Purpose: Many children with cerebral palsy (CP) are described as having altered vocal quality. The current study utilizes psychoacoustic measures, namely, low-amplitude (H1*-H2*) and high-amplitude (H1*-A2*) spectral tilt and cepstral peak prominence (CPP), to identify the vocal fold articulation characteristics in this population. Method: Eight…

Purpose: Hypernasality and atypical voice characteristics are common features of dysarthric speech due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Existing acoustic measures have been developed to primarily target either hypernasality or voice impairment, and the effects of co-occurring hypernasality-voice problems on these measures are unknown. This…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe childhood dysarthria by means of auditory-perceptual analyses covering all speech subsystems. We aimed to identify the most seriously affected auditory-perceptual dimensions in the observed dysarthria profiles and to detect specific markers of childhood dysarthria against the backdrop of typical…

The present study aimed to identify the level of self-esteem among individuals with speech disorders; fluency, articulation, and voice disorders, in light of some variables. Researchers used Rosenberg's self-esteem scale on the study sample consisted of (97) individuals with speech disorders in hearing, speech clinics and special education centers…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of speech and language disorders in French-speaking preschool-age children in Yaoundé, the capital city of Cameroon. Method: A total of 460 participants aged 3-5 years were recruited from the 7 communes of Yaoundé using a 2-stage cluster sampling method. Speech and language…

Speech-language pathology has different practice and research histories, standards, methods, and challenges in different countries and regions. Awareness of these different realities may contribute to the scientific development of the field and improve the services delivered to different populations. Sharing solutions to similar problems in…

In this article, we discuss the relationship between instrumental and perceptual phonetic analyses. Using data drawn from typical and atypical speech production, we argue that the use of two-tier transcriptions, which can compare and contrast perceptual and instrumental information, is valuable both for our general understanding of the mechanisms…

Purpose: To assess the feasibility and effectiveness of a newly developed assistive technology system, Lee Silverman Voice Treatment Companion (LSVT[R] Companion[TM], hereafter referred to as "Companion"), to support the delivery of LSVT[R]LOUD, an efficacious speech intervention for individuals with Parkinson disease (PD). Method: Sixteen…

The relation between partial or absent hearing and control of the voicing contrast has long been of interest to investigators, in part because speakers who are born deaf characteristically have great difficulty mastering the contrast and in part for the light it can cast on the role of hearing in the acquisition and maintenance of phonological…

This study of 21 children (ages 4-6) found that children with stuttering and disordered phonology produced more sound prolongations and fewer iterations per whole-word repetition than did children who stuttered but had normal phonology. No differences were noted between children with stuttering and disordered phonology and children with disordered…

The paper considers the difference between articulatory and phonological disorders. The deviant production of a phoneme may be articulatory or phonological in nature. The nature of the phonemic deviation must be determined before appropriate therapeutic intervention may be devised. Recorded responses of 53 children (ages 4 years, six months to six…

This study compared the retention patterns obtained for children diagnosed with phonological disorders, 10 with developmental apraxia of speech and 10 with phonologically based speech areas. In both groups, in cases of sound substitutions, voicing was retained most frequently and place of articulation least frequently. An inverse relationship…

Ten esophageal speakers and ten normal speakers produced repetitions of the disyllable /mama/ using five different conditions of syllable stress. Nine normal listeners judged both relative and absolute syllable stress. Reliable judgments were made of the syllable stress, and speakers were able to effect systematic changes in listener perceptions…

A study investigated voice onset time in voiced stop consonants under varying constraints. Under variation of rate, lexical stress location and location of key words beginning with voiced stops, the three adult stutterers realized voiced stops by voicing before release, whereas controls realized voiced stops by voicing following the release.…

This research note describes the design and testing of a device for unobtrusive, long-term ambulatory monitoring of voice use, named the Portable Vocal Accumulator (PVA). The PVA contains a digital signal processor for analyzing input from a neck-placed miniature accelerometer. During its development, accelerometer recordings were obtained from 99…