Purpose: This study collected measures of auditory-perceptual and oral somatosensory acuity in typically developing children and adolescents aged 9–15 years. We aimed to establish reference data that can be used as a point of comparison for individuals with residual speech sound disorder (RSSD), especially for RSSD affecting American English rhotics. We examined concurrent validity between tasks and hypothesized that performance on at least some tasks would show a significant association with age, reflecting ongoing refinement of sensory function in later childhood. We also tested for an inverse relationship between performance on auditory and somatosensory tasks, which would support the hypothesis of a trade-off between sensory domains. Method: Ninety-eight children completed three auditory-perceptual tasks (identification and discrimination of stimuli from a “rake”–“wake” continuum and category goodness judgment for naturally produced words containing rhotics) and three oral somatosensory tasks (bite block with auditory masking, oral stereognosis, and articulatory awareness, which involved explicit judgments of relative tongue position for different speech sounds). Pairwise associations were examined between tasks within each domain and between task performance and age. Composite measures of auditory-perceptual and somatosensory functions were used to investigate the possibility of a sensory trade-off. Results: Statistically significant associations were observed between the identification and discrimination tasks and the bite block and articulatory awareness tasks. In addition, significant associations with age were found for the category goodness and bite block tasks. There was no statistically significant evidence of a trade-off between auditory-perceptual and somatosensory domains. Conclusions: This study provided a multidimensional characterization of speech-related sensory function in older children/adolescents. Complete materials to administer all experimental tasks have been shared, along with measures of central tendency and dispersion for scores in two subgroups of age. Ultimately, we hope to apply this information to make customized treatment recommendations for children with RSSD based on sensory profiles.
In 2012, North Carolina State University launched a campus-wide linguistic diversity program, “Educating the Educated,” with a goal of engaging the campus community about language as a key element of diversity and increasing general knowledge of language and dialect differences. The program has successfully grown over the past several years since its launch, in large part due to the leadership efforts of the program’s student ambassadors. Student ambassadors are involved in peer education on campus, seek out opportunities to engage the campus and local communities, and develop partnerships on campus with existing organizations to enhance diversity education efforts with the inclusion of language diversity. A majority of these student ambassadors are graduate students in the linguistics Masters program. In this paper, we discuss the importance of the student ambassadors to the success of the program in terms of their contributions and advancement of program objectives. We also highlight the importance of graduate students being engaged on their campus, drawing from higher education research literature on graduate student engagement and the critical role it plays in academic and professional development.
Purpose: This study aimed to identify predictors of response to treatment for residual speech sound disorder (RSSD) affecting English rhotics. Progress was tracked during an initial phase of traditional motor-based treatment and a longer phase of treatment incorporating ultrasound biofeedback. Based on previous literature, we focused on baseline stimulability and sensory acuity as predictors of interest. Method: Thirty-three individuals aged 9–15 years with residual distortions of /ɹ/ received a course of individual intervention comprising 1 week of intensive traditional treatment and 9 weeks of ultrasound biofeedback treatment. Stimulability for /ɹ/ was probed prior to treatment, after the traditional treatment phase, and after the end of all treatment. Accuracy of /ɹ/ production in each probe was assessed with an acoustic measure: normalized third formant (F3)–second formant (F2) distance. Model-based clustering analysis was applied to these acoustic measures to identify different average trajectories of progress over the course of treatment. The resulting clusters were compared with respect to acuity in auditory and somatosensory domains. Results: All but four individuals were judged to exhibit a clinically significant response to the combined course of treatment. Two major clusters were identified. The “low stimulability” cluster was characterized by very low accuracy at baseline, minimal response to traditional treatment, and strong response to ultrasound biofeedback. The “high stimulability” group was more accurate at baseline and made significant gains in both traditional and ultrasound biofeedback phases of treatment. The clusters did not differ with respect to sensory acuity. Conclusions: This research accords with clinical intuition in finding that individuals who are more stimulable at baseline are more likely to respond to traditional intervention, whereas less stimulable individuals may derive greater relative benefit from biofeedback. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.20422236
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