SuperSpeech: Multilingual Speech and Language Maintenance Intervention for Vietnamese-Australian Children and Families via Telepractice

Clinical utility of shared book reading on YouTube: An analysis of metadata, evidence-based content, understandability, and actionability

PURPOSE

Digital content may increase parental access to training as well as the diversity of the training programs. YouTube videos may provide a platform from which professionals may adopt content for such programs. This study provides data regarding the clinical utility of YouTube videos about shared book reading (SBR) found on the United States (USA) and India channels.

METHOD

A cross-sectional analysis of videos about SBR was conducted to examine metadata, evidence-based content, understandability, and actionability. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse metadata and content. Health literacy concepts of understandability and actionability were measured, and descriptive statistics are reported.

RESULT

Of 800 videos identified, 10 included information related to storybook selection, dialogic reading, extra-textual strategies, and print-referencing strategies. These met adequate levels of understandability and actionability.

CONCLUSION

Results provide some direction and recommendations for parent-training programs in the USA and India. The study highlights the use of YouTube videos and suggests its utility as a supplement source within parent-training programs.

Multilingual Speech Acquisition by Vietnamese-English-Speaking Children and Adult Family Members

PURPOSE

This article presents a large-scale example of culturally responsive assessment and analysis of multilingual Vietnamese-English-speaking children and their family members using the VietSpeech Protocol involving (a) examining all spoken languages, (b) comparing ambient phonology produced by family members, (c) including dialectal variants in the definition of accuracy, and (d) clustering participants with similar language experience.

METHOD

The VietSpeech participants (N = 154) comprised 69 children (2;0-8;10 [years;months]) and 85 adult family members with Vietnamese heritage living in Australia. Speech was sampled using the Vietnamese Speech Assessment (Vietnamese) and the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (English).

RESULTS

Children's Vietnamese consonant accuracy was significantly higher when dialectal variants were accepted (percentage of consonants correct-dialect [PCC-D]: M = 87.76, SD = 8.18), compared to when only Standard Vietnamese was accepted as the correct production (percentage of consonants correct-standard [PCC-S]: M = 70.34, SD = 8.78), Cohen's d = 3.55 (large effect). Vietnamese voiced plosives, nasals, semivowels, vowels, and tones were more often correct than voiceless plosives and fricatives. Children's Standard Australian English consonant accuracy (PCC-S) was 82.51 (SD = 15.57). English plosives, nasals, glides, and vowels were more often correct than fricatives and affricates. Vietnamese word-initial consonants had lower accuracy than word-final consonants, whereas English consonant accuracy was rarely influenced by word position. Consonant accuracy and intelligibility were highest for children with high proficiency in both Vietnamese and English. Children's consonant productions were most similar to their mothers' than other adults or siblings' productions. Adults' Vietnamese consonants, vowels, and tones were more likely to match Vietnamese targets than their children's productions.

CONCLUSIONS

Children's speech acquisition was influenced by cross-linguistic, dialectal, maturational, language experience, and environmental (ambient phonology) factors. Adults' pronunciation was influenced by dialectal and cross-linguistic factors. This study highlights the importance of including all spoken languages, adult family members, dialectal variants, and language proficiency to inform differential diagnosis of speech sound disorders and identify clinical markers in multilingual populations.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23290055.

Is Articulation Assessment via Synchronous Telepractice as Reliable as In-Person Assessment?

PURPOSE

This study aimed to determine whether articulation assessment via telepractice is as reliable as in-person assessment.

METHOD

Thirty-four children aged 4-11 years with speech sound disorder (SSD) participated in the study. The Articulation Subtest (SET) of the Turkish Articulation and Phonology Test (SST) was used to assess the children's articulation skills. The study's procedures comprised two stages. First, in the Baseline Pilot Stage, five speech-language pathologists (SLPs; four graduate SLPs and one SLP with a PhD degree) conducted in-person assessments on seven children, and their agreement was examined (α for five SLPs = .950; p < .0001). In the Main Assessment Stage, four SLPs assessed 27 children synchronously on four separate days through either online (two SLPs) or in-person (the other two SLPs) clinician roles, which changed daily. Online evaluators did not use microphones and headphones to avoid any advantage. The agreement among the four raters was examined by calculating the intraclass correlation coefficient.

RESULTS

The results revealed an excellent level of agreement regarding overall assessment between online and in-person clinicians (p < .0001). All articulation manners were acceptable, good, or excellent. However, some sounds' (α < .7 for /d/, /ɣ/, /b/; α < .8 for /p/, /ʃ/, /t/, /l/, /v/) reliability levels were relatively low compared with others.

CONCLUSIONS

There may be certain restrictiveness regarding discriminating visual or auditory clues related to certain phonemes in a telepractice environment. This restrictiveness may be related with sonority and with differentiation between minimal pairs where visual clues are limited.

Introduction: Innovations in Treatment for Children With Speech Sound Disorders

PURPOSE

There is a clear need for effective and efficient interventions for children with speech sound disorder (SSD) that can be implemented in both clinical and school-based settings.

METHOD

This forum was created for any clinician who treats SSDs. We asked the invited authors to include immediately actionable information, such as therapy activities, tips for goal writing or progress monitoring, assessment processes, and frameworks for conversations with parents.

RESULTS

We have curated nine scientifically based articles that highlight the heterogeneity of SSDs and how various subpopulations require uniquely tailored interventions. Some children with SSDs require treatment approaches that are more heavily embedded in phonological theories (e.g., maximal or multiple oppositions) or that extend beyond speech production and include speech perception and phonological awareness skills. Clinicians also need to be mindful of not only which sounds are affected, but which kinds of errors a child is making. For instance, lateral lisps and residual speech sound errors should be evaluated and treated differently from other kinds of speech sound errors. There are certainly subpopulations of children with SSDs for whom there is extremely limited data upon which speech-language pathologists can base clinical decisions, such as children under the age of 3 years or children who are multilingual. Finally, there is a crucial need to better understand the social-emotional impacts of SSDs. Tools to aid in including social-emotional data within assessment and intervention outcomes are also included in this forum.

CONCLUSION

The traditional articulation approach is the most commonly used approach in school-based settings; however, there are many children for whom this approach is not appropriate. We hope to provide a robust resource for busy school-based speech-language pathologists who treat children with SSD-specifically, we hope clinicians embrace the opportunity to "think outside the box" of traditional articulation therapy.

SuperSpeech: Multilingual Speech and Language Maintenance Intervention for Vietnamese-Australian Children and Families via Telepractice

PURPOSE

The aim of this pilot feasibility study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the group VietSpeech SuperSpeech program targeting speech skills and home language maintenance via telepractice.

METHOD

In Stage 1, using a case-control design, 30 Vietnamese-English-speaking children were assessed in English and Vietnamese, and parents completed questionnaires about speech and language competency and practices. During Stage 2, children were allocated to intervention (n = 14) or control (n = 16) conditions. COVID-19 restrictions resulted in changes including nonrandom allocation. Online group intervention targeting speech, home language maintenance, and multilingualism as a superpower was delivered 1 hr/week for 8 weeks. For Stage 3, assessments were undertaken approximately 10 weeks after the pre-intervention assessment.

RESULTS

Parents in the intervention group significantly increased encouragement of their children to speak Vietnamese. The intervention group significantly increased intelligibility in English. Growth of Vietnamese vocabulary was faster for the control group. There was a moderate effect of intervention for children's perception of being happy talking in Vietnamese and English. There was no significant mean change from pre- to post-intervention compared with the control group for measures of speech sound accuracy in Vietnamese or English, Vietnamese intelligibility, English vocabulary, or hours of Vietnamese spoken each week.

CONCLUSIONS

This study presents preliminary evidence that this 8-hr online group program targeting speech skills and home language maintenance had some impact on Vietnamese-Australian children's speech and home language maintenance. Further research involving a randomized trial is warranted.