1/4. Changes in linguapalatal contact patterns during therapy for velar fronting in a 10-year-old with Down's syndrome.BACKGROUND: Articulation errors in the speech of people with Down's syndrome are frequent and often resistant to speech therapy. This preliminary study investigates the use of electropalatography (EPG) to diagnose and treat abnormal articulation patterns associated with velar fronting in a 10-year-old girl. AIMS: The study measured changes in the accuracy and stability of linguapalatal (tongue-palate) contact patterns during a 14-week course of visual feedback therapy using EPG. Therapy aimed to resolve a pattern of velar fronting whereby targets /k, g, eta/ had alveolar placement [t, d, n]. methods & PROCEDURES: The participant was a girl (P) with Down's syndrome aged 10;11 years. P had a moderate-severe speech disorder, which included velar fronting. Her speech was recorded with EPG on three occasions during a 14-week course of therapy: first, before therapy; second, midway through therapy; and third, after therapy. Three analyses were conducted on the EPG data. The first used an EPG classification scheme that identified accuracy of placement for /t/ and /k/ targets. The second was a centre of gravity measure that detected whether P produced a significant difference between /t/ and /k/ targets. The third was a variability index that quantified the stability of contact patterns. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: The results of the EPG classification showed that before therapy, /t/ and /k/ targets had identical alveolar placement, reflecting the process of velar fronting. The results after therapy showed that 87% of /k/ targets had accurate velar placement. The centre of gravity measure showed no difference in contact patterns for /t/ and /k/ before therapy, but a statistically significant difference at the second and third recordings. The variability index showed stable contact patterns before therapy for /t/ and /k/ targets, but both became highly unstable midway through therapy, with a return to stability at the third recording. We embed a discussion of P's increased articulation instability during therapy in a recent theoretical framework--dynamic systems--that attempts to account for the emergence of new behavioural forms. CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary results suggest that EPG has potential as an effective diagnostic and therapy procedure for articulation errors in people with Down's syndrome. A major issue still to be addressed, however, is the extent to which others will benefit from this approach to intervention.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = behaviour (Clic here for more details about this article) |
2/4. Compensatory articulatory behaviours in adolescents with cleft palate: comparing the perceptual and instrumental evidence.A combination of perceptual and electropalatographic (EPG) analysis is used to investigate speech production in three adolescent speakers with a history of cleft palate. All the subjects still sound markedly atypical. Their speech output is analysed in three conditions: diadochokinetic tasks; single word production; connected speech. Comparison of the EPG and perceptual data reveals important lingual behaviours which were not identified by perceptual analysis alone. Lingualpalatal contact patterns previously noted in the speech of younger speakers with cleft palate are identified, as well as some lingual behaviours not previously reported in the literature. Similarities and differences between the individual speakers' profiles are discussed, as is the considerable inter- and intra-speaker variability identified in the data, and the speech output is discussed with reference to the notion of compensatory articulation.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 6keywords = behaviour (Clic here for more details about this article) |
3/4. A foreign speech accent in a case of conversion disorder.OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper is to report the psychiatric, neuroradiological and linguistic characteristics in a native speaker of Dutch who developed speech symptoms which strongly resemble Foreign Accent syndrome. BACKGROUND: Foreign Accent syndrome is a rare speech production disorder in which the speech of a patient is perceived as foreign by speakers of the same speech community. This syndrome is generally related to focal brain damage. Only in few reported cases the Foreign Accent syndrome is assumed to be of psychogenic and/or psychotic origin. METHOD: In addition to clinical and neuroradiological examinations, an extensive test battery of standardized neuropsychological and neurolinguistic investigations was carried out. Two samples of the patient's spontaneous speech were analysed and compared to a 500,000-words reference corpus of 160 normal native speakers of Dutch. RESULTS: The patient had a prominent French accent in her pronunciation of Dutch. This accent had persisted over the past eight years and has become progressively stronger. The foreign qualities of her speech did not only relate to pronunciation, but also to the lexicon, syntax and pragmatics. Structural as well as functional neuroimaging did not reveal evidence that could account for the behavioural symptoms. By contrast psychological investigations indicated conversion disorder. CONCLUSIONS: To the best of our knowledge this is the first reported case of a foreign accent like syndrome in conversion disorder.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = behaviour (Clic here for more details about this article) |
4/4. The use of diacritics for visual articulatory behaviours.This paper proposes the use of a set of symbols related to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and diacritics for the description and notation of articulatory behaviours which can be perceived visually, but which have no effect on the perceived auditory quality of phonemes produced. It is suggested that the use of such symbols will clarify clinical analysis of speech patterns. Examples of clinical usage are given.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 5keywords = behaviour (Clic here for more details about this article) |