English-French bilingual children’s phonological awareness and vocabulary skills

This study examined the relationship between English-speaking children’s vocabulary skills in English and in French and their phonological awareness skills in both languages. Forty-four kindergarten-aged children attending French immersion programs were administered a receptive vocabulary test, an expressive vocabulary test and a phonological awareness test in English and French. Results showed that French phonological awareness was largely explained by English phonological awareness, consistent with previous findings that phonological awareness skills transfer across languages. However, there was a small unique contribution from French expressive vocabulary size to French phonological awareness. The importance of vocabulary skills to the development of phonological awareness is discussed.Cette étude porte sur la relation entre le vocabulaire anglais, le vocabulaire français et la conscience phonologique des enfants bilingues de langue maternelle anglaise. On a administré, en anglais et en français, à 44 enfants d’âge préscolaire inscrits en immersion française un test de vocabulaire réceptif, un test de vocabulaire expressif, ainsi qu’un test mesurant leur conscience phonologique. Les résultats indiquent que la conscience phonologique de ces élèves, en anglais et en français, s’explique largement par leur conscience phonologique en anglais, confirmant ainsi les résultats d’études antérieures qui avaient démontré la transférabilité de la conscience phonologique d’une langue à l’autre. Toutefois, on a observé que le vocabulaire expressif en français contribue de façon limitée mais significative à la conscience phonologique en français. Une discussion est menée sur l’importance du vocabulaire de l’enfant dans le développement de sa conscience phonologique.&nbsp

Auditory-Motor Learning during Speech Production in 9-11-Year-Old Children

BACKGROUND: Hearing ability is essential for normal speech development, however the precise mechanisms linking auditory input and the improvement of speaking ability remain poorly understood. Auditory feedback during speech production is believed to play a critical role by providing the nervous system with information about speech outcomes that is used to learn and subsequently fine-tune speech motor output. Surprisingly, few studies have directly investigated such auditory-motor learning in the speech production of typically developing children. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In the present study, we manipulated auditory feedback during speech production in a group of 9-11-year old children, as well as in adults. Following a period of speech practice under conditions of altered auditory feedback, compensatory changes in speech production and perception were examined. Consistent with prior studies, the adults exhibited compensatory changes in both their speech motor output and their perceptual representations of speech sound categories. The children exhibited compensatory changes in the motor domain, with a change in speech output that was similar in magnitude to that of the adults, however the children showed no reliable compensatory effect on their perceptual representations. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that 9-11-year-old children, whose speech motor and perceptual abilities are still not fully developed, are nonetheless capable of auditory-feedback-based sensorimotor adaptation, supporting a role for such learning processes in speech motor development. Auditory feedback may play a more limited role, however, in the fine-tuning of children's perceptual representations of speech sound categories

The factors contributing to teacher predictions of spelling ability, and the accuracy of their assessments

In this study, teachers of kindergarten and Grade 1 French-speaking students indicated the likelihood their students would develop later writing difficulties. Results showed that language measures, language background, the education levels of parents, and home literacy practices predicted whether children would be identified as at-risk. Moreover children’s oral language skills accounted for even more of the variance in teacher ratings than other variables. Spelling performance assessed 1-year later from a subset of children indicated that the teacher predictions were accurate. Thus, teachers appear to be an effective source for predicting children’s future literacy performance

Development of a tool to screen risk of literacy delays in French-speaking children: PHOPHLO

Literacy is crucial for success, both professionally and personally. Oral language skills are closely related to literacy development in children. When a child has weak oral language skills, they will have difficulty achieving reading and writing competencies within the expected time frame. In this paper, we present results from a longitudinal and cross-sectional study of the relationship between oral language skills in pre-literate children, and one aspect of their literacy skills in early elementary school—specifically, spelling. The study was conducted with French-speaking children and French-language learners from Quebec, a population that has been understudied in this area. We developed a predictive tool that will allow teachers and other professionals to assess oral language skills in young children and to predict those children at risk for literacy difficulties. Specifically, we screened children’s speech perception, speech production, phonological awareness, and morphology production abilities at entry to first grade and predicted spelling skills at the end of second grade. The screening tool that we developed proved to have a sensitivity of 71% and a specificity of 93% as a screen for poor spelling abilities.La littératie est un élément crucial du succès à la fois professionnel et personnel. Les habiletés de langage oral sont intimement liées au développement de la littératie chez les enfants. En effet, lorsqu’un enfant a de faibles habiletés de langage oral, il aura plus de difficulté à développer ses habiletés de lecture et d’écriture dans les délais prévus. Nous présentons les résultats d’une étude longitudinale et transversale qui explore les liens entre les habiletés de langage oral chez des enfants n’ayant pas appris à lire ou à écrire et leurs habiletés de littératie au premier cycle du primaire. Cette étude a été menée auprès d’enfants franco-québécois natifs et non natifs, une population peu étudiée dans ce domaine. Nous avons créé un outil prédictif qui permettra aux enseignants et autres professionnels d’évaluer les habiletés de langage oral des enfants et de prédire ceux qui sont à risque de présenter des difficultés de littératie. Plus spécifiquement, nous avons évalué les habiletés de perception et de production de la parole, de conscience phonologique et de production morphologique d’enfants débutant leur première année du primaire. Nous avons prédit leurs habiletés d’orthographe à la fin de leur deuxième année (fin du premier cycle du primaire). L’outil développé a démontré une sensibilité de 71% et une spécificité de 93% pour dépister les faibles habiletés d’orthographe

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

Developmental and cross-linguistic variation in the infant vowel space : the case of Canadian English and Canadian French.

This article describes the results of two experiments. Experiment 1 was a cross-sectional study designed to explore developmental and cross-linguistic variation in the vowel space of 10- to 18-month-old infants, exposed to either Canadian English or Canadian French. Acoustic parameters of the infant vowel space were described !specifically the mean and standard deviation of the first and second formant frequencies" and then used to derive the grave, acute, compact, and diffuse features of the vowel space across age. A decline in mean F1 with age for French-learning infants and a decline in mean F2 with age for English-learning infants was observed. A developmental expansion of the vowel space into the high-front and high-back regions was also evident. In experiment 2, the Variable Linear Articulatory Model was used to model the infant vowel space taking into consideration vocal tract size and morphology. Two simulations were performed, one with full range of movement for all articulatory paramenters, and the other for movement of jaw and lip parameters only. These simulated vowel spaces were used to aid in the interpretation of the developmental changes and cross-linguistic influences on vowel production in experiment 1

Children's perception of fricatives

Bibliography: p. 139-152

The effect of otitis media on the development of phonetic abilities during infancy

Bibliography: p. 120-123

English-French bilingual children’s phonological awareness and vocabulary skills

Abstract This study examined the relationship between English-speaking children’s vocabulary skills in English and in French and their phonological awareness skills in both languages. Forty-four kindergarten-aged children attending French immersion programs were administered a receptive vocabulary test, an expressive vocabulary test and a phonological awareness test in English and French. Results showed that French phonological awareness was largely explained by English phonological awareness, consistent with previous findings that phonological awareness skills transfer across languages. However, there was a small unique contribution from French expressive vocabulary size to French phonological awareness. The importance of vocabulary skills to the development of phonological awareness is discussed