Background: Speech production in Bantu languages places great demands on neuromotor control, because unique speech motor behaviours such as syllabic tone variation and the aspiration of speech sounds require an additional level of vocal fold control compared to speech production in Germanic languages. As these motor behaviours play an important role in differentiating the meaning of words (Van der Merwe & Le Roux, 2014a), neuromotor speech disorders such as dysarthria may have a greater impact on communication in Bantu languages than in Germanic languages. The focus of this study was on syllabic tone variation in Bantu language speakers with dysarthria compared to typical speakers. Sepedi was the Bantu language investigated. Syllabic tone variation refers to pitch level changes for every syllable of words in a tone language (Zerbian & Barnard, 2008a) and requires manipulation of vocal fold length and mass over and above the voicing or devoicing of sounds within words. These pitch changes convey the lexical and grammatical meaning of words and may differentiate between the meanings of two orthographically identical words (Zerbian & Barnard, 2008a). Studies on lexical tone variation in speakers with dysarthria to date have focused mostly on the tone languages of Asia and Scandinavia (Kadyamusuma, De Blesser, & Mayer, 2011). No studies of tone variation in Bantu language speakers with dysarthria were found. Furthermore, past research only regarded tone variation in monosyllabic words, with no reference to how tone would be affected across bisyllabic words and within each of the two syllables of these words. No inquiries were made into the tone variation ability of speakers with dysarthria when producing short utterances compared to longer utterances and mostly speakers with congenital dysarthria were used as research participants. These shortcomings needed to be addressed to gain a more holistic and accurate view of the extent to which tone variation is a challenge for Bantu language speakers with dysarthria. Aims: The first aim of the study was to determine whether a difference exists between typical Sepedi speakers and Sepedi speakers with dysarthria, in their ability to vary tone across CVCV words with a HL tone pattern. The second aim of the study was to determine whether a difference in tone variation exists between short and longer utterances in typical Sepedi speakers and Sepedi speakers with dysarthria. Method: A quasi-experimental, between-group comparison was used in the study. Speech samples were obtained from a control group of five typical Sepedi speakers and from an experimental group of four Sepedi speakers with dysarthria. These speech samples consisted of 20 consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel (CVCV) words with high-low (HL) tone variation produced in three- and also in six- /seven-syllable utterances (resulting in a total of 40 words). The speech samples were analysed acoustically using Praat software. To achieve the first aim, the following acoustic measures were obtained from the 40 words produced by participants: (1) Mean fundamental frequency (F0) of syllable 1 (S1) and syllable 2 (S2), (2) Change in F0 across words from the highest F0 point of S1 to the lowest F0 point of S2, (3) Intrasyllabic change in F0 within S1 and S2. To achieve the second aim of the study, the change in F0 across words in short utterances was compared to the change in F0 across words in longer utterances for the typical speakers and speakers with dysarthria. Results: Wilcoxon rank tests were used for statistical analyses. Descriptive statistics were performed and median values were used to achieve research aims. All of the control participants and participants with dysarthria produced S1 with a higher mean F0 than S2, as was appropriate for the HL tone pattern ascribed to the target words. For most of the individuals from both groups, the mean F0 of S1 was significantly higher than the mean F0 of S2. However, one participant from each group produced an insignificant difference between the mean F0 values of the two syllables. The control group produced slightly greater median F0 changes across the words and within S1 than the dysarthria group, but the differences between the speaker groups for the change in F0 across words and the change in F0 within S1 were insignificant. In contrast to this, the control group produced a significantly smaller median change in F0 within S2 than the dysarthria group. Individual speakers from both groups produced unique patterns of F0 changes for all aspects of tone variation (change in F0 across words and changes in F0 within S1 and S2). Both speaker groups produced a significantly greater median change in F0 across words in short utterances compared to long utterances. The difference in the change in F0 across words between short and long utterances was significantly greater for the control group than for the dysarthria group. Conclusions: The speakers with dysarthria in the study maintained the ability to vary tone across bisyllabic words with an HL tone pattern. The dysarthria group only differed significantly from the control group with regard to the extent of tone reduction in the second syllable. This finding may point to possible difficulties in the required graded relaxation of the vocal folds. Individual differences in F0 changes were found for both typical speakers and speakers with dysarthria, indicating that unique tone variation patterns may normally exist for all speakers. For both control and dysarthria groups, greater tone variation was observed in short compared to longer utterances. The role of increased utterance length in decreased F0 variation was greater for the typical speakers than for the individuals with dysarthria. / Dissertation (M Communication Pathology)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / M Communication Pathology / Unrestricted

Typically developing Spanish-English bilingual children's production of twelve grammatical morphemes was analyzed for accuracy and described as a function of their English mastery, as indexed by mean length of utterance (MLU). Results revealed positive trends in morpheme accuracy as MLU increased. Despite a large degree of between subject variability, the data demonstrated general patterns that were consistent with previous literature, namely that the rate and trajectory of morpheme acquisition differs from monolingual norms, and that particular morphemes are predictably more and less challenging for bilingual children to produce accurately. MLU "cut-points" were suggested based on functional breaks in accuracy for several morphemes. / text

Concerns regarding Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) has led to adaptations of this method of analysis. A recent study by Johnston (2001) introduced an alternative to MLU called MLU2. The current study investigates the split-half reliability of MLU and MLU2 as well as another alternative, Median Length of Utterance (Med-LU). Split-half reliability was found for these methods when segmented into Phonological and Communication Units. Split-half reliability of MLU2 was generally higher than that of MLU, and both were higher than Med-LU. The study suggests that MLU2 may also be a valuable tool for clinicians in analyzing child language.

Children’s utterances have been studied in different languages; however, only a few studies refer to Swedish. The aim of the present study is to describe utterance types, subordinate clauses and utterance length for a group of three and four year old Swedish children without known functional impairments. The study included 29 children, 17 girls and 12 boys, in a larger city in the south-east of Sweden. The children, all native Swedish speakers, were aged 3;0 to 4;11. Sound recordings were made during a playing session with one of the authors in the children’s day care centers.The utterances were divided into the categories elliptical responses, incomplete and partly unintelligible utterances, imitative utterances and independent utterances. Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) was calculated for the 50 first independent utterances. Subordinate clauses were classified and counted and placement of the sentence adverb was studied. Elliptical responses were frequently used. Incomplete or partly unintelligible utterances were relatively common, but imitative utterances were rare. Subordinate clauses were used by 23 of the 29 children. Relative subordinate clauses were the most common type, and were used across the age range. Most of the children placed the sentence adverbial correctly. The children had utterances ranging from one to 23 words, and the most common utterance length was four words. The MLU ranged from 2.36 to 7.04. Frequent use of subordinate clauses resulted in a higher MLU. The older children used subordinate clauses more frequently and had a lower percentage of elliptical responses. The MLU had a tendency to increase with age. The great variety in the results shown in the present study, can be explained by the fact that children aged three and four are in a process of developing their language. Children with a more frequent use of subordinate clauses had higher MLU values, suggesting a relation between language complexity and MLU. The results show that MLU is a reliable measure of children’s language level in the ages three and four years. / Barns yttranden har undersökts i flera studier på olika språk, men det finns endast ett fåtal studier som berör det svenska språket. Syftet med föreliggande studie är att beskriva yttrandetyper, bisatser och yttrandelängd hos en grupp tre- och fyraåriga svenska barn utan kända funktionsnedsättningar. I studien deltog 29 barn, 17 flickor och 12 pojkar, i en större tätort i sydöstra Sverige. Barnen var i åldern 3;0 till 4;11 och hade svenska som modersmål. Ljudupptagning skedde under samtal i en leksituation med en av uppsatsförfattarna på barnens förskola. Yttrandena delades in i kategorierna elliptiska svarsyttranden, ofullständiga eller delvis oförståeliga yttranden, imitativa yttranden och självständiga yttranden. Yttrandemedellängd (eng: Mean Length of Utterance, förkortat MLU) räknades ut för de 50 första självständiga yttrandena. Förekomst av olika bisatstyper och placering av satsadverbial i bisatser undersöktes också. Elliptiska svarsyttranden var vanliga hos barnen. Ofullständiga eller delvis oförståeliga yttranden förekom i viss utsträckning, och imitativa yttranden var ovanliga. Bisatser förekom hos 23 av de 29 barnen. ”Som” var den vanligaste bisatsinledaren och förekom i hela åldersgruppen. De flesta barnen placerade satsadverbialet korrekt i bisatserna. Barnens yttranden var mellan ett och 23 ord långa, och den vanligaste yttrandelängden var fyra ord. MLU varierade från 2,36 till 7,04. Frekvent användning av bisatser gav högre MLU. De äldre barnen använde fler bisatser och hade en mindre andel elliptiska svarsyttranden. MLU hade en viss tendens att öka med ålder. Barn i åldern tre till fyra år befinner sig i en språklig utvecklingsfas, vilket speglas i den stora variationen i resultaten. Att barn som använde många bisatser hade högt MLU tyder på ett samband mellan språklig förmåga och yttrandelängd. Detta visar i sin tur att MLU är ett tillförlitligt mått på barns språkliga nivå i åldern tre till fyra år.

Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS) is a standardized language sample analysis procedure that uses complete sentences to evaluate and score a child’s use of standard American-English grammatical rules. Automated DSS software can potentially increase efficiency and decrease the time needed for DSS analysis. This study examines the accuracy of one automated DSS software program, DSSA Version 2.0, compared to manual DSS scoring on previously collected language samples from 30 children between the ages of 2;5 and 7;11 (years;months). The overall accuracy of DSSA 2.0 was 86%. Additionally, the present study sought to determine the relationship between DSS, DSSA Version 2.0, the mean length of utterance (MLU), and age. MLU is a measure of linguistic ability in children, and is a widely used indicator of language impairment. This study found that MLU and DSS are both strongly correlated with age and these correlations are statistically significant, r = .605, p < .001 and r = .723, p < .001, respectively. In addition, MLU and DSSA were also strongly correlated with age and these correlations were statistically significant, r = .605, p < .001 and r = .669, p < .001, respectively. The correlation between MLU and DSS was high and statistically significant r = .873, p < .001, indicating that the correlation between MLU and DSS is not simply an artifact of both measures being correlated with age. Furthermore, the correlation between MLU and DSSA was high, r = .794, suggesting that the correlation between MLU and DSSA is not simply an artifact of both variables being correlated with age. Lastly, the relationship between DSS and age while controlling for MLU was moderate, but still statistically significant r = .501, p = .006. Therefore, DSS appears to add information beyond MLU.

The purpose of this analysis was to define norms for grammatical morpheme development in Spanish for Spanish-English bilingual children ages 4;0-7;6. This study uses secondary data analysis based on two existing datasets. Participants included 334 Spanish-English bilingual children that were recruited from school districts in Texas, Utah, and Pennsylvania. Grammatical morpheme accuracy was determined by performance on the BESA (Bilingual English Spanish Assessment) (Peña, Gutiérrez-Clellen et al., in preparation). Mean length of utterance in words (MLUw) data was collected from language samples. The average percent accuracy of grammatical morphemes was calculated and analyzed as a function of MLUw in Spanish. Results show that the percentage of accurately produced morphemes has a general upward trend as MLUw increases. Clinical and research implications are discussed. / text

A variety of tools have been developed to assist in the quantification and analysis of naturalistic language samples. In recent years, computer technology has been employed in language sample analysis. This study compares a new automated index, Scoring Sentences Developmentally (SSD), to two existing measures. Eighty samples from three corpora were manually analyzed using DSS and MLU and the processed by the automated software. Results show all three indices to be highly correlated, with correlations ranging from .62 to .98. The high correlations among scores support further investigation of the psychometric characteristics of the SSD software to determine its clinical validity and reliability. Results of this study suggest that SSD has the potential to compliment other analysis procedures in assessing the language development of young children.