Is children’s speech development changing? Preliminary evidence from Australian English-speaking 3-year-olds

This research describes the development of phrase-final prosodic patterns in nine English-speaking children. The intonation feature of interest is the fall in the fundamental frequency of the voice that occurs in the final syllables of statements. The corresponding feature of speech timing is phrase-final lengthening. To test opposing theories about the relationship between intonation and syllable timing, these boundary features were compared in a longitudinal study of the children’s speech development between the mean ages of 16 and 25 months. The results suggest that young children acquire the skills that control intonation earlier than final syllable timing skills. The findings support the hypothesis that final lengthening in the speech of 2-year-olds is a learned prosodic feature that cannot be accounted for as a secondary effect of inherent speech production constraints. In addition, a consistent pattern of final lengthening began to emerge when the children were making the transition to combinatorial speech, suggesting a developmental relationship between the child’s learning of speech timing and syntax.

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Snapshots of tellings in interactions between adults and children aged two, three and three and a half in an Australian context

Research on Children and Social Interaction ◽

10.1558/rcsi.37285 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (1-2) ◽

pp. 119-143 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Anna Filipi

Keyword(s):

Social Activity ◽

Second Child ◽

Object A ◽

Birthday Party ◽

Final Sample ◽

The Social ◽

Two Samples ◽

Adults And Children ◽

English Speaking ◽

Australian English

This paper examines how and by whom tellings with two young children are triggered at ages 23, 36 and 42 months. The data for the investigation is derived from a larger Australian English corpus of over 50 hours of interactions in the home, although one of the children is a bilingual Italian/ English-speaking child. The data is derived from two parent/child dyads, and in the case of the child aged 42 months, a triadic interaction between a mother, her own child and a second child. Using the micro-analytic methods of conversation analysis, the study analyses five samples of tellings. The first two describe how a child, Cassandra, aged 23 months, is invited to recount events of her day by her parents. The trigger for these tellings is the social activity of sharing everyday routine events. The next two samples focus on Rosie at 36 months who is also invited to share a telling by her parent about a birthday party celebration and one about a neighbourhood cat, Claude. The first telling is triggered by an object, a balloon from a birthday party from the day before, while the second is triggered by play involving the character of a cat, initially derived from a favourite story, Hairy Maclary. In the final sample, Cassandra, aged 42 months, initiates a telling about an experience at her grandmother’s which is trigged by a picture in a book. The analyses in each case reveal the interactional issues that arise in the action of telling and how these are dealt with by all participants. By focusing on the three ages, key features in the children’s participation in storytelling are uncovered.

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Assessment of Intelligibility in Children with Velopharyngeal Insufficiency: The Relationship between Intelligibility in Context Scale and Experimental Measures

Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica ◽

10.1159/000516537 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-12

Author(s):

Hedieh Hashemi Hosseinabad ◽

Karla N. Washington ◽

Suzanne E. Boyce ◽

Noah Silbert ◽

Ann W. Kummer

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Clinical Application ◽

Speech Intelligibility ◽

Velopharyngeal Insufficiency ◽

Point Scale ◽

Indirect Measure ◽

English Speaking ◽

Parental Reports ◽

The Relationship ◽

Children's Speech

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical application of the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) instrument in children with velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI). This study investigated the relationship between clinical speech outcomes and parental reports of speech intelligibility across various communicative partners. Methods: The ICS was completed by the parents of 20 English-speaking children aged 4–12 years diagnosed with VPI. The parents were asked to rate their children’s speech intelligibility across communication partners using a 5-point scale. Clinical metrics obtained using standard clinical transcription on the Picture-Cued SNAP-R Test were: (1) percentage of consonants correct (PCC), (2) percentage of vowels correct (PVC), and (3) percentage of phonemes correct (PPC). Nasalance from nasometer data was included as an indirect measure of nasality. Intelligibility scores obtained from naive listener’s transcriptions and speech-language pathologists’ (SLP) ratings were compared with the ICS results. Result: Greater PCC, PPC, PVC, and transcription-based intelligibility values were significantly associated with higher ICS values, respectively (r[20] = 0.84, 0.82, 0.51, and 0.70, respectively; p < 0.05 in all cases). There was a negative and significant correlation between ICS mean scores and SLP ratings of intelligibility (r = –0.74; p < 0.001). There was no significant correlation between ICS values and nasalance scores (r[20] = –0.28; p = 0.22). Conclusion: The high correlations obtained between the ICS with PCC and PPC measures indicate that articulation accuracy has had a great impact on parents’ decision-making regarding intelligibility in this population. Significant agreement among ICS scores with naive listener transcriptions and clinical ratings supports use of the ICS in practice.

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Intelligibility in 3-Year-Olds With Cleft Lip and/or Palate Using the Intelligibility in Context Scale: Findings from the Cleft Collective Cohort Study

The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal ◽

10.1177/1055665620985747 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 105566562098574

Author(s):

Miriam Seifert ◽

Amy Davies ◽

Sam Harding ◽

Sharynne McLeod ◽

Yvonne Wren

Keyword(s):

Cohort Study ◽

Cleft Palate ◽

Cleft Lip ◽

Outcome Measure ◽

Total Sample ◽

Questionnaire Data ◽

Outcomes Measurement ◽

English Speaking ◽

Children's Speech ◽

Comparison Data

Objective: To provide comparison data on the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) for a sample of 3-year-old English-speaking children born with any cleft type. Design: Questionnaire data from the Cleft Collective Cohort Study were used. Descriptive and inferential statistics were carried out to determine difference according to children’s cleft type and syndromic status. Participants: A total of 412 children born with cleft lip and/or palate whose mothers had completed the ICS when their child was 3 years old. Main Outcome Measure(s): Mothers’ rating of their children’s intelligibility using the ICS. Results: The average ICS score for the total sample was 3.75 ( sometimes-usually intelligible; standard deviation [SD] = 0.76, 95% CIs = 3.68-3.83) of a possible score of 5 ( always intelligible). Children’s speech was reported to be most intelligible to their mothers (mean = 4.33, SD = 0.61, 95% CIs = 4.27-4.39) and least intelligible to strangers (mean = 3.36, SD = 1.00, 95% CIs = 3.26-3.45). There was strong evidence ( P < .001) for a difference in intelligibility between children with cleft lip only (n = 104, mean = 4.13, SD = 0.62, 95% CIs = 4.01-4.25) and children with any form of cleft palate (n = 308, mean = 3.63, SD = 0.76, 95% CIs = 3.52-3.71). Children born with cleft palate with or without cleft lip and an identified syndrome were rated as less intelligible (n = 63, mean = 3.28, SD = 0.85, 95% CIs = 3.06-3.49) compared to children who did not have a syndrome (n = 245, mean = 3.72, SD = 0.71, 95% CIs = 3.63-3.81). Conclusions: These results provide preliminary comparative data for clinical services using the outcome measures recommended by the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement.

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Acoustic cues to coda stop voicing contrasts in Australian English-speaking children

Journal of Child Language ◽

10.1017/s0305000920000781 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-19

Author(s):

Julien MILLASSEAU ◽

Ivan YUEN ◽

Laurence BRUGGEMAN ◽

Katherine DEMUTH

Keyword(s):

Hearing Loss ◽

Vowel Duration ◽

Acoustic Cues ◽

Word Onset ◽

English Speaking ◽

Australian English ◽

Children With Hearing Loss ◽

Phonological Contrasts

Abstract While voicing contrasts in word-onset position are acquired relatively early, much less is known about how and when they are acquired in word-coda position, where accurate production of these contrasts is also critical for distinguishing words (e.g., do g vs. do ck ). This study examined how the acoustic cues to coda voicing contrasts are realized in the speech of 4-year-old Australian English-speaking children. The results showed that children used similar acoustic cues to those of adults, including longer vowel duration and more frequent voice bar for voiced stops, and longer closure and burst durations for voiceless stops along with more frequent irregular pitch periods. This suggests that 4-year-olds have acquired productive use of the acoustic cues to coda voicing contrasts, though implementations are not yet fully adult-like. The findings have implications for understanding the development of phonological contrasts in populations for whom these may be challenging, such as children with hearing loss.

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ПСИХОЛІНГВІСТИЧНИЙ РОЗВИТОК МОВЛЕННЯ ДІТЕЙ ДОШКІЛЬНОГО ВІКУ ЗАСОБАМИ ОНТОМУЗИКОТЕРАПІЇ

Psycholinguistics in a Modern World ◽

10.31470/10.31470/2706-7904-2020-15-35-38 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

pp. 35-38

Author(s):

Irina Volzhentseva

Keyword(s):

Music Therapy ◽

Active Form ◽

Speech Development ◽

Preschool Age ◽

Musical Expression ◽

Relationship Of ◽

Children's Speech

The article reveals the innovative aspects of preschool age children’s speech development by means of ontomusic therapy due to the interaction and relationship of the prosody components and means of musical expression according to the deep psychology of the mechanisms of psyche functioning of J. Lacan and the theory of the active form of music therapy by A. Meneghetti.

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Speech Genre: A Study of Gossip in Australian English Speaking Context

ELS Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities ◽

10.34050/els-jish.v1i3.5067 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 1 (3) ◽

pp. 263-271

Author(s):

Nurhadi Hamka

Keyword(s):

Social Group ◽

Group Membership ◽

Social Situations ◽

Generic Structure ◽

The Social ◽

Wide Range ◽

English Speaking ◽

Speech Genre ◽

Australian English ◽

Diverse Context

A gossip as a casual conversation usually occurs in diverse context or a wide range of social situations; has distinct and various topics; and involve an irregular set of participants. The scholars scrutinize that conversation has highly structured activity of which people tacitly realize that there are some basic conventions to follow – such as when to speak or to stay silent and to listen. In this study, I specifically discuss one of the speech genre – a gossip, in Australia English speaking context. The gossip data of the study is taken from the research conducted by Thornburry, Scott, and Slade, Diana (2006). In a discussion, I focus the analysis of the generic structure of the gossip and how it establishes the social function (within) the speech members. Several findings conveyed that: 1) there is a leeway of shifting from one genre to another – e.g. narrative to gossip, within the same participants; 2) conversation can be successful if all the participants aware of and follow the basic conventions – when to talk or to listen, support to judgement or reluctant to the focus of conversation; 3) the genre, e.g. narrative or gossip, could motivate people to leave or to join the conversation which then could establish and reinforce the group membership and maintain the values of the social group.

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Senior preschool children’s speech development through dialogue with peers

Bulletin of the Karaganda University. Pedagogy series ◽

10.31489/2021ped2/90-97 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 102 (2) ◽

pp. 90-97

Author(s):

N. Khanina ◽

◽

I. Li ◽

Keyword(s):

Communication Skills ◽

Personal Development ◽

Role Play ◽

Modern Society ◽

Speech Development ◽

Speech Interaction ◽

Game Environment ◽

Individual Success ◽

Children's Speech ◽

Communicative Abilities

The article is devoted to the relevant problem of speech development, specifically its dialogic component. The development of coherent dialogic speech as a means of forming communication skills plays an important role in the process of preschoolers’ speech development. As a form of speech interaction with other people, dialogue requires special social and speech skills from the child, the development of which occurs gradually. Dialogue for a child is the first school of mastering speech, the school of communication; it is, in fact, the base of personal development. Through dialogue children learn the grammar of their native language, its vocabulary, phonetics, and draw useful information. The topic is relevant, since the development of dialogue in preschool childhood affects the formation of speech and communicative abilities, which are one of the aspects of individual success in modern society. The article focuses on the cooperative type of activities that are particularly important for the development of dialogic speech, primarily in which children jointly create a subject-game environment, come up with a theme and develop a plot, role-play dialogues and in the course of them enter into a variety of real relationships. The program that includes a set of didactic games for older preschoolers and is aimed at improving the level of dialogic communication skills is proposed. An experiment was conducted and described in which a set of didactic games was tested. The experiment showed growth in the skills of dialogic speech.

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Regulatory and Planning Speech Functions Influence on the Senior Preschoolers’ and Junior Schoolchildren’s Voluntary Development

PSYCHOLINGUISTICS ◽

10.31470/2309-1797-2019-25-1-256-280 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 25 (1) ◽

pp. 256-280

Author(s):

Valentyna Poul ◽

Ostap Bodyk

Keyword(s):

Structural Model ◽

First Graders ◽

Time History ◽

Speech Development ◽

Preschool Age ◽

Behavior Development ◽

Experimental Works ◽

Volitional Behavior ◽

Children's Speech

The article is based on the idea of studying the growth of the regulatory role of child’s speech in the activity organization and feasance and the conduct of child’s behavior. According to this idea, the child’s volitional behavior arises with the skills appearance to build speech utterances, when youngster begins to draw up a plan of his/her activity and regulate the process of his/her implementation with their help, i.e., the development of planning and regulatory speech functions is in progress. Emphasis is placed just on the problem of forming in children the ability to build utterances on their own in connection with the development of speech functions and their volitional development. It’s given the proof of the interconnection of the stages development of planning and regulatory speech functions in preschool and junior schoolchildren and the conditionality of the volitional development of children by the development of their speech skills and functions. The paper presents a functional-structural model of the development process optimization of planning and regulatory speech functions by children in forming their speech skills. It’s illustrated the structure of the program forming preschoolers’ and first graders’ skills to model speech utterances for their development of planning and regulatory speech functions, the formation of which is considered as one of the their volitional behavior development mechanisms. The effectiveness of this program has been experimentally proved. The results show the substantial children’s speech development changes, the positive will development dynamics, the time history in an interrelation between children’s will and speech development, namely: volitional development was connected with all connected speech indicators at the same time, in preschoolers – mainly with their utterances completeness and logic, in first-graders – with the understanding of the meaning of their own speech in activity. On the basis of the scientists’ theoretical and experimental works and presented empirical research results analysis it’s suggested to assume the senior preschool age as a sensitive for the regulatory speech function development and the junior school age – planning one.

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Duration and Voice Quality of Early Infant Vocalizations

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2018_jslhr-s-17-0316 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 61 (7) ◽

pp. 1591-1602 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Adele Gregory ◽

Marija Tabain ◽

Michael Robb

Keyword(s):

Linear Trend ◽

Voice Quality ◽

Linear Increase ◽

Quality Properties ◽

Infant Vocalizations ◽

English Speaking ◽

Australian English ◽

Nonlinear Curve ◽

Linear Nature

Purpose Infant vocal durations have been studied from a variety of perspectives, including medical, social, and linguistic. The resultant developmental profile across the first 6 months of life, however, is still far from clear. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the durational properties of infant vocalizations from the unique perspective of voice quality. By considering an infant's modal and nonmodal voice qualities, the developmental range of vocalizations produced by infants during the early months of life was captured. Method Four Australian English–speaking infants were recorded for approximately 1 hr per week during the first 6 months of life. A total of 6,309 vocalizations were perceptually identified and labeled according to voice quality. The duration of each vocalization was subsequently measured. Results A nonlinear curve was evident for the duration of all vocalizations combined. Duration increased significantly between Months 3 and 5. Modal voice was the only voice quality that displayed a linear increase in duration across the study. All other voice qualities displayed polynomial trends. Conclusions Based on the current results, the inconsistent pattern of vocal duration development found previously can be reconciled when voice quality properties of vocalizations are taken into account. A nonlinear curve is evident when a broad corpus of infant vocalizations is used, whereas a narrow corpus containing predominantly modal vocalizations displays a linear trend. The results demonstrate the necessity of including nonmodal voice qualities in infant duration experiments so as to not overstate the linear nature of duration increases.

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