A frequent acoustic sign of speech motor delay (SMD)

Recent studies report prevalence, phenotype, and persistence findings for a paediatric motor speech disorder in addition to childhood dysarthria and childhood apraxia of speech termed Speech Motor Delay (SMD). The aim of the present study was to determine if there is a frequent acoustic sign of SMD, with implications for theory, assessment, and treatment. We examined the frequency of 19 acoustic signs of SMD in audio recordings of continuous speech and word-imitation tasks in three groups of speakers with SMD: 50 children (mean age 5.1 years) with idiopathic Speech Delay (SD) from 6 USA cities; 87 children, adolescents, and adults with eight types of complex neurodevelopmental disorders; and 9 children (mean age 8.8 years) with persistent idiopathic SD from a population-based study of children in the South West of England. The 19 acoustic signs of imprecise or unstable speech, prosody, and voice were standardized on typical speakers of the appropriate dialect. The criterion for a frequent acoustic sign was that it occurred in at least 50% of participants with SMD in each of the three groups. Findings indicated that lengthened mid-vowels and diphthongs was the one sign that met criteria, occurring in 64.4% of the 146 participants with SMD, including 71% of the 87 participants with complex neurodevelopmental disorders. Findings are interpreted to support the potential of this acoustic sign, and possibly several others associated with temporal dimensions of speech sound development, to inform explication of the neuromotor substrates of SMD.</p

A Systematic Review of the Literature on Early Vocalizations and Babbling Patterns in Young Children

Children’s speech development begins in infancy. The pattern of this development has been explored in studies over a number of years using a range of research methodology and approaches to investigation. A systematic review of the existing literature was carried out to determine the collective contribution of this literature to our understanding of early vocalizations and babbling through the period 9 to 18 months. Eight bibliographic databases were searched as well as the Cochrane library. Thirteen studies were identified for inclusion, which were mostly longitudinal observational case series. The review identified progressive increases in the complexity and volume of infants’ early vocalizations through the period. It also found a broad order of phonological acquisition. Although the studies in this review demonstrated marked individual variation, the review provides indicative patterns of development which can be used as a basis to explore relationships with later speech development in future studies. </jats:p

Mapping the Literature on Parent-Child Language across Activity Contexts:A Scoping Review

Linguistic interactions between parents and their children are frequently studied to investigate how children acquire language. From observations, researchers have identified interaction strategies that foster children’s language development. In turn, interventions to support children’s early language skills employ styles of interaction derived from these observations. However, researchers have not often considered how the activity context selected forobservation may affect the language used, or whether these contexts reflect children’s diverse experiences.The aim of this scoping review was to explore the breadth of literature about language use across a range of activities. Included studies described linguistic outputs of parents and typically developing children (aged 1;0 to 5;11 years) and activity context(s). Searches were conducted in PsycInfo, Medline, CINAHL, ERIC-ProQuest and Google Scholar. From 16,718 records, 59 studies were retained. Studies were charted according to the population included, linguistic outputs recorded, activity contexts studied and the methodological design. To allow for comparison of results across activity contexts, five thematic categories were identified: play activities, book reading, naturalistic routines, media and methodological implications. Challenges for future research are discussed, including ways to ensure the ecological validity of findings by coupling naturalistic language recordings with data collected during diverse everyday activity contexts