Rachel E. Stark

Assessing vocal development in infants and toddlers

The purpose of this study was to examine changes in prelinguistic vocal production during the first 20 months of life. Vocalizations were classified into 23 mutually exclusive and exhaustive types, and grouped into five ascending levels using the Stark Assessment of Early Vocal Development‐Revised (SAEVD‐R). Data from 30 typically developing infants, aged 0–20 months, show that older infants attained higher developmental levels on the SAEVD‐R than younger infants. Infants 0–2, 3–5, and 6–8 months of age primarily produced vocalizations from Levels 1 (Reflexive), 2 (Control of Phonation), and 3 (Expansion). Infants 9–20 months of age also produced vocalizations from Level 4 (Basic Canonical Syllables). Only infants from 16–20 months of age produced Level 5 (Advanced Forms) vocalizations in significant quantities. The outcomes indicate that the SAEVD‐R is a valuable instrument for evaluating prelinguistic vocal development.

Follow-up study of a right- and a left-hemispherectomized child : Implications for localization and impairment of language in children

Two hemispherectomized girls, one operated on the right, the other on the left, were followed from time of surgery until 9 and 10 years of age and compared with respect to course of language acquisition following surgery. At conclusion of follow-up, receptive and expressive language, phoneme perception and production, and sentence processing of the two hemispherectomized children were compared with those of two control groups of similar age, one developing language normally, the other language-impaired. The left-hemispherectomized childs abilities were similar to those of the language-impaired children; the right-hemispherectomized childs abilities resembled those of the language-normal children. Implications for localization of developmental anomalies in language-impaired children are discussed.

Oral volitional movements in children with language impairments

Abstract Isolated oral movements (Isol-VOM), repeated oral movements (Rept-VOM), and series of different movements (Seq-VOM) were compared in children with normal language (LN), children with both language and speech impairment (LI-A), and children with language impairment only (LI-0). Accuracy / coordination of movement was correlated with scores on nonword repetition and phoneme identification. The children with LI-A had greater difficulty with Isol-VOM and Rept-VOM than did the children with LN. The children with LI-0 had greater difficulty with Seq-VOM than did the children with LN. Performance on Isol-VOM was significantly correlated with nonword repetition in both LI groups; performance on Seq-VOM was significantly correlated with phoneme identification in the LI-0 group only.

Speech development in a child after decannulation: Further evidence that babbling facilitates later speech development

Selected children who receive long-term tracheostomies during the first year of life offer a possible means to study the relationship between babbling and later speech development. If babbling does not facilitate later speech development (the null hypothesis), then speech should not be delayed relative to other areas of development in the first weeks and months after the tracheostomy is removed. If babbling does facilitate later speech development (the alternative hypothesis), then speech should be delayed relative to other developmental domains. To better determine which of these hypotheses is correct, the authors of the present study investigated the speech outcome of a child, E, who was tracheostomized during and beyond the period during which babbling typically occurs. Es speech outcome was assessed at 6 weeks, 4 months, and 1 year after the tracheostomy was removed. Results of the investigation supported the alternative hypothesis.

Can conditioning procedures yield representative infant vocalizations in the laboratory

The quantity and quality of vocalizations produced in the home and laboratory by 36 typically developing infants, aged 3-18 months, were compared. Conditioning procedures were employed in order to obtain typical infant vocalizations in the laboratory. Analyses indicated that vocalizations were comparable in quantity and quality across the two settings. Earlier findings that frequency and complexity of vocalizations increase with age were also confirmed. These results suggest that with the use of conditioning procedures the laboratory can be an effective setting for recording infant vocalizations. Advantages of the laboratory setting include a favourable acoustic environment and the feasibility of maintaining stricter experimental control than is possible in more naturalistic contexts, such as the home.

Temporal patterning of cry and non-cry sounds in the first eight months of life

Cry and non-cry vocalizations produced by two normal infants in the reflexive, pleasure voicing, and/or expansion periods of vocal develop ment were examined and compared with respect to different aspects of temporal patterning. Overall series duration and number of breath groups per series were significantly greater for cry than later emerging non-cry vocalizations. In spite of this developmental discontinuity, the temporal structure of non-cry resembled that of cry in many respects. The subtle differences in temporal patterning that were also detected may relate to physiological stress factors present only in cry. They suggest a partial reorganization of vocalization at the onset of pleasure voicing, possibly reflecting the maturation of higher level central nervous system nuclei.

Real-Time Spectrographic Displays in Vowel Production Training With Children Who Have Profound Hearing Loss

The effectiveness of vowel production training with real-time spectrographic displays was assessed for two children with profound hearing loss. A multiple-baseline design across behaviors, with rep...

Eliciting Prespeech Vocalizations in a Young Child With Profound Hearing LossUsefulness of Real-Time Spectrographic Speech Displays

The usefulness of a real-time spectrographic speech display (SSD) in eliciting imitative and spontaneous prespeech vocalizations was explored through a case study. A 3-year, 10-month-old boy who ex...

Cognitive processing in specifically language-impaired children.

Eighteen language-impaired children and 25 non-language-impaired children were evaluated to investigate the relationship between language ability and selected aspects of the five-component problem-solving process defined by Kagan and Kogan (1970). Non-impaired children performed better than language-impaired children on nearly all components of the problem-solving process. Language-impaired children had particular difficulties in the areas of coding and hypothesis generation. In fact, coding ability was inversely related to the number of errors made in hypothesis evaluation. Coding ability was also positively correlated with language ability. The exact causal relationship between coding ability, language ability, and error-making in hypothesis evaluation is unclear; however, improving coding skills through training may increase automaticity and lead to improved performance in the higher levels of the problem-solving process.