Phonetic transcription of spontaneous children's speech with the aid of software : a systematic review

O objetivo do estudo foi identificar, sintetizar e classificar os softwares atualmente disponíveis que podem auxiliar na tarefa de transcrição fonética da fala espontânea de pré-escolares, para avaliar o desenvolvimento da linguagem infantil. Foi realizada uma revisão sistemática de artigos publicados, no período de 10 anos (de junho de 2010 a junho de 2020), sem restrições quanto à localização e idioma, utilizando as bases de dados Cochrane, Pubmed e Web of Science. Os termos utilizados nas estratégias de busca foram "fonológico", "fonético", "transcrição", "computador" e "software". Os estudos foram selecionados por dois revisores independentes usando estratégias de busca pré-definidas. Na busca inicial, após a exclusão de duplicatas, foram encontrados 534 artigos. Com a leitura de seus títulos e resumos, restaram 46 artigos relacionados ao tema, que foram lidos na íntegra. Após a leitura, 24 artigos foram incluídos no estudo. Os resultados revelaram um total de sete softwares disponíveis para auxiliar a transcrição fonética da fala espontânea de pré-escolares utilizados para diferentes análises: LENA e Timestamper (para balbucios e vocalizações pré-linguísticas), ELAN (para comunicação gestual, elementos extralinguísticos e contexto situacional), Phon (para análises fonéticas e fonológicas), CLAN e SALT (para aspectos morfossintáticos, gramaticais e semânticos) e Praat (para medidas acústicas). Por meio desta revisão sistemática, pode-se concluir que há vantagens no uso de software para transcrição fonética, armazenamento de amostras e análise de linguagem infantil, principalmente no que diz respeito à padronização e confiabilidade para amostras de fala espontânea. A transcrição fonética ainda depende de um transcritor humano. As ferramentas encontradas nos softwares fornecem suporte para facilitar o uso dos símbolos fonéticos, segmentação e pareamento de áudio para escrita e análises de dados de fala.The aim of the study was to identify, synthesize and classify the software currently available that can help in the task of phonetic transcription of the spontaneous speech of pre-school children to evaluate the development of children's language. A systematic review was performed for articles published, for the 10-year period (June 2010 to June 2020), without restrictions as to location and language, using the Cochrane, Pubmed and Web of Science databases. The terms used in the search strategies were "phonological", "phonetic", "transcription", "computer" and "software". The studies were selected by two independent reviewers using pre-defined search strategies. In the initial search, after the exclusion of duplicates, 534 articles were found. By reading their titles and abstracts, 46 articles related to the theme were left, which were then read in full. After reading, 24 articles were included in the study. The results revealed a total of seven software available for the phonetic transcription of spontaneous speech from preschoolers used for different analyses: LENA and Timestamper (for babbling and pre-linguistic vocalizations), ELAN (for gestural communication, extralinguistic elements and thesituational context), Phon (for phonetic and phonological analyses), CLAN and SALT (for morphosyntactic, grammatical and semantic aspects) and Praat (for acoustic measurements). Through this systematic review, it can be concluded that there are advantages to using software for phonetic transcription, sample storage, and child language analysis, especially concerning standardization and reliability for spontaneous speech samples. Phonetic transcription still relies on the ability and subjectivity of a human transcriber. The tools found in the software provide support to facilitate using phonetic symbols, audio segmentation and pairing to writing, and analysis of speech data

Clinical assessment of Persian-speaking children with language impairment in Iran :exploring the potential of language sample measures

PhD ThesisAccess to evidence-based assessment for diagnosing children with primary language impairment (PLI) in Iran is limited. This study aimed to explore diagnostic criteria employed by Iranian speech therapists for defining PLI and examine the diagnostic potential of language sample measures (LSMs) for Persian-speaking children. Thirty nine speech and language therapists (SLTs) contributed in a qualitative-quantitative study to explore the criteria currently used by Iranian SLTs to assess and diagnose Persian-speaking children with PLI. Personally-defined diagnostic procedures, based on the results of the questionnaires and focus groups were summarised to obtain a general picture of decision-making methods in identifying Iranian children with PLI. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) was used as an organising framework for establishing a consensus as to what constitutes a language impairment, since no commonly accepted reference standard currently exists in Iranian clinical practice. The assessment potential of LSMs in Persian was examined using the framework of diagnostic research and included a pre-accuracy study followed by phase I and II studies. Twenty seven pre-school children with typically-developing language (TDL) and 24 age-matched children with PLI, aged 42 to 54 months, were recruited. Language samples were recorded as each mother played with her child. None of correlations between age and the LSMs were statistically significant in either group of children (pre-accuracy phase). However, a majority of the LSMs could differentiate children at the group level (phase I). Five measures: Grammaticality/Ungrammaticality, Ungrammatical Utterances, MLUw-excluding one-word utterances, and Semantic Errors, provided good diagnostic accuracy when examined at the level of the individual child (phase II). An ICF-based reference standard for defining PLI in Iranian Pre-school children has been developed to enhance the consensus among Iranian SLTs. It was applied to recruit the children to the DA study, resulting in five LSMs which are clinically able to differentiate between children with and without PLI

Endogenous single-strand DNA breaks at RNA polymerase II promoters in <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i>

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