scholarly journals Density, frequency and the expressive phonology of children with phonological delay

2011 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 804-834 ◽  
Author(s):  
JUDITH A. GIERUT ◽  
MICHELE L. MORRISETTE
Keyword(s):  
Word Frequency ◽  
Differential Effect ◽  
Neighborhood Density ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
Phonological Learning ◽  
Sound Structure ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Prior Literature ◽  
Expressive Phonology ◽  
Cue Redundancy

ABSTRACTThe effect of word-level variables on expressive phonology has not been widely studied, although the properties of words likely bear on the emergence of sound structure (Stoel-Gammon, 2011). Eight preschoolers, diagnosed with phonological delay, were assigned to treatment to experimentally induce gains in expressive phonology. Erred sounds were taught using stimulus words that varied orthogonally in neighborhood density and word frequency as the independent variables. Generalization was the dependent variable, defined as production accuracy of treated and untreated (erred) sounds. Blocked comparisons showed that dense neighborhoods triggered greater generalization, but frequency did not have a clear differential effect. Orthogonal comparisons revealed graded effects, with frequent words from dense neighborhoods being optimal for generalization. The results contrast with prior literature, which has reported a sparse neighborhood advantage for children with phonological delay. There is a suggestion that children with phonological delay require greater than usual cue redundancy and convergence to prompt expressive phonological learning.

scholarly journals The Effect of Phonological Neighborhood Density on Vowel Articulation

2004 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 1048-1058 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Munson ◽  
Nancy Pearl Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Word Frequency ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Neighborhood Density ◽  
Low Density ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Vowel Production ◽  
Phonological Neighborhood Density ◽  
Formant Frequencies ◽  
Phonological Neighborhood

Recent literature suggests that phonological neighborhood density and word frequency can affect speech production, in addition to the well-documented effects that they have on speech perception. This article describes 2 experiments that examined how phonological neighborhood density influences the durations and formant frequencies of adults’ productions of vowels in real words. In Experiment 1, 10 normal speakers produced words that covaried in phonological neighborhood density and word frequency. Infrequent words with many phonological neighbors were produced with shorter durations and more expanded vowel spaces than frequent words with few phonological neighbors. Results of this experiment confirmed that this effect was not related to the duration of the vowels constituting the high- and low-density words. In Experiment 2, 15 adults produced words that varied in both word frequency and neighborhood density. Neighborhood density affected vowel articulation in both high- and low-frequency words. Moreover, frequent words were produced with more contracted vowel spaces than infrequent words. There was no interaction between these factors, and the vowel duration did not vary as a function of neighborhood density. Taken together, the results suggest that neighborhood density affects vowel production independent of word frequency and vowel duration.

Intraword Variability in French-Speaking Monolingual and Bilingual Children

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Margaret M. Kehoe ◽  
Emilie Cretton
Keyword(s):  
Word Frequency ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Sound Production ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Neighborhood Density ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Phonological Complexity

Purpose This study examines intraword variability in 40 typically developing French-speaking monolingual and bilingual children, aged 2;6–4;8 (years;months). Specifically, it measures rate of intraword variability and investigates which factors best account for it. They include child-specific ones such as age, expressive vocabulary, gender, bilingual status, and speech sound production ability, and word-specific factors, such as phonological complexity (including number of syllables), phonological neighborhood density (PND), and word frequency. Method A variability test was developed, consisting of 25 words, which differed in terms of phonological complexity, PND, and word frequency. Children produced three exemplars of each word during a single session, and productions of words were coded as variable or not variable. In addition, children were administered an expressive vocabulary test and two tests tapping speech motor ability (oral motor assessment and diadochokinetic test). Speech sound ability was also assessed by measuring percent consonants correct on all words produced by the children during the session. Data were entered into a binomial logistic regression. Results Average intraword variability was 29% across all children. Several factors were found to predict intraword variability including age, gender, bilingual status, speech sound production ability, phonological complexity, and PND. Conclusions Intraword variability was found to be lower in French than what has been reported in English, consistent with phonological differences between French and English. Our findings support those of other investigators in indicating that the factors influencing intraword variability are multiple and reflect sources at various levels in the speech processing system.

scholarly journals Age of word acquisition effects in treatment of children with phonological delays

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
JUDITH A. GIERUT ◽  
MICHELE L. MORRISETTE
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Experimental Design ◽  
Word Frequency ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Multiple Baseline ◽  
Single Subject ◽  
Phonological Learning ◽  
Word Acquisition

ABSTRACTThe effects of the age of acquisition (AoA) of words were examined in the clinical treatment of 10 preschool children with phonological delays. Using a single-subject multiple-baseline experimental design, children were enrolled in one of four conditions that varied the AoA of the treated words (early vs. late acquired) relative to their corresponding word frequency (high vs. low frequency). Phonological generalization to treated and untreated sounds in error served as the dependent variable. Results showed that late acquired words induced greater generalization, with an effect size four times greater than early acquired words, whereas the effects of word frequency were minimized. Results are discussed relative to hypotheses about the role of AoA in language acquisition and the relevance of this variable for phonological learning.

EHME: a New Word Database for Research in Basque Language

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joana Acha ◽  
Itziar Laka ◽  
Josu Landa ◽  
Pello Salaburu
Keyword(s):  
Word Frequency ◽  
Similarity Measures ◽  
Morphological Structure ◽  
Statistical Characteristics ◽  
Online Program ◽  
Word Similarity ◽  
Frequency Dictionary ◽  
Orthographic Similarity ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Statistical Criteria

AbstractThis article presents EHME, the frequency dictionary of Basque structure, an online program that enables researchers in psycholinguistics to extract word and nonword stimuli, based on a broad range of statistics concerning the properties of Basque words. The database consists of 22.7 million tokens, and properties available include morphological structure frequency and word-similarity measures, apart from classical indexes: word frequency, orthographic structure, orthographic similarity, bigram and biphone frequency, and syllable-based measures. Measures are indexed at the lemma, morpheme and word level. We include reliability and validation analysis. The application is freely available, and enables the user to extract words based on concrete statistical criteria1, as well as to obtain statistical characteristics from a list of words2.

scholarly journals Neighborhood density and word frequency in child German

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Zaba ◽  
Thomas Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Word Frequency ◽  
Word Production ◽  
Neighborhood Density ◽  
Speech Corpus

High word frequency and neighborhood density contribute to the accuracy and speed of word production in English adults (e.g., Vitevitch & Sommers 2003), and characterize early words in child English (e.g., Storkel 2004). The present study investigated a speech corpus of child German (ages 2;00-3;00) to further the understanding of the influence of frequency and density on production. Results for four children suggest that, contrary to English, words produced early are not from denser neighborhoods in an adult lexicon than later words. As in English, frequent words are produced before less frequent words. Implications on theory and methodology are discussed.

Comparing Lexical Cues in Listener Processing of Dysarthria and Speech in Noise

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Annalise Fletcher ◽  
Megan McAuliffe
Keyword(s):  
Word Frequency ◽  
Word Identification ◽  
Treatment Strategies ◽  
Neighborhood Density ◽  
Speech In Noise ◽  
Hypokinetic Dysarthria ◽  
Healthy Control ◽  
Dysarthric Speech ◽  
Phonological Neighborhood ◽  
Lexical Cues

Purpose The frequency of a word and its number of phonologically similar neighbors can dramatically affect how likely it is to be accurately identified in adverse listening conditions. This study compares how these two cues affect listeners' processing of speech in noise and dysarthric speech. Method Seven speakers with moderate hypokinetic dysarthria and eight healthy control speakers were recorded producing the same set of phrases. Statements from control speakers were mixed with noise at a level selected to match the intelligibility range of the speakers with dysarthria. A binomial mixed-effects model quantified the effects of word frequency and phonological density on word identification. Results The model revealed significant effects of word frequency ( b = 0.37, SE = 0.12, p = .002) and phonological neighborhood density ( b = 0.40, SE = 0.12, p = .001). There was no effect of speaking condition (i.e., dysarthric speech vs. speech in noise). However, a significant interaction was observed between speaking condition and word frequency ( b = 0.26, SE = 0.04, p < .001). Conclusions The model's interactions indicated that listeners were more strongly influenced by the effects of word frequency when decoding moderate hypokinetic dysarthria as compared to speech in noise. Differences in listener reliance on lexical cues may have important implications for the selection of communication-based treatment strategies for speakers with dysarthria.

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