Intelligible speech is a primary component for successful communication. However, the speech of children with disordered phonologies is often unintelligible. Therefore, when assessing the speech intelligibility of children in order to determine whether they qualify for intervention services, speech-language pathologists need reliable evaluation tools. The focus of this investigation was the measurement of speech intelligibility. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between two methods for measuring speech intelligibility. The first, identification method, involves the listener transcribing a speech sample from which the percentage of words understood is calculated. The second, scaling procedure, involves the listener estimating the percentage of words understood from a continuous speech sample. The secondary purpose of this study was to examine the accuracy of the scaling method as measured by ear estimation compared to the identification method as measured through orthographic transcription for each of three groups of children with: (a) the most intelligibility, (b) average intelligibility, and ( c) least intelligibility. Four unsophisticated listeners rated the speech intelligibility of 48 speakers aged 4:0 to 5:6 who comprised three groups with varying levels of phonological proficiency. The listeners who were unfamiliar with the speakers, but familiar with the topic, rated the children's continuous speech samples using ear estimation. The data collected were then compared with intelligibility ratings as measured in a previous study (Gordon-Brannan, 1994) via orthographic transcription. The two methods of measuring speech intelligibility examined in this study were found to be positively correlated (r = .86). However, the t-test analysis revealed significant differences between the two measures for the most and least intelligible groups, indicating discrepancies between the two methods when measuring the speech intelligibility of some children. Additional statistical analysis revealed poor intrajudge reliability which should be considered when interpreting the results presented. It does appear, however, that when measuring speech intelligibility, using ear estimation, is reflective of the orthographic transcription measure, although the actual estimated percentages of intelligibility appear to differ from the percentages derived from orthographic transcription.

A single subject, diagnosed as having severe oral apraxia and dysarthria, participated in an eight-week research experiment designed to study the effects of singing on speech articulation. A simultaneous treatment design was used in which the subject participated in both the e xperimental and control conditions. In the control condition spoken words were repeated by the subject, while in the experimental condition the words were sung. The words used were the lyrics to two popular folk songs. Articulatory accuracy (intelligibility) was judged by two graduate level speech therapists, based on audiotape samples of the subject's responses, recorded on a "Language Master" machine. Judges were also asked to rate their degree of confidence about their judgements. Results indicated significantly higher scores at the .05 level for the singing condition than for the non-singing condition. Degree of confidence ratings were similar for both conditions. It was also observed that a significantly greater number of consonant blends were correctly articulated in the singing condition than in the nonsinging condition.

Choosing an effective and efficient phonological treatment approach is an important decision for clinicians when treating children with phonological deviations. Current research supports the effectiveness of phonological treatment, but few studies have compared two approaches. More comparative studies are essential to support clinical intervention for children who are highly unintelligible. This single-subject study was designed to compare the effectiveness of two phonologically-based treatment approaches in facilitating an intelligible speech production system for one highly unintelligible preschool female. Multiple baselines across behaviors with an alternating treatment design were used in this descriptive study. This study sought to answer the following questions: (a) Is there a clinically significant difference between the effectiveness of the cycling approach and the minimal pairs approach in treating a child with phonological disorders? and (b) Do the phonological cycling and/or the minimal pairs treatment approaches result in generalization of treated sounds in a targeted pattern to untrained words containing the treated sounds and to untreated sounds/sound contexts in the same phonological pattern? Using the phonological assessment instrument, the APP-R in conjunction with the CAPD, four phonological deviations were chosen for phonological remediation. Two deviations were assigned to the phonological cycling approach (Hodson & Paden, 1991) and two to the minimal pairs approach (Blache, 1989; Fokes, 1982). Remediation alternated between the two approaches every 6 sessions, beginning with the cycling approach, for a total of 24 sessions. Treated sounds from each targeted deviation were taught and reassessed using the APP-R to compare treatment effectiveness. To examine generalization of targeted phonological patterns to phonemes in other contexts, periodic probes of treated sounds within untrained words and untreated sounds/sound contexts in the same pattern were administered. Results of the CAPD indicate that both treatment methods were effective in improving some of the treated phonological deviations for this subject though neither method was more effective than the other. Probe words indicated generalization to untrained words and untreated sounds/sound contexts in some phonological patterns. These findings support the phonologically-based theory of remediation: the goal of phonological treatment is developing a whole phonological system, rather than perfecting targeted deviations.

The motor speech disorder of dysarthria is present in a substantial number of children with cerebral palsy (CP), leading to speech intelligibility deficits, which may negatively affect the children’s communication and quality of life. Few studies to date have examined strategies for increasing intelligibility in children with dysarthria, and most have focused on English speakers. Thus, questions regarding the effects of speech cueing strategies in speakers of other languages are under-explored. The purpose of this study was to determine if (Korean translations of) two cues, “speak with your big mouth,” targeting greater articulatory excursion, and “speak with your strong voice,” targeting greater vocal intensity, would elicit changes in speech acoustics and intelligibility in Korean-speaking children with dysarthria secondary to CP. Fifteen Korean-speaking children with dysarthria repeated word- and sentence-level stimuli in habitual, big mouth, and strong voice conditions. Intelligibility was assessed through the ease-of-understanding (EoU) ratings and percentage of words correctly transcribed (PWC) by 90 blinded listeners. Results indicated significantly greater vocal intensity and greater utterance duration in the cued conditions, demonstrating the children’s ability to vary their speech styles in response to the two cues. Furthermore, word-level EoU gains following both cues and sentence-level EoU gains following the strong voice cue suggest potential intelligibility benefits of the cues in this population. Gains in PWC were not statistically significant, and considerable variability in the children’s responses to the cues was noted overall. These findings contribute to the limited knowledge base for speech-language pathologists working with Korean speaking children. The variability in responses points to the importance of assessing each child’s stimulability to cues aimed to enhance intelligibility. Further clinical and theoretical considerations, including cross-linguistic implications, are discussed.

Developing strategies to promote effective carryover is one of the most difficult tasks a clinician faces. Mention has been made in the literature of possible activities to use in the clinical setting to promote carryover. Suggestion has been made in the literature that operant conditioning is a technique which can be employed to achieve carryover. The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether there is a difference in relative effectiveness between operant and non-operant techniques for achieving carryover of /1/.

Clinicians report that carryover management is one of the most difficult and time consuming problems they face (Johnson, 1972) yet the literature offers little data to assist clinicians in determining what methodologies should be used and which are effective in facilitating carryover. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the type of methodologies utilized by public school clinicians in Oregon to facilitate carryover with clients originally diagnosed as having articulation disorders. A secondary question dealt with the perceived effectiveness of these methodologies.

This study investigated the relationship of auditory short-term memory and articulation ability of eight-year-old children to determine if a relationship existed between auditory short-term memory ability and articulation ability. The specific question posed was: Is there a statistically significant difference in the auditory short-term memory ability of eight-year-olds with three or more phoneme errors and eight-year-olds with no phoneme errors?

Assessment of speech sound production in young children provides the basis for diagnosis and treatment of speech sound disorders. Standardized single-word articulation tests are typically used for identification of speech sound errors because they can provide an efficient means of obtaining a speech sample for analysis and comparison to same-age peers. A major criticism of single-word articulation tests is that they may not accurately reflect speech sound production abilities in conversation. Comparison of performance in single-word and conversational contexts has produced conflicting results in the available research. The purpose of the present study was to compare speech samples obtained using an extensive single-word naming task with samples of continuous speech elicited by sentence imitation. It was hypothesized that there would be differences in overall speech sound production accuracy as well as differences in types and frequency of errors across the two sampling conditions. The present study is a pilot investigation as part of the development of the Phonological and Bilingual Articulation Assessment, English Version (PABA-E; Gildersleeve-Neumann, unpublished). Twelve preschool children ages 3;11 to 4;7 (years;months) from the Portland Metropolitan area participated in this study. Participants were monolingual native English speakers and exhibited typical speech sound development as measured by the GFTA-2 (Goldman-Fristoe, 2000). Hearing acuity for participants was within acceptable limits, and participants' families reported no significant illnesses or developmental concerns that would impact speech sound production abilities. Mean t-scores for percentage of consonants correct (PCC) in the single-word samples were significantly higher at the .05 level than those for the sentence imitation samples. There was no significant difference between the percentage of vowels produced correctly (PVC) in the two sampling conditions. Similar types of error patterns were found in both the single-word and continuous speech samples, however error frequency was relatively low for the participant population. Only the phonological process of stopping was found to be significantly different across sampling conditions. The mean frequency of occurrence for stopping was found to be significantly higher in continuous speech as compared with the production of single-words.

The purpose of this study was to determine if the time it takes to complete a phonological test was significantly different than the time it takes to complete a phonetic test. It was hoped this study would identify an instrument that the public school speech-language pathologist could use more effectively and efficiently to analyze phonologically-impaired children.

Statement of the problem. The present study was designed to answer the question: What is the effect of tranquilizers, specifically phenothiazines , on diadochokinetic movement in a geriatric population? It was hypothesized that patients exhibiting overt effects of long term phenothiazine therapy (dyskinesia ) would show a reduced rate of diadochokinetic movement when compared with an age-matched group exhibiting no such symptoms and with no history of having taken tranquilizers . Furthermore, if this diadochokinetic movement were reduced, there would be a greater incidence of defective speech in this patient group .