Osnat Segal

Prosodic patterns in Hebrew child-directed speech

The study examines prosodic characteristics of Hebrew speech directed to children between 0 ; 9-3 ; 0 years, based on longitudinal samples of 228,946 tokens (8,075 types). The distribution of prosodic patterns - the number of syllables and stress patterns - is analyzed across three lexical categories, distinguishing not only between open- and closed-class items, but also between these two categories and a third, innovative, class, referred to as between-class items. Results indicate that Hebrew CDS consists mainly of mono- and bisyllabic words, with differences between lexical categories; and that the most common stress pattern is word-final, with parallel distributions found for all categories. Additional analyses showed that verbs take word-final stress, but nouns are both trochaic and iambic. Finally, a developmental analysis indicates a significant increase in the number of iambic words in CDS. These findings have clear implications regarding the use of prosody for word segmentation and assignment of lexical class in infancy.

Auditory Discrimination of Lexical Stress Patterns in Hearing-Impaired Infants with Cochlear Implants Compared with Normal Hearing: Influence of Acoustic Cues and Listening Experience to the Ambient Language.

Objectives: To assess discrimination of lexical stress pattern in infants with cochlear implant (CI) compared with infants with normal hearing (NH). While criteria for cochlear implantation have expanded to infants as young as 6 months, little is known regarding infants’ processing of suprasegmental-prosodic cues which are known to be important for the first stages of language acquisition. Lexical stress is an example of such a cue, which, in hearing infants, has been shown to assist in segmenting words from fluent speech and in distinguishing between words that differ only the stress pattern. To date, however, there are no data on the ability of infants with CIs to perceive lexical stress. Such information will provide insight to the speech characteristics that are available to these infants in their first steps of language acquisition. This is of particular interest given the known limitations that the CI device has in transmitting speech information that is mediated by changes in fundamental frequency. Design: Two groups of infants participated in this study. The first group included 20 profoundly hearing-impaired infants with CI, 12 to 33 months old, implanted under the age of 2.5 years (median age of implantation = 14.5 months), with 1 to 6 months of CI use (mean = 2.7 months) and no known additional problems. The second group of infants included 48 NH infants, 11 to 14 months old with normal development and no known risk factors for developmental delays. Infants were tested on their ability to discriminate between nonsense words that differed on their stress pattern only (/dóti/ versus /dotí/ and /dotí/ versus /dóti/) using the visual habituation procedure. The measure for discrimination was the change in looking time between the last habituation trial (e.g., /dóti/) and the novel trial (e.g., /dotí/). Results: (1) Infants with CI showed discrimination between lexical stress pattern with only limited auditory experience with their implant device, (2) discrimination of stress patterns in infants with CI was reduced compared with that of infants with NH, (3) both groups showed directional asymmetry in discrimination, that is, increased discrimination from the uncommon to the common stress pattern in Hebrew (/dóti/ versus /dotí/) compared with the reversed condition. Conclusions: The CI device transmitted sufficient acoustic information (amplitude, duration, and fundamental frequency) to allow discrimination between stress patterns in young hearing-impaired infants with CI. The present pattern of results is in support of a discrimination model in which both auditory capabilities and “top–down” interactions are involved. That is, the CI infants detected changes between stressed and unstressed syllables after which they developed a bias for the more common weak–strong stress pattern in Hebrew. The latter suggests that infants with CI were able to extract the statistical distribution of stress patterns by listening to the ambient language even after limited auditory experience with the CI device. To conclude, in relation to processing of lexical stress patterns, infants with CI followed similar developmental milestones as hearing infants thus establishing important prerequisites for early language acquisition.

Listening preference for child-directed speech versus nonspeech stimuli in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired infants after cochlear implantation.

Objectives: The main purpose of the present study was to determine listening preference for child-directed speech (CDS) over static (white noise, WN) and dynamic (time-reversed speech, TRS) nonspeech stimuli in both normal-hearing (NH) infants and hearing-impaired infants with cochlear implants (CIs). A second purpose was to investigate the effect of auditory experience on listening preference for speech in both groups. Method: A total of 64 infants, 43 NH (age 6 to 20 mos) and 21 CI users (age 14 to 33 mos), were tested. Twenty-two NH infants and 12 infants with CIs were tested on their listening preference for CDS compared with WN. In addition, 21 NH infants and 9 infants with CIs were tested on their listening preference for CDS compared with TRS using the central fixation preference procedure. Results: NH infants and infants with CIs preferred listening to speech compared with WN and TRS. This preference was shown in infants with limited listening experience and increased significantly with auditory exposure for both NH infants and infants with CIs. The extent of preference for speech versus nonspeech among infants with CIs was significantly correlated with gross auditory and preverbal production skills (as measured by ITMAIS and PRISE tests, respectively) as well as with duration of auditory experience. Conclusions: The CI device provides sufficient information for the infants with CIs to follow early language processes similarly to NH infants.

International Survey of Speech-Language Pathologists' Practices in Working with Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Objective: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental impairment. To better understand the role of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in different countries in supporting children with ASD, the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP) Child Language Committee developed a survey for SLPs working with children or adolescents with ASD. Method and Participants: The survey comprised 58 questions about background information of respondents, characteristics of children with ASD, and the role of SLPs in diagnosis, assessment, and intervention practices. The survey was available in English, French, Russian, and Portuguese, and distributed online. Results: This paper provides a descriptive summary of the main findings from the quantitative data from the 1,114 SLPs (representing 35 countries) who were supporting children with ASD. Most of the respondents (91%) were experienced in working with children with ASD, and the majority (75%) worked in schools or early childhood settings. SLPs reported that the children’s typical age at diagnosis of ASD on their caseload was 3–4 years, completed mostly by a professional team. Conclusions: The results support positive global trends for SLPs using effective practices in assessment and intervention for children with ASD. Two areas where SLPs may need further support are involving parents in assessment practices, and supporting literacy development in children with ASD.

Judging emotions in lexical-prosodic congruent and incongruent speech stimuli by adolescents in the autism spectrum.

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to assess how adolescents with autism who vary in the severity of autistic characteristics judge the emotional state of the speaker when lexical and prosodic information is congruent or incongruent. Participants: Eighty participants, 24 autistic and 56 typically developing (TD) subjects participated: (a) 11 autistic adolescents between 9.5 and 16.83 years old, studying at general education settings (AA1), (b) 13 autistic adolescents between 15.91 and 20.33 years old, studying at a special school (AA2), and (c) 56 TD subjects between 6 and 29 years old. Listeners were required to judge the emotional meaning of words (sad/happy) in congruent conditions and incongruent conditions. Results: (a) All participants judged lexical and prosodic meaning separately with high accuracy, (b) all participants showed prolonged reaction times in the incongruent compared to the congruent condition, (c) AA1 relied on prosodic information in the incongruent condition similarly to TD 9-15 year olds and TD adults, (d) AA2 and TD 6-8 year olds did not rely on prosodic information in the incongruent condition, and (e) both education placements, the severity of autistic characteristics and nonverbal IQ contributed to prosodic judgment in the incongruent condition in autistic adolescents. Conclusions: The two groups of autistic adolescents processed both lexical and prosodic information in the incongruent condition. However, the severity of autistic characteristics influenced the preference for prosody.

Recognition and Comprehension of "Narrow Focus" by Young Adults with Prelingual Hearing Loss Using Hearing Aids or Cochlear Implants.

Purpose The stressed word in a sentence (narrow focus [NF]) conveys information about the intent of the speaker and is therefore important for processing spoken language and in social interactions. The ability of participants with severe-to-profound prelingual hearing loss to comprehend NF has rarely been investigated. The purpose of this study was to assess the recognition and comprehension of NF by young adults with prelingual hearing loss compared with those of participants with normal hearing (NH). Method The participants included young adults with hearing aids (HA; n = 10), cochlear implants (CI; n = 12), and NH (n = 18). The test material included the Hebrew Narrow Focus Test (Segal, Kaplan, Patael, & Kishon-Rabin, in press), with 3 subtests, which was used to assess the recognition and comprehension of NF in different contexts. Results The following results were obtained: (a) CI and HA users successfully recognized the stressed word, with the worst performance for CI; (b) HA and CI comprehended NF less well than NH; and (c) the comprehension of NF was associated with verbal working memory and expressive vocabulary in CI users. Conclusions Most CI and HA users were able to recognize the stressed word in a sentence but had considerable difficulty understanding it. Different factors may contribute to this difficulty, including the memory load during the task itself and linguistic and pragmatic abilities. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5572792.

Perceptual simulations during sentence comprehension: A comparison between typical adolescents and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract Consistent with embodied theories of language comprehension, several studies have shown that comprehenders automatically activate perceptual (visual) information of verbally described objects, even when this information in neither explicitly mentioned nor necessary to perform the task. To clarify the role of perceptual activations in meaning construal; and to identify a potential cause of comprehension difficulties in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the present study examined the extent to which individuals with ASD activate perceptual representations during sentence comprehension. 16 adolescents with ASD and 16 typically developing (TD) controls were asked to decide whether an object depicted in a line drawing had been mentioned in a preceding sentence. In the match condition , the shape or the orientation of the object matched the one implied by the preceding sentence. In the mismatched condition , the shape or the orientation of the object did not match the one implied by the sentence. TD adolescents responded faster in the match than in the mismatch condition. In contrast, adolescents with ASD did not distinguish between the two conditions. Thus, compared to controls, ASD adolescents were less able to spontaneously activate perceptual information as a function of sentence context. The implications of these results are discussed.

Comprehension of “Narrow Focus” by Adolescents in the Autism Spectrum

Objective: The study compared the performance of adolescents with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) to that of age-matched peers with typical development (TD) and cognitive language-matched peers with TD on measures of identification and comprehension of “narrow focus.” Participants: Forty-nine participants, 17 autistic, 17 TD peers matched for age and sex, and 15 TD children matched for expressive vocabulary participated in the study. Method: The Hebrew Narrow Focus Test (HNFT) was used. The HNFT includes 3 subtests. The first subtest (A) required identification of the stressed word in the sentence based on psychoacoustic abilities alone. The second (B) and third (C) subtests required understanding the meaning of focused stress in different contexts. In subtest B, the meaning of “narrow focus” was to contrast other possibilities related to the lexical-grammatical role of the stressed word in the sentence, whereas in subtest C, the meaning was to indicate a mistake. Results: ASD participants showed reduced performance compared to peers across all the subtests of the HNFT, but similar performance compared to TD children in subtests A and B and better performance on subtest C. A significant correlation was found between the Raven test for assessing nonverbal intelligence and subtests B and C of the HNFT in the group of adolescents with ASD. Conclusions: Comprehension of narrow focus in adolescents with ASD who study in a special educational system is related to their cognitive-linguistic abilities and not to the autistic condition by itself or to its severity.

Dedication to Sara Eyal

The Child Language Committee dedicates this issue of Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica to Sara Eyal, who has been a faculty member of the Department of Communication Disorders at the University of Tel Aviv, Israel, a member of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics for 40 years and a member of the Child Language Committee for 25 years. Throughout her time on the committee, Sara has been an unwavering, guiding force. Golda Meir, a founder of Israel and its first female Prime Minister, has said: ‘A teacher is one who has a program ... and feels he has done his job. An educator tries to give children something else in addition: spirit.’ Sara is a consummate educator. She has been an educator to the committee – giving spirit to the committee, enabling them to develop and implement a vision, and giving spirit to fellow professionals, encouraging and supporting them in taking on leadership roles. Meir also said: ‘Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.’ Sara has created that kind of self – a self that we have all been happy to know and work with. And she has made the most of herself. Her achievements are reflected in her teaching, clinical work and multiple professional meetings on cuttingedge issues in child language she has coordinated with the committee. We commend Sara for her achievements and thank her for helping the Child Language Committee achieve its goals. Yvette D. Hyter , Committee Chair, Kalamazoo, Mich. Leonor Scliar-Cabral , Florianópolis Sara Ferman , Tel Aviv Gail Gillon , Christchurch Yvette Hus , Montreal, Que. Kakia Petinou , Limassol Osnat Segal , Tel Aviv Yumiko Tanaka Welty , Osaka and Boulder, Colo. Ioannis Vogindroukas , Thessaloniki Carol E. Westby , Albuquerque, N. Mex. Tanya Gallagher , Committee Consultant, Champaign, Ill. Published online: November 14, 2014