Background: Recent research has shown that phonological awareness therapy can improve speech production in children with expressive phonological disorders. This approach may be appealing to clinicians as the therapy may also benefit the children's general phonological abilities and lead to gains in their literacy skills. Aims: To examine the…

Many speakers with repaired cleft palate have reduced intelligibility, but there are limitations with current procedures for assessing intelligibility. The aim of this study was to construct a single-word intelligibility test for speakers with cleft palate. The test used a multiple-choice identification format, and was based on phonetic contrasts…

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) (World Health Organization, 2001) is proposed as a framework for integrative goal setting for children with speech impairment. The ICF incorporates both impairment and social factors to consider when selecting appropriate goals to bring about change in the lives of…

Developed in Australia, Parents and Children Together (PACT) is a broadbased, family-centredphonological therapy. It is a treatment approach for developmental phonological disorders in the course of whose implementation speech and language therapists enlist the active participation of parents and significant others. It requires family members to…

Background: Theoretical and empirical support now exists for the finding that many children with expressive phonological impairment experience problems in acquiring phonological awareness and early literacy skills. Few studies, however, have examined the long-term academic and literacy outcomes for this population, in particular as the…

This speech by a researcher into the genetic bases of dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and their etiological overlap, first honors four pioneers in the field (Samuel Orton, Bertil Hallgren, Isabelle Liberman, and Norman Geschwind); then updates knowledge about the genetics of dyslexia and comorbidity with ADHD and certain…

Objective: To investigate parents' experiences of surveillance for early talking difficulties. Design: Qualitative study nested within a randomised controlled trial. Setting: Interviews with the parents of 20 children identified as having early difficulties. Results: Most parents were in favour of surveillance of children's language. Parents do…

The effect of two linguistic factors in Broca's and Wernicke's aphasia was examined using Dutch and English subjects. Three tasks were used to test (1) the comprehension and (2) the construction of sentences, where verbs (in Dutch) and verb arguments (in Dutch and English) are in canonical versus non-canonical position; (3) the production of…

A large percentage of patients who have undergone laryngectomy to treat advanced laryngeal cancer rely on an electrolarynx (EL) to communicate verbally. Although serviceable, EL speech is plagued by shortcomings in both sound quality and intelligibility. This study sought to better quantify the relative contributions of previously identified…

Changes in consonant and syllable-level error patterns of three children diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) were investigated in a 3-year longitudinal study. Spontaneous speech samples were analyzed to assess the accuracy of consonants and syllables. Consonant accuracy was low overall, with most frequent errors on middle- and…

The STARDUST project developed robust computer speech recognizers for use by eight people with severe dysarthria and concomitant physical disability to access assistive technologies. Independent computer speech recognizers trained with normal speech are of limited functional use by those with severe dysarthria due to limited and inconsistent…

Children who stammer are often negatively stereotyped by other children and by teachers. They can also be easily identified as targets for teasing and bullying by peers. This may adversely affect their interaction levels in school and lower their self-esteem. This article suggests an approach aimed at reducing the development of adverse attitudes…

Background: The impact of speech therapists' conceptual frameworks on their clinical methods tends to be ignored or taken for granted by today's practitioners. One way to show the importance of such frameworks is to study how they were used previously. John Thelwall, a 19th-century elocutionist, offers a rich source for studying the influence of…

This research brief, the seventh in a series of National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) briefs, examines the presence of special health care needs among children in the child welfare system (CWS). It specifically examines the presence of chronic health conditions (e.g., asthma, diabetes) and special needs (e.g., emotional…

Children with developmental disorders may present with listening and/or speech discrimination difficulties. This study explores whether teachers can identify these difficulties, using a questionnaire that rates children's listening, speech discrimination and comprehension abilities. The questionnaire was given to class-teachers of 52 pupils, aged…