This study documents patterns of change in speech production in a multilingual with aphasia following a cerebrovascular accident (CVA). EC, a right-handed Hebrew-English-French trilingual man, had a left fronto-temporo-parietal CVA, after which he reported that his (native) Hebrew accent became stronger in his (second language) English. Recordings…

The focus of this paper is application of the concept of "sonority" to the study of aphasic speech. An assessment tool that is capable of examining sonority effects was developed and administered to a patient diagnosed to have progressive non-fluent aphasia. This tool successfully distinguished the performance of the patient from that of two…

This research examined phonological awareness (PA) and single word reading in 14 school-age children with autism and 10 age-matched, typically developing (TD) children between 5-7 years. Two measures of PA, an elision task (ELI) and a sound blending task (BLW), were given along with two measures of single word reading, word identification for real…

In spontaneous speech, speakers sometimes replace a word they have just produced or started producing by another word. The present study reports that in these replacement repairs, low-frequency replaced words are more likely to be interrupted prior to completion than high-frequency words, providing support to the hypothesis that the production of…

Extant cultural models articulated in "Flyover Country" print media responses to ICE workplace raids showed a welcome of sorts of Latino newcomers. These models suggest a place for Latino students at school and more broadly for Latino children and parents in these communities. Thus, they index an unwillingness to see Latino newcomers in…

Electropalatometry is a useful clinical and research tool for measuring linguapalatal contact. The goal of this study was to examine intra-speaker variability in performance. Twenty individuals spoke VCV nonsense words using a schwa in the initial position, the 15 palatal consonants, and three corner vowels, /alpha/, /i/, /u/. A variability index…

Although coarticulatory variation is largely systematic, and serves as useful information for listeners, such variation is nonetheless linked to sound change. This article explores the articulatory and perceptual interactions between a coarticulatory source and its effects, and how these interactions likely contribute to change. The focus is on…

The purpose of this study was to determine possible differences in voice onset time (VOT) between speakers of standard American English (AE) and Indian English (IE) in a continuous speech context. The participants were 20 AE speakers, who were native to the Northeastern Pennsylvania region, and 20 IE speakers from the Indian subcontinent who had…

This dissertation addresses the extent to which linguistic behavior can be described in terms of the projection of patterns from existing lexical items, through an investigation of Korean reduplication. Korean has a productive pattern of reduplication in which a consonant is inserted in a vowel-initial base, illustrated by forms such as "alok"--"t…

Most existing models of language production and speech motor control do not explicitly address how language requirements affect speech motor functions, as these domains are usually treated as separate and independent from one another. This investigation compared lip movements during bilabial closure between five individuals with mild aphasia and…

Purpose: To provide clinicians with evidence-based strategies to facilitate early speech development in young children who are not readily imitating sounds. Relevant populations may include, but are not limited to, children with autism spectrum disorders, childhood apraxia of speech, and late-talking toddlers. Method: Through multifaceted search…

Purpose: To examine the application of known muscle training principles to tongue strengthening exercises and to answer the following research questions: (a) Did lingual strength increase following 9 weeks of training? (b) Did training conducted using an exercise moving the tongue in one direction result in strength changes for tongue movements in…

Three individuals with total laryngectomy were studied for their ability to control a hands-free electrolarynx (EL) using neck surface electromyography (EMG) for on/off and pitch modulation. The laryngectomy surgery of participants was modified to preserve neck strap musculature for EMG-based EL control (EMG-EL), with muscles on one side…

In a regression study of conversational speech, we show that frequency, contextual predictability, and repetition have separate contributions to word duration, despite their substantial correlations. We also found that content- and function-word durations are affected differently by their frequency and predictability. Content words are shorter…

Background: Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is an autosomal-dominant neurocutaneous disorder with an estimated prevalence of two to three cases per 10 000 population. While the physical characteristics have been well documented, speech disorders have not been fully characterized in NF1 patients. Aims: This study serves as a pilot to identify key…