying temperament structure. The equivalence of temperament structure provides a basis for further comparison of mean group scores on the individual temperament scales.
Judgments of Omitted BE and DO in Questions as Extended Finiteness Clinical Markers of Specific Language Impairment (SLI) to 15 Years: A Study of Growth and Asymptote
Purpose: Clinical grammar markers are needed for children with SLI older than 8 years. This study followed children who were previously studied on sentences with omitted finiteness to determine if affected children continue to perform at low levels and to examine possible predictors of low performance. This is the first longitudinal report of grammaticality judgments of questions.
Method: Three groups of children participated: 20 SLI, 20 age controls, and 18 language-matched controls, followed from ages 6–15 years. An experimental grammaticality judgment task was administered with BE copula/auxiliary and DO auxiliary in wh- and yes/no questions for 9 times of measurement. Predictors were indices of vocabulary, nonverbal intelligence, and maternal education.
Results: Growth curve analyses show that the affected group performed below the younger controls at each time of measurement, for each variable. Growth analyses show linear and quadratic effects for both groups across variables, with the exception of BE acquisition, which was flat for both groups. The control children reached ceiling levels; the affected children reached a lower asymptote.
Conclusion: The results suggest an ongoing maturational lag in finiteness marking for affected children with promise as a clinical marker for language impairment in school-aged and adolescent children and probably adults as well.
Lipreading, Processing Speed, and Working Memory in Younger and Older Adults
Conclusions: These findings suggest that the large individual variability in lipreading ability can be explained, in part, by individual differences in SWM and PS. Furthermore, as both of these abilities are known to decline with age, the findings suggest that age-related impairments in either or both of these abilities may account for the poorer lipreading ability of older compared with younger adults.
Mandibular Motor Control During the Early Development of Speech and Nonspeech Behaviors
Conclusions: Motor control for babble appears to be influenced by the balanced interaction between developing motor and linguistic systems, such that variation in linguistic complexity systematically evinces changes in motor organization apparently to meet these demands. This same effect was noted among chewing and jaw oscillation; task-dependent changes in mandibular control were noted across behaviors.
Modeling Developmental Language Difficulties From School Entry Into Adulthood: Literacy, Mental Health, and Employment Outcomes
Conclusions: The data indicate that both SLI and N-SLI represent significant risk factors for all the outcomes identified. There is a strong case for the identification of these children and the development of appropriate interventions. The results are discussed in terms of the measures used and the implications for practice.
Relief of Acquired Stuttering Associated With Parkinson’s Disease by Unilateral Left Subthalamic Brain Stimulation
Conclusion: This article emphasizes the important role of the subthalamic region in the motor control of speech and language.
Speech Perception Abilities of Adults With Dyslexia: Is There Any Evidence for a True Deficit?
Conclusions: The small number of group differences, and lack of consistent poor individual performance, suggests weak support for a speech perception deficit in dyslexia. It seems likely that at least some poor performances are attributable to nonsensory factors like attention. It may also be that some individuals with dyslexia have speech perceptual acuity that is at the lower end of the normal range and exacerbated by nonsensory factors.
Spoken Word Recognition in Toddlers Who Use Cochlear Implants
Conclusion: The results suggest that the unique auditory experience of young CI users slows the time course of spoken word recognition abilities. In addition, real-world listening environments may slow language processing in young language learners, regardless of their hearing status.
The Acquisition of Auxiliary Syntax: A Longitudinal Elicitation Study. Part 1: Auxiliary BE
Conclusion: These data are problematic for existing accounts of auxiliary acquisition and highlight the need for researchers working within both generativist and constructivist frameworks to develop more detailed theories of acquisition that directly predict the pattern of acquisition observed.
The Acquisition of Auxiliary Syntax: A Longitudinal Elicitation Study. Part 2: The Modals and Auxiliary DO
Conclusions: These data cannot be explained in full by existing theories of auxiliary acquisition. Researchers working within both generativist and constructivist frameworks need to develop more detailed theories of acquisition that predict the pattern of acquisition observed.
The Development of Distinct Speaking Styles in Preschool Children
Conclusion: Overall, the findings suggest that distinct styles develop slowly and that early style-dependent differences in children’s speech are unlike those observed in adult clear and casual speech. Children may not develop adultlike styles until they have acquired expert articulatory control and the ability to highlight the internal structure of an articulatory plan for a listener.
The Perception of Lexical Tone Contrasts in Cantonese Children With and Without Specific Language Impairment (SLI)
Conclusion: The SLI group’s poor tone identification cannot be accounted for by vocabulary knowledge alone. The group’s tone discrimination performance suggests that some children with SLI have a deficit in f0 processing.
Changes in the Tinnitus Handicap Questionnaire After Cochlear Implantation
Conclusions: Most tinnitus patients benefit from receiving a cochlear implant.
from the American Journal of Audiology
