This report describes three extensions to a classification system for paediatric speech sound disorders termed the Speech Disorders Classification System (SDCS). Part I describes a classification extension to the SDCS to differentiate motor speech disorders from speech delay and to differentiate among three sub-types of motor speech disorders.…

Previous research has shown that the weighting of, or attention to, acoustic cues at the level of the segment changes over the course of development ( Nittrouer & Miller, 1997; Nittrouer, Manning & Meyer, 1993). In this paper we examined changes over the course of development in weighting of acoustic cues at the suprasegmental level. Specifically,…

Each clause and phrase boundary necessarily aligns with a word boundary. Thus, infants' attention to the edges of clauses and phrases may help them learn some of the language-specific cues defining word boundaries. Attention to prosodically well-formed clauses and phrases may also help infants begin to extract information important for learning…

Function (i.e., grammatical) words very frequently lack word-level stress and display phonetic reduction relative to content (i.e., lexical) words. However, word-class (function vs . content) may not be the only factor that affects phonetic realization of function words; prosodic and syntactic context can also play a significant role in…

Persons with cerebellar ataxia exhibit changes in physical coordination and speech and voice production. Previously, these alterations of speech and voice production were described primarily via perceptual coordinates. In this study, the spatial-temporal properties of syllable production were examined in 12 speakers, six of whom were healthy…

Non-native speakers of English often experience problems in pronunciation as they are learning English, many such problems persisting even when the speaker has achieved a high degree of fluency. Research has shown that for a non-native speaker to sound most natural and intelligible in his or her second language, the speaker must acquire proper…

Linguistic prominence is defined as words or syllables perceived auditorily as standing out from their environment. It is explored through changes in pitch, duration and loudness. In this study, phonetic realization and perception of prominence among lexical tones in Mandarin Chinese was investigated in two experiments. Experiment 1 explored…

Familiarity is thought to aid listeners in decoding disordered speech; however, as the speech signal degrades, the "familiarity advantage" becomes less beneficial. Despite highly unintelligible speech sound production, many children with dysarthria vocalize when interacting with familiar caregivers. Perhaps listeners can understand these…

This preliminary study explored changes in prosodic variability during choral reading and investigated whether these changes are affected by the method of eliciting choral reading. Ten typical adult talkers recorded three reading materials (poetry, fiction and textbook) in three reading conditions: solo (reading aloud alone), track (reading aloud…

Pitch is a psychoacoustic construct crucial in the production and perception of speech and songs. This article is an exploration of the interface of speech and song performance of Chinese speakers. Although parallels might be drawn from the prosodic and sound structures of the linguistic and musical systems, perceiving and producing speech and…

The purpose of the current study is to document phonological change from a multidimensional perspective for a 3-year-old boy with phonological disorder by comparing three measures: (1) accuracy of consonant productions, (2) dynamic assessment, and (3) acoustic analysis. The methods included collecting a sample of the targets /s, [image omitted],…

Purpose: To explore the sensitivity of children with specific language impairment (SLI) to amplitude-modulated and durational cues that are important for perceiving suprasegmental speech rhythm and stress patterns. Method: Sixty-three children between 7 and 11 years of age were tested, 21 of whom had a diagnosis of SLI, 21 of whom were matched for…

A previous study has shown that Swedish children with language impairment have prosodic problems at different levels of language. The aim of this study is to investigate prosodic problems at the discourse level in two of the children to see whether they are related to pragmatic problems. Prosodic and pragmatic abilities were assessed by perceptual…

The study examined the relationship between 28 segmental and suprasegmental acoustic parameters of speech production and measures of speech intelligibility for 40 severely to profoundly hearing-impaired persons (mean age 21 years). Findings support the tractability of employing selected acoustic variables for the estimation of speech…

Prosodic abnormality is common in the dysarthria associated with traumatic brain injury (TBI), and adjustments of speaking rate and emphatic stress are often used as steps in treating the speech disorder in patients with TBI-induced dysarthria. However, studies to date do not present a clear and detailed picture of how speaking rate and emphatic…