Barbara Bernhardt

The application of nonlinear phonological theory to intervention with one phonologically disordered child

Speech-language pathologists gain opportunities to search for more effective assessment and intervention methodologies by deriving implications of significant developments within linguistics. This paper describes the application of some tenets of nonlinear phonology to the planning and execution of a phonological intervention programme with one child. The nonlinear analyses provided independent phonological therapy goals for both segmental and syllable structure (prosodic tier structure) development. Higher and lower level features in the feature hierarchy were contrasted in intervention. Prosodic constituents derived from moraic and onset-rime syllable theories were contrasted as facilitators in the attainment of syllable structure goals. A detailed analysis of the changes in the childs speech over two 6-week intervention blocks shows that the goals derived from the nonlinear analyses were logical and attainable. The data demonstrate a faster rate of acquisition for syllable structure (prosodic) goals in the first time block, some predictability for acquisition based on the feature hierarchy, and similarity of effectiveness of the use of different types of prosodic constituent stimuli.

Speech habilitation of hard of hearing adolescents using electropalatography and ultrasound as evaluated by trained listeners

Four adolescents with moderate to severe sensorineural hearing losses and moderately unintelligible speech participated in a 14-week speech therapy study using two dynamic visual feedback technologies, electropalatography and ultrasound imaging. Electropalatography provides information about tongue-hard palate contact points. Ultrasound displays images of tongue shape and movement in two dimensions from the tip to the root. Treatment targets for all participants included a sibilant place contrast (/s/ versus / Z /), liquids /l/ and /r/, and the tense-lax vowel contrast with the high vowels. Trained listener evaluations of pre- and post-treatment transcripts are reported in this paper. Significant improvements in speech production were noted across students and targets. Treatment targets improved significantly more than non-treatment test targets overall. Students showed greatest gains on consonants that were absent or marginal in their speech pre-treatment. No particular advantage of one technology over the other was evident in this sample.

Ultrasound in Speech Therapy with Adolescents and Adults.

The present paper comprises an overview of techniques using ultrasound in speech (re)habilitation. Ultrasound treatment techniques have been developed for English lingual stops, vowels, sibilants, and liquids. These techniques come from a series of small n studies with adolescents and adults with severe hearing impairment, residual speech impairment or accented speech at the Interdisciplinary Speech Research Laboratory at the University of British Columbia. Ultrasound allows excellent visualization of tongue shape features, which is especially useful for feedback during speech (re)habilitation. Further research is needed to evaluate the efficacy of ultrasound in speech (re)habilitation.

Long-term outcomes of speech therapy for seven adolescents with visual feedback technologies: Ultrasound and electropalatography

This follow-up study investigated the speech production of seven adolescents and young adults with hearing impairment 2–4 years after speech intervention with ultrasound and electropalatography. Perceptual judgments by seven expert listeners revealed that five out of seven speakers either continued to generalize post-treatment or maintained their level of performance post-treatment. Targets included fricatives, vowels and the rhotic /ɹ/. Speakers ranged in age from 14 to 19 years. Listeners were considered to be expert listeners. All listeners had extensive backgrounds in phonetics and phonology and were speech-language pathologists. This long-term investigation revealed that speech habilitation with visual feedback tools as adjuncts to therapy appeared to have lasting effects. The implications for habilitation include reduced therapy times and outcomes not previously possible.

Applying linguistic theory to speech–language pathology: the case for nonlinear phonology

Application of knowledge from many related fields benefits the practice of speech-language pathology. In the past 20 years, linguistic theory has provided a rich knowledge base for application. Phonological theories have provided frameworks for the description of the speech of unintelligible children in terms of coherent phonological systems, thus facilitating logical goal-setting for intervention. In this paper we suggest some of the possible implications of current nonlinear phonological frameworks for developmental phonology, and give an example of clinical application.

Electropalatography and ultrasound in vowel remediation for adolescents with hearing impairment

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of electropalatography (EPG) and ultrasound in the remediation of vowels in adolescents with hearing impairment. Three adolescents with severe hearing impairment participated in a 6-week vowel remediation programme using electropalatography (EPG) and dynamic two-dimensional ultrasound as adjuncts to speech therapy. Pre- and post-therapy speech productions were evaluated in terms of vowel formant values, EPG tongue-palate contact patterns and phonetic transcription. Notable changes were observed for all vowels across speakers, with most changes in the direction of the adult English targets. Transcription, acoustic and EPG tongue-palate contact results did not necessarily converge across vowels or speakers. Visual feedback as provided by EPG and ultrasound can be facilitative in promoting vowel development in adolescents with hearing impairment. Further research is required to evaluate the stability of changes, the relative impact of ultrasound and EPG and the relationship between phonetic transcriptions, tongue-palate contact and acoustic information about vowels.

From hindsight to foresight: working around barriers to success in phonological intervention

A major goal of phonological intervention is to help bring a childs speech development to within normal range for his or her developmental stage. Reaching that goal may take longer than anticipatedfor some children. This paper illustrates an in–depth retrospective evaluation of assessment data from one child with a phonological impairment, who progressed slowly during intervention (Baker and McLeod, 2004). An alternative intervention plan is suggested that takes key factors from the assessment data into account, and utilizes a nonlinear phonologicalframework to set up the goal sequence. The insights gained from hindsight in this case may lead to foresight for other children s intervention programmes.

Intervocalic consonants in the speech of English-speaking Canadian children with phonological disorders

Acquisition of intervocalic consonants has been insufficiently studied, both in terms of subject numbers, and in terms of differentiating syllabification patterns from those involving vowel feature assimilation. The question has remained: are English intervocalic consonants syllable-initial (onsets), syllable-final (codas) or ambisyllabic? This study addresses these issues in the speech of 44 Englishspeaking Canadian children with phonological disorders. Intervocalic consonants resembled word-initial onsets in that they were deleted less often than word-final consonants. When there was no deletion, intervocalic consonants were more likely to be segmentally unique (ambisyllabic?) than like onsets or codas. In segmental inventories, segments rarely appeared only in intervocalic position, and showed an equal affinity to onsets and codas, with two exceptions. Sonorant continuants and, to a lesser extent, fricatives showed patterns in intervocalic position that may have reflected assimilation. For children with less severe disorders, velars and fricatives occurred intervocalically only if they also occurred in codas, suggesting a coda-like (ambisyllabic?) status.

A motor differentiation model for liquid substitutions in children’s speech

Studies of lip‐jaw coordination in children have shown a lack of motor differentiation between anatomically coupled articulators in young childrens speech [Green & al. 2000, JSLHR 43: 239–255]. A model is described in which children contending with their developing motor systems generally strive to reduce the degrees of freedom of complex anatomical structures (e.g., the tongue). The claim is pursued that segmental substitutions (e.g., /w/ replacing /r/ or /l/) are the result of specific compensation strategies which aim to simplify the complexity of the articulatory task. The proposal that gestural simplification may dictate substitution strategies for liquid consonants has been suggested previously [Studdert‐Kennedy & Goldstein 2003, Language Evolution, Oxford U. Pr. 235‐254]. It is proposed here that gestural simplification may be achieved via one of two basic mechanisms: gestural omission and stiffening (and hence merger), and that these two mechanisms account for all of the commonly attested substitu...

Infant‐directed speech: Final syllable lengthening and rate of speech

Speech rate has been reported to be slower in infant‐directed speech (IDS) than in adult‐directed speech (ADS). Studies have also found phrase‐final lengthening to be more exaggerated in IDS compared with ADS. In our study we asked whether the observed overall slower rate of IDS is due to exaggerated utterance‐final syllable lengthening. Two mothers of preverbal English‐learning infants each participated in two recording sessions, one with her child, and another with an adult friend. The results showed an overall slower rate in IDS compared to ADS. However, when utterance‐final syllables were excluded from the calculation, the speech rate in IDS and ADS did not differ significantly. The duration of utterance‐final syllables differed significantly for IDS versus ADS. Thus, the overall slower rate of IDS was due to the extra‐long final syllable occurring in relatively short utterances. The comparable pre‐final speech rate for IDS and ADS further accentuates the final syllable lengthening in IDS. As utterances in IDS are typically phrases or clauses, the particularly strong final‐lengthening cue could potentially facilitate infants’ segmentation of these syntactic units. These findings are consistent with the existing evidence that pre‐boundary lengthening is important in the processing of major syntactic units in English‐learning infants.