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Funk R, Weirich M, Simpson AP. The Effect of Fundamental Frequency on Gender Perception in Prepubertal Children: Insights from the LoKiS Database. J Voice 2024:S0892-1997(24)00129-2. [PMID: 38704276 DOI: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2024.04.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2024] [Revised: 04/05/2024] [Accepted: 04/05/2024] [Indexed: 05/06/2024]
Abstract
This study examines the impact of fundamental frequency on gender perception in prepubertal children in the LoKiS database - a longitudinal project collecting and analyzing recordings of approximately 60 German primary school children aged 6 to 10years. Spontaneous and content-controlled audio recordings were collected in two German primary schools. Three distinct listening experiments with over 100 listeners were conducted. In the first experiment, listeners judged the gender of the voices on a seven-point scale. The second experiment explored the relationships between perceptual attribute ratings and corresponding acoustic parameters associated with fundamental frequency. The third experiment utilized voice morphing techniques to investigate the influence of fundamental frequency on gender perception while controlling for other acoustic parameters. About one-third of the children receive unambiguous gender attributions. The perceived gender difference between children assigned female at birth (AFAB) and assigned male at birth (AMAB) increases from first to third grade. The feminine-sounding children were perceived as significantly higher-pitched and more melodious. A strong correlation between perceived pitch and measured fundamental frequency was found. While the acoustic analysis revealed only a few significant differences between AFAB and AMAB children in general, the feminine-sounding children exhibited markedly higher values than the masculine-sounding ones. Stronger differences of fundamental frequency and semitone range occur as AFAB and AMAB children get older. Linear mixed models confirm a significant influence of fundamental frequency and semitone range on gender perception. Other interacting factors include the speech material used, as well as the gender of the listener. The influence of fundamental frequency was even more pronounced when controlling for other acoustic parameters.
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Striftou A, Zygouris NC, Vlachos F, Patrikelis P, Messinis L. The effectiveness of a reading and cognitive task-based Web delivered intervention program for children with reading difficulties. APPLIED NEUROPSYCHOLOGY. CHILD 2024:1-12. [PMID: 38340140 DOI: 10.1080/21622965.2024.2313637] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/12/2024]
Abstract
The present study aimed to investigate the improvement of reading ability and cognitive performance of children with reading difficulties through a Web application named "Poke the Reading Ability" (PtRA). PtRA is designed to assist the intervention of reading difficulties in Greek, a language that is more transparent than English. Sixty (60) children between nine (9) to twelve (12) years old (mean age 10.18 years). The baseline assessment consisted of two batteries of reading and cognitive abilities tests. Test-A, a Greek standardized psychometric tool and Askisi, a newly developed neuropsychological battery of tests are adopted to assess reading and cognitive performance. Both tools, were used in order to screen children's reading and cognitive performance before and after implementing the PtRA. The PtRA Web intervention consists of (a) tasks that focus on improving visual and auditory working memory, (b) tasks that improve phonological awareness and decoding, (c) tasks that are adopted to strengthen visual discrimination ability and (d) tasks that improve reading comprehension ability. Following the Web delivered intervention program the results revealed that the reading and cognitive abilities of children with reading difficulties were statistically significant improved in all 9 reading and all 3 cognitive abilities tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aikaterini Striftou
- Laboratory of Digital Neuropsychological Assessment, Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, University of Thessaly, Lamia, Greece
| | - Nikolaos C Zygouris
- Laboratory of Digital Neuropsychological Assessment, Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, University of Thessaly, Lamia, Greece
| | - Filippos Vlachos
- Department of Special Education, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece
| | - Panayiotis Patrikelis
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Lambros Messinis
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
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Ancel EE, Smith ML, Rao VNV, Munson B. Relating Acoustic Measures to Listener Ratings of Children's Productions of Word-Initial /ɹ/ and /w/. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2023; 66:3413-3427. [PMID: 37591234 PMCID: PMC10558147 DOI: 10.1044/2023_jslhr-22-00713] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2022] [Revised: 04/06/2023] [Accepted: 05/17/2023] [Indexed: 08/19/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE The /ɹ/ productions of young children acquiring American English are highly variable and often inaccurate, with [w] as the most common substitution error. One acoustic indicator of the goodness of children's /ɹ/ productions is the difference between the frequency of the second formant (F2) and the third formant (F3), with a smaller F3-F2 difference being associated with a perceptually more adultlike /ɹ/. This study analyzed the effectiveness of automatically extracted F3-F2 differences in characterizing young children's productions of /ɹ/-/w/ in comparison with manually coded measurements. METHOD Automated F3-F2 differences were extracted from productions of a variety of different /ɹ/- and /w/-initial words spoken by 3- to 4-year-old monolingual preschoolers (N = 117; 2,278 tokens in total). These automated measures were compared to ratings of the phoneme goodness of children's productions as rated by untrained adult listeners (n = 132) on a visual analog scale, as well as to narrow transcriptions of the production into four categories: [ɹ], [w], and two intermediate categories. RESULTS Data visualizations show a weak relationship between automated F3-F2 differences with listener ratings and narrow transcriptions. Mixed-effects models suggest the automated F3-F2 difference only modestly predicts listener ratings (R 2 = .37) and narrow transcriptions (R 2 = .32). CONCLUSION The weak relationship between automated F3-F2 difference and both listener ratings and narrow transcriptions suggests that these automated acoustic measures are of questionable reliability and utility in assessing preschool children's mastery of the /ɹ/-/w/ contrast.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth E. Ancel
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis
| | - Michael L. Smith
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis
| | - V. N. Vimal Rao
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis
| | - Benjamin Munson
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis
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Wikse Barrow C, Körner K, Strömbergsson S. A survey of Swedish speech-language pathologists' practices regarding assessment of speech sound disorders. LOGOP PHONIATR VOCO 2023; 48:23-34. [PMID: 34581250 DOI: 10.1080/14015439.2021.1977383] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE To explore Swedish clinical practice regarding assessment of suspected Speech Sound Disorders (SSD) in children. METHODS A web-based questionnaire, regarding assessment of SSD in children 4;6-6;11 (years; months), was distributed to Swedish speech-language pathologists (SLPs) through social media and online forums. The questions concerned the frequency and manner of assessment for seven assessment components, chosen based on a review of international recommendations for SSD assessment. RESULTS A total of 131 SLPs responded to the questionnaire. The results show that Swedish SSD assessment practices vary with regards to the frequency and manner of assessment for many components. Speech output is frequently assessed while speech perception, phonological awareness and oral-motor function are assessed less frequently. A variety of manners of assessment, for example, standardised tests, non-standardised material, and informal assessment procedures, such as observation, are utilized by respondents. CONCLUSIONS Swedish SSD assessment practices are variable. The present paper reveals areas for development within SLP practice and education programmes, and provides a new perspective on present praxis with regards to the assessment of suspected SSD in Sweden.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Karin Körner
- Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Sofia Strömbergsson
- Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
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McCarthy KM, Skoruppa K. Language-specific phonological skills and the relationship with reading accuracy in Sylheti-English sequential bilinguals. Child Dev 2023; 94:e85-e102. [PMID: 36515489 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13880] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
This study investigated the influence of first language (L1) phonology on second language (L2) early reading skills in Sylheti-English bilinguals (N = 58; 48% girls; British Bangladeshi) and their monolingual-English peers (N = 43; 45% girls; 96% White British, 4% multiethnic British) in a diaspora context. Language-specific phonological awareness and nonword repetition were tested at two time points (6;2-7;8 years-old). At Time 1, the bilinguals had lower productive accuracy for phonological sequences that violated their L1 phonology (d = .56; .84), and these skills accounted for a significant amount of variance in their reading accuracy. At Time 2, the language-specific effects were no longer present. These findings highlight the importance of considering language structure in multilingual early literacy development.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Katrin Skoruppa
- Institut des sciences logopédiques, Maison des sciences du language et de la communication, Université de Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
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Talli I, Kotsoni P, Stavrakaki S, Sprenger-Charolles L. Assessing phonological short-term memory in Greek: Reliability and validity of a non-word repetition test. Front Psychol 2023; 13:904268. [PMID: 36896028 PMCID: PMC9990871 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.904268] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2022] [Accepted: 08/01/2022] [Indexed: 02/23/2023] Open
Abstract
This study explores the reliability and validity of a NWR task in a large cohort of 387 TD Greek-speaking children aged 7-13 years attending elementary (Grades 2-6) and secondary school (Grade 1), divided into six age groups. Further, the relationship between NWR and reading fluency skills as well as the predictive value of the NWR on reading fluency skills in TD children are examined. To investigate the external reliability of the NWR task, test-retest reliability was performed, and excellent test-retest reliability was found. Internal reliability was explored with Cronbach's alpha coefficient and good reliability was found. To explore convergent validity, correlation analysis between NWR and reading fluency was conducted and significant and strong correlations were found for all age groups excepted 2 (ages 9-10 and 12-13). To examine predictive validity, regression analysis was conducted between these two variables and showed that performance on NWR contributed significantly to reading fluency skills, suggesting that NWR skills are a good predictor of reading skills. Finally, it was explored whether the relevant scores increase as a function of age and found significant differences between groups that differed in 2 years or more, while this difference was no longer significant after 10 years. This finding suggests that phonological STM increases in capacity along with age, but only until the age of 10, where it seems to reach a ceiling. In addition, linear regression analysis showed that age contributed significantly to performance on NWR test. To sum up, the present study provides normative data of a NWR test for a wide age range, which does not exist in the Greek language (particularly for ages over 9 years) and it can be concluded that the present NWR test can be successfully used as a reliable and valid measure of phonological STM in the age range that was examined in this study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ioanna Talli
- Department of Italian Language and Literature, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Panagiota Kotsoni
- Department of Italian Language and Literature, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Stavroula Stavrakaki
- Department of Italian Language and Literature, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
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Cychosz M. LANGUAGE EXPOSURE PREDICTS CHILDREN'S PHONETIC PATTERNING: EVIDENCE FROM LANGUAGE SHIFT. LANGUAGE 2022; 98:461-509. [PMID: 37034148 PMCID: PMC10079255 DOI: 10.1353/lan.0.0269] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
Abstract
Although understanding the role of the environment is central to language acquisition theory, rarely has this been studied for children's phonetic development, and receptive and expressive language experiences in the environment are not distinguished. This last distinction may be crucial for child speech production in particular, because production requires coordination of low-level speech-motor planning with high-level linguistic knowledge. In this study, the role of the environment is evaluated in a novel way-by studying phonetic development in a bilingual community undergoing rapid language shift. This sociolinguistic context provides a naturalistic gradient of the amount of children's exposure to two languages and the ratio of expressive to receptive experiences. A large-scale child language corpus encompassing over 500 hours of naturalistic South Bolivian Quechua and Spanish speech was efficiently annotated for children's and their caregivers' bilingual language use. These estimates were correlated with children's patterns in a series of speech production tasks. The role of the environment varied by outcome: children's expressive language experience best predicted their performance on a coarticulation-morphology measure, while their receptive experience predicted performance on a lower-level measure of vowel variability. Overall these bilingual exposure effects suggest a pathway for children's role in language change whereby language shift can result in different learning outcomes within a single speech community. Appropriate ways to model language exposure in development are discussed.
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Munson B, Lackas N, Koeppe K. Individual Differences in the Development of Gendered Speech in Preschool Children: Evidence From a Longitudinal Study. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2022; 65:1311-1330. [PMID: 35240039 PMCID: PMC9499347 DOI: 10.1044/2021_jslhr-21-00465] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2021] [Revised: 11/07/2021] [Accepted: 12/13/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE We evaluated whether naive listeners' ratings of the gender typicality of the speech of children assigned male at birth (AMAB) and children assigned female at birth (AFAB) were different at two time points: one at which children were 2.5-3.5 years old and one when they were 4.5-5.5 years old. We also examined whether measures of speech, language, and inhibitory control predicted developmental changes in these ratings. METHOD A group of adults (N = 80) rated single-word productions of 55 AMAB and 55 AFAB children on a continuous scale from "definitely a boy" to "definitely a girl." Children's productions were taken from previous longitudinal study of phonological development and vocabulary growth. As part of that study, children completed a battery of standardized and nonstandardized tests at both time points. RESULTS Listener ratings for AMAB and AFAB children were significantly different at both time points. The difference was larger at the later time point, and this was due entirely to changes in the ratings of AMAB children's speech. A measure of language production and a measure of inhibitory control predicted developmental changes in these ratings, albeit only weakly, and not in a consistent direction. CONCLUSIONS The gender typicality of AMAB and AFAB children's speech is perceptibly different for children as young as 2.5 years old. Developmental changes in perceived gender typicality are driven by changes in the speech of AMAB children. The learning of gendered speech is not constrained or facilitated by overall speech and language skill.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Munson
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis
| | - Natasha Lackas
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis
| | - Kiana Koeppe
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis
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Cychosz M, Edwards JR, Bernstein Ratner N, Torrington Eaton C, Newman RS. Acoustic-Lexical Characteristics of Child-Directed Speech Between 7 and 24 Months and Their Impact on Toddlers' Phonological Processing. Front Psychol 2021; 12:712647. [PMID: 34630222 PMCID: PMC8497969 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.712647] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2021] [Accepted: 07/05/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Speech-language input from adult caregivers is a strong predictor of children's developmental outcomes. But the properties of this child-directed speech are not static over the first months or years of a child's life. This study assesses a large cohort of children and caregivers (n = 84) at 7, 10, 18, and 24 months to document (1) how a battery of phonetic, phonological, and lexical characteristics of child-directed speech changes in the first 2 years of life and (2) how input at these different stages predicts toddlers' phonological processing and vocabulary size at 2 years. Results show that most measures of child-directed speech do change as children age, and certain characteristics, like hyperarticulation, actually peak at 24 months. For language outcomes, children's phonological processing benefited from exposure to longer (in phonemes) words, more diverse word types, and enhanced coarticulation in their input. It is proposed that longer words in the input may stimulate children's phonological working memory development, while heightened coarticulation simultaneously introduces important sublexical cues and exposes them to challenging, naturalistic speech, leading to overall stronger phonological processing outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Margaret Cychosz
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States
- Center for Comparative and Evolutionary Biology of Hearing, College Park, MD, United States
| | - Jan R. Edwards
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States
| | - Nan Bernstein Ratner
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States
| | - Catherine Torrington Eaton
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States
| | - Rochelle S. Newman
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States
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Munson B, Logerquist MK, Kim H, Martell A, Edwards J. Does Early Phonetic Differentiation Predict Later Phonetic Development? Evidence From a Longitudinal Study of /ɹ/ Development in Preschool Children. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2021; 64:2417-2437. [PMID: 34057848 PMCID: PMC8632502 DOI: 10.1044/2021_jslhr-20-00555] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2020] [Revised: 01/06/2021] [Accepted: 02/24/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Purpose We evaluated whether children whose inaccurate /ɹ/ productions showed evidence phonetic differentiation with /w/ at 3.5-4.5 years of age improved in /ɹ/ production over the next year more than children whose inaccurate productions did not show evidence of such differentiation. We also examined whether speech perception, inhibitory control, and vocabulary size predicted growth in /ɹ/. Method A set of typically developing, monolingual English-speaking preschool children (n = 136) produced tokens of /ɹ/- and /w/-initial words at two time points (TPs), at which they were 39-52 and 51-65 months old. Children's productions of /ɹ/ and /w/ were narrowly phonetically transcribed. Children's productions at the earlier time point were rated by naïve listeners using a visual analog scale measure of phoneme goodness; these ratings were used to assess the degree of phonetic differentiation between /ɹ/ and /w/. Results Accuracy for both phonemes varied considerably at both TPs. The growth in accuracy of /ɹ/ between the two TPs was not predicted by any individual-differences measures, nor by the degree of differentiation between /ɹ/ and /w/at the earlier time point. Conclusion Low vocabulary size, low inhibitory control, poor speech perception, and the absence of early phonetic differentiation are not necessarily limiting factors in predicting /ɹ/ growth in individual children in the age range we studied.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Munson
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis
| | - Mara K. Logerquist
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis
| | - Hyuna Kim
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Wisconsin–Madison
| | - Alisha Martell
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis
| | - Jan Edwards
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Wisconsin–Madison
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park
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