Tongue-palate contact for nasal versus oral stops in speakers with repaired cleft palate

Most previous studies of speech disorders associated with cleft palate have reported a higher incidence of errors for oral stops, fricatives and affricates compared to nasal stops. However, the results of a recent ultrasound study have raised the possibility that errors affecting nasal consonants might not be as rare as originally thought. A review of the electropalatography (EPG) literature on cleft palate speech has also shown that atypical tongue-palate contact patterns can occur during nasal consonants and that nasal and oral stops are often produced with similar atypical lingual gestures. Therefore, this study investigated the production of nasal stops (/n/and/ŋ/) and the homorganic oral stops (/t/,/d/and/k/,/ɡ/respectively) in eight children with repaired cleft palate using perceptual judgements and evaluation of tongue-palate contact patterns. Results of the perceptual judgements support the findings in the literature that there was a higher per cent phoneme correct for the alveolar nasal (about 90%) than for the oral stops (60–70%). However, there was a low per cent phoneme correct for the velar nasal (about 50%) and the per cent correct as determined by the EPG data was lower than those based on perceptual judgements. Two children showed similar atypical articulatory gestures for the oral and nasal alveolar stops. We discuss the possibility that the nasal errors may be of phonemic as opposed to phonetic origin. The results underscore the importance of considering the phonological dimension of production when assessing the speech of children in this clinical group

An exploration of speech and language pathology student and facilitator perspectives on problem-based learning online.

This mixed-methods study explored the perspectives of second and third-year Speech Language Pathology (SLP) students and facilitators on Problem-Based Learning (PBL) online. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, PBL was delivered online for the academic year 2020-2021 via a virtual learning environment. Forty-seven students and five facilitators completed an online survey designed to evaluate the quality of individual and collaborative learning in the PBL online context. All participants had experience of pre-COVID-19 face-to-face PBL. Thematic analysis and descriptive statistics were used to analyse qualitative and quantitative data, respectively. Demonstrated a preference from both students and facilitators to maintain PBL in a face-to-face format. Aspects of functionality offered by the virtual platform assisted in the PBL process, however technical and environmental barriers impeded virtual delivery. Responses suggest that the development of rapport and interactivity levels online are not equivalent to face-to-face PBL, and these factors were perceived by participants to negatively influence the learning process. Perspectives on the role of the facilitator online convey divergent views between second and third years which reflected a change in facilitator style to support more independent learning in line with students' progression through the course. Our findings demonstrate that students and facilitators are open to future implementation of a blended model of PBL. Participants reported benefits such as reduction in indirect education costs and acquisition of a digital skillset. However, our study indicates a preference for enhanced social presence afforded by face-to-face PBL

The latest development of the DELAD project for sharing corpora of speech disorders

Corpora of speech of individuals with communication disorders (CSD) are invaluable resources for education and research, but they are costly and hard to build and difficult to share for various reasons. DELAD, which means 'shared' in Swedish, is a project initiated by Professors Nicole Muller and Martin Ball in 2015 that aims to address this issue by establishing a platform for researchers to share datasets of speech disorders with interested audiences. To date four workshops have been held, where selected participants, covering various expertise including researchers in clinical phonetics and linguistics, speech and language therapy, infrastructure specialists, and ethics and legal specialists, participated to discuss relevant issues in setting up such an archive. Positive and steady progress has been made since 2015, including refurbishing the DELAD website (http://delad.net/) with information and application forms for researchers to join and share their datasets and linking with the CLARIN K-Centre for Atypical Communication Expertise (https://ace.ruhosting.nl/) where CSD can be hosted and accessed through the CLARIN B-Centres, The Language Archive (https://tla.mpi.nl/tools/tla-tools/) and TalkBank (https://talkbank.org/). The latest workshop, which was funded by CLARIN (Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure) was held as an online event in January 2021 on topics including Data Protection Impact Assessments, reviewing changes in ethics perspectives in academia on sharing CSD, and voice conversion as a mean to pseudonomise speech. This paper reports the latest progress of DELAD and discusses the directions for further advance of the initiative, with information on how researchers can contribute to the repository.Peer reviewe

Climate, human behaviour or environment: individual-based modelling of Campylobacter seasonality and strategies to reduce disease burden

Acknowledgements: We thank colleagues within the Modelling, Evidence and Policy Research Group for useful feedback on this manuscript. Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Availability of data and materials: The R code used in this research is available at https://gitlab.com/rasanderson/campylobacter-microsimulation; it is platform independent, R version 3.3.0 and above. Funding: This research was funded by Medical Research Council Grant, Natural Environment Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, and the Food Standards Agency through the Environmental and Social Ecology of Human Infectious Diseases Initiative (Sources, seasonality, transmission and control: Campylobacter and human behaviour in a changing environment (ENIGMA); Grant Reference G1100799-1). PRH, SJO’B, and IRL are funded in part by the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Gastrointestinal Infection, at the University of Liverpool. PRH and IRL are also funded in part by the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Emergency Preparedness and Response, at King’s College London. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, the Department of Health or Public Health England.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Towards a phonetic and phonological typology of post-velar articulation

This dissertation develops a typology of post-velar articulation from the point of view of available inventory, phonetic and phonological studies. The database on which such typologies can draw is expanded by the examination of data from the Interior Salish languages of the Pacific Northwest. The post-velar inventory of Interior Salish is examined acoustically in order to place it within the phonetic typology of post-velars as understood from work on Semitic and Caucasian. Pharyngeals from six Interior Salish languages are examined to determine the range of variation. The basic finding of this acoustic work is that the Interior Salish post-velars are commensurate with what is known about post-velars based on Semitic data and articulatory modelling. Interior Salish phonological data support the extension of articulator-based feature geometry to a fourth node, here termed Tongue Root. It is shown that the fourth node is required to class Interior Salish faucals and accommodate their participation in harmony processes. Furthermore, constraints on the phonology of the fourth node in Interior Salish suggest that we are dealing with an Advanced Tongue Root phenomenon such as found in some African vowel harmonies. This is an encouraging result in the sense that it confirms the existence of Tongue Root consonants and does not confine the fourth node to vowels. The analysis of Interior Salish laryngeals without the fourth node that characterizes their Semitic counterparts corroborates our understanding of laryngeals as lacking Place specifications in the default case. Furthermore, it is argued that the descriptivist and Dependency Phonology view of /2, h/ as minimal stop and fricative is phonologically appropriate. Evidence from epenthesis, laryngeal transparency and debuccalization support the analysis of ii, h/ as (+consonantal, -sonorant, +/-continuant]. Debuccalization and epenthesis processes also suggest that h/ do not necessarily bear Laryngeal Node features. It is argued that unless phonemic phonation features are present in an inventory, there is no need for /2, h/ to bear [constricted glottis, spread glottis]. It is noted that the phonology of post-velars in Interior Salish contrasts with their patterning in Semitic (McCarthy 1991) and Nisgha (Shaw 1991b), specifically with respect to the representation of /2, h/. The presence of a fourth node in Interior Salish does not require that laryngeals be dependents of it. The same finding is reported by McCarthy (1991) for Semitic. Given that there is no acoustic evidence at present to suggest that we are dealing with distinct phonetic entities, it appears that there presentation of laryngeals in languages with a fourth node must be stipulated.Arts, Faculty ofLinguistics, Department ofGraduat

Dissociation between speech modalities in a case of altered accent with unknown origin

We present a case of sudden onset, acquired altered accent in the speech of NL, a 48-year-old, left-handed female. NL’s typical Standard Southern British English accent was preserved in singing and reading, but altered in recitation, repetition and spontaneous speech. Neuropsychological investigation, impressionistic and acoustic analysis of accented and unaccented speech are documented. The altered accent displays a slower speech rate and longer duration of consonants and vowels. There is evidence for a shift towards syllable-timed rhythm. NL’s altered accent displays atypical coordination between voicing and supra-laryngeal articulation, reduced mean and range of F0, and minor differences in vowel space. These features are broadly consistent with other documented cases of Foreign Accent Syndrome, regardless of aetiology. However, NL’s profile of preserved and impaired speech does not fit any pattern typically associated with organic neurological disorder. Moreover, left-handed preference may contribute to differences between singing and reading, versus recitation, repetition and spontaneous speech

The DELAD initiative for sharing language resources on speech disorders

A correction note to the article: DOI: 10.1007/s10579-023-09701-z.Sharing research data between researchers is becoming a requirement for open science in the field of clinical phonetics and speech and language pathology. An initiative entitled DELAD was started in 2015 to provide researchers a platform to discuss ongoing technical, legal and ethics issues related to sharing recordings of speech disorders, and to assist them in archiving their data for sharing with colleagues in the field. The ultimate goal of data sharing is to enhance research and teaching in the area of speech disorders. This paper first presents DELAD and its history and previous accomplishments. Then the recent work achieved by the DELAD steering group in providing information or recommendations in three areas are discussed: (1) speech annotation and automatic annotation mining, (2) consent and data storage, and (3) a role-play activity for learning data protection assessment. DELAD is an active community and researchers who share similar interests are welcome to join the (ad)venture.Peer reviewe