Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

Word Recognition Materials For Native Speakers Of Taiwan Mandarin, Shawn L. Nissen, Richard W. Harris, Alycia Dukes

Faculty Publications

Purpose: To select, digitally record, evaluate, and psychometrically equate word recognition materials that can be used to measure the speech perception abilities of native speakers of Taiwan Mandarin in quiet. Method: Frequently used bisyllabic words produced by male and female talkers of Taiwan Mandarin were digitally recorded and subsequently evaluated using 20 native listeners with normal hearing at 10 intensity levels (-5 to 40 dB HL) in increments of 5 dB. Results: Using logistic regression, 200 words with the steepest psychometric slopes were divided into 4 lists and 8 half-lists that were relatively equivalent in psychometric function slope. To increase …

Articulatory Changes Following Treatment Of Muscle Tension Dysphonia: Preliminary Acoustic Evidence, Christopher Dromey, Shawn L. Nissen, Ray M. Merrill, Nelson Roy

Faculty Publications

Purpose: Primary muscle tension dysphonia (MTD), a voice disturbance that occurs in the absence of structural or neurological pathology, may respond to manual circumlaryngeal techniques, which ostensibly alter the posture of the larynx and/or the configuration of the vocal folds without directly targeting supralaryngeal articulatory structures. Although the phonatory benefits of these techniques have been documented previously, this investigation examined whether acoustic evidence exists for articulatory changes accompanying successful management. Method: In this retrospective study of a clinical database, pre- and post-treatment speech samples from 111 women with MTD were analyzed for acoustic evidence of supraglottal vocal tract changes associated …

English Literacy Development For English Language Learners: Does Spanish Instruction Promote Or Hinder?, Brenda K. Gorman, Connie Summers, Kelly M. Thomason

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Acoustic Characteristics Of English Lexical Stress Produced By Native Mandarin Speakers, Shawn L. Nissen, Yanhong Zhang, Alexander L. Francis

Faculty Publications

Native speakers of Mandarin Chinese have difficulty producing native-like English stress contrasts. Acoustically, English lexical stress is multidimensional, involving manipulation of fundamental frequency F0, duration, intensity and vowel quality. Errors in any or all of these correlates could interfere with perception of the stress contrast, but it is unknown which correlates are most problematic for Mandarin speakers. This study compares the use of these correlates in the production of lexical stress contrasts by 10 Mandarin and 10 native English speakers. Results showed that Mandarin speakers produced significantly less native-like stress patterns, although they did use all four acoustic correlates to …

The Effects Of Divided Attention On Speech Motor, Verbal Fluency, And Manual Task Performance, Christopher Dromey, Erin Shim

Faculty Publications

Purpose: The goal of this study was to evaluate aspects of the functional distance hypothesis, which predicts that tasks regulated by brain networks in closer anatomic proximity will interfere more with each other than tasks controlled by spatially distant regions. Speech, verbal fluency, and manual motor tasks were examined to ascertain whether right-handed activity would interfere more with speech and language performance, because of the presumed greater demands on the left hemisphere.

Method: Twenty young adults completed a speech task (repeating a sentence), a verbal fluency task (listing words beginning with the same letter), and right- and left-handed motor tasks …

The Effects Of Divided Attention On Speech Motor, Verbal Fluency, And Manual Task Performance, Christopher Dromey, Erin Shim

Faculty Publications

Purpose: The goal of this study was to evaluate aspects of the functional distance hypothesis, which predicts that tasks regulated by brain networks in closer anatomic proximity will interfere more with each other than tasks controlled by spatially distant regions. Speech, verbal fluency, and manual motor tasks were examined to ascertain whether right-handed activity would interfere more with speech and language performance because of the presumed greater demands on the left hemisphere. Method: Twenty young adults completed a speech task (repeating a sentence), a verbal fluency task (listing words beginning with the same letter), and right- and left-handed motor tasks …

Vocal Tremor And Vibrato In The Same Person: Acoustic And Electromyographic Differences, Christopher Dromey, Marshall E. Smith

Faculty Publications

Summary. The goal of this case study was to measure and describe differences between vocal vibrato and essential tremor of the voice in one individual who exhibited both types of modulation. Recordings of spoken and sung vowels produced by the same individual at three effort levels were examined via analysis of acoustic and laryngeal electromyographic (LEMG) signals. Modulation rate, periodicity, and spectral measures of both audio and muscle activation signals revealed generally slower, more prominent, and more regular patterns in sung than in spoken conditions. There was not always a clear correspondence between LEMG and acoustic measures, but both showed …

First And Second Language Tongue Movements In Spanish And Korean Bilingual Speakers, Christopher Dromey, Shawn L. Nissen, Cynthia Wheeler

Faculty Publications

A number of previous studies have relied on perceptual judgments or acoustic analysis to examine second language (L2) production. However, few researchers have studied L2 performance by directly tracking the physical movements of the articulators. The purpose of the present study was to investigate intraspeaker differences in native (Korean or Spanish) and L2 (English) production through kinematic indices of tongue activity. This involved measurement of the speed, duration, and distance of tongue movements or strokes during speech. Findings indicated that the speakers had significantly slower stroke speeds and longer movement durations for L2 when compared to their native language (L1), …

Word Recognition Materials For Native Speakers Of Taiwan Mandarin, Shawn L. Nissen, Richard W. Harris, Alycia Dukes

Faculty Publications

Purpose: To select, digitally record, evaluate, and psychometrically equate word recognition materials that can be used to measure the speech perception abilities of native speakers of Taiwan Mandarin in quiet. Method: Frequently used bisyllabic words produced by male and female talkers of Taiwan Mandarin were digitally recorded and subsequently evaluated using 20 native listeners with normal hearing at 10 intensity levels (–5 to 40 dB HL) in increments of 5 dB. Results: Using logistic regression, 200 words with the steepest psychometric slopes were divided into 4 lists and 8 half-lists that were relatively equivalent in psychometric function slope. To increase …

Vocal Tremor And Vibrato In The Same Person: Acoustic And Electromyographic Differences, Christopher Dromey, Marshall E. Smith

Faculty Publications

Objectives: The goal of this study was to measure and describe differences between vocal vibrato and essential tremor of the voice in one individual who exhibited both types of modulation.
Study Design: Case study.
Methods: Recordings of spoken and sung vowels produced by the same individual at three effort levels were examined via analysis of acoustic and laryngeal electromyographic (LEMG) signals.
Results: Modulation rate, periodicity and spectral measures of both audio and muscle activation signals revealed generally slower, more prominent and more regular patterns in sung than spoken conditions.
Conditions: There was not always a clear correspondence between LEMG and …

Psychometrically Equivalent Russian Speech Audiometry Materials By Male And Female Talkers, Shawn L. Nissen, Richard W. Harris, Melissa G. Pola, David L. Mcpherson, George A. Tavarkiladze, Dennis L. Eggett

Faculty Publications

Despite the large number of individuals who speak Russian, only a limited number of high-quality speech audiometry materials are available in a standard dialect of Russian. Thus, the purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate speech audiometry materials that can be used to measure word recognition and SRT testing in quiet for native speakers of Russian. Familiar mono-syllabic and bisyllabic words were digitally recorded by male and female talkers of Russian and subsequently evaluated by native listeners. Using logistic regression, psychometric functions were then calculated for all words. Selected monosyllabic words were digitally adjusted to create word recognition …

Development Of Speech Reception Threshold Materials For Speakers Of Taiwan Mandarin, Shawn L. Nissen, Richard W. Harris, Katie B. Slade

Faculty Publications

The aim of this research was to develop, digitally record, evaluate, and equate speech audiometry materials that can be used to measure the speech reception threshold(SRT) in quiet for native speakers of Taiwan Mandarin. Familiar trisyllabic words were digitally recorded by male and female talkers of Taiwan Mandarin and subsequently evaluated by 20 native listeners with normal hearing at 14intensity levels (10 to 16 dB HL) in 2 dB increments. Using logistic regression, psychometric functions were calculated for all words. Twenty-eight words with comparatively steep psychometric functions were selected and digitally adjusted to match the mean subject pure-tone average (5.0 …

Lip Kinematics In Spasmodic Dysphonia Before And After Treatment With Botulinum Toxin, Christopher Dromey, Aubrey Reese, Susan Howey

Faculty Publications

In order to learn about articulatory behavior in adductor spasmodic dysphonia (SD), the lip movements of seven individuals with SD and three control speakers were recorded with strain gauges as they repeated 'Buy Bobby a puppy' in voiced and whispered conditions. Results included weaker bilabial coordination, qualitative differences in the shape of lip movement profiles, and an increased number of lip velocity peaks in the speakers with SD. These participants received percutaneous botulinum toxin injection to the thyroarytenoid muscle, and were then recorded again. The pre- vs. post-treatment data revealed that improved vocal activity was associated with fewer articulatory disturbances. …

Variability In Apraxia Of Speech: A Perceptual, Acoustic, And Kinematic Analysis Of Stop Consonants, Christopher Dromey, Shannon C. Mauszycki, Julie L. Wambaugh

Faculty Publications

Since being recognized as a clinical entity, the defining characteristics of apraxia of speech (AOS) have continued to evolve (McNeil, Robin, & Schmidt, 1997). Early research examining speech production with AOS speakers revealed inconsistency in articulatory performance with unpredictable errors (Johns & Darley, 1970; LaPointe & Johns, 1975). More recent research with “pure” apraxic speakers and AOS speakers with accompanying aphasia has revealed consistency in the location and types of errors in repeated productions (McNeil, Odell, Miller & Hunter, 1995; Shuster & Wambaugh, 2003; Wambaugh, Nessler, Bennett & Mauszycki, 2004). The issue of variability in AOS remains unresolved (Croot, 2002). …

Cultural Competence In Action: A Framework And Practical Strategies For Clinicians, Nidhi Mahendra, Dolores Battle, Joan Payne

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Measuring Tongue Movements During Speech: Adaptation Of A Magnetic Jaw-Tracking System, Christopher Dromey, Shawn Nissen, Petrea Nohr, Samuel G. Fletcher

Faculty Publications

The purpose of the present investigation was to determine whether measurements of tongue movement during speech could be obtained with an electronic device originally designed to record jaw movements via a magnetized pellet. The findings indicated that the system allowed basic quantification of tongue movements in a straightforward manner. The primary advantages of this system are that no distracting wires are attached to the pellet, and it is much less costly than other systems used for this purpose. Its main disadvantages are that it is unable to track multiple tongue fleshpoints simultaneously, lacks an anatomically based coordinate system, and the …

Are Specific Language Impairment And Dyslexia Distinct Disorders?, Hugh W. Catts, Suzanne M. Adlof, Tiffany Hogan, Susan Ellis Weismer

Faculty Publications

Purpose - The purpose of this study was to determine whether specific language impairment (SLI) and dyslexia are distinct developmental disorders.

Method - Study 1 investigated the overlap between SLI identified in kindergarten and dyslexia identified in 2nd, 4th, or 8th grades in a representative sample of 527 children. Study 2 examined phonological processing in a subsample of participants, including 21 children with dyslexia only, and 43 children with SLI only, 18 children with SLI and dyslexia, and 165 children with typical language/reading development. Measures of phonological awareness and nonword repetition were considered.

Results - Study 1 showed limited but …

Acoustic And Spectral Characteristics Of Young Children’S Fricative Productions: A Developmental Perspective, Shawn L. Nissen, Robert Allen Fox

Faculty Publications

Scientists have made great strides toward understanding the mechanisms of speech production and perception. However, the complex relationships between the acoustic structures of speech and the resulting psychological percepts have yet to be fully and adequately explained, especially in speech produced by younger children. Thus, this study examined the acoustic structure of voiceless fricatives /f, s, b/ produced by adults and typically developing children from 3 to 6 years of age in terms of multiple acoustic parameters durations, normalized amplitude, spectral slope, and spectral moments. It was found that the acoustic parameters of spectral slope and variance commonly excluded from …

Acoustic And Spectral Characteristics Of Young Children's Fricative Productions: A Developmental Perspective, Shawn L. Nissen, Robert Allen Fox

Faculty Publications

Scientists have made great strides toward understanding the mechanisms of speech production and perception. However, the complex relationships between the acoustic structures of speech and the resulting psychological percepts have yet to be fully and adequately explained, especially in speech produced by younger children. Thus, this study examined the acoustic structure of voiceless fricatives (/f, θ, s, ʃ/) produced by adults and typically developing children from 3 to 6 years of age in terms of multiple acoustic parameters (durations, normalized amplitude, spectral slope, and spectral moments). It was found the acoustic parameters of spectral slope and variance (commonly excluded from …

Sex-Related Acoustic Changes In Voiceless English Fricatives, Shawn L. Nissen, Robert Allen Fox

Faculty Publications

This investigation is a comprehensive acoustic study of 4 voiceless fricatives (/f θ s ʃ/) in English produced by adults and pre-and postpubescent children aged 6-14 years. Vowel duration, amplitude, and several different spectral measures (including spectral tilt and spectral moments) were examined. Of specific interest was the pattern of normal development of the acoustic properties of fricatives and the nature of sex-specific patterns of fricative articulation in prepubescent children. Little evidence of amplitude or duration differences was found between speakers that was related to the sex of the speaker. However, significant sex-specific differences in fricative articulation were found in …

Recognition Of Affective Prosody By Speakers Of English As A First Or Foreign Language, Christopher Dromey, Jose Silveira, Paul Sandor

Faculty Publications

Adults who were fluent in English, and who grew up speaking English or one of 21 other languages listened to words spoken with angry or neutral intonation. We measured the accuracy with which the listeners identified the intended emotion. English mother tongue (EMT) polyglots scored higher than other mother tongue (OMT) listeners, whereas EMT monoglots did not. Women were significantly more accurate than men across the three listener groups. There was a modest inverse correlation between accuracy and age. The learning of a second language may have helped the EMT polyglots develop additional perceptual skills in decoding speech emotion in …

Sex-Related Acoustic Changes In Voiceless English Fricatives, Shawn L. Nissen, Robert Allen Fox

Faculty Publications

This investigation is a comprehensive acoustic study of 4 voiceless fricatives (/f q s Ý/)in English produced by adults and pre- and postpubescent children aged 6–14 years. Vowel duration, amplitude, and several different spectral measures (including spectral tilt and spectral moments) were examined. Of specific interest was the pattern of normal development of the acoustic properties of fricatives and the nature of sex-specific patterns of fricative articulation in prepubescent children. Little evidence of amplitude or duration differences was found between speakers that was related to sex of the speaker. However, significant sex-specific differences in fricative articulation were found in all …

Psychometrically Equivalent Mandarin Bisyllabic Speech Discrimination Materials Spoken By Male And Female Talkers, Shawn L. Nissen, Richard W. Harris, Lara-Jill Jennings, Dennis L. Eggett, Holly Buck

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to develop, digitally record, evaluate, and psychometrically equate a set of Mandarin bisyllabic word lists for use in measurement of speech discrimination. Familiar bisyllabic words were digitally recorded by male and female talkers of Standard Mandarin. Percentage of correct word recognition was measured for each word at ten intensity levels ( /5 to 40dB HL) in 5 dB increments using 20 normally hearing subjects. Using logistic regression, 200 words with the steepest logistic regression slopes were included in four psychometrically equivalent word lists of 50 words each, and eight half-lists of 25 words each. …

Life On A Tricycle A Case Study Of Language Impairment From 4 To 19, Lee Robinson, Bonnie Brinton, Martin Fujiki

Faculty Publications

This article presents a longitudinal case study of a child named Cody identified with specific language impairment. Cody was followed from 4 to 19 years of age, at which time he compared his social skills with those of peers: “It’s like they’re driving sports car and I’m on a tricycle.” His initial long- and short-term intervention goals are presented, along with the treatment methods employed and the resulting outcomes. Although long-term goals remained consistent, as the nature of Cody’s academic, social, and emotional challenges shifted, it was necessary to gear treatment to address his changing needs. Cody’s case illustrates the …

Speech Interactions With Linguistic, Cognitive, And Visuomotor Tasks, Christopher Dromey, Emily Bates

Faculty Publications

Lip movements were examined across several repetitive speaking conditions (speech alone and speaking concurrently with a linguistic, cognitive, or visuomotor challenge task) in 20 young adults. Performance in these nonspeech activities was also compared between isolated tasks and concurrent speech conditions. Linguistic challenges resulted in increased spatiotemporal variability of lip displacement across repetitions. Motor challenges led to more rapid speech with smaller lip displacement. These qualitatively different changes suggest that different aspects of attention are required for linguistic versus manual visuomotor activity. Vocal intensity increased for all concurrent task conditions compared with speech alone, suggesting increased effort compared to the …

Description Of A Program For Social Language Intervention: “If You Can Have A Conversation, You Can Have A Relationship, Lee Robinson, Bonnie Brinton, Martin Fujiki

Faculty Publications

Adolescents with impaired language comprehension and formulation skills often experience difficulty keeping up with the linguistic and social demands of peer interaction. This clinical exchange describes an individualized treatment program designed to increase the conversational skill of an adolescent male with language impairment. Treatment focused on increasing awareness of the listener’s needs and on balancing the exchange of conversational turns. Clinical performance, parent report, and client report were used to assess outcomes.

An Imaging System Correlating Lip Shapes With Tongue Contact Patterns For Speech Pathology Research, Christopher Dromey, Daniel Bates, Xiaoqian Xu, Sameer Antani, D J. Lee

Faculty Publications

In this research, an imaging system was built to work with a newly developed electronic device to help people produce sounds correctly. The system consists of two parts, the internal tongue contact pattern data collection and the external lip shape information analysis. The tongue position information was gathered using the palatometer, an innovative tongue contact pattern-tracking device invented by Dr. Samuel Fletcher. The lip shape information was collected by processing images taken from people articulating different sounds. We developed an efficient color image segmentation technique to extract lip contour points and form a closed curve for shape analysis. The geometry …

A Vision System Performing Lip Shape Analysis For Speech Pathology Research, Christopher Dromey, D J. Lee, Daniel Bates, Xiaoqian Xu

Faculty Publications

We have built a machine vision system to perform lip shape analysis and recognition and to generate 3.D lip models for speech pathology research. The system employs two color cameras that are synchronized to capture image video pairs simultaneously. A novel color segmentation technique that converts the RGB color components to linear color space has been developed to extract lip shape contours. Lip shape of the viseme, the smallest visibly distinguishable unit of speech, is used to identify its corresponding image frame in the recorded image sequences. It is also used to reconstruct the 3-D lip shape model as a …

Effects Of Concurrent Motor, Linguistic, Or Cognitive Tasks On Speech Motor Performance, Christopher Dromey, April Benson

Faculty Publications

This study examined the influence of 3 different types of concurrent tasks on speech motor performance. The goal was to uncover potential differences in speech movements relating to the nature of the secondary task. Twenty young adults repeated sentences either with or without simultaneous distractor activities. These distractions included a motor task (putting together washers, nuts, and bolts), a linguistic task (generating verbs from nouns), and a cognitive task(performing mental arithmetic). Lip movement data collected during the experimental conditions revealed decreases in displacement and velocity during the motor task. The linguistic and cognitive tasks were associated with increased spatiotemporal variability …

Spectral Measures And Perceptual Ratings Of Hypokinetic Dysarthria, Christopher Dromey

Faculty Publications

Ten individuals with Parkinson disease (PD) and hypokinetic dysarthria were compared with age-matched neurologically normal (NN) speakers on acoustic measures from speaking and vowel phonation tasks as well as on perceptual ratings of connected speech. Listeners identified differences between the groups when asked to judge the severity of vocal and articulatory impairment during reading. Several conventional acoustic measures failed to differentiate speakers with PD from NN speakers. However, measures of the shape (statistical moments) of the long term average spectrum (LTAS) revealed statistically significant differences between the groups across vowel phonation, reading and monologue tasks. The ease of computation of …