This article reviews problems faced by researchers in the association between otitis media with effusion and phonological impairment and then summarizes currently established findings concerning otitis media and its effects on phonological acquisition. Professionals are cautioned to neither ignore nor exaggerate the possible influence of otitis…

This article proposes a synergistic, interactive model of cluttering, a fluency disorder manifested in rapid or erratic speech rates, reduced intelligibility, and language deviations. Clinical strategies are presented in a framework of several working assumptions about cluttering. Despite encouraging reports, further research into the nature and…

Thirty-six elementary school students repeated short meaningful, long meaningful, and long nonce utterances in response to a visual cue. Nonstuttering, stuttering only, and stuttering-plus (concomitant speech and/or language problems) children responded differently to utterance length and meaningfulness. Results suggest that the three groups may…

This article describes a preschool program that fosters emerging speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills in children with speech and language impairments (SLI). Strategies used to incorporate literacy-related events and artifacts into the daily classroom schedule are discussed, and sample activities are given. (Author/DB)

Analysis of 483 questionnaires returned by general early childhood educators found that most early childhood programs enrolled children with speech-language impairments; mainstreamed programs were more likely to employ speech-language pathologists; employment of speech-language pathologists was not distributed evenly across program types; and more…

A study of 16 children (ages 4 and 7 years) and 8 young adults used an "Optotrak" system to study patterning and stability of speech movements in developing speech motor systems. Results indicate that nonlinear and nonuniform changes occur in components of the speech motor system during development. (Author/CR)

Evidence of the positive outcomes of phonological treatment is reviewed, with particular emphasis on treatment procedures that have been deemed effective, the specific effects of these treatment on improving intelligibility, and comparisons between treatments in facilitating improved sound production. The effect of phonological disorders on…

Drawing on archival data on the sound systems of five children ages 3 to 4 with normal development and 47 children ages 3 to 6 with phonological delay, one chain shift (interaction of phonological substitution errors) was identified in the speech of six children. Different derivational and constraint-based accounts of the chain shift were…

A study tested the quality and intelligibility, as judged by several listeners, of four users' electrolaryngeal speech, with and without filtering to compensate for perceptually objectionable acoustic characteristics. Results indicated that an adaptive filtering technique produced a noticeable improvement in the quality of the Transcutaneous…

This study used survival analysis to overcome problems of principled generalization and individual variability in analysis of the conversational speech of 24 children with speech delay recorded over two years. The derived normalization probabilities were lagged according to the strong delay hypothesis and results converged with previous normative…

This 14-year prospective, longitudinal study of children with (n=114) and without (n=128) speech and/or language impairments found (1) high rates of continued communication difficulties; (2) considerable stability in language performance over time; and (3) better long-term outcomes for those with initial speech impairments than for those with…

Discusses the demography of Asian Pacific-American (APA) students, documents the incidence of exceptional students by selected disability categories over 10 years, and discusses implications. Data are from the U.S. Census and the Office of Civil Rights. Findings raise questions about the validity of the identification process for gifted,…

This study examined word level intelligibility differences between DECTalk and MacinTalk speech synthesizers using the Modified Rhyme Test in an open format transcription task. Three groups of listeners participated: inexperienced listeners, speech-language pathologists, and speech synthesis experts. Within each group, listeners had higher…

A study that investigated the coping strategies of 20 females with children (ages birth-4) with speech and language impairments found that most utilized effective coping strategies. Adaptive behaviors included liking the company of other people, feeling liked by others, awareness of the feelings of others, and a sense of happiness. (Author/CR)

A survey of speech and hearing difficulties exhibited by children in 73 government primary schools in Barbados was conducted. Approximately 5 percent of the children were found to have hearing difficulties and 24 percent to have speech difficulties, higher than that of some other countries. Recommendations are discussed. (Contains references.) (CR)