Ann A. Tyler

Phonetic inventory changes after treating distinctions along an implicational hierarchy

Dinnsen, Chin, Elbert, and Powell (1990) described an implicational hierarchy of feature distinctions that characterized five inventory types for a group of phonologically disordered children. The presence of a feature associated with a more complex phonetic inventory implied the presence of all the distinctive features from less complex levels. In the present study two phonologically impaired subjects, ages 2;8 and 2; 10, with limited phonetic inventories, received treatment to add phonetic distinctions based on this implicational hierarchy. One subject was treated on a distinction from a more complex level in the hierarchy and the other on a less complex distinction. Treatment was applied in two 9-week blocks separated by 5-week withdrawal periods in which generalization probes were administered. Both children learned their target sounds; however, only the child treated on the complex distinction added sounds reflecting less complex distinctions without direct treatment. This subject added 12 sounds com...

Preschoolers With Phonological and Language Disorders: Treating Different Linguistic Domains

Six preschoolers aged 3:6 to 4:8 (years:months), with moderate-to-severe disorders in both language and phonology, received intervention that differentially focused on language, phonology, or both ...

Relationships among Consistency/Variability and Other Phonological Measures over Time.

This article explores selected phonological measures, their relationships to one another, and how groups differentiated by such measures change over time during intervention. Relationships among global quantitative measures of severity (percent consonants correct), measures of variability/consistency, and measures of whole-word complexity and syllable shape from 40 children with speech sound disorders were examined. All relationships were strong prior to intervention and remained stable during the course of intervention. Groups of 10 were differentiated with the measure of variability so that a variable group had many different error substitutions and the consistent group had few different error substitutions across the system. For these 2 groups, comparison of change at 3 points during the course of a 24-week intervention showed trends that were markedly similar in their linearity. There was steady improvement in percent consonants correct scores over time and a graduated decrease in the variability of errors on target sounds. The lack of a discernable difference between the consistent and variable groups in their response to the same intervention is seen as evidence to suggest that such groups may not need different types of intervention.

Assessing stimulability in toddlers

This article describes the development and use of a novel, script-based stimulability task for toddlers. A detailed description of the task and procedures for administration is provided. The task assesses stimulability for fricatives, affricates, and liquids in isolation and single words through presentation of toys and objects in a script format during play. Three different levels of cueing are provided to elicit the desired sounds/words. Selected findings from examination of the performance of 10 toddlers with normal speech-language development and 10 with delayed development at an initial assessment and a 6-month reassessment are also described. Results suggest that stimulability testing may be successful with toddlers through the use of a scripted task and that they are more responsive to direct elicitations. Both groups added stimulable sounds; however, there was considerable individual variation with respect to specific sounds added and the addition of nonstimulable sounds as well. Stimulability testing is clinically useful as a dynamic assessment tool for toddlers because it may reveal information regarding a childs speech that is not obtainable with other measures and is also beneficial for individualized intervention planning.

Cultural differences in learning novel words in an attention-following versus attention-directing style

Differences in attention regulation style and their affect on word learning were explored in two different cultures, first-generation Mexican and American. Ten toddlers, five American and five Mexican-immigrant, ages 15 – 21 months, were taught nonsense words in attention-directing and attention-following styles over a two-week period. Results showed that the Mexican-immigrant children learned more words in an attention-directing style than in an attention-following style in Week One. No differences were found in vocabulary in the American children in Week One or Week Two. However, there was an overall trend that the American children learned more words than the Mexican-immigrant children in an attention-following style. These results have implications for clinical intervention.

Direct and Indirect Effects of Stimulating Phoneme Awareness vs. Other Linguistic Skills in Preschoolers With Co-occurring Speech and Language Impairments

Aim: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of an integrated phoneme awareness/speech intervention in comparison to an alternating speech/morphosyntax intervention for specific areas targeted by the different interventions, as well as the extent of indirect gains in nontargeted areas. Method: A total of 30 children with co-occurring speech sound disorder and language impairment, average age 4;5, participated in the study, 18 from the United States and 12 from New Zealand. Children from matched pairs were randomly assigned to the 2 proven efficacious treatments, which were delivered in 6-week blocks separated by a 6-week break. Phoneme awareness, speech sound production, and oral language outcome measures were collected pretreatment and after each intervention block. Results and Conclusions: Both intervention groups made statistically significant gains in all measures, with the exception of a morpheme measure only approaching significance. There were clear trends in favor of the specificity of the interventions suggesting increased sample size might have led to some significant intervention differences. Results further implicate the need for early intervention that integrates oral language and phoneme awareness/early literacy skills for children with multiple deficits.

The effectiveness of a prosodic intervention on children's metrical patterns

Use of a trochaic template (S-w) stress pattern in early words and phrases has been documented in both normal and disordered populations. The purpose of this multiple baseline study was to determine the effectiveness of a prosodic intervention focusing on w-S stress patterns in phonological phrases and prosodic words, and its generalization to w-S patterns in untrained multi-syllabic words and phrases. Two children with speech and language impairments participated in a three-phase experimental treatment that focused on the article ‘the’ in phrases. Generalization probes designed to examine all phases of the therapy sequence and untrained stimuli were administered throughout therapy. Results indicate that the intervention procedures facilitated change in both children’s productions of w-S stress patterns in untrained multisyllabic words, although less so in untrained phrases.

Consonant-vowel interactions in early phonological development

Existing data suggest that consonant and vowel acquisition do not occur independently in young children, but instead interact during a period of normal phonological development. The purpose of this study was to assess consonant-vowel (CV) interactions in meaningful words, in particular to determine if labials were associated with central vowels, alveolars with front vowels, and velars with back vowels. A total of nine normally-developing children provided cross-sectional and longitudinal data for 18-, 21-, and 24-month age groups. Vowel inventories and frequencies of front, central, and back vowels following different consonantal places of articulation, without regard to accuracy, are reported. Accuracies as compared with the adult target and the frequency with which front, central, and back vowels were achieved within category in each consonantal context are also reported. Results did not provide support for a bilabial-central vowel association or for an alveolar-front vowel association. There was some evidence of an association between velars and back vowels. It is suggested that CV interactions may hold for only the earliest period of lexical acquisition and with differing strengths in individual phonological systems.

Error consistency and the evaluation of treatment outcomes

The consistency/variability of error substitution patterns may hold important implications for subgrouping children with speech disorders, as well as for relationships between learning and generalization patterns. There is a need to quantify and examine the range of consistency/variability within the speech disordered population as it relates to system‐wide change. This investigation compared two groups of preschool children (N = 10 each) differing in the consistency/variability of errors on a variety of pre‐treatment and treatment outcome measures. The Error Consistency Index (ECI), a measure of error variability across the entire phonological system, was used to identify groups at the extreme ends of the ECI distribution from a larger participant pool. Each participant was treated on three target singletons from among obstruents /s, z, f, ∫, t∫, k, g/ and liquids /l, r/ and change on these targets, as well as their generalization to untrained positions was assessed. Although there were significant differences between the variable and consistent groups on all pre‐treatment measures, there were no significant group differences in target and generalization learning or in per cent consonants correct (PCC) change. These findings provide evidence to suggest that relationships observed between error variability for individual phonemes and learning of those targets may differ from those observed when consistency/variability is quantified for the entire system and change across a number of phonemes, and the system as a whole, is examined.

Durational analysis of stridency errors in children with phonological impairment

This study investigated childrens knowledge, evidenced acoustically, of contrasts involving stridents as related to treatment progress. Durational measures (VOT) were used to examine possible acoustic markers of /s/ + stop clusters vs. stop singleton contrasts and initial fricative vs. stop contrasts in six pre-school children with phonological impairment. Other aspects of the childrens phonological knowledge were examined for their correspondence to acoustic findings and to treatment progress. One of three stopping subjects produced a durational acoustic distinction between stop and fricative targets prior to treatment. This subject, who also had more knowledge of the fricative class, required the shortest treatment period to establish a contrast between initial stops and fricatives in comparison to two subjects who had less knowledge of fricatives and no acoustic distinction. All three cluster subjects produced long lag VOTs in stops that replaced /s/ + stop clusters; one of these children displayed a weak signilicant difference in VOT means for is/ + stop cluster and singleton targets, but was not the subject with the lowest number of treatment sessions. Results are discussed in reference to the utility of acoustic measures and the convergence of those measures with other sources of knowledge as it relates to treatment outcomes.