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Phonological Awareness (PA) in deep orthographies like English can be used to predict reading abilities in later grades. PA is a sensitive measure in identifying Arabic speaking children who struggle to read. The main objective of the present study was to compare two matched versions of a sound blending task to determine whether any of the two created versions (i.e., one with short vowels and the other without short vowels) of this task could yield a more accurate measure of PA in children speaking Jordanian Arabic. Data was collected from 20 randomly selected schools in Jordan. A randomly selected sample of 200 participants in grade 4 who were randomly divided into two groups (100 students each) and were tested on word blending, elision, word recognition, and oral reading fluency. Each group of participants was tested using a different version of the word blending task, while the other tasks used to test the two groups were the same. The major finding of the study revealed a significant difference between the two versions of the blending task in favor of the assumption that using a task without short vowels can produce inflated scores (i.e., the blending task without short vowels yielded higher scores); such scores demonstrated weak correlation with the reading measures. The implications of the current study support the presentation of blending tasks with all the constituent segments of the word including short vowels (i.e., presenting the word with consonants, long vowels, and short vowels), which can better contribute to gauging children's PA abilities.

Objectives: The aim of this research is to examine the developmental stages of acquiring stress in the speech of Ammani Arabic-speaking children (henceforth AASC). Methods: Elicited and spontaneous speech productions of 48 typically developing children were transcribed and coded with the primary stress. Words were also analyzed according to their metrical shapes. The children were divided into four age groups: (1; 0–1; 6), (1; 7–2; 0), (2; 1–2; 6), and (2; 7–3; 0). Data were collected through spontaneous speech samples and picture-naming tasks. Results: Acquisition of stress goes through the four developmental stages until they become adult-like at the age of 3. Children misplace stress in the first two age stages, using an iambic foot in forms having a trochic shape. Thus, they place stress on a syllable with a geminate irrespective of the weight of other syllables. The stress shift stopped when children reached 30 months. Results support the neutral-start hypothesis which shows that children have no bias for any stress type; instead they use both trochaic and iambic feet at the outset of speaking. Conclusion: It was shown that adult weak forms are more likely to be omitted in children's production, and stressed and final ones are often preserved. This conforms with the widely accepted Perceptual Salience.

Background: Even though the efficacy of melodic intonation therapy (MIT) with persons with aphasia (PWA) has been explored in different languages, the efficacy of MIT with Arabic-speaking PWA has never been explored. Aims: To explore the efficacy of MIT, adapted to Arabic, in promoting the expressive abilities of a 70-year-old Jordanian Arabic-speaking male subject with severe Broca’s aphasia 3 months post-onset. Methods: An 8-week MIT therapy programme with tapping (1.5 h daily, 6 days a week) was used in a multiple baseline design across two types of trained phrases (i.e. automatic and self-generated phrases). Outcome measures included accuracy of production of trained (at the end of each session) and untrained phrases (at the end of each week). Pre- and post-treatment measures used, were the bilingual aphasia test, the American Speech-Language Hearing Association Functional Assessment of Communicative Skills, the communicative effectiveness index and the American Speech and Hearing Association Quality of Communication Life Scale. Accuracy of production for the trained and untrained phrases was also measured 2 weeks and 4 weeks after the treatment programme was finished. Results: The patient, (MK), improved his expressive productions post-treatment in automatic and self-generated phrases. Automatic phrases exceeded the established 75% accuracy criterion, whereas the self-generated phrases reached criterion and remained constant at follow-up. Moreover, MK gradually started improving on the generalisation stimuli, once the treatment on the self-generated phrases started and maintained the gains 2 weeks and 4 weeks post-treatment. Conclusion: MIT appears to be a viable treatment option for Jordanian Arabic-speaking persons with Broca’s aphasia. However, more research is needed with larger groups of Jordanian Arabic-speaking persons with Broca’s aphasia to provide more support to the present findings. Moreover, future studies might focus on the efficacy of MIT with persons with Broca’s aphasia from different Arab countries and from countries where Arabic is part of the multicultural structure like South Africa and other countries on the African continent.