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The ability to accurately perceive the acoustic correlate of glottal attack, phonatory onset rise-time rate, can be diagnostically critical for speech pathologists conducting voice function examinations. Signal onset duration may serve as a cue in these perceptions because an inverse relationship exists between onset duration and rise-time rate. Other acoustic information such as frequency, present during voice initiation, might also affect phonatory onset rise-time perceptions. This study was designed to determine if listeners can detect duration related rise-time rate differences in the presence of variable frequency. Listeners accurately detected rise-time rates associated with onset duration differences independent of the frequency variable. A significant duration effect was revealed with no frequency or variable interaction effects. All judgement means were significantly different from one another. It was determined that as stimulus onset duration decreased, onset rise-time rate was perceived to occur more rapidly.

An electronic device capable of monitoring the rate at which voice intensity increases during voice onset provides an indicator of the abruptness of phonatory initiation. Two groups of 8 subjects were taught to reduce the abruptness of glottal attack. Group A used a seven step program employing the electronic monitor while Group B used the same seven step program but with a traditional approach to the reduction of abrupt glottal attack substituted for monitor use. Both groups used a self-instruct teaching paradigm. Subject recordings of pre and post program production of five voice onset moments were submitted to sonographic amplitude analysis and a time/intensity slope ratio was calculated for each. Further, the pre and post program recordings were judged for abruptness of glottal attack. Post program slope ratios and attack judgments were significantly different (p < 0.01) from pre program data for Group A only. These data suggest that electronic monitoring was effective in producing gradual phonatory initiation.

A group of children was identified as 'late talkers' who were slow in expressive language development (SELD) on the basis of small expressive vocabulary size at 20-34 months of age. The subjects were followed yearly throughout the preschool and early school-age periods in order to track growth in language and related skills. When the subjects were in second grade, their expressive language skills, as indexed by the Developmental Sentence Score, were measured. This measure was used as the outcome variable in regression and discriminant function analyses. Predictor variables included those gathered when the subjects entered the study at age 2. They included measures of early expressive and receptive language by parent report, nonverbal cognitive performance, Bayley Mental Scale score (a combined verbal and nonverbal cognitive measure), phonological skill, motor skills, maladaptive behaviors, social skills, birth order, socioeconomic (SES) level, and gender. Only SES and early expressive language skills predicted expressive language outcome in second grade. Discriminant function analysis revealed these two factors were significant in predicting success (scores above the tenth percentile), along with a contribution of early gross motor skills. The implications of these findings for understanding early language delays are discussed.

Several major transitions in language use take place during the first 5 years of life. Each transition allows the child to move to a higher level of complexity of expression and to accomplish communicative goals more flexibly and precisely than was done at the previous level. At least three of these transitions appear to be modulated to some degree by speech. In the first transition, prellnguistic to early linguistic communication, babbling provides the infant with a prelinguistic form of vocal behavior that is in many ways analogous to language. A second transition takes place in the movement from single words to multiword combinations. In the process of this transition, word order becomes a means by which children convey semantic role information, and transitional forms such as successive one-word utterances help to facilitate the child's leap from single-word speech to multiword sentences. A third transition involves the development of phonological awareness, an important basis for the acquisition of literacy, which builds on the foundation laid by the phonological system for articulation. In each of these transitions, speech appears important for mediating the move to a higher language level. This paper considers the question of how these transitions can be facilitated in children who use augmentative and alternative communication rather than speech as a first expressive system, in order to provide as precise and flexible a communication modality as possible to children with severe speech impairments.

The localization ability of 10 normally hearing adults was determined under varying microphone separations and varying sound source azimuths. The stimuli (white noise bursts) were prerecorded, after being transduced through 'body' hearing aids and then played to the subjects over headphones. Results indicated that there was an improvement in localization ability for all azimuth conditions when the microphones were spaced wider than 12.7 cm apart (15.2-30.5 cm). The smaller the separations (5.5-12.7 cm), the poorer the localization. Localization was always poorer at 30° azimuth (the smallest used) than at any of the other azimuths (0° 30° 60° 90° right and left), regardless of microphone spacing. Implications are made about the relation of these findings to the use of binaural body aids on infants and young children. © 1977 Informa UK Ltd All rights reserved: reproduction in whole or part not permitted.

This study tested and confirmed the clinical impressions that (a) the novice psychotherapist may focus so much upon the exact words and nonverbal behavior patterns of his client (the process of making “concrete” statements) that he may lose sight of the larger picture that his client may be revealing at any given moment during the interview; (b) the experienced psychotherapist, on the other hand, seems to be responding to the words of the patient at a level of abstraction that attempts to integrate and understand the messages that the patient is trying to convey about himself; and (c) this latter process is reflected in the making of relatively more “abstract” comments than is true of the novice. S s were 24 first-year psychiatric residents and 19 staff psychologists and psychiatrists at a veterans hospital and a medical school. The learning theory implications of these findings is discussed. © 1976 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

A 58-item Likert attitude scale was developed and administered to thirty Speech-Language Pathology graduate students in order to obtain their perceptions of a self-evaluation procedure used in a clinical training facility. Significant correlations were obtained between the clinicians’ perception of the overall usefulness of this self-evaluation procedure, and a majority (61%) of the items on the scale. Significant correlations were obtained for several pairs of demographic items. The implications of these results for the clinical supervision process are discussed, as well as the need for further research on this topic. © 1988 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

A knowledge of normal articulation is needed before the prosthodontist can assess the compensatory articulation used by glossectomy patients. The amount and portion of tongue resected is directly correlated with speech intelligibility. The loss of the tip of the tongue is more critical to intelligibility than a hemiglossectomy. Partial glossectomy speakers can often use the residual tongue stump to perform adaptive movements that approximate normal movements and should be treated as an articulation problem. The compensatory articulation used by the total glossectomy patient was reviewed. The prosthodontic management of patients with partial tongue resection often includes lowering the palatal vault, while the management of the total glossectomy patient usually requires a mandibular tongue prosthesis. These prostheses can be refined with the use of multiview videofluoroscopy, videotaping, and spectrographic analysis. © 1985.

In order to avoid obtaining variable measurement data it is critical to control pressure applied to the tongue by positioning clamps used in lingual vibrotactile research. A pressure sensing plate, associated electronics, and procedures are described which, when employed with positioning clamps in current use, will permit monitoring lingual pressure during vibrotactile investigations.

Normative data for children who are speakers of Black American English (BAE) were obtained on the Test of Language Development (Newcomer & Hammill, 1977). In two urban sites 198 children (age 4–8 yrs.) were tested. Positive identification as a speaker of BAE was based on a two part screening test which contained 10 distinct features of BAE. Results of the investigation revealed that children who are predominantly speakers of BAE differed significantly in their performance from children on whom the test was standardized. The study demonstrated the inappropriateness of using a test of Standard American English (SAE) as a test of language development for children whose primary language exposure is other than SAE.

The effect of different levels of a multiple-talker background noise on the intelligibility of normal, esophageal, and electrolaryngeal speech was investigated. A superior laryngectomized male speaker and a normal-age matched male speaker produced the speech stimuli used in the study. Audiotape recordings of the speakers were presented to panels of naive listeners. The data from the listeners' responses revealed significant differences in the intelligibility of normal, esophageal, and electrolaryngeal speech as a function of the background noise level. The data did not indicate a superiority of one form of alaryngeal speech over the other in adverse noise conditions. © 1983.

A procedure and method is described to determine the frequency or pitch of tape-recorded voice samples, while keeping the cost of measurement within the reach of practicing clinicians. The method described reduces the uncertainty of pitch determination by comparison techniques and improves the accuracy of clinical estimation of fundamental vocal frequency and pitch. The accuracy, reliability, cost, and ease with which the method can be used makes it a viable tool to be used by the clinician. © 1981.