Though it has long been known on the basis of clinical associations and serendipitous observation that speech rate is related to mood and psychomotor baseline, it is less known that speech rate is also related to libido and to immune function. We make the case for a bipolar phenomenon of ''psychic tonus,'' encompassing all these dimensions. The…

We studied expressive and receptive language, oral motor ability, attention, memory, and intelligence in 20 6-year-old children with epilepsy (14 females, six males; mean age 6y 5mo, range 6y-6y 11mo) without learning disability, cerebral palsy (CP), and/or autism, and in 30 reference children without epilepsy (18 females, 12 males; mean age 6y…

PURPOSE: To determine empirically which of three frequently observed rules in children with phonological disorders contributes most to difficulties in speaker intelligibility. METHOD: To evaluate the relative effects on intelligibility of deletion of final consonants (DFC), stopping of fricatives and affricates (SFA), and fronting of velars (FV),…

Previous studies have indicated that consonant imprecision in Parkinson's disease (PD) may result from a reduction in amplitude of lingual movements or articulatory undershoot. While this has been postulated, direct measurement of the tongue's contact with the hard palate during speech production has not been undertaken. Therefore, the present…

The primary objective of the present study was to document tone production and intelligibility deficits in Mandarin-speaking persons with cerebral palsy (CP). Spastic, athetoid, and mixed types of CP were studied, along with a control group, to investigate the possibility of tone production and intelligibility deficits that were differentially…

A new case of Foreign Accent Syndrome is described. This American woman presented with a British- or Australian- sounding accent after stroke, which resulted in a lacunar infarct in the left internal capsule. The atypical etiology and apparent changes in lexical use are described. It is hypothesized that an abnormally tense vocal tract posture may…

Background: To investigate the nature of the articulatory rehearsal mechanism of the Articulatory Loop in Baddeley's Working Memory model, it seems particularly important to study individuals who developed a deficit (dysarthria) or total abolition (anarthria) of the ability to articulate language following a cerebral lesion. Method: In this study,…

This study compared the disfluencies of German-speaking preschool children who stutter (CWS, N=24) with those produced by age- and sex-matched comparison children who do not stutter (CWNS, N=24). In accordance with Yairi and Ambrose's [Yairi, E., & Ambrose, N. (1992). A longitudinal study of stuttering in children: A preliminary report.…

Purpose: This study addressed three research questions: (a) Can listeners use anticipatory vowel information in prevocalic consonants produced by talkers with dysarthria to identify the upcoming vowel? (b) Are listeners sensitive to interspeaker variation in anticipatory coarticulation during prevocalic consonants produced by healthy talkers…

Purpose: This article explains why children with speech and language impairments are at increased risk for having experienced abuse, neglect, and trauma and how maltreatment may vary across cultures. Method: International literature on maltreatment is reviewed in order to provide frameworks for identifying what constitutes maltreatment across…

Background: Dysarthria is a common post-stroke presentation. Its management falls within the remit of the speech and language therapy profession. Little controlled evaluation of the effects of intervention for dysarthria in stroke has been reported. Aims: The study aimed to determine the effects of a period of behavioural communication…

The study investigated adaptation to a standard electropalatographic (EPG) practise palate in a group of eight adults (mean age = 24 years). The participants read the phrase "a CVC" over four sampling conditions: prior to inserting the palate, immediately following insertion of the palate, 45 minutes after palate insertion, and 3 hours after…

The authors studied the acquisition of nine #sC clusters in 30 Croatian-speaking phonologically disordered children, aged between 3;8-7;0 years, by analysing their renditions of target words elicited in response to visual stimuli presented on a computer screen. Results did not support the idea that a greater jump in sonority from C1 to C2 would…

Describes the major types of acoustic analysis available for the study of speech, identifies equipment and other components needed for a modern speech-analysis laboratory, and lists possible measurements for various aspects of phonation, articulation, and resonance, as they might be seen in neurologically disordered speech. (Author/DB)

This response to Kamhi (EC 625 122) who suggested some children distinguish between speech therapy activities and meaningful communication, argues that, since discrepancies between a clinician's and a client's view of clinical interactions may complicate intervention, the clinician should make his viewpoint explicit. Three theories of intervention…