No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Goal of presentation is to identify areas of child phonology that clinicans have difficulty with.

No description available.

The primary goal of the current study was to investigate the impact of different first language backgrounds on early Chinese reading development by comparing a group of children who spoke a dialect at home and learned to speak and read Mandarin as a second language as soon as they attended Mandarin immersion programs with their Mandarin-speaking monolingual counterparts. The comparison involved five variables, two of which were measures of reading outcomes, word reading accuracy and vocabulary knowledge, and the other three were measures related to processing spoken languages, including rapid automatized naming, phonological awareness, and morphological awareness. The study was carried out in two phases. Participants in Phase One consisted of 30 dialect-dominant (DD) and 30 Mandarin-monolingual (MD) children from one kindergarten. Half of them were in their second year (K2), and the other half were in their third year of kindergarten (K3). Participants in Phase Two consisted of 218 dialect-dominant children from the third-year kindergarten to the third grade in one school. The assessments in Phase One were administered from March to April in 2011, and the assessments in Phase Two were administered from May to July in 2011. The current study added to extant literature by yielding several important findings with an under-represented population in Chinese reading research. First, the strong link between morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge, which has been documented in previous studies, is now extended to the group of DD children. Second, the current study revealed that in comparison to the MD group the DD group performed significantly poorer on Mandarin morphological construction in K2, indicating an impact of language proficiency in the development of morphological awareness. This impact appeared to affect the DD children's subsequent vocabulary development. Third, the current study showed grade variability in the rapid automatized naming (RAN)-Chinese reading relation and suggested that the component of language proficiency might affect children's rapid naming speed and moderate the relation of RAN to reading outcomes. Limitations of the current study and directions for future research are presented.

Within the current decade, the number of Hispanic students has doubled so that about 16% of the total student population within the United States are Spanish-speakers (U.S. Census Bureau, 2017). With this growing population comes a responsibility to understand and implement best practices for educating these students. Because literacy is a building-block for learning, one integral part of this responsibility consists of developing valid and reliable means of assessing pre-reading skills that are predictive of later reading abilities (Lonigan, Burgess, & Anthony, 2000; Wagner, Torgesen, & Rashotte, 1994). English-language learning children are being identified for having reading difficulties and disabilities two to three years later than their English-proficient peers (Chu & Flores, 2011). As a population, they are also overly misidentified as having reading difficulties/disabilities and being unnecessarily placed into a special education system (McCardle, Mele-McCarthy, Cutting, Leos, & D’Emilio, 2005b; Sanatullova Allison & Robinson-Young, 2016). Per a nationwide survey of Speech-Language Pathologists, one large contributing factor for this dilemma is the lack of appropriate assessment instruments (Roseberry-McKibbin, Brice, & O’Hanlon, 2005). Phonological awareness is the ability to focus on and manipulate units of spoken language (words, syllables, onsets, rimes, and/or phonemes). It is one of the most significant predictors of later reading abilities. A large body of evidence provides support for this within the English language but also within other alphabetic languages, such as Spanish (e.g. Carillo, 1994; Durgunoglu, Nagy, Hancin-Bhatt, 1993; Schneider, Kuspert, Roth, Vise, & Marx, 1997). Thus, assessments of phonological awareness have been shown to be reliable measures that predict later reading abilities in Spanish-speaking children and English-proficient children alike (Farver, Nakamoto, & Lonigan, 2007). There are many standardized assessments available to test phonological awareness as an emergent literacy skill in English. In congruence with the previously mentioned nationwide survey, Spanish assessments of phonological awareness are less abundant. Additionally, these tests tend to be expensive, time-consuming to give, and require training of the administrator. These tests are static in nature and regularly require the child to comprehend complex administrative instructions which is often problematic for children with limited language skills in Spanish and/or English (Barker, Bridges, & Saunders, 2014). The current study aims to build upon existing data regarding development of the DAPA-S by evaluating the validity of a shorter version of the DAPA-S (the DAPA-S Short Form) with children from Spanish-speaking backgrounds. The DAPA-S Short form was designed with the purpose of retaining all the test items of the full version but with an altered structure which allows for significantly shorter administration time. The DAPA-S and the shorter version were both designed as Spanish dynamic assessments of phonological awareness which are computerized, have simple instructions, provide information about a child’s ability to learn from instruction, and do not require speech responses. The twelve participants that were involved in this study were given the DAPA-S Short Form as well as other assessments related to phonological awareness or emergent reading. Three of those participants did not complete the study due to poor attendance or behavioral challenges. Therefore, this study reports on nine participants who completed the full assessment battery. To investigate concurrent validity, correlational analysis was performed with the DAPA-S Short Form scores and scores from a measure of phonological awareness, the Test of Phonological Sensitivity in Spanish (TOPSS; Brea, Silliman, Bahr, & Bryant, 2003). The Elision, Rapid Automatic Naming, and Letter Name/ Letter Sound subtests from the TOPSS were administered. No significant correlations were observed between either subtest from the DAPA-S Short Form and any of the subtests from the TOPSS (r = .49 for Elision, r = .36 for RAN, r = .43 for Letter Name/Letter Sound subtests). Therefore, concurrent validity was not established as measured in this study. To investigate convergent validity, correlational analysis was performed with the DAPA-S Short Form subtests and the scores from a measure of Spanish emergent reading skills, the Letter-word Identification (LWID) subtest from the Woodcock-Muñoz Language Survey – Revised (WMLS-R; Woodcock, Muñoz – Sandoval, Ruef, & Alvarado, 2005). Significant correlation was observed between the First Syllable subtest of the DAPA-S Short Form and the test of emergent literacy (r = .87, p < .01); no significant correlation was observed for the Last Syllable subtest of the DAPA-S Short Form (r = .44) and the test of emergent literacy. Therefore, the First Syllable subtest from the DAPA-S Short Form demonstrates good convergent validity, while the Last Syllable subtest did not. Data suggests that the DAPA-S Short Form demonstrates excellent internal reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = .99 for both subtests) but requires modifications and further testing with a larger sample size in order to be considered as a valid measure of phonological awareness. If developed through further research, the DAPA-S Short Form as well as the full version of the assessment could prove to be invaluable tools in educational and clinical settings.

Literacy development in Spanish-speaking children is a growing concern in the United States (Invernizzi, 2009). Phonological awareness is a predictor of literacy achievement in most alphabetic languages (Anthony et al., 2011; Davison & Brea-Spahn, 2012; Durgunoğlu, Nagy, & Hancin-Bhatt, 1993; Goikoetxea, 2005). Bilingual children with complex communication needs (CCN) demonstrate increased difficulties in speaking, reading, and writing, making learning two languages a difficult task (Toppelberg, Snow, & Tager-Flusberg, 1999). Literacy attainment in bilingual individuals who have CCN is important to improve their overall language development and communication interaction skills (Harrison-Harris, 2002). A valid and reliable phonological awareness assessment that does not require speech is needed in order to provide appropriate instruction and address desired literacy goals (Barker, Bridges, & Saunders, 2014). The goal of this study is to describe pilot data from the Dynamic Assessment of Phonemic Awareness in Spanish (DAPA-S), a new dynamic phonological awareness assessment that does not require speech responses, with children from Latin American Spanish-speaking backgrounds, in order to determine its construct validity. DAPA-S was administered over the course of one to three sessions to ten participants (six males and four females). Participants also received the Identificación de letras y palabras (Letter-Word Identification; LWID) subscale from the Woodcock-Muñoz Language Survey–Revised (WMLS-R; Woodcock, Muñoz- Sandoval, Ruef, & Alvarado, 2005) as an emergent reading skill task and three subtests from the Test of Phonological Sensitivity in Spanish (TOPSS; Brea, Silliman, Bahr, & Bryant, 2003):letter-name and letter-sound, elision, and rapid automatized naming (RAN) as assessments of phonological awareness. To evaluate concurrent validity, Pearson correlations and bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals were calculated between the DAPA-S total score and the measures of phonological awareness from the TOPSS. The DAPA-S demonstrated strong and significant correlations with elision, RAN, and the letter-sound subtests rs = –.67 to .87, ps = .00 to .03. These results indicated that the DAPA-S likely measured the same construct as the other measures of phonological awareness from the TOPSS. To evaluate convergent validity, Pearson correlations and bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals were calculated between LWID of the WMLS-R and the DAPA-S total score. The DAPA-S demonstrated a strong and significant correlation, r = .75, p < .05. The data suggest a high degree of both concurrent and convergent validity, as many of the conventional measures of phonological awareness and emergent reading were significantly correlated with the DAPA-S, including letter-sound, RAN, and LWID. Overall, the pattern of results suggests that the DAPA-S may be a reliable and valid tool for measurement of phonological awareness in Spanish.

<p>The aim of the present thesis was to examine possible cognitive consequences of acquired hearing loss and the possible impact of these</p><p>cognitive consequences on the ability to process spoken language presented through visual speechreading or through a cochlear implant.</p><p>The main findings of the present thesis can be summarised in the following conclusions: (a) The phonological processing capabilities of</p><p>individuals who have acquired a severe hearing loss or deafness deteriorate progressively as a function of number of years with a complete or partial auditory deprivation. (b) The observed phonological deterioration is restricted to certain aspects of the phonological system. Specifically, the phonological representations of words in the mental lexicon are of less good quality, whereas the phonological system in verbal working memory is preserved. (c) The deterioration of the phonological representations has a negative effect on the individual's ability to process speech, either presented visually (i.e., speechreading) or through a cochlear implant, as it may impair word recognition processes which involve activation of and discrimination between the phonological representations in the lexicon. (d) Thus, the present research describes an acquired cognitive disability not previously documented in the literature, and contributes to the context of other populations with phonological disabilities by showing that a complete or partial deprivation of auditory speech stimulation in adulthood can give rise to a phonological disability. (e) From a clinical point of view, the results from the present thesis suggest that early cochlear implantation after the onset of an acquired severe hearing loss is an important objective in order to reach a high level of speech understanding with the implant.</p>

<p>This Thesis explores the development of word-initial s+plosive consonant clusters in the speech of Swedish children between the ages of 1;6 and 4;6. Development in the word-initial consonant clusters is viewed as being determined by 1) the children’s ability to articulate the target sequence of consonants, 2) the level of understanding of which acoustic features in the adult model production are significant for the signalling of the intended distinction, and 3) the children’s ability to apply established production patterns only to productions where the acquired feature agrees with the adult target, to achieve a contrast between rival output forms. This Thesis employs a method where output forms are contrasted with attempted productions of potential homonym target words. Thus, development is quantified as an increase in the manifestations of phonetic features where it agrees with the adult norm, coupled by a decrease in the same feature in output forms where it is inappropriate according to the specifications of the phonological system of the ambient language. Acoustic investigations of cues of voicing, aspiration, place of articulation and syllable onset complexity, and auditory investigations of place, manner and syllable onset complexity were conducted. The Thesis has four outcomes. One, a description of the perceptual quality of the productions in terms of place, manner, voicing and syllable onset complexity is presented. Two, a developmental sequence of stable acquisition of these features is proposed; manner is shown to be acquired first, followed by syllable onset complexity and place of articulation. Evidence is provided that the voiced/aspirated distinction is still being acquired at the end of the investigated age period. Three, the developmental use of acoustic cues of place and voicing are described. Voice Onset Time and Spectral Skewness are shown to be used by children in order to increase the likeness to the adult target in terms of voicing and place of articulation. Aspiration Amplitude is shown to be used as an auxiliary cue to Voice Onset Time. The place cues Spectral Tilt Change, F2, Spectral Mean and Spectral Variance were shown to be used in order to refine already produced consonants rather than approach the adult target model. Four, the Thesis provides evidence of periods of confusions in the output of children. With the reductions of these patterns of confusion, evidence is provided of children’s re-organisation of their internal representation of the consonant to be produced.</p> / <p>Denna avhandling undersöker utvecklingen av ordinitiala konsonantkluster av formen s+klusil i talet hos svenska barn mellan åldrarna 1;6 och 4;6. Utvecklingen av de ordinitiala klustren betraktas som bestämd av 1) barnets förmåga att artikulera den konsonantsekvens som utgör målet, 2) barnets förståelse för vilka akustiska särdrag i den vuxna målproduktionen som är signifikanta för att signalera en viss distinktion och 3) barnets förmåga att tillämpa ett etablerat produktionsmönster endast på de produktioner där det tillägnade draget överensstämmer med den vuxna målproduktionen, så att en kontrast uppnås mellan konkurrerande utformer. Avhandlingen tillämpar en metod där producerade utformer kontrasteras med produktioner av målord som utgör potentiella homonymer till dessa. Utvecklingen kan då kvantifieras som en ökning av antalet förekomster av ett fonetiskt drag som överensstämmer med den vuxna normen för den relevanta kontexten, kopplad till en minskning av antalet förekomster av samma drag i kontext där draget är inkorrekt givet det fonologiska systemet i det språk som tillägnas. De drag som undersöktes var de akustiska korrelaten till stämbandston, aspiration, artikulationsställe och komplexitet i stavelseansatsen, och vidare de auditiva korrelaten till artikulationsställe, artikulationssätt och komplexitet i stavelseansatsen. Fyra resultat redovisas. För det första presenteras en beskrivning av den perceptuella kvaliteten hos barnens produktioner i termer av artikulationsställe, artikulationssätt och komplexitet. För det andra föreslås en utvecklingssekvens för stabilt tillägnande av dessa drag: artikulationssätt tillägnas först, följt av komplexitet hos stavelseansatsen och artikulationsställe. Sist tillägnas distinktionen mellan tonande och aspirerad klusil, där data visar att draget inte tillägnats till fullo vid slutet av det undersökta åldersintervallet. För det tredje ger avhandlingen en beskrivning av hur barnen utvecklar sitt bruk av akustiska korrelat till artikulationsställe och ton. Voice Onset Time och snedhet i spektrum används för att närma sig det vuxna målet gällande aspiration och artikulationsställe. Aspirationsamplitud används som ett hjälpkorrelat till VOT vad gäller fonetisk aspiration. Andra korrelat för artikulationsställe, som förändring i spektral lutning, F2, spektralt medelvärde och spektral varians, används för att förfina de egna produktionerna snarare än för att få produktionen att närma sig det vuxna målet. För det fjärde ges i avhandlingen evidens för perioder då barnens produktion uppvisar förväxlingar vad avser distributionen hos vissa fonetiska drag. Minskade förekomster av sådana förväxlingar visar på en omstrukturering av barnens underliggande representation för den konsonant som ska produceras.</p>