The current study examined the effects of three speech conditions (voiced, whispered, mouthed) on articulatory kinematics at the sentence and word level. Participants included 20 adults (10 males, 10 females) with no history of speech, language, or hearing disorders. Participants read aloud six target utterances in the three different speaking conditions while articulatory kinematics were measured using the NDI Wave electromagnetic articulograph. The following articulators were examined: mid tongue, front of tongue, jaw, lower lip, and upper lip. One of the target utterances was chosen for analysis (It's time to shop for two new suits) at the sentence level and then further segmented for more detailed analysis of the word time. Results revealed a number of significant changes between the voiced and mouthed conditions for all articulators at the sentence level. Significant increases in sentence duration, articulatory stroke count, and stroke duration as well as significant decreases in peak stroke speed, stroke distance, and hull volume were found in the mouthed condition at the sentence level when compared to the voiced condition. Peak velocity significantly decreased in the mouthed condition at the word level, but overall the sentence level measures were more sensitive to change. These findings suggest that both laryngeal activation and auditory feedback may be necessary in the production of normally articulate speech, and that the absence of these may account for the significant changes between the voiced and mouthed conditions.

The effects of divided attention on speech in Parkinson's disease (PD) have been studied for a variety of tasks in recent years. Much of the previous research studied gait patterns while participants concurrently performed another task. There have been few studies regarding the effects of divided attention on speech in individuals with PD. The ability to communicate effectively relies in part on an appropriate rate of speech, vocal intensity, and fundamental frequency control. This study included 27 participants: 8 with PD, 12 neurologically healthy older (HO) adults, and 7 healthy younger (HY) adults. Each participant was given a list of topics to speak about during the experiment. They produced monologues under three conditions: standing, walking on a treadmill, and walking over obstacles on a treadmill. Each monologue was recorded and trimmed of pauses between topics, experimenter speech, and nonspeech behaviors before analysis. Speech rate, speaking versus pausing time, overall intensity, and intensity and fundamental frequency (F0) variability were analyzed. Median, mean, maximum, and minimum F0 increased as the gait task increased in difficulty. Mean and standard deviation of intensity also increased with gait demands. All groups had increased intensity variability when walking compared to standing. Speaking versus pausing time did not differ significantly as a function of the walking task and the results varied across the groups; the same was true for speech rate. These findings reflect changes in performance during divided attention tasks, with a greater effect on HO adults and individuals with PD than their younger counterparts.

This study describes a series of case studies on topic management patterns of five children (ages 5 to 10 years) with language impairment. The children participated in semi-structured topic tasks that assessed conversational abilities on topics that were verbally introduced and topics that were introduced both verbally and with an object. Although there was considerable variability among participants, the children generally responded to most introductions by acknowledging and maintaining the topic. With the exception of one child, however, the children in this study demonstrated immature topic manipulation patterns that could be expected to have negative social ramifications.

This study examined the effect of low doses of interactive therapy with a robot on the basic social engagement skills of four children with autism in interaction with an unfamiliar adult. The current study was part of a larger work investigating the effects of treatment incorporating a robot on the social engagement behaviors of children with autism. A single-subject, multiple-baseline research design was implemented and included four types of sessions: baseline, traditional intervention, intervention including the robot, and follow-up. Each participant received a total of 20 intervention sessions in addition to baseline and follow-up sessions. Intervention with the robot was conducted during 10 minutes of 50-minute therapy sessions. The remaining 40 minutes were spent providing highly interactive, play-based therapy similar to that conducted in traditional treatment sessions. Pre- and post-intervention measures of social engagement behaviors were taken and compared. Results indicated that most social engagement behaviors measured remained relatively constant or decreased over the course of the study. Reciprocal and collaborative actions in the context of turn-taking and singing activities, however, increased in three of the four participants. Implications of these results are discussed and suggestions for further research are offered.

Clinical audiologists at Utah State University have been using a master hearing aid as a basic part of hearing aid evaluation procedures . To ascertain the usefulness of the master hearing aid in predicting patient success with a wearable hearing aid , 20 subjects were given speech audiometric tests under the following conditions: (l) without amplification; (2) with the headset system of the master hearing aid (a system which utilizes chassis mounted microphones and external receivers of the type used with body-worn hearing aids); (3) with the ear-level system of the master hearing aid (a system which utilizes a microphone and receiver mounted in an ear-level hearing aid case); and (4) with a wearable ear-level hearing aid which had been previously selected for each subject on the basis of master hearing aid data. Using the ANOV procedure, statistically significant differences α=.05) were found between the mean speech reception thresholds obtained under the three aided test conditions, but differences were not clinically significant. The mean speech reception thresholds a greed within 4.0 dB. No significant difference was found between the mean speech discrimination scores obtained in quiet under the three aided test conditions. However, the mean speech discrimination score obtained in noise under the head set system condition was significantly poorer (α=.05) than the mean speech discrimination scores obtained under the ear-level system condition and also the wear able hearing aid condition. Differences as specified were 9.1 percent and 10.2 percent respectively. Conclusions were that the ear-level system of the master hearing aid and the headset system of the master hearing aid can be used to predict the SRT and speech discrimination score in quiet of hearing aid candidate using a wearable hearing aid, but that the ear-level system of the master hearing aid should be used exclusively when attempting to predict a patient's success with a wearable hearing aid on speech discrimination tasks in noise.

Many articles and textbooks which have recently been written in the field of speech correction indicate that a high percent of all children who have speech defects also have a hearing deficiency. Some even say that a higher percent of these children have hearing deficiencies than do children who are normal in speech. Because of the great interest which has been aroused in the nature of the problems of the speech defectives, and because of the desire which exists for them to be helped in their handicaps, there is a necessity for their problems to be understood as thoroughly as possible. The present investigation has therefore been undertaken to establish the type and extent of hearing loss in the speech defective children in the first six grades of the elementary schools of Cache County and of the Logan City school districts.

Recent speech surveys conducted in Box Elder County showed that approximately 17% of the elementary school children there had speech defects of such seriousness that they needed clinical attention. A remedial speech program was organized and remedial speech training given at four schools in Box Elder County. The purpose of this project was to study this remedial speech program, as it was in operation, in an effort to determine the feasibility and value of such a program.

Electropalatography (EPG) provides real-time visual biofeedback for linguapalatal contact during speech and swallowing. Historically, EPG has proved to be an effective tool for assessment and treatment of a variety of speech disorders across a wide age range. The present thesis is part of a larger study examining the effectiveness of using EPG in assisting second language (L2) learners to acquire the German fricatives , [x], and //. Real and nonsense word productions were collected from six native German speakers. Electrode activation levels were generally highest for and lowest for [x]. Even when considering the impact of vowel context, [x] consistently showed only trace linguapalatal contact. Further research regarding the use of EPG as a tool for second language acquisition may include the development of linguapalatal contact maps from which L2 learners can compare their production of , [x], and // to native production. It is hoped that the information contained in this thesis will expand the current uses of EPG as a tool to assist L2 learners in acquiring non-native speech sounds.

The purpose of this study is to observe childrens adaptation to an electropalatographic (EPG) sensor. Sound recordings of six children between the ages of 7;0 and 9;11 sampled at 30-minute intervals over a two-hour period of wearing an EPG sensor were perceptually evaluated to quantify the children's adaptation over time. Twenty native speakers of American English evaluated the pronunciation of a series of words with embedded stops and fricatives produced with and without an EPG sensor in place. When collapsed over speaker and stimulus type, listener ratings decreased significantly after inserting the EPG sensor. Ratings then increased significantly after the sensor was in place for 30 minutes, and again after 60 minutes. No significant improvement in pronunciation was noted between the 60- and 120-minute test intervals, and adaptation did not reach preplacement levels until the sensor was removed. Mixed results were found in how speakers adapted across the different stimulus types. Adaptation was most consistent across speakers for the conversation conditions, but occurred most rapidly for /s/ and /k/. Speakers showed the best overall adaptation for the phoneme /t/ by the end of testing. These results are similar to several adaptation studies with adults, and the two studies with children. Results from this study will help speech pathologists effectively use EPG technology to help children accurately pronounce speech sounds, and to generalize these pronunciations to their normal speech.

Purpose: The Everyday Speech Production Assessment Measure (E-SPAM) is a novel test for assessing changes in clients‟ speech production skills after intervention. This study provides information on reliability and validity for the test and overviews its clinical application. Method & Procedures: E-SPAM, oral reading, and sequential motion rate tasks were administered to 15 participants with motor speech disorders (MSDs). E-SPAM responses were scored using a 5-point system by four graduate students to assess inter-scorer and temporal reliability and to determine validity for E-SPAM. Results: Findings of this study indicate that the E-SPAM can be scored with sufficient reliability for clinical use, yields stable scores on repeat administrations, and that its results correlate highly with other accepted measures of speech production ability, specifically sentence intelligibility and severity. Conclusions: While the results of this study must be considered preliminary because of the small sample size, it does appear that the E-SPAM can provide information about aspects of speech production such as intelligibility, efficiency, and speech naturalness, that are important when treatment focuses on improving speech. The E-SPAM also appears to be a “clinician-friendly” test as it is quick to administer and score and can be administered to patients across the severity continuum.