scholarly journals Children's Acoustic and Linguistic Adaptations to Peers With Hearing Impairment

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (5) ◽  
pp. 1055-1069 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Granlund ◽  
Valerie Hazan ◽  
Merle Mahon
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Impairment ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Frequency Range ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Lexical Diversity ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Problem Solving Task ◽  
Do So

Purpose This study aims to examine the clear speaking strategies used by older children when interacting with a peer with hearing loss, focusing on both acoustic and linguistic adaptations in speech. Method The Grid task, a problem-solving task developed to elicit spontaneous interactive speech, was used to obtain a range of global acoustic and linguistic measures. Eighteen 9- to 14-year-old children with normal hearing (NH) performed the task in pairs, once with a friend with NH and once with a friend with a hearing impairment (HI). Results In HI-directed speech, children increased their fundamental frequency range and midfrequency intensity, decreased the number of words per phrase, and expanded their vowel space area by increasing F1 and F2 range, relative to NH-directed speech. However, participants did not appear to make changes to their articulation rate, the lexical frequency of content words, or lexical diversity when talking to their friend with HI compared with their friend with NH. Conclusions Older children show evidence of listener-oriented adaptations to their speech production; although their speech production systems are still developing, they are able to make speech adaptations to benefit the needs of a peer with HI, even without being given a specific instruction to do so. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.6118817

scholarly journals Altered speech patterns in subjects with post-traumatic headache due to mild traumatic brain injury

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine D. Chong ◽  
Jianwei Zhang ◽  
Jing Li ◽  
Teresa Wu ◽  
Gina Dumkrieger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Mild Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Mobile Application ◽  
Speaking Rate ◽  
Mixed Effect ◽  
Effect Model ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
Post Traumatic

Abstract Background/objective Changes in speech can be detected objectively before and during migraine attacks. The goal of this study was to interrogate whether speech changes can be detected in subjects with post-traumatic headache (PTH) attributed to mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and whether there are within-subject changes in speech during headaches compared to the headache-free state. Methods Using a series of speech elicitation tasks uploaded via a mobile application, PTH subjects and healthy controls (HC) provided speech samples once every 3 days, over a period of 12 weeks. The following speech parameters were assessed: vowel space area, vowel articulation precision, consonant articulation precision, average pitch, pitch variance, speaking rate and pause rate. Speech samples of subjects with PTH were compared to HC. To assess speech changes associated with PTH, speech samples of subjects during headache were compared to speech samples when subjects were headache-free. All analyses were conducted using a mixed-effect model design. Results Longitudinal speech samples were collected from nineteen subjects with PTH (mean age = 42.5, SD = 13.7) who were an average of 14 days (SD = 32.2) from their mTBI at the time of enrollment and thirty-one HC (mean age = 38.7, SD = 12.5). Regardless of headache presence or absence, PTH subjects had longer pause rates and reductions in vowel and consonant articulation precision relative to HC. On days when speech was collected during a headache, there were longer pause rates, slower sentence speaking rates and less precise consonant articulation compared to the speech production of HC. During headache, PTH subjects had slower speaking rates yet more precise vowel articulation compared to when they were headache-free. Conclusions Compared to HC, subjects with acute PTH demonstrate altered speech as measured by objective features of speech production. For individuals with PTH, speech production may have been more effortful resulting in slower speaking rates and more precise vowel articulation during headache vs. when they were headache-free, suggesting that speech alterations were related to PTH and not solely due to the underlying mTBI.

scholarly journals The Child Justice Act: Procedural Sentencing Issues

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 320
Author(s):  
Stephan S Terblanche
Keyword(s):  
General Rule ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Probation Officers ◽  
Care Centre ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Trial Courts ◽  
Victim Impact Statement ◽  
The Status ◽  
Do So

In this contribution a number of procedural issues related to the sentencing of child offenders and emanating from the Child Justice Act 75 of 2008 are considered in some detail. As a general rule, the Act requires pre-sentence reports to be obtained from probation officers before sentencing any child offender, with only a limited number of exceptions. The article argues that the peremptory nature of the Act means that a probation report is always required, even if reports by other experts are also available. The exceptions are limited to instances other than those where the child offender is sentenced to any form of imprisonment or to residence in a care centre. The article addresses the question of whether or not the reference to imprisonment includes alternative imprisonment which is imposed only as an alternative to a fine. It suggests that alternative imprisonment should, generally, not be imposed on child offenders. When an exception is not prevented because of the sentence, a pre-sentence report may be dispensed with only when the offence is a schedule-1 offence (the least serious class of offences) or when obtaining a report would prejudice the child. It is argued that these exceptions are likely to occur rather rarely. A final aspect of the Act’s provisions on pre-sentence reports is the requirement that reasons be given for a departure from the recommendations in a pre-sentence report. This requirement merely confirms the status quo. The Act permits the prosecutor to provide the court with a victim impact statement. Such a statement is defined in the Act. It is a sworn statement by a victim or someone authorised by the victim explaining the consequences to the victim of the commission of the crime. The article also addresses the issue of whether or not the child justice court might mero motu obtain a victim impact statement when the prosecution does not do so. Finally, the article addresses appeals against and reviews of the trial courts’ sentences. It notes that appeal by the child offender is made somewhat easier, as some child offenders need not obtain leave to appeal. These include children under the age of 16, or older children sentenced to imprisonment. Again, the meaning of “imprisonment” is at least somewhat ambiguous. The provisions on automatic review have attracted considerable judicial attention already. The majority of these judgments confirmed the apparently clear wording of the Act, in terms of which the cases of all child offenders under the age of 16 should be reviewed regardless of whether they were legally represented or of the sentence imposed. In the case of child offenders aged 16 or 17, only custodial sentences are reviewable. The judgments which found this to be an incorrect interpretation are dealt with in some detail, with the conclusion that they were incorrectly decided.

scholarly journals A unified model of post-stroke language deficits including discourse production and their neural correlates

Brain ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 143 (5) ◽  
pp. 1541-1554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reem S W Alyahya ◽  
Ajay D Halai ◽  
Paul Conroy ◽  
Matthew A Lambon Ralph
Keyword(s):  
Principal Component Analysis ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Unified Model ◽  
Connected Speech ◽  
Lexical Diversity ◽  
Post Stroke ◽  
Procedural Discourse

Abstract The clinical profiles of individuals with post-stroke aphasia demonstrate considerable variation in the presentation of symptoms. Recent aphasiological studies have attempted to account for this individual variability using a multivariate data-driven approach (principal component analysis) on an extensive neuropsychological and aphasiological battery, to identify fundamental domains of post-stroke aphasia. These domains mainly reflect phonology, semantics and fluency; however, these studies did not account for variability in response to different forms of connected speech, i.e. discourse genres. In the current study, we initially examined differences in the quantity, diversity and informativeness between three different discourse genres, including a simple descriptive genre and two naturalistic forms of connected speech (storytelling narrative, and procedural discourse). Subsequently, we provided the first quantitative investigation on the multidimensionality of connected speech production at both behavioural and neural levels. Connected speech samples across descriptive, narrative, and procedural discourse genres were collected from 46 patients with chronic post-stroke aphasia and 20 neurotypical adults. Content analyses conducted on all connected speech samples indicated that performance differed across discourse genres and between groups. Specifically, storytelling narratives provided higher quantities of content words and lexical diversity compared to composite picture description and procedural discourse. The analyses further revealed that, relative to neurotypical adults, patients with aphasia, both fluent and non-fluent, showed reduction in the quantity of verbal production, lexical diversity, and informativeness across all discourses. Given the differences across the discourses, we submitted the connected speech metrics to principal component analysis alongside an extensive neuropsychological/aphasiological battery that assesses a wide range of language and cognitive skills. In contrast to previous research, three unique orthogonal connected speech components were extracted in a unified model, reflecting verbal quantity, verbal quality, and motor speech, alongside four core language and cognitive components: phonological production, semantic processing, phonological recognition, and executive functions. Voxel-wise lesion-symptom mapping using these components provided evidence on the involvement of widespread cortical regions and their white matter connections. Specifically, left frontal regions and their underlying white matter tracts corresponding to the frontal aslant tract and the anterior segment of the arcuate fasciculus were particularly engaged with the quantity and quality of fluent connected speech production while controlling for other co-factors. The neural correlates associated with the other language domains align with existing models on the ventral and dorsal pathways for language processing.

A Prophylactic Approach to Child Psychiatry

1955 ◽  
Vol 101 (424) ◽  
pp. 696-703 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Bolton
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Disturbance ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Present Condition ◽  
Child Guidance Clinic ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Guidance Clinic ◽  
Child Guidance ◽  
Infant Welfare ◽  
Show Evidence

It has long seemed apparent to workers in the child guidance field that many of their patients show evidence of longstanding emotional disturbance; either the symptoms now complained of have been present for many years, or there has been a history of symptoms earlier on which have disappeared only to be replaced by the existing ones. Some of these patients whose present condition may be almost intractable, might have been helped had they been treated at an earlier date, while recent work by Bowlby (1951) and others has emphasized how important are security and satisfactory emotional relationships in the early years for the establishment of a stable personality. Thus it appears that any prophylactic approach, aimed at reducing the incidence of emotional disturbance in older children, and it is hoped ultimately in adults, may need to be made very early in life.Little has been published, apart from accounts of individual patients, of work on any series of very young children who were psychiatrically disturbed, particularly from a prophylactic point of view. Joseph (1948) has described some of the patients she has seen in a child guidance clinic attached to a child welfare centre, and Gillespie (1954) has compared the symptomatology of a series of pre-school children treated at Infant Welfare Centres with the preschool histories of older children treated in a child guidance clinic. She points out that the type of problem dealt with in the under-fives was seen in a high proportion of the earlier histories of those who needed treatment at a later age. The importance of early treatment for parents in the prevention of serious disturbance in the children has been emphasized by Fries (1946) by Jacobs (1949) and on a community scale by Caplan (1951). His experience in Infant Welfare Centres in Israel over a number of years has led him to concentrate on the treatment of cases where abnormal symptoms were not yet manifest, but where pathogenic relationships of the parents to the child were such that he felt that emotional difficulties in the child might later develop. In this country such a prophylactic approach is relatively unexplored, although the possibility of preventing mental ill health in children is one which has interested public health authorities for some time.

Acoustic Integrity of Speech Production in Children With Moderate and Severe Hearing Impairment

1992 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Ryalls ◽  
Annie Larouche
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Impairment ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Total Duration ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Formant Frequencies ◽  
Standard Deviations

Ten normally hearing and 10 age-matched subjects with moderate-to-severe hearing impairment were recorded producing a protocol of 18 basic syllables [/pi/,/pa/,/pu/; /bi/,/ba/,/bu/; /ti/,/ta/,/tu/; /di/,/da/,/du/; /ki/,/ka/,/ku/; /gi/,/ga/,/gu/] repeated five times. The resulting 90 syllables were digitized and measured for (a) total duration; (b) voice-onset time (VOT) of the initial consonant; (c) fundamental frequency (F 0 ) at midpoint of vowel; and (d) formant frequencies (F 1 , F 2 , F 3 ), also measured at midpoint of vowel. Statistical comparisons were conducted on (a) average values for each syllable, and (b) standard deviations. Although there were numerical differences between normally hearing and hearing-impaired groups, few differences were statistically significant.

World hunger: a structural approach

1978 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 745-774 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Christensen
Keyword(s):  
Food Consumption ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Structural Approach ◽  
Consumption Patterns ◽  
Food Markets ◽  
Market Mechanisms ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Distribution Of Income ◽  
Do So

Chronic hunger is rooted in poverty and radically unequal distributions of income and assets, within and across countries. In market or quasi-market systems, the distribution of income and assets structures both food consumption patterns and food production systems. Radical inequality leads to structures which make it difficult to eliminate hunger, both because they increase the quantity of food needed to do so and because they support production structures in which the poor are “marginalized.” The effect of radical inequality is to severely limit the usefulness of “market mechanisms” as efficient instruments for reducing hunger. Marginal adjustments of existing food markets are unlikely to make any real progress in ending chronic hunger. Broadly based development and/or changes in the structuring mechanisms supported by market economies are necessary.

scholarly journals Quantity and diversity: Simulating early word learning environments

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica L. Montag ◽  
Michael N. Jones ◽  
Linda B. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Development ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
School Achievement ◽  
Lexical Diversity ◽  
Critical Measure ◽  
The Many ◽  
Large Corpus ◽  
Do So

The words in children’s language learning environments are strongly predictive of cognitive development and school achievement. But how do we measure language environments and do so at the scale of the many words that children hear day-in and day-out? The quantity and quality of words in a child’s input is typically measured in terms of total amount of talk and the lexical diversity in that talk. There are disagreements in the literature whether amount or diversity is the more critical measure of the input. Here we analyze the properties of a large corpus (6.5 million words) of speech to children and simulate learning environments that differ in amount of talk per unit time, lexical diversity, and the contexts of talk. The central conclusion is that what researchers need to theoretically understand, measure, and change is not the total amount of words, or the diversity of words, but the function that relates total words to the diversity of words, and how that function changes across different contexts of talk.

scholarly journals Investigating Lexical Diversity of Children Narratives: A Case Study of L1 Speaking

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 371-388
Author(s):  
Famala Eka Sanhadi Rahayu ◽  
Aries Utomo ◽  
Ririn Setyowati
Keyword(s):  
Research Design ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Oral Narratives ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Lexical Frequency ◽  
Lexical Diversity ◽  
Frequency Word ◽  
Individual Variations ◽  
The Subject

Lexical diversity is one of the language tools to measure varied words or vocabulary produced by learners in a text both spoken and written. This research aims to investigate the lexical diversity of children narratives produced by children orally. The research design of this research was a case study supported by quantitative data. Meanwhile, the subjects of this research are seven children around 6-9 years old. In collecting data, the researchers employed narrative storytelling based on a picture which is drawn by the subjects. In analyzing data, TTR (Type-Token -Ratio) was used to measure the lexical diversity gained from the subject while the theory was used to explain the phenomena. Based on the findings, it is found that (1) older children have higher lexical diversity than the younger ones, (2) younger children produced higher lexical frequency (word tokens) than the older ones (3) individual variations caused an anomaly of the result in which older children were expected to have higher lexical frequency but the result showed the reverse. Keywords: Lexical Diversity, Children, Oral Narratives, Case Study. 

scholarly journals With a little help from my peers: Depicting social norms in a recommender interface to promote energy conservation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Starke ◽  
Martijn Willemsen ◽  
Chris Snijders
Keyword(s):  
Energy Conservation ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Recommender Systems ◽  
Behavioral Change ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
User Data ◽  
Specific Source ◽  
Smart Thermostat ◽  
Normative Messages ◽  
Do So

How can recommender interfaces help users to adopt new behaviors? In the behavioral change literature, nudges and norms are studied to understand how to convince people to take action (e.g. towel re-use is boosted when stating that ‘75% of hotel guests’ do so), but what is advised is typically not personalized. Most recommender systems know what to recommend in a personalized way, but not much research has considered how to present such advice to help users to change their current habits. We examine the value of presenting normative messages (e.g. ‘75% of users do X’) based on actual user data in a personalized energy recommender interface called ‘Saving Aid’. In a study among 207 smart thermostat owners, we compared three different normative explanations (‘Global’, ‘Similar’, and ‘Expert’ norm rates) to a non-social baseline (‘kWh savings’). Although none of the norms increased the total number of chosen measures directly, we show evidence that the effect of norms seems to be mediated by the perceived feasibility of the measures. Moreover, how norms were presented (i.e. specific source, adoption rate) affected what measures were chosen within our Saving Aid interface.

Eliciting Naturalistic Conversations: A Method for Assessing Communication Ability, Subjective Experience, and the Impacts of Noise and Hearing Impairment

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 470-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Beechey ◽  
Jörg M. Buchholz ◽  
Gitte Keidser
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Impairment ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Communication Task ◽  
Interactive Nature ◽  
Balanced Contributions ◽  
Communication Ability ◽  
Puzzle Task

Purpose The purpose of this study was to introduce a method of eliciting conversational behavior with many aspects of realism, which may be used to study the impacts of hearing impairment and noise on verbal communication; to describe the characteristics of speech and language participants produced during the task; and to assess participants' engagement and motivation while completing the task. Method Twenty young adults with normal hearing and 20 older adults with hearing impairment took part in face-to-face conversations while completing a referential communication puzzle task designed to elicit natural conversational speech production and language with a number of realistic characteristics. Participants rated the difficulty and relevance of acoustic scenes for communication and their engagement in conversations. Results The communication task elicited speech production in a natural conversational register and language with many realistic characteristics, including complex linguistic constructions and typical disfluencies found in everyday speech, and approximately balanced contributions within dyads. Subjective ratings suggest that the task is robust to learning and fatigue effects and that participants remained highly engaged throughout the experiment. All participants were able to maintain successful communication regardless of background noise level and degree of hearing impairment. Conclusions The communication task described here may be used as part of a functional assessment of the ability to communicate in the presence of noise and hearing impairment. Although existing speech assessments have many strengths, they do not take into account the inherently interactive nature of spoken communication or the effects of motivation and engagement.

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