MISPRONUNCIATION DETECTION AND DIAGNOSIS IN MANDARIN ACCENTED ENGLISH SPEECH

This work presents the development, implementation, and evaluation of a Mispronunciation Detection and Diagnosis (MDD) system, with application to pronunciation evaluation of Mandarin-accented English speech. A comprehensive detection and diagnosis of errors in the Electromagnetic Articulography corpus of Mandarin-Accented English (EMA-MAE) was performed by using the expert phonetic transcripts and an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system. Articulatory features derived from the parallel kinematic data available in the EMA-MAE corpus were used to identify the most significant articulatory error patterns seen in L2 speakers during common mispronunciations. Using both acoustic and articulatory information, an ASR based Mispronunciation Detection and Diagnosis (MDD) system was built and evaluated across different feature combinations and Deep Neural Network (DNN) architectures. The MDD system captured mispronunciation errors with a detection accuracy of 82.4%, a diagnostic accuracy of 75.8% and a false rejection rate of 17.2%. The results demonstrate the advantage of using articulatory features in revealing the significant contributors of mispronunciation as well as improving the performance of MDD systems

Using Mnemonic Strategies to Teach Letter-Name and Letter-Sound Correspondences

The critical role of acquiring alphabet letter names and sounds as a foundation to literacy is pursued successfully with a class of kindergarteners, using two mnemonic treatments, one using pictures and jingles, and the other using music with a kinesthetic element

Procesamiento fonológico en la escritura manual de palabras aisladas

In the present manuscript, we provide striking evidence about the involvement of phonology in a range of writing tasks (copy, spelling-to-dictation, associated-pairs) when adult writers produce known words. Interestingly, multiple phonological units seem to be functional during handwriting, as syllables and graphemes. Furthermore, we demonstrate that he frequency of a phoneme have an impact in the duration of its corresponding grapheme. Altogether, the evidence presented here also confirms the impact of central high-order (phonological) variables in the duration of a written response. This fact supports the idea that writing starts as soon as the initial segments of the response have been processed, and rules out the affirmation that a word does not begin to be produced until the whole word has been processed at the central (abstract) levels. Evidence obtained in these experiments strongly support the claim that phonology is systematically retrieved during the normal handwriting process, even when writing well-known words. Phonology is retrieved during handwriting, and it is used at a sublexical level to strengthen the orthographic (lexical) information kept in the orthographic working memory. Later on the process, the written response is produced syllable-by-syllable, indicating that the phonological loop plays a role in the response segmentation. In the case of low-frequency syllables, which lack of a holistic motor pattern, the motor programs for individual letters have to be retrieved. This process produces an increase of the cognitive load demanded by complex graphemes. More studies are necessary to establish how these effects vary when complex graphemes are embedded in high-frequency syllables. However, we have been able to confirm the involvement of at least two different units of phonological origin during handwriting production: syllables and graphemes. Multiple units seem to be used to program the writing movements, in line with Van Galen's (1991) proposal. Finally, this pattern of results fits a model of written production in which levels of processing are simultaneously active, but engaged with different segments of the response. When processing demands are increased at a certain level of processing, concurrent processes can be also affected. We propose a psycholinguistic model of handwriting production which integrates the evidence reported here and most of the previous literature

Augev Method and an Innovative Use of Vocal Spectroscopy in Evaluating and Monitoring the Rehabilitation Path of Subjects Showing Severe Communication Pathologies

A strongly connotative element of developmental disorders (DS) is the total or partial impairment of verbal communication and, more generally, of social interaction. The method of Vocal-verb self-management (Augev) is a systemic organicistic method able to intervene in problems regarding verbal, spoken and written language development successfully. This study intends to demonstrate that it is possible to objectify these progresses through a spectrographic examination of vocal signals, which detects voice phonetic-acoustic parameters. This survey allows an objective evaluation of how effective an educational-rehabilitation intervention is. This study was performed on a population of 40 subjects (34 males and 6 females) diagnosed with developmental disorders (DS), specifically with a diagnosis of the autism spectrum disorders according to the DSM-5. The 40 subjects were treated in “la Comunicazione” centers, whose headquarters are near Bari, Brindisi and Rome. The results demonstrate a statistical significance in a correlation among the observed variables: supervisory status, attention, general dynamic coordination, understanding and execution of orders, performing simple unshielded rhythmic beats, word rhythm, oral praxies, phono-articulatory praxies, pronunciation of vowels, execution of graphemes, visual perception, acoustic perception, proprioceptive sensitivity, selective attention, short-term memory, segmental coordination, performance of simple rhythmic beatings, word rhythm, voice setting, intonation of sounds within a fifth, vowel pronunciation, consonant pronunciation, graphematic decoding, syllabic decoding, pronunciation of caudate syllables, coding of final syllable consonant, lexical decoding, phoneme-grapheme conversion, homographic grapheme decoding, homogeneous grapheme decoding, graphic stroke

A Comparative study between conventional language therapy Versus conventional language therapy with constraint induced language therapy in the management of post ischemic stroke broca’s aphasia.

INTRODUCTION : Speech & language problems are common sequelae of stroke that significantly impact the daily lives of stroke survivors. Reduced speech & language skills have negative ramifications on the individual’s social, vocational & recreational activities, often leading to social isolation, loneliness. Given the importance of communication to the stroke survivor’s quality of life, it is essential that rehabilitation professional’s recognized & address the speech & language disorders associated with stroke. It is a motor aphasia (or) non-fluent aphasia. In this type of aphasia, speech output is highly reduced and is limited mainly to short utterances of less than 4 words. The vocabulary access is limited and the sound formation by the patients with Broca's aphasia is often laborious and clumsy. The patient may understand speech relatively well and also be able to read, but be limited in writing. Broca's aphasia is often named as a 'non fluent aphasia' due to the halting of the speech. AIM OF THE STUDY : To compare the effectiveness of conventional language therapy versus conventional language therapy with constraint induced language therapy in the management of post ischemic stroke Broca’s aphasia. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY : 1. To determine the effectiveness of conventional language therapy in the management of post ischemic stroke Broca’s aphasia. 2. To determine the effectiveness of constraint induced language therapy in the management of post ischemic stroke Broca’s aphasia. 3. To determine the effectiveness of conventional language therapy versus conventional language therapy with constraint induced language therapy in the management of post ischemic stroke Broca’s aphasia 4. To find out the effective treatment regarding language functional status in post ischemic stroke Broca’s aphsia. MATERIALS AND METHDOLOGY : MATERIALS – Couch, Chair, Pillow, Token, Picture cards, Western aphasia battery scoring sheet. METHODOLOGY : A total number of 30 patients having Ischemic Stroke Broca’s aphasia who met the inclusion criteria were recruited by convenient sampling method. After the informed consent obtained, they were partitioned into two groups as Group A and Group B, with 15 patients in each. Hence prior to the onset of treatment, pre-tests were conducted using Western Aphasia Battery and results were recorded for both groups. Study Design -Quasi Experimental Study Design. Study Setting -The study was conducted at out patient department in J.K.K. Munirajah Medical Research Foundation College of Physiotherapy, Komarapalayam and District Head Quarters Hospital, Erode under the supervision of the concerned authorities. Sampling Method - Convenient sampling method. Sample Size - Thirty patients with Ischemic Stroke Broca’s aphasia, who comes under the inclusion criteria, were taken for the study. Study Duration - The study was conducted for a course of 4 months (5 sittings per week). Inclusion Criteria: Age group – 40-60 years, Both sexes, Right-handed persons, Primary Language is Tamil, Adequate hearing and vision to participate in language therapy, Unilateral Left CVA involvement, Moderate To moderately severe aphasia, Non-fluent aphasia, Cognition > 11(MMSE). Exclusion Criteria: Degenerative or Metabolic illness. Severe depression or psychiatric disorders, Brainstem stroke, Recurrent stroke, History of other neurological impairment (e.g. dementia), Non-Tamil speaking. Deaf and dumb, Severe apraxia of speech. CONCLUSION : Based on statistical analysis, the results of this study showed that there was significant improvement in both groups. The results also showed that the subjects who participated in experimental Group B had shown good improvement on language functional status than the control Group A. Based on the results, this study concluded that both Conventional language therapy versus Conventional language therapy with constraint induced language therapy improve the language function of Ischemic Stroke Broca’s Aphasia. Meanwhile, the Conventional language therapy with constraint induced language therapy is more effective than the Conventional language therapy improving the language function in Ischemic Stroke Broca’s Aphasia

The effect of Project Read on the reading fluency and comprehension of third grade students with special needs

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect Project Read has on the reading fluency and comprehension of third grade students with special needs. This study implemented a two group, pretest-posttest design. The participants were six students with special needs from a third grade inclusion classroom who scored about two grade levels below grade three. A pretest, intervention mid-test, and intervention posttest were utilized to collect data. The independent variables were the use of the Project Read Story Form Literature Connection materials. The dependent variable was the measure of the participants reading fluency and comprehension using the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA). Overall, the study results showed Project Read to be an effective intervention in increasing students\u27 reading fluency and comprehension. Participants in this study made about a one year independent reading level gain. The mean scores from the pretest to the intervention posttest showed an increase in reading fluency and comprehension in both groups. These intervention strategies and methods have shown to increase test scores and increase students\u27 confidence to read. The results suggest that Project Read can be an effective instructional tool for improving the reading fluency and comprehension of students with special needs. This comprehensive, language arts program provides explicit instruction to benefit students with special needs in a small group setting with similar below grade reading levels

Language, perception and production in profoundly deaf children

Prelingually profoundly deaf children usually experience problems with language learning (Webster, 1986; Campbell, Burden & Wright, 1992). The acquisition of written language would be no problem for them if normal development of reading and writing was not dependent on spoken language (Pattison, 1986). However, such children cannot be viewed as a homogeneous group since some, the minority, do develop good linguistic skills. Group studies have identified several factors relating to language skills: hearing loss and level of loss, I.Q., intelligibility, lip-reading, use of phonology and memory capacity (Furth, 1966; Conrad, 1979; Trybus & Karchmer, 1977; Jensema, 1975; Baddeley, Papagno & Vallar, 1988; Baddeley & Wilson, 1988; Hanson, 1989; Lake, 1980; Daneman & Carpenter,1980). These various factors appear to be interrelated, with phonological awareness being implicated in most. So to understand behaviour, measures of all these factors must be obtained. The present study aimed to achieve this whilst investigating the prediction that performance success may be due to better use of phonological information. Because linguistic success for the deaf child is exceptional, a case study approach was taken to avoid obscuring subtle differences in performance. Subjects were screened to meet 6 research criteria: profound prelingual deafness, no other known handicap, English the first language in the home, at least average non-verbal IQ , reading age 7-9 years and inter-subject dissimilarities between chronological reading age discrepancies. Case histories were obtained from school records and home interviews. Six subjects with diverse linguistic skills were selected, four of which undertook all tests. Phonological awareness and development was assessed across several variables: immediate memory span, intelligibility, spelling, rhyme judgement, speech discrimination and production. There was considerable inter-subject performance difference. One boy's speech production was singled out for a more detailed analysis. Useful aided hearing and consistent contrastive speech appear to be implicated in other English language skills. It was concluded that for phonological awareness to develop, the deaf child must receive useful inputs from as many media as possible (e.g., vision, audition, articulation, sign and orthography). When input is biassed toward the more reliable modalities of audition and articulation, there is a greater possibility of a robust and useful phonology being derived and thus better access to the English language