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Although there is substantial rationale for a motor component in the speech of persons with Down syndrome (DS), there presently are no published estimates of the prevalence of subtypes of motor speech disorders in DS. The goal of this research is to provide initial estimates of the prevalence of types of speech disorders and motor speech disorders in adolescents with DS. Conversational speech samples from a convenience sample of 45 adolescents with DS, ages 10 to 20 years old, were analysed using perceptual and acoustic methods and measures in the Speech Disorders Classification System (SDCS). The SDCS cross-classified participants into five mutually exclusive speech classifications and five mutually exclusive motor speech classifications. For participants meeting criteria for Childhood Dysarthria or for Childhood Dysarthria concurrent with Childhood Apraxia of Speech, the SDCS provided information on participants' percentile status on five subtypes of dysarthria. A total of 97.8% of participants met SDCS criteria for Speech Disorders and 97.8% met criteria for Motor Speech Disorders, including Childhood Dysarthria (37.8%), Speech Motor Delay (26.7%), Childhood Dysarthria and Childhood Apraxia of Speech (22.2%), and Childhood Apraxia of Speech (11.1%). Ataxia was the most prevalent dysarthria subtype. Nearly all participants with DS in the present sample had some type of speech and motor speech disorder, with implications for theory, assessment, prediction, and treatment. Specific to treatment, the present findings are interpreted as support for motor speech disorders as a primary explanatory construct to guide the selection and sequencing of treatment targets for persons with DS. Abbreviations: CAS: Childhood Apraxia of Speech; CD: Childhood Dysarthria; DS: Down syndrome; NSA: Normal(ized) Speech Acquisition; PSD: Persistent Speech Delay; PSE: Persistent Speech Errors; SD: Speech Delay; SDCS: Speech Disorders Classification System; SE: Speech Errors; SMD: Speech Motor Delay.

The goal of this research was to assess the support for motor speech disorders as explanatory constructs to guide research and treatment of reduced intelligibility in persons with Down syndrome (DS). Participants were the 45 adolescents with DS in the prior paper who were classified into five mutually-exclusive motor speech classifications using the Speech Disorders Classification System. An ordinal index classified participants' percentage of intelligible words in conversation as High (≥ 85%), Moderate (80% - 84.9%), or Low (< 80%). Statistical analyses tested for significant differences in intelligibility status associated with demographic, intelligence, and language variables, and intelligibility status associated with motor speech classifications and speech, prosody, and voice variables. For the 10 participants who met criteria for concurrent Childhood Dysarthria and Childhood Apraxia of Speech at assessment, 80% had reduced (Moderate or Low) intelligibility and 20% had High intelligibility (significant effect size: 0.644). Proportionally more of the 32 participants who met criteria for either dysarthria or apraxia had reduced intelligibility (significant effect size: 0.318). Low intelligibility was significantly associated with across-the-board reductions in phonemic and phonetic accuracy and with inappropriate prosody and voice. Findings are interpreted as support for motor speech disorders in adolescents with DS as explanatory constructs for their reduced intelligibility. Pending cross-validation of findings in diverse samples of persons with DS, studies are needed to assess the efficacy of motor speech classification status to guide selection of treatment methods and intelligibility targets. Abbreviations: CAS: Childhood Apraxia of Speech; CD: Childhood Dysarthria; DS: Down syndrome; II: Intelligibility Index; No MSD: No Motor Speech Disorder; OII: Ordinal Intelligibility Index; PSD: Persistent Speech Delay; SDCS: Speech Disorders Classification System; SMD: Speech Motor Delay.

Purpose: Previous articles in this supplement described rationale for and development of the pause marker (PM), a diagnostic marker of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), and studies supporting its validity and reliability. The present article assesses the theoretical coherence of the PM with speech processing deficits in CAS. Method: PM and other scores were obtained for 264 participants in 6 groups: CAS in idiopathic, neurogenetic, and complex neurodevelopmental disorders; adult-onset apraxia of speech (AAS) consequent to stroke and primary progressive apraxia of speech; and idiopathic speech delay. Results: Participants with CAS and AAS had significantly lower scores than typically speaking reference participants and speech delay controls on measures posited to assess representational and transcoding processes. Representational deficits differed between CAS and AAS groups, with support for both underspecified linguistic representations and memory/access deficits in CAS, but for only the latter in AAS. CAS-AAS similarities in the age-sex standardized percentages of occurrence of the most frequent type of inappropriate pauses ("abrupt") and significant differences in the standardized occurrence of appropriate pauses were consistent with speech processing findings. Conclusions: Results support the hypotheses of core representational and transcoding speech processing deficits in CAS and theoretical coherence of the PM's pause-speech elements with these deficits.

Purpose: The goal of this article (PM I) is to describe the rationale for and development of the Pause Marker (PM), a single-sign diagnostic marker proposed to discriminate early or persistent childhood apraxia of speech from speech delay. Method: The authors describe and prioritize 7 criteria with which to evaluate the research and clinical utility of a diagnostic marker for childhood apraxia of speech, including evaluation of the present proposal. An overview is given of the Speech Disorders Classification System, including extensions completed in the same approximately 3-year period in which the PM was developed. Results: The finalized Speech Disorders Classification System includes a nosology and cross-classification procedures for childhood and persistent speech disorders and motor speech disorders (Shriberg, Strand, & Mabie, 2017). A PM is developed that provides procedural and scoring information, and citations to papers and technical reports that include audio exemplars of the PM and reference data used to standardize PM scores are provided. Conclusions: The PM described here is an acoustic-aided perceptual sign that quantifies one aspect of speech precision in the linguistic domain of phrasing. This diagnostic marker can be used to discriminate early or persistent childhood apraxia of speech from speech delay.

Purpose: The purpose of this 2nd article in this supplement is to report validity support findings for the Pause Marker (PM), a proposed single-sign diagnostic marker of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Method: PM scores and additional perceptual and acoustic measures were obtained from 296 participants in cohorts with idiopathic and neurogenetic CAS, adult-onset apraxia of speech and primary progressive apraxia of speech, and idiopathic speech delay. Results: Adjusted for questionable specificity disagreements with a pediatric Mayo Clinic diagnostic standard, the estimated sensitivity and specificity, respectively, of the PM were 86.8% and 100% for the CAS cohort, yielding positive and negative likelihood ratios of 56.45 (95% confidence interval [CI]: [1.15, 2763.31]) and 0.13 (95% CI [0.06, 0.30]). Specificity of the PM for 4 cohorts totaling 205 participants with speech delay was 98.5%. Conclusion: These findings are interpreted as providing support for the PM as a near-conclusive diagnostic marker of CAS.

Purpose: Three previous articles provided rationale, methods, and several forms of validity support for a diagnostic marker of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), termed the pause marker (PM). Goals of the present article were to assess the validity and stability of the PM Index (PMI) to scale CAS severity. Method: PM scores and speech, prosody, and voice precision-stability data were obtained for participants with CAS in idiopathic, neurogenetic, and complex neurodevelopmental disorders; adult-onset apraxia of speech consequent to stroke and primary progressive apraxia; and idiopathic speech delay. Three studies were completed including criterion and concurrent validity studies of the PMI and a temporal stability study of the PMI using retrospective case studies. Results: PM scores were significantly correlated with other signs of CAS precision and stability. The best fit of the distribution of PM scores to index CAS severity was obtained by dividing scores into 4 ordinal severity classifications: mild, mild-moderate, moderate-severe, and severe. Severity findings for the 4 classifications and retrospective longitudinal findings from 8 participants with CAS supported the validity and stability of the PMI. Conclusion: Findings support research and clinical use of the PMI to scale the severity of CAS.

A central question in Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is whether the core phenotype is limited to transcoding (planning/programming) deficits or if speakers with CAS also have deficits in auditory-perceptual "encoding" (representational) and/or "memory" (storage and retrieval of representations) processes. We addressed this and other questions using responses to the Syllable Repetition Task (SRT) [Shriberg, L. D., Lohmeier, H. L., Campbell, T. F., Dollaghan, C. A., Green, J. R., & Moore, C. A. (2009). A nonword repetition task for speakers with misarticulations: The syllable repetition task (SRT). "Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research", 52, 1189-1212]. The SRT was administered to 369 individuals in four groups: (a) typical speech-language (119), (b) speech delay-typical language (140), (c) speech delay-language impairment (70), and (d) idiopathic or neurogenetic CAS (40). CAS participants had significantly lower SRT competence, encoding, memory, and transcoding scores than controls. They were 8.3 times more likely than controls to have SRT transcoding scores below 80%. We conclude that speakers with CAS have speech processing deficits in encoding, memory, and transcoding. The SRT currently has moderate diagnostic accuracy to identify transcoding deficits, the signature feature of CAS. (Contains 3 figures and 9 tables.)

In a sample of 46 children aged 4-7 years with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and intelligible speech, there was no statistical support for the hypothesis of concomitant Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). Perceptual and acoustic measures of participants' speech, prosody, and voice were compared with data from 40 typically-developing children, 13 preschool children with Speech Delay, and 15 participants aged 5-49 years with CAS in neurogenetic disorders. Speech Delay and Speech Errors, respectively, were modestly and substantially more prevalent in participants with ASD than reported population estimates. Double dissociations in speech, prosody, and voice impairments in ASD were interpreted as consistent with a speech attunement framework, rather than with the motor speech impairments that define CAS.

Purpose: In this article, the authors address the hypothesis that the severe and persistent speech disorder reported in persons with galactosemia meets contemporary diagnostic criteria for Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). A positive finding for CAS in this rare metabolic disorder has the potential to impact treatment of persons with galactosemia and inform explanatory perspectives on CAS in neurological, neurodevelopmental, and idiopathic contexts. Method: Thirty-three youth with galactosemia and significant prior or persistent speech sound disorder were assessed in their homes in 17 states. Participants completed a protocol yielding information on their cognitive, structural, sensorimotor, language, speech, prosody, and voice status and function. Results: Eight of the 33 participants (24%) met contemporary diagnostic criteria for CAS. Two participants, 1 of whom was among the 8 with CAS, met criteria for ataxic or hyperkinetic dysarthria. Groupwise findings for the remaining 24 participants are consistent with a classification category termed "Motor Speech Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified" (Shriberg, Fourakis et al., 2010a). Conclusion: The authors estimate the prevalence of CAS in galactosemia at 18 per hundred--180 times the estimated risk for idiopathic CAS. Findings support the need to study risk factors for the high occurrence of motor speech disorders in galactosemia despite early compliant dietary management.

This report describes three extensions to a classification system for paediatric speech sound disorders termed the Speech Disorders Classification System (SDCS). Part I describes a classification extension to the SDCS to differentiate motor speech disorders from speech delay and to differentiate among three sub-types of motor speech disorders. Part II describes the Madison Speech Assessment Protocol (MSAP), an [image omitted] 2-hour battery of 25 measures that includes 15 speech tests and tasks. Part III describes the Competence, Precision, and Stability Analytics (CPSA) framework, a current set of [image omitted] 90 perceptual- and acoustic-based indices of speech, prosody, and voice used to quantify and classify sub-types of Speech Sound Disorders (SSD). A companion paper provides reliability estimates for the perceptual and acoustic data reduction methods used in the SDCS. The agreement estimates in the companion paper support the reliability of SDCS methods and illustrate the complementary roles of perceptual and acoustic methods in diagnostic analyses of SSD of unknown origin. Examples of research using the extensions to the SDCS described in the present report include diagnostic findings for a sample of youth with motor speech disorders associated with galactosemia, and a test of the hypothesis of apraxia of speech in a group of children with autism spectrum disorders. All SDCS methods and reference databases running in the PEPPER (Programs to Examine Phonetic and Phonologic Evaluation Records) environment will be disseminated without cost when complete. (Contains 6 tables and 3 figures.)

A companion paper describes three extensions to a classification system for paediatric speech sound disorders termed the Speech Disorders Classification System (SDCS). The SDCS uses perceptual and acoustic data reduction methods to obtain information on a speaker's speech, prosody, and voice. The present paper provides reliability estimates for the two perceptual methods (narrow phonetic transcription; prosody-voice coding) and the acoustic analysis methods the SDCS uses to describe and classify a speaker's speech competence, precision, and stability. Speech samples from 10 speakers, five with significant motor speech disorder and five with typical speech, were re-measured to estimate intra-judge and inter-judge agreement for the perceptual and acoustic methods. Each of the speakers completed five speech tasks (total = 50 datasets), ranging in articulatory difficulty for the speakers, with consequences for the difficulty level of data reduction. Point-to-point percentage of agreement findings for the two perceptual methods were as high or higher than reported in literature reviews and from previous studies conducted within the laboratory. Percentage of agreement findings for the acoustics tasks of segmenting phonemes, editing fundamental frequency tracks, and estimating formants ranged from values in the mid 70% to 100%, with most estimates in the mid 80% to mid 90% range. Findings are interpreted as support for the perceptual and acoustic methods used in the SDCS to describe and classify speakers with speech sound disorders. (Contains 5 tables and 5 figures.)

Purpose: The aims of this study were (a) to locate the breakpoints of a balanced translocation (7;13) within a mother (B) and daughter (T); (b) to describe the language and cognitive skills of B and T; and (c) to compare this profile with affected family members of the KE family who have a mutation within "FOXP2." Method: The breakpoint locations for T and B were identified by use of fluorescent in situ hybridization analysis followed by DNA sequencing using long-range polymer chain reaction amplification methods. The cognitive and language characteristics were obtained via the use of standardized tests of intelligence, receptive and expressive vocabulary and sentence use, and a spontaneous language sample. Results: The translocation breakpoints in T and B were found in "FOXP2" on chromosome 7 and in "RFC3" on chromosome 13. T and B's pattern of relative strengths and weaknesses across their cognitive and language performance was found to be similar to descriptions of the affected KE family members. Conclusions: Prior reports of individuals with chromosomal rearrangements of "FOXP2" have emphasized their speech impairment. This study provides additional evidence that language--in particular, grammar--is likely to be influenced by abnormalities of "FOXP2" function.

Purpose: In this study, the authors evaluated literacy outcome in children with histories of speech sound disorder (SSD) who were characterized along 2 dimensions: broader language function and persistence of SSD. In previous studies, authors have demonstrated that each dimension relates to literacy but have not disentangled their effects. Methods: Two groups of children (86 SSD and 37 controls) were recruited at ages 5-6 and were followed longitudinally. The authors report the literacy of children with SSD at ages 7-9, compared with controls and national norms, and relative to language skill and SSD persistence (both measured at age 5-6). Results: The SSD group demonstrated elevated rates of reading disability. Language skill but not SSD persistence predicted later literacy. However, SSD persistence was associated with phonological awareness impairments. Phonological awareness alone predicted literacy outcome less well than a model that also included syntax and nonverbal IQ. Conclusions: Results support previous literature findings that SSD history predicts literacy difficulties and that the association is strongest for SSD + language impairment (LI). Magnitude of phonological impairment alone did not determine literacy outcome, as predicted by the core phonological deficit hypothesis. Instead, consistent with a multiple deficit approach, phonological deficits appeared to interact with other cognitive factors in literacy development.

Purpose: Conceptual and methodological confounds occur when non(sense) word repetition tasks are administered to speakers who do not have the target speech sounds in their phonetic inventories or who habitually misarticulate targeted speech sounds. In this article, the authors (a) describe a nonword repetition task, the Syllable Repetition Task (SRT), that eliminates this confound and (b) report findings from 3 validity studies. Method: Ninety-five preschool children with speech delay and 63 with typical speech completed an assessment battery that included the Nonword Repetition Task (NRT; C. Dollaghan & T. F. Campbell, 1998) and the SRT. SRT stimuli include only 4 of the earliest occurring consonants and 1 early occurring vowel. Results: Study 1 findings indicated that the SRT eliminated the speech confound in nonword testing with speakers who misarticulate. Study 2 findings indicated that the accuracy of the SRT to identify expressive language impairment was comparable to findings for the NRT. Study 3 findings illustrated the SRT's potential to interrogate speech processing constraints underlying poor nonword repetition accuracy. Results supported both memorial and auditory-perceptual encoding constraints underlying nonword repetition errors in children with speech-language impairment. Conclusion: The SRT appears to be a psychometrically stable and substantively informative nonword repetition task for emerging genetic research and other research with speakers who misarticulate.

Typical U.S. children use their knowledge of letters' names to help learn the letters' sounds. They perform better on letter sound tests with letters that have their sounds at the beginnings of their names, such as v, than with letters that have their sounds at the ends of their names, such as m, and letters that do not have their sounds in their names, such as h. We found this same pattern among children with speech sound disorders, children with language impairments as well as speech sound disorders, and children who later developed serious reading problems. Even children who scored at chance on rhyming and sound matching tasks performed better on the letter sound task with letters such as v than with letters such as m and h. Our results suggest that a wide range of children use the names of letters to help learn the sounds and that phonological awareness, as conventionally measured, is not required in order to do so.

Purpose: The primary goal of this case study was to describe the speech, prosody, and voice characteristics of a mother and daughter with a breakpoint in a balanced 7;13 chromosomal translocation that disrupted the transcription gene, "FOXP2" (cf. J. B. Tomblin et al., 2005). As with affected members of the widely cited KE family, whose communicative disorders have been associated with a point mutation in the "FOXP2" gene, both mother and daughter had cognitive, language, and speech challenges. A 2nd goal of the study was to illustrate in detail, the types of speech, prosody, and voice metrics that can contribute to phenotype sharpening in speech-genetics research. Method: A speech, prosody, and voice assessment protocol was administered twice within a 4-month period. Analyses were aided by comparing profiles from the present speakers (the "TB" family) with those from 2 groups of adult speakers: 7 speakers with acquired (with one exception) spastic or spastic-flaccid dysarthria and 14 speakers with acquired apraxia of speech. Results: The descriptive and inferential statistical findings for 13 speech, prosody, and voice variable supported the conclusion that both mother and daughter had spastic dysarthria, an apraxia of speech, and residual developmental distortion errors. Conclusion: These findings are consistent with, but also extend, the reported communicative disorders in affected members of the KE family. A companion article (K. J. Ballard, L. D. Shriberg, J. R. Duffy, & J. B. Tomblin, 2006) reports information from the orofacial and speech motor control measures administered to the same family; reports on neuropsychological and neuroimaging findings are in preparation. (Contains 7 tables and 4 figures.)

Shriberg "et al." [Shriberg, L. "et al." (2001). "Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 44," 1097-1115] described prosody-voice features of 30 high functioning speakers with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to age-matched control speakers. The present study reports additional information on the speakers with ASD, including associations among prosody-voice variables and ratings of communication social abilities. Results suggest that the inappropriate sentential stress and hypernasality previously identified in some of these speakers is related to communication/sociability ratings. These findings and associated trends are interpreted to indicate important links between prosodic performance and social and communicative competence. They suggest the need for careful assessment of inappropriate prosody and voice features in speakers with ASD, and for effective intervention programs aimed at reducing the stigmatization of individuals with these conditions.

Converging evidence supports the hypothesis that the most common subtype of childhood speech sound disorder (SSD) of currently unknown origin is genetically transmitted. We report the first findings toward a set of diagnostic markers to differentiate this proposed etiological subtype (provisionally termed "speech delay-genetic") from other proposed subtypes of SSD of unknown origin. Conversational speech samples from 72 preschool children with speech delay of unknown origin from 3 research centers were selected from an audio archive. Participants differed on the number of biological, nuclear family members (0 or 2+) classified as positive for current and/or prior speech-language disorder. Although participants in the 2 groups were found to have similar speech competence, as indexed by their Percentage of Consonants Correct scores, their speech error patterns differed significantly in 3 ways. Compared with children who may have reduced genetic load for speech delay (no affected nuclear family members), children with possibly higher genetic load (2+ affected members) had (a) a significantly higher proportion of relative omission errors on the Late-8 consonants; (b) a significantly lower proportion of relative distortion errors on these consonants, particularly on the sibilant fricatives /s/, /z/, and /esh/; and (c) a significantly lower proportion of backed /s/ distortions, as assessed by both perceptual and acoustic methods. Machine learning routines identified a 3-part classification rule that included differential weightings of these variables. The classification rule had diagnostic accuracy value of 0.83 (95% confidence limits = 0.74-0.92), with positive and negative likelihood ratios of 9.6 (95% confidence limits = 3.1-29.9) and 0.40 (95% confidence limits = 0.24-0.68), respectively. The diagnostic accuracy findings are viewed as promising. The error pattern for this proposed subtype of SSD is viewed as consistent with the cognitive-linguistic processing deficits that have been reported for genetically transmitted verbal disorders. (Contains 3 figures and 2 tables.)

This report presents findings supporting the hypothesis of a clinically relevant subtype of childhood speech sound disorder, provisionally titled speech delay--developmental psychosocial involvement (SD-DPI). Conversational speech samples from 29 children who met inclusionary criteria for SD-DPI were selected from a case record archive at a university speech clinic for children. Participants with SD-DPI had been characterized by speech clinicians and caregivers as having speech delay with psychosocial issues that required attention in the course of at least 1 semester of speech treatment. The 29 participants were divided into 2 subgroups, based on clinicians' and parents' records indicating either approach-related negative affect (n = 23) or withdrawal-related negative affect (n = 6). Each participant with SD-DPI was matched by age, gender, and type of speech involvement to 3 comparison speakers with speech delay of unknown origin (n = 87). Analyses of the conversational speech samples indicated that in comparison with participants in the control group, those with SD-DPI had significantly more severe speech delay, averaging approximately 7% to 10% lowered speech competence in conversation. The clinical prevalence of SD-DPI was estimated at approximately 12% of children referred to the university speech clinic in the present study. The authors interpret the present findings to indicate that approach-related or withdrawal-related negative affect, negative emotionality or mood, and decreased task persistence or attention are risk factors for increased severity of expression of speech delay.

Few empirical findings or technical guidelines are available on the current transition from analog to digital audio recording in childhood speech sound disorders. Of particular concern in the present context was whether a transition from analog- to digital-based transcription and coding of prosody and voice features might require re-standardizing a reference database for research in childhood speech sound disorders. Two research transcribers with different levels of experience glossed, transcribed, and prosody-voice coded conversational speech samples from eight children with mild to severe speech disorders of unknown origin. The samples were recorded, stored, and played back using representative analog and digital audio systems. Effect sizes calculated for an array of analog versus digital comparisons ranged from negligible to medium, with a trend for participants' speech competency scores to be slightly lower for samples obtained and transcribed using the digital system. We discuss the implications of these and other findings for research and clinical practise.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to determine whether distinct subgroups of preschool children with speech sound disorders (SSD) could be identified using a subgroup discovery algorithm (SUBgroup discovery via Alternate Random Processes, or SUBARP). Of specific interest was finding evidence of a subgroup of SSD exhibiting performance consistent with atypical speech motor control. Method: Ninety-seven preschool children with SSD completed speech and nonspeech tasks. Fifty-three kinematic, acoustic, and behavioral measures from these tasks were input to SUBARP. Results: Two distinct subgroups were identified from the larger sample. The 1st subgroup (76%; population prevalence estimate = 67.8%-84.8%) did not have characteristics that would suggest atypical speech motor control. The 2nd subgroup (10.3%; population prevalence estimate = 4.3-%16.5%) exhibited significantly higher variability in measures of articulatory kinematics and poor ability to imitate iambic lexical stress, suggesting atypical speech motor control. Both subgroups were consistent with classes of SSD in the Speech Disorders Classification System (SDCS; Shriberg et al., 2010a). Conclusion: Characteristics of children in the larger subgroup were consistent with the proportionally large SDCS class termed speech delay; characteristics of children in the smaller subgroup were consistent with the SDCS subtype termed motor speech disorder--not otherwise specified. The authors identified candidate measures to identify children in each of these groups., The purpose of this study was to determine whether a subgroup of children with atypical speech motor control could be identified from a sample of children with speech sound disorders [...]

Compared 100 three-year-olds with speech delay of unknown origin and 539 same-age peers with respect to 6 speech disorder variables; also examined abnormal hearing in a subset of 279 children. Found significant odds ratios only for low maternal education, male sex, and positive family history; a child with all 3 factors was 7.71 times as likely to have a speech delay as a child without any of these factors. (Author/KB)

This study compared the speech and prosody-voice profiles for 30 male speakers with either high-functioning autism (HFA) or Asperger syndrome (AS), and 53 typically developing male speakers. Both HFA and AS groups had more residual articulation distortion errors and utterances coded as inappropriate for phrasing, stress, and resonance. AS speakers were more voluble than HFA speakers. (Contains references.) (Author/DB)

A study of 70 children found that hearing levels at 12-18 months were significantly associated with speech delay and low language outcomes at 3 years of age. Significant and substantial effects of hearing levels at 12-18 months on speech status at 3 years were significantly mediated by language status at 3 years. (Contains extensive references.) (Author/CR)

A study of 35 3-year-olds followed since infancy in a university-affiliated pediatrics clinic and 50 Native American children followed since infancy in a tribal health clinic found early recurrent otitis media with effusion was only associated with increased risk for speech disorder in the Native American children. (Contains extensive references.) (CR)

This study estimated the incidence of speech delay based on a demographically representative sub-sample of 1,328 monolingual English-speaking 6-year-old children. Among six major findings were: (1) the prevalence of speech delay was 3.8 percent; (2) speech delay was 1.5 times more prevalent in boys than girls; and (3) comorbidity of speech delay and language impairment was 1.3 percent. (Author/DB)

This study attempted to identify diagnostic markers for suspected developmental apraxia of speech (SD-DAS) in 30 children with either SD-DAS or speech delay using analytic procedures from metrical phonology. Findings indicated that, although lexical metrical patterns did not differentiate the groups, syllable omissions persisted until much later ages in the SD-DAS subjects. (Author/DB)

Discusses developmental apraxia of speech (DAS), a putative diagnostic category for children whose speech errors differ from errors of children with developmental speech delay and resemble errors of adults with acquired apraxia of speech. A study of 148 children with language impairments investigated the diagnosis of DAS. (Author/CR)

Discusses a study that compared speech and prosody-voice profiles of children (ages 4-14) with suspected developmental apraxia of speech (DAS) to profiles of 73 children with speech delay. Also describes a second study of 20 children (ages 3-9) that investigated whether stress was a diagnostic marker of DAS. (Author/CR)

A study used the conversational speech samples from 19 children (ages 4-14) with suspected developmental apraxia of speech (DAS) to investigate the characteristics of the disability. The results of the study, combined with the results of two previous studies, indicate inappropriate stress is a diagnostic marker for DAS. (Author/CR)

Ten preschool children with developmental phonological disorders were followed for seven years. Analyses characterize the sequence, rates, and error patterns of long-term speech-sound normalization in relation to developmental perspectives. Findings support the hypothesis of a critical period for speech-sound development, with long-term normalization of speech delay reaching a chronological age boundary at 8.5 years. (Author/JDD)

A conceptual framework for short-term and long-term speech-sound normalization research is presented, and 1-year normalization outcomes for the 54 children described in EC 609 708 are reported. Although certain individual speech variables were significantly associated with normalization, there were no speech, prosody-voice, or risk-factor variables that discriminated children who achieved one-year speech-sound normalization. (Author/JDD)

This study provides a clinical profile of 178 children (ages 3-6) with developmental phonological disorders, based on prior reports and new data on 64 children. Data discussed include gender, age, and severity; speech profiles; prosody-voice profiles; causal-correlates profiles; and a prevalence profile. (Author/JDD)

Fifteen caregivers each glossed a simultaneously videotaped and audiotaped sample of their child with speech delay in conversation with a clinician. Comparison with a reference gloss developed for each sample indicated that caregivers accurately understood an average of 58% of the utterances and 73% of the words. (Author/DB)

Speech analyses performed on data from 61 speech-delayed children (ages 3-6) found that, in comparison to the validity of conversational speech samples for integrated speech, language, and prosodic analyses, articulation tests appear to yield neither typical nor optimal measures of speech performance. (Author/JDD)

The self-monitoring and generalization behaviors of eight preschool children were observed as they progressed in management programs for their developmental phonological disorders. Self-monitoring behaviors varied in type, frequency, and point of onset in relation to generalization data. Self-monitoring behaviors did not always nor only occur in temporal association with generalization. (Author/JDD)

Among 28 monolingual English-speaking Menominee Indian children, a history of otitis media was associated with significantly lower scores on measures of language comprehension and speech perception and production at ages 3-5, and on school standardized tests 2 years later. Contains 38 references. (SV)

Analysis of speech samples of 40 noninstitutionalized persons (ages 20-50) with mental retardation found that speech and prosody status were not statistically associated with gender or gross level of mental retardation but were associated with estimated probability of independent living. The existence of a cognitive capacity constraint and a sociolinguistic constraint is proposed. (Author/DB)

Two repeated-measures designs with 15 speech-delayed children (ages 2-8) and 5 case studies were completed to compare tabletop management at early and late stages of the response development phase with 2 computer-assisted drill-and-practice activities, 1 of which involved fantasy. The three intervention modes were equally effective, efficient, and engaging. (Author/JDD)

The purpose of this article is to review recent findings suggesting a genetic susceptibility for speech sound disorders (SSD), the most prevalent communication disorder in early childhood. The importance of genetic studies of SSD and the hypothetical underpinnings of these genetic findings are reviewed, as well as genetic associations of SSD with other language and reading disabilities. The authors propose that many genes contribute to SSD. They further hypothesize that some genes contribute to SSD disorders alone, whereas other genes influence both SSD and other written and spoken language disorders. The authors postulate that underlying common cognitive traits, or endophenotypes, are responsible for shared genetic influences of spoken and written language. They review findings from their genetic linkage study and from the literature to illustrate recent developments in this area. Finally, they discuss challenges for identifying genetic influence on SSD and propose a conceptual framework for study of the genetic basis of SSD. KEY WORDS: genetics, reading disorders, speech sound disorders, language disorders, Speech sound disorders (SSD), defined as a significant delay in the acquisition of articulate speech sounds, have an estimated prevalence of 3.8% in 6-year-old children, with higher rates in younger [...]