Cynthia M. D'Angelo; Robin Jephthah Rajarathinam (2024). Speech Analysis of Teaching Assistant Interventions in Small Group Collaborative Problem Solving with Undergraduate Engineering Students. British Journal of Educational Technology, v55 n4 p1583-1601. This descriptive study focuses on using voice activity detection (VAD) algorithms to extract student speech data in order to better understand the collaboration of small group work and the impact of teaching assistant (TA) interventions in undergraduate engineering discussion sections. Audio data were recorded from individual students wearing head-mounted noise-cancelling microphones. Video data of each student group were manually coded for collaborative behaviours (eg, group task relatedness, group verbal interaction and group talk content) of students and TA-student interactions. The analysis includes information about the turn taking, overall speech duration patterns and amounts of overlapping speech observed both when TAs were intervening with groups and when they were not. We found that TAs very rarely provided explicit support regarding collaboration. Key speech metrics, such as amount of turn overlap and maximum turn duration, revealed important information about the nature of… [Direct]

Carolus, Amy E.; Lengua, Lilliana J.; McLaughlin, Katie A.; Moran, Lyndsey; Romeo, Rachel R.; Rowe, Meredith L.; Sheridan, Margaret A.; Zalewski, Maureen (2024). Conversation Disruptions in Early Childhood Predict Executive Functioning Development: A Longitudinal Study. Developmental Science, v27 n1 e13414. Conversational turn-taking is a complex communicative skill that requires both linguistic and executive functioning (EF) skills, including processing input while simultaneously forming and inhibiting responses until one's turn. Adult-child turn-taking predicts children's linguistic, cognitive, and socioemotional development. However, little is understood about how disruptions to temporal contingency in turn-taking, such as interruptions and overlapping speech, relate to cognitive outcomes, and how these relationships may vary across developmental contexts. In a longitudinal sample of 275 socioeconomically diverse mother-child dyads (children 50% male, 65% White), we conducted pre-registered examinations of whether the frequency of dyads' conversational disruption during free play when children were 3 years old related to children's executive functioning (EF; 9 months later), self-regulation skills (18 months later), and externalizing psychopathology in early adolescence (age 10-12… [Direct] [Direct]

Allison, Kristen M.; Iuzzini-Seigel, Jenya; Stoeckel, Ruth (2022). A Tool for Differential Diagnosis of Childhood Apraxia of Speech and Dysarthria in Children: A Tutorial. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, v53 n4 p926-946 Oct. Purpose: While there has been mounting research centered on the diagnosis of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), little has focused on differentiating CAS from pediatric dysarthria. Because CAS and dysarthria share overlapping speech symptoms and some children have both motor speech disorders, differential diagnosis can be challenging. There is a need for clinical tools that facilitate assessment of both CAS and dysarthria symptoms in children. The goals of this tutorial are to (a) determine confidence levels of clinicians in differentially diagnosing dysarthria and CAS and (b) provide a systematic procedure for differentiating CAS and pediatric dysarthria in children. Method: Evidence related to differential diagnosis of CAS and dysarthria is reviewed. Next, a web-based survey of 359 pediatric speech-language pathologists is used to determine clinical confidence levels in diagnosing CAS and dysarthria. Finally, a checklist of pediatric auditory-perceptual motor speech features is… [Direct]

Bruno, Barbara; Dillenbourg, Pierre; Kothiyal, Aditi; Nasir, Jauwairia (2021). Many Are the Ways to Learn Identifying Multi-Modal Behavioral Profiles of Collaborative Learning in Constructivist Activities. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, v16 n4 p485-523 Dec. Understanding the way learners engage with learning technologies, and its relation with their learning, is crucial for motivating design of effective learning interventions. Assessing the learners' state of engagement, however, is non-trivial. Research suggests that performance is not always a good indicator of learning, especially with open-ended constructivist activities. In this paper, we describe a combined multi-modal learning analytics and interaction analysis method that uses video, audio and log data to identify multi-modal collaborative learning behavioral profiles of 32 dyads as they work on an open-ended task around interactive tabletops with a robot mediator. These profiles, which we name "Expressive Explorers," "Calm Tinkerers," and "Silent Wanderers," confirm previous collaborative learning findings. In particular, the amount of speech interaction and the overlap of speech between a pair of learners are behavior patterns that strongly… [Direct]

Satar, H. M√ºge (2016). Meaning-Making in Online Language Learner Interactions via Desktop Videoconferencing. ReCALL, v28 spec iss 3 p305-325 Sep. Online language learning and teaching in multimodal contexts has been identified as one of the key research areas in computer-aided learning (CALL) (Lamy, 2013; White, 2014). This paper aims to explore meaning-making in online language learner interactions via desktop videoconferencing (DVC) and in doing so illustrate multimodal transcription and analysis as well as the application of theoretical frameworks from other fields. Recordings of learner DVC interactions and interviews are qualitatively analysed within a case study methodology. The analysis focuses on how semiotic resources available in DVC are used for meaning-making, drawing on semiotics, interactional sociolinguistics, nonverbal communication, multimodal interaction analysis and conversation analysis. The findings demonstrate the use of contextualization cues, five codes of the body, paralinguistic elements for emotional expression, gestures and overlapping speech in meaning-making. The paper concludes with… [Direct]

Dobrin, Lise M.; Ross, Douglas (2017). The IATH ELAN Text-Sync Tool: A Simple System for Mobilizing ELAN Transcripts On- or Off-Line. Language Documentation & Conservation, v11 p94-102. In this article we present the IATH ELAN Text-Sync Tool (ETST; see community.village.virginia.edu/etst), a series of scripts and workflow for playing ELAN files and associated audiovisual media in a web browser either on- or off-line. ELAN has become an indispensable part of documentary linguists' toolkit, but it is less than ideal for mobilizing the transcribed media it allows linguists to create when they have reason to display these materials in non-research settings where linguists are not the primary audience. In conjunction with display of a video or audio file, ETST plays tiers of transcript for overlapping speech, along with optional glosses, and distinguishes speakers with participant codes. Using ETST requires no programming knowledge, but with some such knowledge the tool can be readily customized to suit users' needs. To that extent, ETST is a simple browser-based transcript player that can be used either as is, "out of the box," or as a basis for further… [Direct]

de Laat, Stijn; Endedijk, Maaike; Groenier, Marleen; Hoogeboom, Marcella; van Sas, Jolien (2018). Using Sensor Technology to Capture the Structure and Content of Team Interactions in Medical Emergency Teams during Stressful Moments. Frontline Learning Research, v6 n3 p123-147. In healthcare, action teams are carrying out complex medical procedures in intense and unpredictable situations to save lives. Previous research has shown that efficient communication, high-quality coordination, and coping with stress are particularly essential for high performance. However, precisely and objectively capturing these team interactions during stressful moments remains a challenge. In this study, we used a multimodal design to capture the structure and content of team interactions of medical teams at moments of high arousal during a simulated crisis situation. Sociometric badges were used to measure the structure of team interactions, including speaking time, overlapping speech and conversational imbalance. Video coding was used to reveal the content of the team interactions. Furthermore, the Empatica E4 was used to unobtrusively measure the team leader's skin conductance to identify moments of high arousal. In total, 21 four-person teams of technical medicine students… [PDF]

Haas, Elisabet; Sch√∂lderle, Theresa; Ziegler, Wolfram (2020). Age Norms for Auditory-Perceptual Neurophonetic Parameters: A Prerequisite for the Assessment of Childhood Dysarthria. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, v63 n4 p1071-1082 Apr. Purpose: The aim of this study was to collect auditory-perceptual data on established symptom categories of dysarthria from typically developing children between 3 and 9 years of age, for the purpose of creating age norms for dysarthria assessment. Method: One hundred forty-four typically developing children (3;0-9;11 [years;months], 72 girls and 72 boys) participated. We used a computer-based game specifically designed for this study to elicit sentence repetitions and spontaneous speech samples. Speech recordings were analyzed using the auditory-perceptual criteria of the Bogenhausen Dysarthria Scales, a standardized German assessment tool for dysarthria in adults. The Bogenhausen Dysarthria Scales (scales and features) cover clinically relevant dimensions of speech and allow for an evaluation of well-established symptom categories of dysarthria. Results: The typically developing children exhibited a number of speech characteristics overlapping with established symptom categories of… [Direct]

Williams, Kathleen Clagett (2012). The Role of Instructors' Sociolinguistic Language Awareness in College Writing Courses: A Discourse Analytic/Ethnographic Approach. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Georgetown University. Grounded in literature on the miseducation of students whose native varieties of English differ most noticeably from the standard academic variety (Delpit 2006; Labov 1972a; Rickford 1999; Smitherman 1999; Wolfram, Adger, and Christian 1999; Wolfram and Schilling-Estes 2006), this dissertation examines the links between the sociolinguistic language awareness of college writing instructors and their discursive interactions with students. Using a case study approach that is at once broadly ethnographic and closely focused on unfolding discourse, the study concentrates on the language awareness of three European American teachers, two of whom teach basic (developmental) writing and one who teaches a more advanced technical writing class. After determining the three instructors' respective levels of language awareness through analysis of the pejorative or affirmative lexical choices they make when discussing the varieties of English their students speak, this study analyzes the… [Direct]

Fujiki, Martin; And Others (1990). Repair of Overlapping Speech in the Conversations of Specifically Language-Impaired and Normally Developing Children. Applied Psycholinguistics, v11 n2 p201-15 Jun. A study examined the manner in which 10 specifically language-impaired children and their linguistically normal chronological age-matched peers repaired overlapping speech. Conversational samples from each student were elicited by an adult examiner. (26 references) (Author/CB)…

Meyer, Charles F.; And Others (1994). Can You See Whose Speech Is Overlapping?. Visible Language, v28 n2 p110-33 Spr. Discusses the types of overlapping speech, a common characteristic of speech that any annotation system must deal with. Critiques two types of current systems for marking overlaps. Describes software developed by the authors that not only accurately marks the boundaries of overlaps but presents them to the user in a readable format. (SR)…

Roy, Cynthia B. (1992). A Sociolinguistic Analysis of the Interpreter's Role in Simultaneous Talk in Face-to-Face Interpreted Dialogue. Sign Language Studies, n74 p21-61 Spr. Explores the active role of the sign language interpreter in resolving simultaneous and overlapping speech, guided by social and linguistic knowledge of the entire communicative situation in making linguistic choices about what to interpret. (29 references) (Author/CB)…

Lewkowicz, David J.; Pons, Ferran (2013). Recognition of Amodal Language Identity Emerges in Infancy. International Journal of Behavioral Development, v37 n2 p90-94 Mar. Audiovisual speech consists of overlapping and invariant patterns of dynamic acoustic and optic articulatory information. Research has shown that infants can perceive a variety of basic auditory-visual (A-V) relations but no studies have investigated whether and when infants begin to perceive higher order A-V relations inherent in speech. Here, we asked whether and when do infants become capable of recognizing amodal language identity, a critical perceptual skill that is necessary for the development of multisensory communication. Because, at a minimum, such a skill requires the ability to perceive suprasegmental auditory and visual linguistic information, we predicted that this skill would not emerge before higher-level speech processing and multisensory perceptual skills emerge. Consistent with this prediction, we found that recognition of the amodal identity of language emerges at 10-12 months of age but that when it emerges it is restricted to infants' native language…. [Direct]

Daniel Swingley; Robin Algayres (2024). Computational Modeling of the Segmentation of Sentence Stimuli from an Infant Word-Finding Study. Cognitive Science, v48 n3 e13427. Computational models of infant word-finding typically operate over transcriptions of infant-directed speech corpora. It is now possible to test models of word segmentation on speech materials, rather than transcriptions of speech. We propose that such modeling efforts be conducted over the speech of the experimental stimuli used in studies measuring infants' capacity for learning from spoken sentences. Correspondence with infant outcomes in such experiments is an appropriate benchmark for models of infants. We demonstrate such an analysis by applying the DP-Parser model of Algayres and colleagues to auditory stimuli used in infant psycholinguistic experiments by Pelucchi and colleagues. The DP-Parser model takes speech as input, and creates multiple overlapping embeddings from each utterance. Prospective words are identified as clusters of similar embedded segments. This allows segmentation of each utterance into possible words, using a dynamic programming method that maximizes the… [Direct]

Asli √ñzy√ºrek; David Peeters; Dilay Z. Karad√∂ller; Francie Manhardt; Gerardo Ortega (2024). Iconicity and Gesture Jointly Facilitate Learning of Second Language Signs at First Exposure in Hearing Nonsigners. Language Learning, v74 n4 p781-813. When learning spoken second language (L2), words overlapping in form and meaning with one's native language (L1) help break into the new language. When nonsigning speakers learn a sign language as L2, such overlaps are absent because of the modality differences (L1: speech, L2: sign). In such cases, nonsigning speakers might use iconic form-meaning mappings in signs or their own gestural experience as gateways into the to-be-acquired sign language. In this study, we investigated how both these phenomena may contribute jointly to the acquisition of sign language vocabulary by hearing nonsigners. Participants were presented with three types of signs in the Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT): arbitrary signs, iconic signs with high or low gesture overlap. Signs that were both iconic and highly overlapping with gestures boosted learning most at first exposure, and this effect remained the day after. Findings highlight the influence of modality-specific attributes supporting the… [Direct] [Direct]

Deering, Mary Jo; Pomeroy, Barbara (1976). Transcribing without Tears: A Guide to Transcribing and Editing Oral History Interviews. This practical booklet, intended for those who are transcribing oral interviews into manuscript form, provides transcribing and editing guidelines that are particularly pertinent to oral history interviews. The major factor involved in a transcription is its editing. Editing is defined as making the material suitable for use by researchers and the general public. The guidelines presented in this booklet are based on the assumption that the transcript will be edited in an accepted manuscript format. Obtaining a good transcriber/editor is emphasized. Before beginning to transcribe, basic elements of editorial policy should be set in order to maintain uniformity in transcribing. Individual interviews may be transcribed and edited with slight variations according to the nature of the interview. Examples of editing styles are provided for overlapping speech, syntax, inaccuracies, false starts, dangling sentences, fuzzy thinking, and paragraphing. Suggestions are made for performing the… [PDF]

Myers, Brett R.; Watson, Duane G. (2021). Evidence of Absence: Abstract Metrical Structure in Speech Planning. Cognitive Science, v45 n8 e13017 Aug. Rhythmic structure in speech is characterized by sequences of stressed and unstressed syllables. A large body of literature suggests that speakers of English attempt to achieve rhythmic harmony by evenly distributing stressed syllables throughout prosodic phrases. The question remains as to how speakers plan metrical structure during speech production and whether it is planned independently of phonemes. To examine this, we designed a tongue twister task consisting of disyllabic word pairs with overlapping phonological segments and either matching or non-matching metrical structure. Results showed that speakers had more difficulty producing metrically regular word pairs, compared to irregular pairs; that is, word pairs with irregular meter had faster productions and fewer speech errors in this production task. This finding of metrical regularity inhibiting production is inconsistent with an abstract metrical structure that is planned independently of phonemes at the point of… [Direct]

Crawford, Stephanie; Diehl, Joshua J.; Franich, Kathryn; Losh, Molly; Martin, Gary E.; Nayar, Kritika; Patel, Shivani P. (2020). An Acoustic Characterization of Prosodic Differences in Autism Spectrum Disorder and First-Degree Relatives. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, v50 n8 p3032-3045 Aug. This study examined prosody through characterization of acoustic properties of the speech of individuals with ASD and their parents, during narration. A subset of utterances were low-pass filtered and rated for differences in intonation, speech rate, and rhythm. Listener ratings were minimally related to acoustic measures, underscoring the complexity of atypical prosody in ASD. Acoustic analyses revealed greater utterance-final fundamental frequency excursion size and slower speech rate in the ASD group. Slower speech rate was also evident in the ASD parent group, particularly parents with the broad autism phenotype. Overlapping prosodic differences in ASD and ASD parent groups suggest that prosodic differences may constitute an important phenotype contributing to ASD features and index genetic liability to ASD among first-degree relatives…. [Direct]

Erickson, Lucy C.; Fennell, Christopher T.; Mallikarjunn, Amritha; Thiessen, Erik D.; Tsui, Angeline Sin Mei (2021). Dual Language Statistical Word Segmentation in Infancy: Simulating a Language-Mixing Bilingual Environment. Developmental Science, v24 n3 e13050 May. Infants are sensitive to syllable co-occurrence probabilities when segmenting words from fluent speech. However, segmenting two languages overlapping at the syllabic level is challenging because the statistical cues across the languages are incongruent. Successful segmentation, thus, relies on infants' ability to separate language inputs and track the statistics of each language. Here, we report three experiments investigating how infants statistically segment words from two overlapping languages in a simulated language-mixing bilingual environment. In the first two experiments, we investigated whether 9.5-month-olds can use French and English phonetic markers to segment words from two overlapping artificial languages produced by one individual. After showing that infants could segment the languages when the languages were presented in isolation (Experiment 1), we presented infants with two interleaved languages differing in phonetic cues (Experiment 2). Both monolingual and… [Direct] [Direct]

Marjorie Freggens (2023). Investigating How Perceptual Organization and Linguistic Memory Processes Interact to Promote Spoken Word Perception. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, The Ohio State University. Intro. A full account of speech perception requires explaining how listeners organize the acoustic signal into speech objects (perceptual organization) and how listeners use their memory for language to impart meaning to the speech objects (linguistic memory). Traditionally these mechanisms have been investigated separately, and thus theorized as two independent, sequentially- applied mechanisms. The prominent view of perceptual organization defines it as an early, low-level process, one that occurs prior to linguistic processing of speech. However, recent studies have found influences of organizational cues on linguistic percepts, indicating that the two mechanisms might not be sequential and independent. This dissertation attempts to explicate how perceptual organization and linguistic memory (lexical memory for words and sentential memory for context) interact when organizing and perceiving speech. Methods. I presented participants with complex, un-organized speech scenes, with a… [Direct]

Benitez, Viridiana L.; Bulgarelli, Federica; Byers-Heinlein, Krista; Saffran, Jenny R.; Weiss, Daniel J. (2020). Statistical Learning of Multiple Speech Streams: A Challenge for Monolingual Infants. Developmental Science, v23 n2 e12896 Mar. Language acquisition depends on the ability to detect and track the distributional properties of speech. Successful acquisition also necessitates detecting changes in those properties, which can occur when the learner encounters different speakers, topics, dialects, or languages. When encountering multiple speech streams with different underlying statistics but overlapping features, how do infants keep track of the properties of each speech stream separately? In four experiments, we tested whether 8-month-old monolingual infants (N = 144) can track the underlying statistics of two artificial speech streams that share a portion of their syllables. We first presented each stream individually. We then presented the two speech streams in sequence, without contextual cues signaling the different speech streams, and subsequently added pitch and accent cues to help learners track each stream separately. The results reveal that monolingual infants experience difficulty tracking the… [Direct]

Geiss, Miriam; Gumbsheimer, Sonja; Kupisch, Tanja; Lloyd-Smith, Anika; Schmid, Svenja (2022). Voice Onset Time in Multilingual Speakers: Italian Heritage Speakers in Germany with L3 English. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, v44 n2 p435-459 May. This study brings together two previously largely independent fields of multilingual language acquisition: heritage language and third language (L3) acquisition. We investigate the production of fortis and lenis stops in semi-naturalistic speech in the three languages of 20 heritage speakers (HSs) of Italian with German as a majority language and English as L3. The study aims to identify the extent to which the HSs produce distinct values across all three languages, or whether crosslinguistic influence (CLI) occurs. To this end, we compare the HSs' voice onset time (VOT) values with those of L2 English speakers from Italy and Germany. The language triad exhibits overlapping and distinct VOT realizations, making VOT a potentially vulnerable category. Results indicate CLI from German into Italian, although a systemic difference is maintained. When speaking English, the HSs show an advantage over the Italian L2 control group, with less prevoicing and longer fortis stops, indicating a… [Direct]

Saito, Kazuya; Tierney, Adam; Zheng, Chaoqun (2022). Successful Second Language Pronunciation Learning Is Linked to Domain-General Auditory Processing Rather than Music Aptitude. Second Language Research, v38 n3 p477-497 Jul. Whereas a growing amount of attention has been directed to the role of perceptual-cognitive aptitude in successful second language (L2) lexicogrammar learning, scholars have begun to investigate the same topic in the context of L2 pronunciation learning. To date, there is ongoing discussion on the mechanism underlying L2 speech learning in relation to music aptitude and domain-general auditory processing ability. Situated within 48 moderately experienced Chinese learners of English in the UK (length of residence = one year), the current study examined the relationship between music aptitude, auditory perception, and L2 pronunciation proficiency. Results revealed that music aptitude and auditory processing were partially overlapping, whereas both abilities were independent of participants' past and current L2 language learning experience. Whereas individual differences in auditory processing demonstrated significant associations with various dimensions of L2 pronunciation proficiency,… [Direct]

Kishon-Rabin, Liat; Kligler, Nitzan; Segal, Osnat (2021). Infants' Preference for Child-Directed Speech over Time-Reversed Speech in On-Channel and Off-Channel Masking. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, v64 n7 p2897-2908 Jul. Purpose: This study aims to examine the development of auditory selective attention to speech in noise by examining the ability of infants to prefer child-directed speech (CDS) over time-reversed speech (TRS) presented in "on-channel" and "off-channel" noise. Method: A total of 32 infants participated in the study. Sixteen typically developing infants were tested at 7 and 11 months of age using the central fixation procedure with CDS and TRS in two types of noise at +10 dB signal-to-noise ratio. One type of noise was an "on-channel" masker with a spectrum overlapping that of the CDS (energetic masking), and the second was an "off-channel" masker with frequencies that were outside the spectrum of the CDS (distractive masking). An additional group of sixteen 11-month-old infants were tested in quiet and served as controls for the "off-frequency" masker condition. Results: Infants preferred CDS over TRS in both age groups, but this… [Direct]

Park, Moonyoung; Xiao, Wenqi (2021). Using Automatic Speech Recognition to Facilitate English Pronunciation Assessment and Learning in an EFL Context: Pronunciation Error Diagnosis and Pedagogical Implications. International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching, v11 n3 Article 5 p74-91. With the advancement of automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology, ASR-based pronunciation assessment can diagnose learners' pronunciation problems. Meanwhile, ASR-based pronunciation training allows more opportunities for pronunciation practice. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of ASR technology in diagnosing English pronunciation errors and to explore teachers' and learners' attitudes towards using ASR technology as a pronunciation assessment tool and as a learning tool. Five Chinese EFL learners participated in read-aloud tests, including a human-assessed test and an ASR-assessed test. Pronunciation error types diagnosed by the two tests were compared to determine the extent of overlapping areas. The findings demonstrate that there were overlaps between human rating and machine rating at the segmental level. Moreover, it was found that learners' varied pronunciation learning needs were met by using the ASR technology. Implications of the study will provide… [Direct]

McLean, Emina J.; Serry, Tanya A.; Snow, Pamela C. (2021). Dual-Qualified Teachers and Speech-Language Therapists Reflect on Preparation and Practice in School-Based Language and Literacy. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, v37 n3 p249-263 Jun. Internationally, professional bodies are increasingly recognizing a role for speech-language therapists (SLTs) in identifying and supporting students who struggle with literacy. Although some guidelines have been developed to support this work, little is understood about the overlapping, but distinctive knowledge bases claimed by SLTs and teachers with respect to reading instruction and provision of additional support to struggling readers. In this article, we report on a qualitative exploration of the experiences and perspectives of 25 professionals in Australia who are dually qualified as teachers and SLTs. The aim of this study was to understand the views from both professional perspectives about pre-service training and barriers and facilitators pertaining to literacy instruction and intervention. Paradigm differences in conceptualizing reading instruction and support, bi-directional knowledge of scope of practice, and employment barriers and enablers emerged as themes and are… [Direct]

Matloff-Nieves, Susan; Wallace-Segall, Rebecca (2022). Partnering for Literacy Impact. Afterschool Matters, n35 p56-63 Spr. All young people have stories to tell. Yet when children and teens declare that they hate writing or are too embarrassed to admit they like it, elevating their voices becomes challenging. It is urgent that educators, policy makers, youth development workers and leaders, and philanthropists work together to find a way. In the land of free speech, far too many lack the skill to exercise that basic, human, American right. The reasons are complex and systemic, and the resulting reluctance to read and write during free time further widens the skills gap. The good news: taking on this challenge can be life-changing for all involved. In this article, the authors describe how two nonprofits, Goddard Riverside and Writopia Lab, with distinct but overlapping missions partnered to better address the literacy needs of the city of New York's youth. They brought to the partnership a shared vision and radical empathy for the other. They had the support of a steadfast funder. Marrying each… [PDF]

Anne Marie Tharpe; Erin M. Picou; Hilary Davis; Leigh Anne Tang; Lisa Bastarache (2024). The Use of Electronic Health Records for Behavioral Phenotyping of School-Age Children with Unilateral Hearing Loss: A Methodological Approach. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, v67 n1 p254-268. Purpose: This methodological study describes a technique for extracting information from deidentified electronic health records (EHRs) to identify occurrences of permanent unilateral hearing loss (UHL) and associated educational comorbidities. Method: This was an exploratory methodological study utilizing approximately 3.3 million de-identified medical records. Structured and unstructured data were extracted using both automated and manual methods. When both methods were available, positive and negative predictive values were calculated to evaluate the utility of using automated methods. Results: We defined a cohort of 471 records that met our criteria of school-age children with permanent UHL and no additional significant disabilities/diagnoses. Fifty-one percent of the children reflected in this cohort had indicators of adverse educational progress, defined as documentation of receiving educational services, speech-language therapy, and/or parental/teacher concern, with 12% of… [Direct]

Crowther, Dustin; Isaacs, Talia; Saito, Kazuya; Trofimovich, Pavel (2018). Linguistic Dimensions of L2 Accentedness and Comprehensibility Vary across Speaking Tasks. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, v40 n2 p443-457 Jun. This study critically examined the previously reported partial independence between second language (L2) accentedness (degree to which L2 speech differs from the target variety) and comprehensibility (ease of understanding). In prior work, comprehensibility was linked to multiple linguistic dimensions of L2 speech (phonology, fuency, lexis, grammar) whereas accentedness was narrowly associated with L2 phonology. However, these fndings stemmed from a single task (picture narrative), suggesting that task type could affect the particular linguistic measures distinguishing comprehensibility from accentedness. To address this limitation, speech ratings of 10 native listeners assessing 60 speakers of L2 English in three tasks (picture narrative, IELTS, TOEFL) were analyzed, targeting two global ratings (accentedness, comprehensibility) and 10 linguistic measures (segmental and word stress accuracy, intonation, rhythm, speech rate, grammatical accuracy and complexity, lexical richness and… [Direct]

Murza, Kimberly A.; Nye, Chad; Subramanian, Anu; Vanryckeghem, Martine (2019). Effects of Stuttering Treatment: A Systematic Review of Single-Subject Experimental Design Studies. EBP Briefs. Volume 13, Issue 4. EBP Briefs (Evidence-based Practice Briefs) Clinical Question: For individuals who stutter (P), which behavioral treatment approaches (I, C) are most effective in promoting fluent speech (O)? Method: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Study Sources: CINAHL, CINAHL Plus (with Full Text), ERIC, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Full Text. The authors also conducted an ancestry search from all studies meeting the inclusion criteria previously described. Search Terms: stutt* OR stamm* AND treat* OR interven* OR therap* AND single subject OR multiple baseline. Number of Included Studies: 19. Primary Results: A total of 19 studies representing 74 participants met the inclusion criteria and yielded an average mean baseline reduction (MBLR) of stuttering behavior by 67%. An overall improvement of nonstuttered speech behavior represented by the percentage of non-overlapping data points (PND) resulted in a 49% improvement representing 19 participants. Analyses suggest that a fluency shaping program or… [PDF]