Contrastive feature hierarchies have been developed and used for some time in depicting typical phonological development and in guiding therapy decisions. Previous descriptions of feature use have been based on independent analyses and usually phonetic inventories. However, recent trends in phonology include a relational analysis of phonemic…

A current objective in Canada is a provision of childcare services for all children. This objective has not been achieved as many children, especially those with disabilities, are often denied services from publicly funded daycare centres. The authors argue that policy discussions framed from an inclusive perspective provide a better understanding…

This directory is designed to encourage networking among individuals and organizations that have an interest in deafness and communication disorders. The main body of the directory includes descriptions and publications of 122 organizations that are national in scope and that focus on health issues relating to hearing, balance, smell, taste,…

Proposes a method of analyzing the spontaneous speech of severely agrammatic patients. The method employed involves the description and analysis of a male patient's video-recorded conversation with a speech therapist. Preliminary conclusions indicate the presence of some linguistic mechanisms underlying normal syntactic processing. (32 references)…

This article presents a developmental perspective on language acquisition that can serve as a framework for understanding and treating the language and communication challenges faced by children with autism. Profiles of five children (ages 3-7) with autism spectrum disorders are discussed to illustrate the application of a Developmental…

Reviews the measurement of oral language in children, discussing methods for ensuring that diagnosis and treatment of language disorders include consideration of these measures and examining the ways in which treatment outcomes can ultimately inform diagnosis. The paper suggests that the functional receptive language skills of any student…

A study involving 201 managers of speech and language therapy (SLT) services in England examined the use of Standards Fund money for SLT. Results indicate limited improvement in funding for SLT, however, the sum reaching SLT is 2.4 million pounds, which represents one-quarter of the target figure of 10 million. (Contains 9 references.) (Author/CR)

Guidelines for teachers of a student with a cleft palate include understand the physical problem; know what kind of speech problem to expect; be alert to the possibility of language-based learning difficulties; watch for signs of hearing loss; be alert to socialization problems; help the student make up work; and avoid self-fulfilling prophecies.…

The purpose of this tutorial is to enhance the familiarity and accessibility of meta-analyses in the domains of audiology and speech-language pathology for investigating questions of treatment efficacy and treatment effectiveness. Steps to conducting a meta-analysis are explained and an example of meta-analysis using published data is included.…

Probable ages of normalization were calculated for 24 children with speech delay, using Kaplan-Meier analysis. Formulas are provided that permit calculation of the likelihood that individual children will normalize by a given age. Analysis revealed two different paths to normalization with children following one of the paths likely to retain…

Considers the ecological validity of tests in predicting the effects of speech and language impairment on communicative performance in real-world settings and the need for systematic observation of communicative behaviors, particularly of individuals from other cultures. Discusses whether standardized testing and systematic observation are…

A study of 35 3-year-olds followed since infancy in a university-affiliated pediatrics clinic and 50 Native American children followed since infancy in a tribal health clinic found early recurrent otitis media with effusion was only associated with increased risk for speech disorder in the Native American children. (Contains extensive references.)…

A study of 20 multiple birth children (MBC) (ages 7-8) and 20 controls found MBC performed significantly more poorly on some tasks of phonological processing, and early phonological skills of MBC were correlated with poor performance on visual rhyme recognition, word repetition, and phoneme detection tasks five years later. (Author/CR)

A survey of 241 school-based speech-language pathologists examined numbers of confirmed and suspected concomitant speech/language disorders in children who stutter and the preferred intervention approaches. Of 467 children, 44 percent had a verified concomitant phonological and/or language disorder with additional children suspected of having such…

This article discusses advances in structural and functional neuroimaging that indicate that, in general, nonfluent aphasias are associated with left pre-rolandic lesions and fluent aphasias occur with left post-rolandic lesions that spare pre-rolandic areas. However, functional neuroimaging studies have also shown that neural dysfunction often…