The challenge facing children learning language bilingually has led to efforts to improve the assessment and treatment of language learning difficulties. One of these efforts is the development and validation of the Spanish-English Language Proficiency Scale (SELPS). Previous research has been performed to validate the scale for English language proficiency but not for Spanish language proficiency. Twenty-four sequential bilingual children produced spontaneous narrative language samples that were rated using the SELPS and coded for language sample variables using the Systemic Analysis of Language Transcripts software. Several language sample variables, most notably the Subordination Index, the number of omitted bound morphemes, and the number of code-switched words, were correlated with the SELPS subscale scores and total score. Findings have implications for screening the Spanish language proficiency of Spanish-English bilingual children who are between four and eight years of age.

Research has shown that children with Language Impairment (LI) struggle with social communication skills in addition to their characteristic syntactic difficulties. This pilot study analyzed the potential change in grammatical complexity in narratives of five children with LI when enrolled in a social communication intervention. The intervention itself focused on teaching emotion understanding by reading and reenacting children’s stories and journaling. Grammatical limitations were indirectly addressed by clinician modeling of complex forms during the intervention sessions. Each child’s productions were assessed and analyzed for grammatical complexity during retelling a book in the Mercer Mayer “a boy, a dog, and a frog” series. The children performed this task once a week during the course of the intervention. Specific measures used included the average length of terminable unit (T-unit) and the number of subordinate clauses used in each narrative. Three students’ productions remained steady throughout the course of the interventions; their grammatical complexity neither increased nor decreased. One student’s production showed a clear decrease in complexity but was explained by an obvious and arguably more creative change in her language output. One student’s grammatical complexity increased throughout the sessions as indicated by a steady increase in the average length of T-unit. Thus, the results of this study were equivocal. There were several limitations, however, that might be addressed in future intervention studies.

This study employed spectral analyses for acoustic measures of sustained vowel productions from a group of 20 adolescents and young adults with Friedreich's Ataxia (FA) and compared findings with a group of 20 age-equivalent and gender-matched normal control participants. State-of-the art spectral analyses from the Analysis of Dysphonia in Speech and Voice (ADSV) program, developed for various voice disorders from Kay Elemetrics, were applied to initial 2 second sustained vowel segments of the vowels /a/, /i/, and /o/. Spectral analyses included averages and standard deviations of Cepstral Peak Prominence (CPP), Cepstral Peak Prominence Standard Deviation (CPP SD), Low/High Spectral Ratio (L/H Ratio), Low/High Spectral Ratio Standard Deviation (L/H Ratio SD), Cepstral/Spectral Index of Dysphonia (CSID), and Mean Cepstral Peak Prominence Fundamental Frequency (Mean CPP F0). Statistical analyses revealed significant differences between the spectral analyses of voice characteristics of individuals with FA and those of normal controls for all measures except for CPP SD. The aim of these analyses was to determine spectral differences evident in vowel productions of individuals with FA using new cepstral-derived measures that characterize the phonatory instability and dis-coordination present in this disorder. Such research may not only help develop early non-invasive indicators of ataxia and track disease progression, but also serve to stimulate research into alleviating the symptoms of this devastating disease.

Scientific literacy has been at the forefront of science education reform for the past 20 years, particularly for students from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds (Lee et. al., 2005; Pearson, Moje & Greenleaf, 2010). The ability to extract meaning from text is an important skill. Yet many students struggle with effectively comprehending what they read, particularly in content areas of science, math and history. According to the National Assessment Educational Progress (NAEP, 2013) report, adolescents are not acquiring advanced literacy skills needed to succeed in the workplace and academic setting. Literacy experts have called for the use of disciplinary literacy approaches to engage learners with the content in ways that mirror what scientists, historians and mathematicians do to gain understanding in their disciplines (Moje, 2006; Shanahan & Shanahan, 2008). Although disciplinary literacy instruction is promising, there is limited empirical research on the effectiveness of discipline-specific literacy approaches. The present study examined the effects of a metalinguistic approach on the comprehension of science text among African American 5 and 6th grade students. The focus of the instructional protocol was to explicitly teach adverbial clauses and assist students to unpack adverbial clauses through the use of a graphic organizer. The process of unpacking complex sentences aimed to facilitate comprehension of science text by engaging the participants in analysis and discussion of the meaning obtained from the adverbial clauses. This study employed an experimental single-case multiple-probe across participants design. Visual Analysis (VA) and the Improvement Rate Difference (IRD) were used to analyze the data. The results of VA and IRD indicated that all participants demonstrated progress between baseline and treatment phases. Overall, the results of the investigation suggest that it is possible for 5th and 6th grade African American students to benefit from instruction that closely analyzes language. Clinical implications and future research directions are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to conduct perceptual analyses, using the initial two-second portions, of prolonged vowels /a/, /i/, and /o/. Two groups of adolescents and young adults were analyzed- one group consisting of 20 individuals with Friedreich's ataxia who were compared to 20 individuals with normal voice (control participants). A trained group of 10 graduate students listened to 132 vowel samples (3 vowels X 40 participants, + 12 samples (10%) for reliability purposes) for a total of 132 perceptual judgments. The students listened to the samples which were randomized onto Dell computers (Optiplex 755) and played through headphones that were set at a comfortable level by the listeners prior to analyzing the voice samples. Listeners used a modified version of the Consensus-Auditory Perceptual Evaluation of Voice (CAPE-VM) to rate the vocal qualities of 'roughness', 'breathiness', and 'strain' in the samples on a 100 millimeter visual analog scale with 0 representing a perception of no roughness, breathiness, or strain, and 100 indicating the most extreme amount of variance from normal voice quality. Statistical analyses were conducted to determine if perceptual measures were significantly different between the two groups. Values on these analyses were expected to be larger for individuals with Friedreich's ataxia than those with normal voice. Results revealed that all three measures were significantly different between the two groups, with those in the Friedreich's ataxia group reported as having increased rough, breathy, and strained components in their voice quality as compared to normal voiced peers. Findings support perceptual measures as useful indicators for reporting changes in the phonatory system due to Friedreich's ataxia.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of voice production and perception of dyspnea in aerobic instructors during simultaneous tasks of exercise and speech production. The study aimed to document changes that occur during four conditions: 1) voice production without exercise and no use of amplification; 2) voice production without exercise and the use of amplification; 3) voice production during exercise without the use of amplification; 4) voice production during exercise with the use of amplification. Participants included ten aerobic instructors (two male and eight female). The dependent variables included vocal intensity, average fundamental frequency (F0), noise-to-harmonic ratio (NHR), jitter percent (jitt %), shimmer percent (shim %), and participants' self-perception of dyspnea. The results indicated that speech alone, whether it was with or without amplification, had no effect on the sensation of dyspnea. However, when combining speech with exercise, the speech task became increasingly difficult, even more so without the use of amplification. Exercise was observed to inhibit vocal loudness levels as vocal intensity measures were lowest in the conditions with exercise with the use of amplification. Increases in F0 occurred in conditions involving exercise without the use of amplification. Moreover, four participants in various conditions exhibited frequencies that diverged from their gender's normal range. Participants' NHR increased during periods of exercise, however no participants were found to have NHR measures outside the normal range. Four participants were found to have moderate laryngeal pathology that was hemorrhagic in nature. Findings suggest that traditional treatment protocols may need to be modified beyond hygienic approaches in order to address both the respiratory and laryngeal work-loads that are encountered in this population and others involving similar occupational tasks.

Rating scales are commonly used to study voice quality. The purpose of this study was to examine inter-rater reliability/agreement of graduate student clinicians with differing levels of experience in rating voice perception. The Consensus Auditory Perception Evaluation of Voice (CAPE-V) was used to asses 1.) overall severity, 2.) roughness, 3.) breathiness, 4.) strain, 5.) pitch and 6.) loudness from a sample of pediatric voices. Twenty-four graduate clinicians who had completed a graduate level course in voice disorders participated in the study. Twelve of the participants were randomly selected to complete a perceptual training course prior to the evaluation session. Voice samples included 10 disordered and 2 normal voices from a population of children age 3-10 years old. The 12 voice samples were randomly repeated 3 times. Results of analysis of variance indicated that the groups significantly differed in their severity rating of the perceptual indices, suggesting that training affected the participants' judgment of severity. Additionally, variability was reduced as a function of training. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient's revealed a moderate to strong relationship for all of the perceptual indices suggesting that regardless of training participants have an implicit understanding of normal versus disordered voice samples.

Considering the diminishing availability of professional resources, increasing costs, and time requirements involved in early childhood mass screenings, parents are an essential source of information. In this study, the Survey of Speech Development (SSD) (Perry-Carson & Steel, 2001; Steel, 2000) was used to determine the accuracy of parents in reporting the speech sound inventories of their toddlers. Parents of 30 children, who were between the ages of 27 to 33 months old, completed the SSD prior to a speech and language assessment session. Based on assessment results, the children were classified as normal developing or language delayed. A 20-minute play interaction between the parent and child was recorded during the assessment and was transcribed later for analysis. Speech sounds (consonants) were coded as present or absent and comparisons were made between the parents results on the SSD and data from the 20-minute speech sample. A point-by-point reliability analysis of the speech sounds on the SSD compared to those produced in the speech sample revealed an overall parental accuracy of 75%. Further, no differences were found between parent reports and transcribed accounts for total number of different consonants. This was true for parents of both language delayed and language normal toddlers. Results suggest that if given a systematic means of providing information, parents are a reliable source of information regarding sounds their toddlers produce.

The purpose of this study was to determine if three different tests of phonological awareness: the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processes (CTOPP) (Wagner, Torgesen, & Rashotte, 1999), The Phonological Awareness Test (PAT) (Robertson & Salter, 1997), and the Pre-Literacy Skills Screening (PLSS) (Crumrine & Lonegan, 1999) measure the same phonological awareness skills (content) in the same manner (procedures) and, whether typically-developing kindergarten-age students perform similarly on each of the tests. Twenty-five kindergarten students consisting of 14 males and 11 females (mean CA of 72.24 months) participated in this study. All participants were attending the second half of kindergarten in a public school in Orlando, Florida. Prior to the administration of the three tools, all participants were administered the Fluharty Preschool Speech and Language Screening Test - Second Edition (Fluharty-2) (Fluharty, 2001) to ensure that no formal speech and/or language assessment was needed. A comparison of the CTOPP, PAT, and PLSS revealed that the PAT and CTOPP produced similar outcomes. That is, participants who performed well on one tool also did well on the other. Results of this study have shown that tasks on these two tools are comparable measures of phonological awareness known to strongly predict future reading ability. However, when the PLSS was compared to either the CTOPP or PAT, similar outcomes were not obtained. Three participants were identified "at risk" for reading disability on the PLSS. No participants were identified "at risk" on either the CTOPP or PAT. Using a standardized battery to identify children "at-risk" for reading failure and planning intervention may be more advantageous than using a screening measure like the PLSS. Even though it will take more time to complete, a comprehensive assessment battery may be of more value to the clinician. A summary, possible limitations of study, and suggestions for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether children with autism recognize the same perceptual voicing boundaries of stop consonants as normally developing children of the same age group. This was explored using three groups of participants: ten children with autism between the ages of 8-14, five typically developing children between the ages of 8-14, and five typically developing seven-year-old children. Children in all groups listened to initial stop consonant syllables with voicing contrasts, with voiced and voiceless cognates presented. The initial consonants were altered along a voice onset time continuum within the typically perceived boundaries of each consonant. Participants were instructed to select the box containing the letter of the initial consonant they perceive when they hear each syllable. Results revealed greater difference between the responses of the children with autism when compared with the older control group, than when compared with the younger children. The responses of the children with autism were more similar to those of the children in the second control group. This could be indicative of a delay in the children with autism of perception of the categorical boundaries along the dimension of voice onset time compared to typical children's perception of these consonants.