Moving Beyond Single Word Acquisition of Speech Sounds to Connected Speech Development With Dynamic Assessment

The development of English language connected speech perception skills: an empirical study on Chinese EFL children

Connected speech processes (CSPs) occur randomly in everyday conversations of native speakers; however, such phonological variations can bring about challenges for non-native listeners. Looking at CSP literature, there seems to be very few studies that involved young foreign language learners. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore the development of connected speech perception skills by focusing on 201 9- to 12-year-old Chinese EFL children. It also incorporated systematic error analysis to further probe into the specific perceptual difficulties. The results indicate that: (1) Despite a significantly ascending trend for the overall growth of perception skills, no significant differences were found between 11 and 12 year olds in elision and contraction, which suggests that the developmental trend varied depending on different CSP types; (2) Although random errors decreased with age, the number of lexicon and syntax errors gradually increased, and the distribution of perceptual errors shifted from the level of words and syllables to that of phonemes; (3) The primary types of errors resulting in the perception difficulties for elision and contraction were consonant errors, grammatical errors and morphology errors. Ergo, this study enhances the understanding of connected speech perception among EFL children and provides some implications for EFL/ESL listening instructions.

Validation of the Mediated Learning Observation Instrument Among Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder in Dynamic Assessment

PURPOSE

In this validation study, we examined the factor structure of the mediated learning observation (MLO) used during the teaching phase of dynamic assessment. As an indicator of validity, we evaluated whether the MLO factor structure was consistent across children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD).

METHOD

Two hundred twenty-four children (188 typically developing and 36 DLD) from kindergarten to second grade completed a 30-min individual mediated learning session on narrative production. Performance during the session was rated using the 12-item MLO by clinicians on affect, behavior, arousal, and elaboration. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to establish the factor structure and reliability of the MLO.

RESULTS

Factor analysis of the MLO suggested a stable three-factor model with adequate fit indices across kindergarten and school-age samples, across both typically developing and DLD subgroups with good to excellent reliability. The final 11-item MLO (one item was removed due to low factor loading) comprises three subscales including (a) cognitive factor, (b) learning anticipation, and (c) learning engagement.

CONCLUSIONS

The MLO is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing language learning skills in children with and without DLD during dynamic assessment. Practical implications and suggestions for future research addressing the utilization of MLO in dynamic assessment are provided.

The Effects of Phonological Complexity on Word Production in French-Speaking Children

Word complexity indices, such as the Index of Phonetic Complexity (IPC) and the Word Complexity Measure (WCM), code a word in terms of featural and structural properties that pose difficulty in phonological development. Studies have investigated the influence of complexity indices on vocabulary development; however, few have examined their influence on consonant accuracy. Furthermore, these indices were developed for English-speaking children and have not been widely applied to other languages. This study investigates whether a word's phonological complexity influences how accurately it is produced in French-speaking children. Four databases consisting of the productions of children (n = 74), aged 1;11 to 4;9, were analyzed. Words were coded in terms of the IPC, WCM, and parameters that add complexity during phonological development. Using mixed-effects logistic regression, we examined whether phonological complexity as determined by the IPC, WCM, or by alternative indices better accounts for the influence of complexity on production. We also investigated whether the accuracy of a target sound/structure was influenced by a word's complexity. Results indicated that complexity based on the IPC or WCM significantly influenced consonant accuracy; however, indices tapping fewer features provided superior model fit. At younger ages, the presence of fricatives/liquids and, at all ages, the presence of alveopalatal fricatives, codas, and clusters significantly influenced accuracy. Findings were inconclusive as to whether whole word complexity influenced the accuracy of a target sound/structure. Results suggest that current complexity indices provide only approximate indications of how featural and structural properties of words influence production.

Child mask mandates for COVID-19: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Mask mandates for children during the COVID-19 pandemic varied in different locations. A risk-benefit analysis of this intervention has not yet been performed. In this study, we performed a systematic review to assess research on the effectiveness of mask wearing in children.

METHODS

We performed database searches up to February 2023. The studies were screened by title and abstract, and included studies were further screened as full-text references. A risk-of-bias analysis was performed by two independent reviewers and adjudicated by a third reviewer.

RESULTS

We screened 597 studies and included 22 in the final analysis. There were no randomised controlled trials in children assessing the benefits of mask wearing to reduce SARS-CoV-2 infection or transmission. The six observational studies reporting an association between child masking and lower infection rate or antibody seropositivity had critical (n=5) or serious (n=1) risk of bias; all six were potentially confounded by important differences between masked and unmasked groups and two were shown to have non-significant results when reanalysed. Sixteen other observational studies found no association between mask wearing and infection or transmission.

CONCLUSIONS

Real-world effectiveness of child mask mandates against SARS-CoV-2 transmission or infection has not been demonstrated with high-quality evidence. The current body of scientific data does not support masking children for protection against COVID-19.

Exploring word production in three-year-old monolingual French-speaking children

There is a general need for more knowledge on the development of French phonology, and little information is currently available for typically developing French-speaking three-year-old children. This study took place in Belgium and explores the accuracy of speech production of 34 typically developing French-speaking children using a picture naming task. Measures of speech accuracy revealed lower performance than previously seen in the literature. We investigated speech accuracy across different phonological contexts in light of characteristics of target words that are known to have an influence on speech production, namely the condition of production (spontaneous vs. imitated), the length of the word (in number of syllables), syllable complexity (singleton vs. cluster) and positional complexity (onset vs. coda). Results indicate that the accuracy of words produced spontaneously did not differ from imitated words. The presence of consonant clusters in the target word was associated with lower performance on measures of Percentage of Consonants Correct and Whole Word Proximity for both 1- and 4-syllable words. Singleton codas were produced less accurately than onsets in 1-syllable words. Word-internal singleton codas were produced less accurately than final codas. In our sample, 1-syllable words showed surprisingly low levels of performance which we can explain by an over-representation of phonologically complex properties in the target words used in the present study. These results highlight the importance of assessing various aspects of phonological complexity in French speech tasks in order to detect developmental errors in typically developing children and, ultimately, help identify children with speech sound disorders.

The Development of Alveolar and Alveopalatal Fricatives in French-Speaking Monolingual and Bilingual Children

PURPOSE

This study conducted a transcription-based and spectral moments' analysis of alveolar and alveopalatal fricatives in monolingual and bilingual French-speaking children, aged 2;6-6;10 (years;months). We measured the percent accuracy of fricatives and investigated whether young children could distinguish alveolar and alveopalatal fricatives on the basis of spectral moments. In addition, we examined which child- (i.e., age, gender, bilingualism, and alveopalatal fricative inventory size) and word/sound-related (i.e., place-of-articulation [PoA], voicing, vowel quality, and word position) factors influenced spectral moments and fricative duration.

METHOD

Children (N = 89) participated in a picture-naming task in which they produced words containing alveolar /s, z/ and alveopalatal /ʃ, ʒ/ fricatives in word-initial, -medial, and -final positions. The words were transcribed and analyzed acoustically, and the first and third spectral moments (i.e., centroid and skewness) and the duration of fricatives were calculated. The data were subject to mixed-effects linear regression.

RESULTS

Percent accuracy results indicated effects of age on alveopalatal fricatives and effects of word position on voiced fricatives. Statistical models indicated that age, gender, and alveopalatal fricative inventory size influenced spectral moments. Age and inventory size interacted significantly with PoA. Children as young as age 2;6 distinguished alveopalatal and alveolar fricatives on the basis of centroid but not skewness values. The distinction between the two sets of fricatives increased with age. Bilingual children who spoke languages with greater numbers of alveopalatal fricatives distinguished alveopalatal and alveolar fricatives less well than monolinguals and bilinguals who spoke languages with fewer numbers of alveopalatal fricatives. Girls had higher centroid and lower skewness values than boys. Models also revealed a significant influence of word/sound-related factors (voicing, vowel quality, and word position) on spectral moments and fricative duration.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings indicated that multiple factors influence the spectral moments and duration measures of children's alveolar and alveopalatal fricatives. In particular, we found that spectral moments were sensitive to gender and bilingualism effects.

Which phonological and lexical factors best influence whether a word is produced and pronounced well?

This study examines lexical and phonological factors that influence word production and pronunciation. Specifically, we investigate whether phonological production (measured by percent consonants correct) contributes to word production and pronunciation over and above the properties of the target words (e.g., word frequency, neighborhood density, and phonetic complexity). Forty French-speaking monolingual and bilingual children, aged 1;11 to 3;1, participated in a spontaneous language sample and were administered a naming and a nonword repetition task. Their parents filled out the MacArthur Communicative Developmental Inventory (MCDI) and rated their children's pronunciation on an experimental version of the MCDI. Statistical models indicated that word frequency and the phonetic complexity of the target words influenced whether a word was produced. These factors along with neighborhood density and the children's production capacities influenced whether a word was pronounced poorly or well. Findings indicate that parents can provide reliable information on the word pronunciation of their children.

A systematic review of studies on connected speech processing: Trends, key findings, and implications

Connected speech processing (CSP) is of great significance to individuals’ language and cognitive development. It is particularly crucial not only for clinical detection and treatment of developmental disorders, but also for the Foreign/second language teaching instructions. However, given the importance of this field, there is a clear lack of systematic reviews that summarize the key findings of previous studies. To this end, through searching in the scientific databases PsycInfo, Scopus, PubMed, ERIC, Taylor and Francis, and Web of Science, the present study identified 128 core CSP articles with high reference values according to PRISMA guidance and the following results were obtained through quantitative analysis and qualitative comparative synthesis: (1) The number of studies on CSP published per year showed an upward trend; however, most focused on English language, whereas the studies on other languages were comparatively rare; (2) CSP was found to be affected by multiple factors, among which speech speed, semantics, word frequency, and phonological awareness were most frequently investigated; (3) the deficit in CSP capacity was widely recognized as a significant predictor and indicator of developmental disorders; (4) more studies were carried out on connected speech production than on perception; and (5) almost no longitudinal studies have ever been conducted among either native or non-native speakers. Therefore, future research is needed to explore the developmental trajectory of CSP skills of typically developing language learners and speakers with cognitive disorders over different periods of time. It is also necessary to deepen the understanding of the processing mechanism beyond their performance and the role played by phonological awareness and lexical representations in CSP.