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…

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…

This rebuttal of a response to the author's original article on improved classification of stuttering in the context of disability, impairment, and handicap, stresses that the model originally proposed carefully distinguishes the two major aspects of stuttering and offers definitions of impairment, disability, and handicap consistent with the…

Studies of normal and disordered articulatory movement often rely on the use of short, simple speech tasks. However, the severity of speech disorders can be observed to vary markedly with task. Understanding task-related variations in articulatory kinematic behavior may allow for an improved understanding of normal and disordered speech motor…

Individuals with cleft palate, even those with adequate velopharyngeal function, are at high risk for disordered lingual articulation. This article attempts to summarize current knowledge of abnormal tongue-palate contact patterns derived from electropalatographic (EPG) data in speakers with cleft palate. These data, which have been reported in 23…

During phonological development, children frequently produce consonant clusters as consonant singletons, a process commonly referred to as cluster reduction. The principles of sonority may provide a theoretical basis for explaining patterns of cluster reduction evident in children's speech. Two studies were conducted to investigate whether…

Purpose: This study's main purpose was to (a) identify acoustic signatures of hypokinetic dysarthria (HKD) that are robust to phonetic variation in conversational speech and (b) determine specific characteristics of the variability associated with HKD. Method: Twenty healthy control (HC) participants and 20 participants with HKD associated with…

The importance of collaborative practice between those who provide services to children with special educational needs is now regarded as essential and is supported strongly by the UK government. However, joint working is often difficult to implement, despite the goodwill of all involved. This paper describes a pilot study aimed at developing…

This study investigated the acquisition of word initial s clusters of 3-5 year old Dutch children with phonological disorders. Within these clusters, sl was produced correctly most often, whereas sn and sx were the more difficult clusters. In cluster reductions, s+obstruent and sl clusters reduction patterns followed the Sonority Sequencing…

This investigation compared the effects of single word and connected speech sampling conditions on the production of consonant clusters in 40 children (ages 3-5) with speech sound impairments. Differences between the sampling conditions were apparent for 3 of the 8 phonological processes studied and 1 of 12 phonetic variations. (Author/DB)

This preliminary investigation of stuttering development and maturation of speech motor processes recorded the electromyographic activity of the orofacial muscles of nine children who stuttered. Results suggest that the emergence of tremor-like instabilities in the speech motor processes of stuttering children may coincide with aspects of general…

This study compared duration characteristics of single repetitions of single-syllable words in the speech of 15 preschool children near the onset of stuttering to those of 18 nonstuttering children. There appeared to be a tendency for repetitions of very early stutterers to be faster than repetitions of nonstuttering children. (Author/DB)

This study compared how one typical 8-year old and two 8-year olds with profound deafness conveyed contrastive stress in their speech in simple declarative sentences. For the students with deafness, intensity measurements showed little variation across sentences and no intensity peaks corresponding to the syllables that should be contrastive.…