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Purpose: The current study investigates relative and absolute motor speech timing errors in children with typically developing speech production (TD), Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) and Phonological Disorder (PD). The study’s overarching goal is to examine these speech timing errors as a potential objective measure for differential diagnosis of Speech Sound Disorders (SSDs). Timing is a critical aspect of motor planning, and it is assumed that CAS is a speech motor planning impairment. However, it is not clear whether the errors of children with other SSDs, such as PD, are a result of additional influence by imprecise speech-motor control, and therefore whether these children would also show greater timing errors. We predicted three outcomes: (1) Adults will show smaller timing errors than children for both absolute timing and relative timing, (2) the SSD group will have larger timing errors than the TD group, and (3) children with CAS are the only children who will show differences from the control (TD) group on these timing error measures. Method: This retrospective study examined timing accuracy based on speech samples obtained at the phrase level from 10 adults, 21 typically developing (TD) children, and 12 children with SSD. Samples (brief phrases containing novel words) were elicited via a repetition task following prerecorded models. Data was abstracted from the acoustic record and analyzed to determine the accuracy of relative timing (PROP) and absolute timing (E). Each timing error measure was averaged for each speaker across sessions and blocks by fricative and vowel. The results of each of these measurements quantified the extent in which a generalized motor program (GMP) and its manipulations (parameters) deviate from the target production (represented by the prerecorded model). Results: Children with SSDs demonstrated significantly higher values of absolute and relative timing error than typically-developing children, suggesting either delayed or disordered speech-motor timing control. As a group, children with CAS (but not children with non-CAS SSD) had larger timing errors than the TD children, suggesting that the group effect (SSD > TD) was driven largely by the children with CAS. However, individual analyses revealed high variability in groups. Conclusions: Measures of relative and absolute timing error at the phrase level during a repetition task may capture aspects of speech motor control in adults, typically developing children, and children with SSDs. Future research with larger sample sizes and longitudinal designs is needed to determine: (1) how relative and absolute timing control develop as children stabilize speech motor control, (2) the degree in which children with SSD deviate from the typical development of these measures, and (3) whether or not these measures are sensitive enough to be a potential objective measure of children with CAS. / Communication Sciences

This study investigated the benefits of rapid presentation of written words as a treatment strategy to enhance reading speed and accuracy in two participants with acquired alexia who are letter-by-letter readers. Previous studies of pure alexia have shown that when words are rapidly presented, participants can accurately perform lexical decision and category judgment tasks, yet they are unable to read words aloud. These studies suggest that rapid presentation of words could be used as a treatment technique to promote whole-word reading. It was predicted that treatment utilizing rapid presentation (250/500 ms) will increase reading speed and accuracy of both trained and untrained words compared to the words trained in standard presentation (5000 ms). A single-subject ABACA/ACABA multiple baseline treatment design was used. Treatment was provided twice per week for four weeks for both rapid and standard presentation treatment. Each session comprised a spoken-to-written word decision task and semantic category judgment task. Stimuli included 80 trained words divided between the two treatments and 20 untrained controls. Weekly probes to assess reading accuracy were administered after every two treatment sessions. Based on effect sizes, results showed no consistent unambiguous benefit for rapid or standard presentation treatment. However, possible generalization to untrained words due to rapid presentation treatment was observed. Future research is warranted to investigate the effectiveness of rapid presentation treatment in letter-by-letter readers. / Public Health

The aim of the present study was to determine the relationship between the order of analysis of objects within the visual system and prenominal adjective ordering rules in English, as past syntactic and semantic theories have proven insufficient to explain the phenomenon in its entirety. Three experiments were designed to investigate whether ordering preferences when multiple adjectives are stacked before a noun are determined by properties of the visual system that subsequently map directly onto language via the semantic system. First, an experimental protocol was designed to discover whether participants’ visual search pattern varied based on the type of stimuli presented. A second experiment was created to determine whether participants observed features of objects in an order that corresponded to grammatical adjective ordering rules in English. A third and final experiment was devised to explore whether inversions of adjective categories typically positioned closer to the noun were more acceptable than inversions of adjective categories placed further away from the noun or vice versa. Eye tracking data was analyzed for scan sequence (Experiments 1 and 2) and acceptability judgments were obtained using a 7-point Likert Scale survey (Experiment 3). Results showed that participants did not vary systematic scan patterns based on image type, with a greater propensity to not fixate when presented with shapes. Data from the second experiment demonstrated that participants viewed objects in an order that was correlated with prenominal adjective ordering with varying levels of significance. Acceptability judgments from the third experiment indicated that inversions of adjective classes that are typically placed closer to the noun were generally more acceptable than inversions of adjective classes typically placed further from the noun. This study provides preliminary evidence that language rules may be derived from properties of the visual system and cognition. Further research is necessary to explore the nature and extent of correlations between perception, the semantic system, and grammatical features of language. / Public Health

Individuals with aphasia (IWA) experience deficits in language and communication as well as loss of social networks and decreased social participation. The purpose of the present study was to build on previous research and design a randomized control study that measures the direct effects of conversational group treatment on language and social isolation from the perspective of the individual with aphasia (IWA). Group conversational treatment was administered for one hour, twice weekly for 10 weeks. Thirty-two IWA were randomly assigned to a treatment group or delay control group. All participants were administered a battery of standardized measures of language and communication and two patient-reported outcome measures (PRO's). The Lubben Social Network Scale (Lubben) and the Aphasia Communication Outcome Measure (adaptive ACOM) were administered at pre-treatment, post-treatment, and six-weeks post-treatment. The ACOM specifically measures the effects of aphasia on everyday communication tasks and changes in language and communication. The Lubben determines outcomes related to social isolation and perceived social support from family and friends. Significant changes were found on the ACOM for IWA in the treatment group from pre-treatment to post-treatment and pre-treatment to maintenance. No significant changes were found for the control group. For the Lubben, no significant changes were found for IWA in the treatment group or control group from pre-treatment to post-treatment or pre-treatment to maintenance. The results from this study indicate conversational group treatment was effective in increasing self-perceived language and communication abilities in individuals with aphasia. As IWA feel they can effectively communicate, it can increase group participation, communication with friends/family, and facilitate return to pre-stroke activities. / Public Health

Over time, the idea that specific brain regions underlie language processing has evolved to suggest additional importance of the white matter tracts that connect those regions; however, limited research has been done investigating the functional specialization of white matter tracts in the brain. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between white matter tract integrity, as measured by fractional anisotropy, and linguistic and non-linguistic cognition as measured by various behavioral assessments. 28 individuals with aphasia were included in the study, each of whom completed DTI scanning and a battery of linguistic and non-linguistic tasks. Regarding linguistic cognition, results suggested the importance of integrity in the left AF, IFOF, ILF, SLF, and UF across language production and comprehension tasks, with particular implications for left AF, IFOF, and ILF for semantics, and the left AF and SLF, and bilateral IFOF for naming. Interestingly, the right AF showed a negative correlation with naming, suggesting adverse effects of compensatory recruitment of this tract. When looking at non-linguistic cognition, we found significance of left AF and right IFOF, ILF, and SLF integrity for behavioral performance, such that greater integrity in these tracts was associated with greater behavioral performance on non-linguistic tasks. In conclusion, these findings support the importance of left hemisphere dorsal and ventral tracts on linguistic cognition, and reliance on bilateral tracts for non-linguistic cognition.

MOTIVATION: The purpose of this study is to examine the role of speech production as it relates to behavioral risk for dyslexia. The study aims to go beyond simple speech production measures by examining speech production accuracy in complex, multisyllabic words. This study examines preschool-aged children, which is the age at which speech sound disorders are typically identified. Additionally, this study seeks to understand the association between speech production and other key speech and language sub-skills, ultimately contributing to early identification and intervention for children at risk for dyslexia. METHODS: Fourteen preschool-aged children (four at risk for dyslexia) completed assessments of phonological processing, articulation, receptive vocabulary, and oral language, along with a multisyllabic word repetition task. Within the multisyllabic word production task, phonetic accuracy, suprasegmental accuracy, and various error types were examined. Statistical analyses examined relationships between speech and language subskills and multisyllabic word production accuracy. Exploratory analyses investigated speech production characteristics among children with versus without risk for dyslexia. RESULTS: Speech production (i.e., total phonetic accuracy, Percentage of Consonants Correct-Revised (PCC-R)) was significantly correlated with phonological awareness.Participants without risk for dyslexia show an overall pattern of higher PCC-R and total phonetic accuracy when compared to participants at risk for dyslexia. Participants at risk for dyslexia also showed more substitution errors relative to those without risk. CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary findings suggest significant relationships between complex speech production accuracy and phonological awareness, a key predictor of dyslexia. The study reveals the need for a larger-scale investigation to further examine the relationship between these factors in children with and without dyslexia risk, and to examine a sample of children with more heterogeneous language profiles to address the potential implications for individuals with low language performance.