Auditory-Perceptual Judgement of Speech-Language Pathologists in Fricative Distortion by EPG Task

Objectives: In a clinical setting, a ‘trained ear’ is the essentials for speech–language pathologists (SLPs) because most SLPs rely on the auditory - perceptual method during assessment and treatment for speech difficulties. However, transcribing distortion errors using only auditory-perceptual judgement is a difficult task. This study investigated the auditory– perceptual ability in terms of distortion errors for pre and present SLPs.Methods: Sixty pre and present SLPs completed a survey, then performed a perceptual judgement task which was manufactured by electropalatography (EPG). The task consisted of 30 questions, including distorted (dentalized, palatalized, lateralized) and normal speech samples of Korean fricative /s/ with different types of vowels (/ɑ/, /u/) and lengths (1-syllabled, 2- syllabled, sentence).Results: There was no significant difference in the distortion task among three groups. All participants had the highest score in “dentalization”, the lowest in “lateralization”, and all distortion types were perceived better in the /u/ context than /ɑ/. Also, SLPs tended to judge “lateralization” errors as “normal articulation” and many of the participants perceived “palatalization” as “lateralization”.Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that active auditory training for SLPs is necessary to improve auditory perceptual ability, and suggests that EPG could be a useful instrument for the auditory training program.

Prosthetic Management of Segmentally Resected Mandible and Partial Glossectomy: A Case Report

The balance and symmetry of mandibular function gets destroyed by the loss of continuity of the mandible, which deviates the residual fragment towards the resected side thereby altering the mandibular movements. Physical therapy in combination with prosthodontic treatment can be used to reduce the mandibular deviation and hence it improves the masticatory efficiency. Many prosthetic methods are discovered to minimize deviation and provide masticatory efficiency. Some of these methods are mandibular guide flange prosthesis, implant supported prosthesis and palatal guidance restoration. Contact of Tongue with palate is important for the production of normal speech, also the proper place of the tongue during certain sounds is important. In partial glossectomy conditions, tongue to palate articulation gets affected during speech and patient faces difficulty to pronounce certain sounds. For the rehabilitation of such patient thorough knowledge of the production of different sounds can be useful for diagnosis and treatment planning.

The Stylistic Features of the Isolated Voice Attributed to the Poetical Work “Fragments of a Woman” by Suad Al-Sabbah as a Model

The stylistic features of isolated sound are an integral part of the inner rhythmicity of the text, and the inner rhythmicity constitutes a part of the acoustic structures that help reveal the vocal implementation to embody the imagination and achieve the image in the text at large. The criterion we adopted in our analysis of the stylistic features of the isolated voice attributed to the poetical work “Fragments of a Woman” by Suad Al-Sabbah is the ratio of whispered sounds on the one hand to its counterparts of fricatives and explosive sounds on the other hand, and the extent to which this ratio exceeds its ratios in normal speech. We were able to observe that the proportions of the presence of different sounds in the poems are commensurate with the emotional and moral connotations within them. The percentage of whispered sounds in the poems exceeded its proportion in ordinary speech when the poet was dominated by the feelings of weakness and fear for challenging the established social constants and norms or as a result of the feelings of sorrow and sadness that the poet lives in the life of repression and injustice. Nonetheless, this percentage was notably lower when the poet covered her revolution by expressing her pride in her homeland or background. The presence of the explosive sounds in a higher percentage compared to fricatives might be attributed to the fact that the entire poetic work is an all-encompassing revolution against numerous constants and long-standing concepts of the Eastern society, and one of the means of expressing the revolution linguistically is the high-rate of explosive sounds.

Phonetic contouring of polished surface of denture base for speech enhancement

The three main factors in complete denture construction are mechanics, esthetics, and phonetics. Out of which phonetics is generally given least importance as the tongue tends to adapt and patients tend to return to normal speech after a post insertion practice period of several weeks to several months. This may not be acceptable to certain group of people in accordance with their needs to speak socially or vocationally. An accurate approximation of palatal contours of a maxillary complete denture to patient’s tongue can improve intelligibility and decrease the post- insertion practice period. This article outlines a technique to replicate the patient’s palatal anatomy onto the polished palatal surface of a complete denture.

3 Infant-directed Vocal Communication in Sheep

Infant-directed speech (IDS) in humans, AKA motherese, is different from normal speech with a higher pitch, higher frequency range, slower pace, and more repetition. infants usually are believed to react differently to IDS compared to adult-directed speech. Studies showed that IDS facilitates infant’s speech segmentation, word memory, word learning, and communicative development. IDS is common across languages and cultures, but the evolutionary origin of IDS is a myth. The objective of this study is to find out whether the special style of vocalization namely infant-directed vocalization (IDV), which differs from adult-directed vocalization (ADV), can be also observed in non-human, even non-primate species. The ADV and IDV of ewes were recorded. The sound wave features of the recordings were analyzed by visualization and machine learning. The ADV had representative peak frequencies at 175, 720, and 860Hz, while IDV only had one peak characteristic frequency at 245Hz. The machine-learning algorithm was able to clearly identify (overall accuracy was 89.3%) the distinguishing characteristics between ADV and IDV. Then we tested if the lamb reacts differently to the ewe’s IDV and ADV. The recording was played when the pre-weaning lambs were individually kept and the behavior of the lambs was recorded. The results showed that the lambs looked towards the sound source when IDV was played more than ADV (6.1 vs 3.1 times/5 min); they moved towards the sound source of IDV 8.6 times per 5 min compared to ADV which was 2.8 times/5min), and they bleated back to the sound source when IDV was played (18.0 times/5 min) more than when ADV was played (11.3 time/5 min); within 2 min after the recording played, lambs bleated back to IDV 8 times compared to ADV 4.8 times. This indicated the ewes’ IDV and ADV show different socio-emotional and attention effects on their lambs.

Heritability Analysis in Twins Indicates a Genetic Basis for Velopharyngeal Morphology

The velopharyngeal mechanism is comprised of several muscular components that act in a coordinated manner to control airflow through the nose and mouth. Proper velopharyngeal function is essential for normal speech, swallowing, and breathing. The genetic basis of normal-range velopharyngeal morphology is poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to estimate the heritability of velopharyngeal dimensions. We measured five velopharyngeal variables (velar length, velar thickness, effective velar length, levator muscle length and pharyngeal depth) from MRIs of 155 monozygotic and 208 dizygotic twin pairs and then calculated heritability for these traits using a structural equation modeling approach. The heritability estimates were statistically significant (95% confidence intervals excluded zero) and ranged from 0.19 to 0.46. There was also evidence of significant genetic correlations between pairs of traits, pointing to the influence of common genetic effects. These results indicate that genetic factors influence variation in clinically relevant velopharyngeal structures.

Are online meetings noisier than conventional meetings?

Design of sound insulation in office meeting rooms is typically based on 'normal' speech levels, but anecdotal evidence suggests that raised speech levels may be common where video/teleconferencing (VC/TC) is in use. If this is the case, then partitions in meeting rooms may be under-designed. In order to gain an understanding of the real-world occupational noise levels that exist in VC/TC enabled meeting rooms, long-term noise monitoring was conducted in multiple offices across the globe and matched to records of VC/TC use. Correlations uncovered include a link between VC/TC use and increased Lp, and higher speech Lw in larger meeting rooms.

Awareness of typical speech-language development among parents of children with hearing impairment

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Parents of children with hearing impairment who are aware of normal speech-language development play an effective and active role in the early detection, diagnosis, and habilitation of these children. Hence this study was aimed to explore the level of awareness about normal speech and language milestones in parents of children with hearing impairment.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> Questionnaire assessing the parents’ awareness of speech-language development in children from birth to 3 years was administered on 80 parents of children (birth to 5 years) with hearing impairment. These included 40 parents of children recently diagnosed with hearing impairment (group 1 HI-R) and 40 parents of children with hearing impairment who were fitted with appropriate hearing devices and enrolled in a speech and language habilitation program (group II HI-T). </p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> Results indicated that the level of awareness was moderate for both the groups for semantic and morphosyntax domains as well as total scores, but was low to moderate for the pragmatic domain. There was no statistically significant difference in the level of awareness between the two groups.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Moderate awareness levels indicates that parents of children with hearing impairment need to be made aware about the normal speech and language development so that it can guide them in the habilitation process. This information although important does not appear to have been provided to the parents of children already undergoing habilitation. Thus, there is need of including this as a goal in parental counseling.</p>