Constraints on infant speech acquisition : a cross-language perspective

textThis study explored the relative contributions of child-internal production factors and perceptual influences from the ambient language on early speech-+ acquisition. Research has suggested that both articulatory complexity and perceptual distinctiveness impact a language's phonetic inventory; however, the ways these two properties interact during speech acquisition is not well understood. Quichua, spoken in Highland Ecuador, differs from English in many phonological properties. Babbling and early words of seven Quichua-learning infants between 9 and 16 months at the onset were followed longitudinally for 6 months. They were compared to the babbling and early words of Englishlearning infants and to Quichua and English adult speech samples. Production factors predominated in the babbling and early words of the Quichua infants. The infants' productions in the two language environments were more similar than the Quichua infants' speech productions were to the Quichua adult language models. Infants from both language environments primarily produced coronal stops and nasals, lower left quadrant vowels, simple consonantvowel syllables, one-syllable utterances, as well as similar predicted intrasyllabic consonant-vowel co-occurrence and intersyllabic consonant-consonant and vowel-vowel variegation patterns. Evidence of ambient language influences was apparent in consonant and vowel inventories and utterance length in the older infants. Dorsals, fricatives, and affricates occurred more frequently, and labials and liquids occurred less frequently in Quichua than English-learning infants. Quichua infants also produced more low vowels in late babbling and more two- and three-or-more syllable words. These findings all mirror Quichua properties. In addition, the Quichua infants' lower level of word use and shorter babbling length appear to reflect cultural influences. These findings indicate that child-internal production factors, ambient language influences and cultural norms must all be considered in an attempt to understand early speech acquisition. Many of the production patterns observed in the infants' utterances also occurred in the adult ambient language, although not to the same extent as in the infants. Based on the parallel findings in infants and adults, it appears that production-based factors are a principle underlying factor in babbling and first words, and are so basic to the production mechanism that they are retained to a lesser extent in modern languages.Communication Sciences and Disorder

Investigating Metrical Context Effects on Anticipatory Coarticulation in Connected Speech Development

If rhythm acquisition is influenced by the development of articulatory timing, then metrical structure might be expected to condition this timing. This study tested this hypothesis by investigating anticipatory effects of an upcoming noun on the production of a preceding determiner, under the assumption that anticipatory coarticulation indexes chunking. Simple S-V-O sentences were elicited from 5-year-olds, 8-year-olds, and adults. The V was either monosyllabic packed or disyllabic patted. The O was a determiner phrase where nouns varied either in onset place-of-articulation (POA; tack vs. cat) or in their rhymes (tack vs. toot). Acoustic analyses of determiner schwa F1 and F2 showed no effect of verb on schwa coarticulation. Given other results, including an interaction between age group and POA, the findings suggest that the acquisition of articulatory timing is independent of metrical structure, even if this timing is related to speech rhythm acquisition

Ethics, Equity, and English-Language Learners: A Decision-Making Framework

This articles addresses challenges related to clinical decision-making in intervention with English-language learners and their families

Effects on L1 During Early Acquisition of L2: Speech Changes in Spanish at First English Contact

Spanish phonological development was examined in six sequential bilingual children at the point of contact with English and eight months later. We explored effects of the English vowel and consonant inventory on Spanish. Children showed a significant increase in consonant cluster accuracy and in vowel errors. These emerging sequential bilingual children showed effects of English on their first language, Spanish. Cross-linguistic transfer did not affect all properties of the phonology equally. Negative transfer may occur in specific areas where the second language is more complex, requiring reorganization of the existing system, as in the transition from the Spanish five-vowel to the English eleven-vowel system

Tutorial:Speech assessment for multilingual children who do not speak the same language(s) as the speech-language pathologist

Purpose: The aim of this tutorial is to support speech language pathologists (SLPs) undertaking assessments of multilingual children with suspected speech sound disorders, particularly children who speak languages that are not shared with their SLP. Method: The tutorial was written by the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech, which comprises 46 researchers (SLPs, linguists, phoneticians, and speech scientists) who have worked in 43 countries and used 27 languages in professional practice. Seventeen panel members met for a 1-day workshop to identify key points for inclusion in the tutorial, 26 panel members contributed to writing this tutorial, and 34 members contributed to revising this tutorial online (some members contributed tomore than 1 task). Results: This tutorial draws on international research evidence and professional expertise to provide a comprehensive overview of working with multilingual children with suspected speech sound disorders. This overview addresses referral, case history, assessment, analysis, diagnosis, and goal setting and the SLP’s cultural competence and preparation for working with interpreters and multicultural support workers and dealing with organizational and government barriers to and facilitators of culturally competent practice. Conclusion: The issues raised in this tutorial are applied in a hypothetical case study of an English-speaking SLP’s assessment of a multilingual Cantonese-and English-speaking 4-year-old boy. Resources are listed throughout the tutorial.Australian Research Council: FT0990588United States Department of Health & Human Services National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA NIH National Institute on Deafness & Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD

The Acquisition of Two Phonetic Cues to Word Boundaries

The study evaluated whether durational and allophonic cues to word boundaries are intrinsic to syllable production, and so acquired with syllable structure, or whether they are suprasyllabic, and so acquired in phrasal contexts. Twenty preschool children (aged 3 ; 6 and 4 ; 6) produced: (1) single words with simple and complex onsets (e.g. nail vs. snail ); and (2) two-word phrases with intervocalic consonant sequences and varying boundary locations (e.g. this nail vs. bitty snail ). Comparisons between child and adult control productions showed that the durational juncture cue was emergent in the four-year-olds\u27 productions of two-word phrases, but absent elsewhere. In contrast, the allophonic cue was evident even in the three-year-olds\u27 productions of single words. Perceptual judgments showed that age- and type-dependent acoustic differences translated into differences in listener behavior. The differential acquisition of the two juncture cues is discussed with reference to the acquisition of articulatory timing control

Spirantization amongst Early and Late Sequential Spanish-English Bilinguals

Within PSU Spanish courses students are expected to correct and enhance their pronunciation. In order to do so, students are taught to apply phonological based rules from standardized Spanish, regardless of students’ linguistic background. The purpose of this study is to explore one of the phonological rules taught, spirantization, and its occurrence within U.S. early sequential Spanish-English (ESSE) bilingual and late sequential (LSSE) bilingual speech. ESSE bilinguals are participants who were raised as Spanish and English native speakers in the U.S.; whereas LSSE bilinguals are participants who were raised in a Spanish speaking country but learned English in the U.S. in their adulthood. The specific question of this study is whether or not ESSE bilinguals produce spirantization in a different manner compared to LSSE bilinguals? Both groups of participants read sentences out loud that were audio recorded and analyzed through spectrograms for the production patterns of spirantization. The hypothesis is that there will be a difference between the groups in spirantization patterns, with LSSE bilinguals producing more spirantization than ESSE bilinguals. If a difference in spirant use is found between dialects, recommendations for future instruction should be to demonstrate how bilingualism can influence pronunciations within Spanish dialects

Contingencies Governing the Production of Fricatives, Affricates, and Liquids in Babbling

Studies of early-developing consonants (stops, nasals, and glides) in babbling have shown that most of the variance in consonants and their associated vowels, both within and between syllables, is due to a frame produced by mandibular oscillation, with very little active contribution from intrasyllabic or intersyllabic tongue movements. In a study of four babbling infants, the prediction that this apparently basic frame dominance would also apply to late-developing consonants (fricatives, affricates, and liquids) was tested. With minor exceptions, confirming evidence for both the predicted intrasyllabic and intersyllabic patterns was obtained. Results provide further evidence for the frame dominance conception, but suggest that the early rarity of late-developing consonants may be primarily a result of intrasegmental production difficulty

Measurement Properties of Mean Length of Utterance in School-Age Children

Purpose: Mean length of utterance (MLU) is one of the most widely reported measures of syntactic development in the developmental literature, but its responsiveness in young school-age children\u27s language has been questioned, and it has been shown to correlate with nonsyntactic measures. This study tested the extent to which MLU shows measurement properties of responsiveness and construct validity when applied to language elicited from elementary school children. Method: Thirty-two typically developing children in two age groups (5 and 8 years) provided four short language samples each. Language samples were elicited in a question–answer context and a narrative context. MLU was calculated with both morpheme and word counts. Other established measures of syntactic complexity (clausal density [CD], developmental level [D-Level], mean length of clause [MLC]) and lexical diversity (lexical density, moving-average type–token ratio, number of different words) were also calculated. Results: Linear mixed-effects analyses revealed that MLU varied systematically with discourse context and children\u27s age group. The syntactic measures, CD and MLC, were found to vary systematically with MLU. None of the lexical diversity measures varied systematically with MLU. Conclusion: Results suggest that MLU is a responsive and valid measure of children\u27s syntactic development across age and discourse context during the early school-age years