Measuring Severity of Involvement in Speech Delay

2005 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 298-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Flipsen ◽  
Jill B. Hammer ◽  
Kathryn M. Yost
Keyword(s):  
Objective Measures ◽  
Standard Group ◽  
Conversational Speech ◽  
Considerable Variability ◽  
Speech Delay ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Whole Word ◽  
Severity Indexes

Purpose: This study examined whether any of a series of segmental and whole-word measures of articulatory competence captured more of the variance in impressionistic ratings of severity of involvement in speech delay. It also examined whether knowing the age of the child affected severity ratings. Method: Ten very experienced speech-language pathologists rated severity of involvement from conversational speech samples obtained from 17 children with delayed speech. The ratings were then correlated with the candidate measures. The ratings by those who knew the ages of the children were also compared with the ratings by those who did not. Results: The severity ratings showed considerable variability. Ratings from 6 clinicians who largely agreed with each other (a "tin standard" group) were significantly associated with several of the candidate measures. Clinicians appeared to pay attention to number, type, and consistency of errors when rating severity. They also attended to both segmental and whole-word levels. Knowledge of the children’s ages did not appear to affect the ratings. Conclusions: The observed variability in the severity ratings raises significant questions about their usefulness. Objective measures such as some of those examined herein offer potential as more valid and reliable severity indexes.

Reliability of Clinician Judgments of Severity of Phonological Impairment

1995 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 39-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan K. Rafaat ◽  
Susan Rvachew ◽  
Rebecca S. C. Russell
Keyword(s):  
Conversational Speech ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Age Appropriate ◽  
Citation Form ◽  
Phonological Abilities ◽  
Preschool Aged Children

Pairs of speech-language pathologists independently rated severity of phonological impairment for 45 preschoolers, aged 30 to 65 months. Children were rated along a continuum from normal to profound. In addition to judging overall severity of impairment, the clinicians provided separate ratings based on citation form and conversational samples. A judgment of intelligibility of conversational speech was also required. Results indicated that interclinician reliability was adequate (80% agreement) for older preschool-aged children (4-1/2 years and above) but that judgments by speechlanguage pathologists were not sufficiently reliable for children under 3-1/2 years of age 40% agreement). Children judged to have age appropriate phonological abilities were not clearly distinguishable from children judged to have a mild delay. Educating speech-language pathologists regarding the normative phonological data that are available with respect to young preschoolers, and ensuring that such data are readily accessible for assessment purposes, is required.

Speech-Language Pathologists' Ratings of Speech Accuracy in Children With Speech Sound Disorders

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Linye Jing ◽  
Maria I. Grigos
Keyword(s):  
Interrater Reliability ◽  
Rating Scales ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Training Procedure ◽  
Speech Sound Disorders ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Point Rating Scale ◽  
Whole Word

Purpose: Forming accurate and consistent speech judgments can be challenging when working with children with speech sound disorders who produce a large number and varied types of error patterns. Rating scales offer a systematic approach to assessing the whole word rather than individual sounds. Thus, these scales can be an efficient way for speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to monitor treatment progress. This study evaluated the interrater reliability of an existing 3-point rating scale using a large group of SLPs as raters. Method: Utilizing an online platform, 30 SLPs completed a brief training and then rated single words produced by children with typical speech patterns and children with speech sound disorders. Words were closely balanced across the three rating categories of the scale. The interrater reliability of the SLPs ratings to a consensus judgment was examined. Results: The majority of SLPs (87%) reached substantial interrater reliability to a consensus judgment using the 3-point rating scale. Correct productions had the highest interrater reliability. Productions with extensive errors had higher agreement than those with minor errors. Certain error types, such as vowel distortions, were especially challenging for SLPs to judge. Conclusions: This study demonstrated substantial interrater reliability to a consensus judgment among a large majority of 30 SLPs using a 3-point rating. The clinical implications of the findings are discussed along with proposed modifications to the training procedure to guide future research.

Duration of the Speech Disfluencies of Beginning Stutterers

1991 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia M. Zebrowski
Keyword(s):  
Average Duration ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Conversational Speech ◽  
Principal Characteristics ◽  
Word Repetition ◽  
Syllable Repetition ◽  
Whole Word ◽  
Speech Disfluency ◽  
Age Range ◽  
Age And Sex

This study compared the duration of within-word disfluencies and the number of repeated units per instance of sound/syllable and whole-word repetitions of beginning stutterers to those produced by age- and sex-matched nonstuttering children. Subjects were 10 stuttering children [9 males and 1 female; mean age 4:1 (years:months); age range 3:2–5:0], and 10 nonstuttering children (9 males and 1 female; mean age 4:0; age range: 2:10–5:1). Mothers of the stuttering children reported that their children had been stuttering for 1 year or less. One 300-word conversational speech sample from each of the stuttering and nonstuttering children was analyzed for (a) mean duration of sound/syllable repetition and sound prolongation, (b) mean number of repeated units per instance of sound/syllable and whole-word repetition, and (c) various related measures of the frequency of all between- and within-word speech disfluencies. There were no significant between-group differences for either the duration of acoustically measured sound/syllable repetitions and sound prolongations or the number of repeated units per instance of sound/syllable and whole-word repetition. Unlike frequency and type of speech disfluency produced, average duration of within-word disfluencies and number of repeated units per repetition do not differentiate the disfluent speech of beginning stutterers and their nonstuttering peers. Additional analyses support findings from previous perceptual work that type and frequency of speech disfluency, not duration, are the principal characteristics listeners use in distinguishing these two talker groups.

Variability and Sequential Order of Consonant Normalization in Children With Speech Delay

1999 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 460-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederic A. Gruber
Keyword(s):  
Survival Analysis ◽  
Rank Order ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Conversational Speech ◽  
Speech Delay ◽  
Sequential Order ◽  
Kaplan Meier ◽  
Manner Of Articulation

A source of discrepancy among attempts to establish a rank order in the development of English consonants has been the inability to cope concurrently with principled generalization and individual variability. This problem may be surmounted by survival analytic techniques. From the conversational speech of 24 children with speech delay (SD) recorded over 2 years, a Kaplan-Meier (KM) survival analysis provided a rank order of acquisition for all probabilities above .75. The rank ordering by chronological age uncovered an alignment by place and manner of articulation comparable to, but not identical with, the predictions of Jakobson (1941, 1968). When the derived normalization probabilities for the speech delayed children were lagged according to the strong delay hypothesis (Shriberg, Gruber, & Kwiatkowski, 1994), they were shown to converge with previous normative studies and the age of speech-sound determinations (Prather, Hedrick, & Kern, 1975; Sander, 1972). The convergence of results is interpreted both as an argument for generalizability and as support for the strong delay hypothesis.

Developmental Apraxia of Speech

1997 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence D. Shriberg ◽  
Dorothy M. Aram ◽  
Joan Kwiatkowski
Keyword(s):  
Diagnostic Marker ◽  
Unknown Origin ◽  
Conversational Speech ◽  
Apraxia Of Speech ◽  
Speech Delay ◽  
Motor Speech ◽  
Motor Speech Disorder ◽  
Developmental Apraxia ◽  
Working Hypotheses ◽  
Prior Stress

Two prior studies in this series (Shriberg, Aram, & Kwiatkowski, 1997a, 1997b) address the premise that children with developmental apraxia of speech (DAS) can be differentiated from children with speech delay (SD) on the basis of one or more reliable differences in their speech. The first study compared segmental and prosody-voice profiles of a group of 14 children with suspected DAS to profiles of 73 children with SD. Results suggest that the only linguistic domain that differentiates some children with suspected DAS from those with SD is inappropriate stress. The second study cross-validated these findings, using retrospective data from a sample of 20 children with suspected DAS evaluated in a university phonology clinic over a 10-year period. The present study is of particular interest because it cross-validates the prior stress findings, using conversational speech samples from 19 children with suspected DAS provided by five DAS researchers at geographically diverse diagnostic facilities in North America. Summed across the three studies, 52% of 48 eligible samples from 53 children with suspected DAS had inappropriate stress, compared to 10% of 71 eligible samples from 73 age-matched children with speech delay of unknown origin. Discussion first focuses on the implications of stress findings for theories of the origin and nature of DAS. Perspectives in psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, and developmental biolinguistics lead to five working hypotheses pending validation in ongoing studies: (a) inappropriate stress is a diagnostic marker for at least one subtype of DAS, (b) the psycholinguistic loci of inappropriate stress in this subtype of DAS are in phonological representational processes, (c) the proximal origin of this subtype of DAS is a neurogenically specific deficit, (d) the distal origin of this form of DAS is an inherited genetic polymorphism, and (e) significant differences between acquired apraxia of speech in adults and findings for this subtype of DAS call into question the inference that it is an apractic, motor speech disorder. Concluding discussion considers implications of these findings for research in DAS and for clinical practice.

Writing Funding Proposals for Speech-Language Staff Development Projects

1982 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 163-171
Author(s):  
Carol A. Esterreicher ◽  
Ralph J. Haws
Keyword(s):  
Staff Development ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Project Manager ◽  
State Funding ◽  
Service Needs ◽  
School Environments ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Service Programs ◽  
Speech Language Pathologist ◽  
Special Programs

Speech-language pathologists providing services to handicapped children have pointed out that special education in-service programs in their public school environments frequently do not satisfy the need for updating specific diagnostic and therapy skills. It is the purpose of this article to alert speech-language pathologists to PL 94-142 regulations providing for personnel development, and to inform them of ways to seek state funding for projects to meet their specialized in-service needs. Although a brief project summary is included, primarily the article outlines a procedure whereby the project manager (a speech-language pathologist) and the project director (an administrator in charge of special programs in a Utah school district) collaborated successfully to propose a staff development project which was funded.

Language Test Content

1983 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. Owens ◽  
Martha J. Haney ◽  
Virginia E. Giesow ◽  
Lisa F. Dooley ◽  
Richard J. Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Test Item ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Language Test ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Diagnostic Aid ◽  
Item Content

This paper examines the test item content of several language assessment tools. A comparison of test breadth and depth is presented. The resultant information provides a diagnostic aid for school speech-language pathologists.

Effect of Teacher Training Sessions on Listener Perception of Voice Disorders

1985 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas J. DeGregorio ◽  
Nancy Gross Polow
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Training ◽  
School System ◽  
Voice Disorders ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Speech Language Pathologist ◽  
Bergen County ◽  
Experimental Group

The present study was designed to investigate the effect of teacher training sessions on listener perception of voice disorders. Three ASHA certified speech-language pathologists provided the criteria mean. Thirty randomly selected teachers from a Bergen County school system, randomly placed into two groups, served as subjects. The experimental group received three training sessions on consecutive weeks. Three weeks after the end of training, both groups were given a posttest. Listener perception scores were significantly higher for the experimental group. The implications of these results for in-service workshops, teacher/speech-language pathologist interaction and future research are discussed.

Word Prompt Programs

1997 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 57-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa A. Wood ◽  
Joan L. Rankin ◽  
David R. Beukelman
Keyword(s):  
Learning Disabilities ◽  
Current Literature ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Computer Software ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Written Communication ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Basic Word ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Language Needs

Word prompt programs are computer software programs or program features that are used in addition to basic word processing. These programs provide word lists from which a user selects a desired word and inserts it into a line of text. This software is used to support individuals with severe speech, physical, and learning disabilities. This tutorial describes the features of a variety of word prompt programs and reviews the current literature on the use of these programs by people with oral and written language needs. In addition, a matrix that identifies the features contained in eight sample word prompt programs is provided. The descriptions of features and the matrix are designed to assist speech-language pathologists and teachers in evaluating and selecting word prompt programs to support their clients' oral and written communication.

A Device to Mark Inaudible Behaviors on Audio Recordings

1987 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 238-240
Author(s):  
Edward A. Shirkey ◽  
Ruben D. Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Speech And Language ◽  
Audio Tape ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Audio Recordings

A need exists for speech-language pathologists to have convenient and inexpensive ways to record, on audio tape, occurrences of important inaudible speech- and language-related behaviors. The device described below can be used to mark occurrences of such events.

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