The purpose of this study was to refine a rating procedure used to assess intermediate elementary school students' ability to orally retell what they had read from two expository passages. Oral retellings from 28 fourth grade students were tape-recorded and rated on two different occasions by each of 4 raters. A four-facet (passage, day of test administration, rater, and rating occasion) generalizability study was conducted using a partially nested design. The six largest sources of variability identified in the G-study included (a) students, (b) the student-by-day interaction, (c) the interaction of passage with rater (nested within student and day), (d) the student-by-day-by-occasion interaction, (e) the passage-by-raters (nested within students and day)-by-occasion interaction, and (f) the residual. A D-study was conducted to predict the values of the error variances and generalizability indices for both relative and absolute decisions. The results show how the error variance and the generalizability coefficients vary as a function of the number of passages, days of test administration, raters, and rating occasions. The results of the D study indicate that adding an extra reading day would produce a greater increase in reliability than asking the students to read more passages, or using more raters or more rating occasions. To achieve the greatest gain in generalizability, teachers should have students read at least two passages on at least two separate days and have their retelling rated by at least two raters and then compute a mean rating for each student averaged across the various passages, testing days, and raters.

This study compared seven syntactic measures which can be automatically generated by the Computerized Profiling (CP) software: Mean Length of Utterance in morphemes or words (MLUm or MLUw), Mean Syntactic Length (MSL), the Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn), the Picture Elicited Scoring Procedure (PESP) for the Language Analysis Remediation and Screening Profile (LARSP), the Syntactic Complexity Score (MSC) scoring of LARSP, and Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS). Language samples came from 192 children, 106 typically developing children, ages 5;6 to 11;2 and 86 children with language impairment, ages 5;6 to 11;1. Patterns of correlation were consistent for children with or without language impairment. All measures were computed with CP software, and all coding decisions that were made by the software were accepted. The three measures of length (MLUm, MLUw, and MSL) were highly intercorrelated. MSC correlated with the measures of length and with DSS. DSS correlated with the length measures, though not as highly as MSC. DSS also correlated with IPSyn. IPSyn correlated moderately with PESP, correlated less with MSC, and correlated the least with the measures of length. PESP correlated moderately with each measure. PESP, DSS, and IPSyn correlated more highly for the children with language impairment. These measures correlated highly sometimes and sometimes they did not correlate much. This suggests that they are measuring different aspects of syntactic ability.

The purpose of this study was to record a set of Mongolian monosyllabic word lists that could be used to obtain a word recognition score. A word list was developed of 190 frequently used monosyllabic words which had been selected by a group of raters. Native male and female Mongolian talkers were utilized to make digital recordings. The 190 words were divided into 10 lists of 19 words. The lists were presented to 20 normally hearing subjects at 10 different intensity levels ranging from -5 to 40 dB HL in 5 dB increments. An S-curve distribution was used to divide the words among three lists based upon the results of the word recognition testing. Word lists were assembled formulating 3 lists of 50 words and 6 half-lists of 25 words using an S-curve distribution. Logistic regression was used to calculate the psychometric functions for each list. The mean psychometric function slopes for the male and female word lists were 6.19%/dB and 5.17%/dB respectively. The 50% threshold was 14.47 dB HL for the final adjusted male and female lists.

Several studies using standardized tests have provided evidence for the presence of language disorders in persons with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and have suggested that persons with MS may have language that is less complex. One aspect not thoroughly studied is that of syntactic complexity in naturalistic, conversational settings. The present study collected language samples from 10 adults with MS and 10 age-matched controls and compared scores on five quantitative measures derived from those samples. No significant differences were found between groups on any measure. This finding suggests that in mild cases of MS or during periods of remission, individuals may retain their ability to use complex language structures in naturalistic discourse.

Recent research has shown that children with language impairment (LI) have increased social difficulties. This study examined the relationship between language skills and emotion understanding through recognition of facial expressions of emotion in children with LI and their typically developing peers. It is a replication of the research of Spackman, Fujiki, Brinton, Nelson, and Allen (2005) and Atwood (2006). Participants consisted of 22 children with LI and 22 age- and gender-matched peers with typically developing language, from the age range of 7:0 to 10:11 years. They were shown photographs of faces conveying one of the following emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust; they were then asked to indicate which emotion was being expressed. Group performance was then compared for each of the emotions in question. This study found significant differences between the groups (LI vs. Typical), with the children without LI recognizing each emotion more accurately than those with LI. There was also a significant main effect found for gender and emotion. These differences were qualified by a significant interaction between gender and emotion, which indicated that some emotions were identified by females more correctly than males. Specifically, females identified the emotion disgust more accurately than males. This may provide support for the idea that children with LI may have difficulties with emotion understanding, of which facial expression recognition is a specific and basic aspect; this deficit could negatively impact their social interactions.

This study examined the differences between normal vocal fold vibration and the movement patterns of vocal folds with mass lesions by means of a synthetic model. The experimenter molded and cast three sets of vocal folds, representing normal structure, small nodules, and larger nodules. Acoustic, aerodynamic, and digital video signals were recorded and analyzed in order to quantify air flow and pressure, measure vibratory stability, and visually assess closure patterns across the three structural conditions. Statistical analysis revealed that the presence of vocal nodules resulted in a significantly higher onset pressure, fundamental frequency, airflow at onset, and offset pressure. However, the results were inconclusive with regard to vocal stability, and it remains unclear whether the current models of nodules are sufficiently similar to the human system to adequately model the type of mass lesions typically seen in a clinical context.

Recently researchers have identified a group of children with language impairment (LI) whose IQ scores are below the typical IQ cutoff of 85 for specific language impairment (SLI) but above the IQ cutoff of 70 for intellectual disability (Weismer et al., 2000). This group is referred to as having nonspecific language impairment (NLI). Eleven children with NLI, eleven same-age peers with SLI, and eleven same-age typical peers were compared on withdrawn and sociable behaviors demonstrated in the classroom setting using the Teacher Behavior Rating Scale (Hart & Robinson, 1996). Three subtypes of withdrawal (solitary-active, solitary-passive, reticent) and two subtypes of sociable behavior (impulse control/likability and prosocial) were examined. The children were compared on the severity of their ratings as well as the pattern of item responses for each behavioral subtype. Teachers rated the group with NLI significantly more poorly than the typical group on the reticence, impulse control/likability, and prosocial subtypes. Teachers rated the group with SLI significantly more poorly than the typical group on the impulse control/likability subtype. Participants were added to the typical group and the group with SLI to increase statistical power. With additional participants, the children with SLI were also rated significantly more poorly than the typical children on the reticence, likability, and prosocial subtypes. The group with NLI was consistently rated more poorly than the group with SLI except on the solitary-active subtype. However, there were no significant differences between the groups with LI, even with additional participants. The pattern of item responses was similar between the groups with NLI and SLI on all behavioral subtypes. In addition, the pattern of item responses for the groups with LI also matched the pattern of the typical group on the solitary-active withdrawal, impulse control/likability, and prosocial subtypes. These data indicate that the differences between the groups with NLI and SLI may be quantitative but not qualitative.

The English spoken in the United States has traditionally been divided into six dialect regions: New England, Mid-Atlantic, Southern, Midland, Northern, and Western. The acoustic properties of American English spoken in the Southern and Northern dialect regions have been the subject of intense research, but the acoustic properties of the Western dialect region have not been analyzed as thoroughly. The umbrella term, Western American English, includes the English spoken in a large geographic area that stretches from Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico to the Pacific coast. Research that has focused on the Western dialect has included participants from several states, which discounts the idea that smaller dialectical differences may exist within the West. This study describes several acoustic properties of American English as it is spoken in the state of Utah. Data collected from target hVd words were used to determine vowel formant frequency patterns using F1 and F2 values of monophthongal and diphthongal vowels, and calculate the vowel space area. Differences in vowel placement and vowel space area were found between the English spoken in Utah and the Northern, Southern, and Midland dialect regions. Similar to characteristics found in Western English, an analysis of the vowel productions in speakers from Utah indicated a fronted /ʊ/, as well as a near merger of /ɑ/ and /ɔ/. However, the analysis also revealed differences in Utah English when compared to the larger Western dialect region. In particular it was found that, unlike descriptions of Western English, Utah English speakers produced /æ/ with a relatively higher F1 than /ɑ/. The vowel space area of Utah English was found to be smaller than the vowel space area of Northern English, but larger than the vowel space area of Southern or Midland speakers.

The purpose of this study was to develop, digitally record, evaluate, and equate Mongolian monosyllabic and bisyllabic child-appropriate words which can be used in the measurement of word recognition scores and speech-reception threshold (SRT) in children who are native speakers of Mongolian. Based on data collected from a survey of Mongolian child language professionals, a subset of child-appropriate materials was adapted from a set of materials developed for Mongolian adults. Two lists of 50 monosyllabic words and four half-lists of 25 words each were developed for testing the word recognition abilities of Mongolian children. The developed lists and half-lists were found to be statistically equivalent in terms of audibility and psychometric slope, with average psychometric function slopes (at 50% intelligibility) of 6.41 %/dB for the male recordings and 5.84 %/dB for the female recordings. Given the structure and limitations of the study, a valid set of child-appropriate SRT materials could not be developed. It is likely that the inability to obtain a subset of SRT words was due in part to large differences between the mean PTA of the subjects and the threshold for 50% intelligibility, as well as the inability to represent most of the selected words pictographically. However the information gained from this study provides additional insight that may aid the future development of child-appropriate Mongolian SRT materials. Digital recordings of the resulting psychometrically equivalent child- appropriate speech audiometry materials are available on compact disc.

This study examines the influence of emotion understanding, language, and working memory on reticence and prosocial behavior in children with language impairment (LI). The Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (CASL; Carrow-Woolfolk, 1999) and The Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT; Bracken & McCallum, 2003) were administered to 39 children with LI and 39 typical age-matched peers. A nonword repetition task and two tasks measuring emotion understanding were also administered. Each of the participant's classroom teachers completed The Teacher Behavioral Rating Scale (TBRS; Hart & Robinson, 1996). Structural equation modeling was used to estimate models of the data using a maximum likelihood procedure for each of the groups. Results showed that for children with typical language skills, both dissemblance and language were negatively linked to reticence. For the children with LI, there was a positive relationship between dissemblance and prosocial behavior and a significant negative relationship between standard language score and prosocial behavior. When the four individual paths were tested one at a time, by constraining the estimates of each of the paths to be equal across groups, only the effect of language on prosocial behavior was significantly different between groups.