A survey of 1,184 speech language pathologists found that of 2,628 children (grades 1-12) who stuttered, 62.6% had other concurring speech disorders, language disorders, or non-speech-language disorders. Articulation disorders (33.5%) and phonology disorders (12.7%) were the most frequently reported. Males were more likely to exhibit co-occurring…

A study of an 11-year-old boy with speech-language disorders investigated the effectiveness of an intervention protocol designed to increase the child's elaborative word knowledge of sets of words for which he demonstrated naming problems but comprehended. The child was able to decrease his naming response time and error rate. (Author/CR)

A study investigated frequency change and duration of the second formant (F2) transition in speech samples recorded close to stuttering onset in 10 preschoolers who stutter, 10 who recovered from stuttering, and 10 controls. Near stuttering onset, children whose stuttering persisted demonstrated significantly smaller frequency change than the…

In a study of adults' attitudes toward children with limited linguistic competence, four groups of judges listened to audiotaped samples of preschool children's speech and responded to questionnaire items addressing child attributes (e.g., intelligence, social maturity). Systemic biases were revealed toward children with limited communication…

TALK (Talk Aid using pre-Loaded Knowledge) is a computer system linked to a speech synthesizer which enables nonspeaking people to engage in real-time social conversation. TALK provides categories of general comments that can be used whenever a suitable specific response is unavailable. Results are reported of a study evaluating effectiveness of…

This study attempted to quantify diagnostic characteristics related to consonant production of developmental verbal dyspraxia (DVD) in 11 Dutch children (ages 6 and 7). The study was able to quantify diagnostic characteristics but found very few qualitative differences in error patterns between children with DVD and 11 age-matched children with…

A study investigated phonological patterns in 12 bilingual (Spanish-English) 4-year-old children. There were no significant differences between the two languages on percentage of occurrence for phonological processes, however, children exhibited different patterns of production across the two languages and showed different patterns compared to…

Seventy-three caregivers of persons with Angelman syndrome completed the Aberrant Behavior checklist and Reiss Screen for Maladaptive Behavior. Responses indicate that 15q- Angelman syndrome is associated with problems such as lack of speech, over activity, restlessness, and eating and sleeping problems. Inappropriate laughter was only reported…

A study compared a naturalistic versus an analog teaching model, with speech sounds equated within and across conditions for five children (ages 4-7) with autism. Both methods increased correct production of target sound under some conditions; functional use of the target sounds in conversation occurred only with the naturalistic approach.…

In the current study, a constant time delay (CTD) procedure was embedded in classroom activities and routines to teach counting to three preschool children with speech and language delays. CTD was effective in teaching numbers to all three children. One child out of two also was able to acquire non-target information. (Contains references.) (CR)

A study investigated speech disfluency and stuttering behaviors in 3- and 4-year old children who do (CWS, n=36) and do not (CWNS, n=36) stutter. Four out of 5 measures significantly differed between groups. Within the CWS group there was a significant relationship between stuttering onset and percentage of stuttering-like disfluencies. (Contains…

This article identifies issues in phonetic transcription of speech samples for speech language pathologists. Important terms and concepts from articulatory/clinical phonetics are reviewed and guidelines are provided for streamlining the process of whole-word live transcriptions and for refining transcriptions by incorporating features from…

Background: In recent years, clinicians have been using a psycholinguistic approach to the assessment and remediation of children's developmental speech disorders. This requires the comparison of a child's performance across a range of speech-production tasks. Aims: To describe the profile of performance across different speech-production tasks in…

Six children with cerebral palsy and severe speech impairment took part in a two-phase longitudinal study of development of social cognition. The children ranged in age from 5 to 7 years old at data collection time 1 and from nine to 11 years old at data collection time 2. Using a model of normal development of Theory of Mind (ToM) suggested by…

In Parkinson's disease, functional imaging studies during limb motor tasks reveal cerebral activation abnormalities that can be reversed by subthalamic nucleus (STN) stimulation. The effect of STN stimulation on parkinsonian dysarthria has not, however, been investigated using PET. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of STN…