Deck 9: Analysis of Childrens Speech

Question 1

Describe the difference between a lateral lisp and an interdental lisp.

Answer 1

A lateral lisp and an interdental lisp are both types of speech impediments that affect the production of certain sounds.

A lateral lisp occurs when air escapes over the sides of the tongue, resulting in a slushy or wet sound when producing the "s" and "z" sounds. This is often caused by the tongue being too far forward in the mouth or by the sides of the tongue not making proper contact with the roof of the mouth.

On the other hand, an interdental lisp occurs when the tongue protrudes between the front teeth, causing a "th" sound to be produced instead of the intended sound. This is often caused by the tongue not being in the correct position for producing sounds like "s" and "z".

In summary, the main difference between a lateral lisp and an interdental lisp is the way in which the tongue is positioned and the resulting sound that is produced. Both can be addressed through speech therapy and proper tongue placement exercises.

Question 2

What is the difference between a phonetic error and a phonemic error?

Answer 2

A phonetic error and a phonemic error are two types of mistakes that can occur in the process of speech production or language learning. They are related to the sounds of speech, but they occur at different levels of language processing.

A phonetic error involves the incorrect production of speech sounds (phonemes) at the articulatory or acoustic level. It is a mistake in the actual sound-making process. For example, if a non-native English speaker attempts to say the word "think" but pronounces it as "fink," they have made a phonetic error. They have substituted the voiceless dental fricative /θ/ with the voiceless labiodental fricative /f/. Phonetic errors are often associated with accent and pronunciation difficulties in language learners or could be due to a speech disorder.

On the other hand, a phonemic error involves the incorrect use or interpretation of phonemes, which are the smallest units of sound that can change the meaning of a word. Phonemic errors occur at the cognitive or linguistic level, where the speaker has a misunderstanding of the phonemic system of the language. For example, if a child learning English as their first language says "wabbit" instead of "rabbit," they have made a phonemic error by substituting the /r/ sound with a /w/ sound. This type of error can affect the meaning of words and is often seen in the early stages of language development or in individuals with language disorders.

In summary, a phonetic error is about how a sound is produced, while a phonemic error is about the choice of sound in relation to the language's phonemic system. Phonetic errors are more about the physical aspects of speech production, whereas phonemic errors are more about the mental representation and selection of sounds.

Question 3

What distinguishes an independent analysis from a relational analysis?

Answer 3

An independent analysis and a relational analysis are two different approaches to examining data, phenomena, or research subjects. Here's what distinguishes them:

Independent Analysis:
- Focuses on individual elements or units without considering their relationships or interactions with other elements.
- Analyzes each element as a standalone entity, which means the context or system within which the element operates is not the primary concern.
- Often used in studies where the goal is to understand or measure the intrinsic properties or effects of a single variable or factor.
- Examples include assessing the performance of a single employee without considering team dynamics, or evaluating the effect of a drug without considering interactions with other medications.

Relational Analysis:
- Examines the connections, interactions, or relationships between different elements or units.
- Emphasizes the interdependencies and how the presence or behavior of one element affects others within a system or context.
- Often used in studies where understanding the network, system, or pattern of relationships is crucial, such as in social network analysis, ecosystem studies, or market research that looks at consumer behavior patterns.
- Examples include analyzing how team dynamics affect individual performance, or studying how different medications interact with each other within a patient's treatment regimen.

In summary, independent analysis is about the parts in isolation, while relational analysis is about the parts in connection. Each approach has its own merits and is chosen based on the research question or the problem at hand.

Question 4

Describe the nature of the sequence constraint evident in the following phonetic inventory of word-initial consonant clusters for a 4-year-old child with a phonological impairment [fw, bw, pw].

Question 5

List the syllable shapes for correct pronunciations of the following words: elephant, potato, calculator, cauliflower, peanut butter, ravioli, contaminated, alphabet, balloon, shampoo.

Question 6

Describe three ways that dysprosody can be evident in the speech of a child with childhood apraxia of speech.

Question 7

List five possible reasons why a child might have variable pronunciations of a phoneme.

Question 8

What is the difference between a malapropism, eggcorn, and mondegreen. Support your answer with examples.

Question 9

What are four different types of difficulty that a child could have with intonation?

Question 10

List six factors to consider when making good quality recordings of children' speech.

Question 11

Compare and contrast the analysis findings that you could expect from a child with phonological impairment versus inconsistent speech disorder versus childhood apraxia of speech versus childhood dysarthria. You could use the cases in

Question 12

Discuss the implications of completing SODA analysis only on a speech sample from a child with a suspected phonological impairment.

Question 13

Compare and contrast three different methods for analyzing distorted consonants (either distorted /s/ or /ɹ/). As part of your essay consider analysis methods based on impressionistic transcription and instrumental analysis.

Question 14

Review two different methods for completing an independent and relational analysis. Select one method that is completed by hand, and one computerized method. As part of your review, compare and contrast the different elements that comprise each independent and relational analysis, and comment on the potential advantages and disadvantages of each method.

Question 15

Review segmental and whole-word measures of children's speech in Table 9-4 and 9-5 of McLeod and Baker (2017). As part of your answer, consider the insights offered by each measure and the clinical implications of a poor score for each measure.

Question 16

Compare and contrast Bernhardt and Stemberger's (2000) approach to nonlinear analysis of children's speech with phonological process analysis.

Question 17

Select two instrumental techniques for seeing speech from Table 9-9 of McLeod and Baker (2017). Explain the purpose of each technique, and potential benefits. If you had to select only one of the instrumental techniques for your clinical practice, which one would you select and why. Refer to case-based examples from peer-reviewed published research to support your answer.

Question 18

Discuss how you would explain the results of an analysis of each child's speech in

Question 19

Review the literature on measures of variability/inconsistency of children's speech. As part of your review, identify the potential limitations and insights offered by each measure.

Question 20

Explain how you could analyze prosodic aspects of children's speech, and outline the possible insights gained by analyzing children's prosody.

Question 21

SODA analysis involves analysis of:

A) sibilants, omissions, distortions, assimilation errors.
B) substitutions, omissions, distortions, and addition errors.
C) stridency, occlusions, deletions, and addition errors.
D) substitutions, occlusions, deletions, and altered sequence errors.

Question 22

For a child such as Susie (7;4 years), who has an articulation impairment characterized by lateralization of /s, z/ across all word positions:

A) phonemic contrasts would be preserved.
B) phonemic contrasts would be lost.
C) allophonic variations would exist between the phones [s] and [] and between [z] and [].
D) the allophones [s] and [11ee98ba_0d76_74b9_a6de_c9a5de232703_TB9704_11] would be in complementary distribution.

Question 23

Olive (4;5 years) is a monolingual English-speaking girl with a moderate-severe phonological impairment. During a single-word assessment, Olive said giraffe // as [wæf]. From this one attempt at a word by Olive, the following observations are possible from the perspective of an independent analysis:

A) Olive has weak syllable deletion.
B) Olive can produce a CVC word shape. She can produce [w] in word-initial position and the labiodental fricative [f] in word-final position.
C) Olive has gliding of liquids.
D) Olive cannot produce words with wS stress pattern.

Question 24

During a single-word assessment, Olive (4;5 years) said giraffe // as [wæf] and spaghetti // as [] but caterpillar // as [] and butterfly // as []. Based on a relational analysis of this small sample of words, you could hypothesize that Olive probably has:

A) pre-tonic weak syllable deletion, gliding of liquids, and cluster reduction.
B) post-tonic weak syllable deletion, gliding of liquids, and cluster reduction.
C) a phonetic inventory comprising three different manner classes, simple syllable shapes, and can produce words comprising four syllables.
D) pre-tonic weak syllable deletion, stopping of fricatives, gliding of liquids, and cluster reduction.

Question 25

Lucas (4;7 years) is a monolingual English-speaking boy with a mild-moderate phonological impairment. During a single-word assessment, Lucas said giraffe // as []. From this one attempt at a word by Lucas, the following observations are possible from the perspective of a relational analysis:

A) Lucas can produce a CVCVC word shape, he can produce [d] in word-initial position, [w] in within word position and the labiodental fricative [f] in word-final position.
B) Lucas can produce wS stress pattern.
C) Lucas most likely has stopping of affricates and gliding of liquids.
D) Lucas can produce three different manners of articulation.

Question 26

The three consonant manner classes evident in Lucas' production of the word giraffe // as [] include:

A) affricates, liquids, and fricatives.
B) plosives, liquids, and fricatives.
C) affricates, glides, and plosives.
D) plosives, glides, and fricatives.

Question 27

Analysis of a child's loss of phonemic contrast, is a type of:

A) independent analysis.
B) SODA analysis.
C) analysis of allophonic variations.
D) relational analysis.

Question 28

A) a positional constraint for velar place of articulation, with velars limited to within and word-final positions.
B) an inventory constraint for velar place of articulation.
C) a sequence constraint for velar place of articulation.
D) speech perception difficulty contrasting velar and alveolar place of articulation.

Question 29

A) a positional constraint for velar place of articulation.
B) an inventory constraint for velar place of articulation.
C) a sequence constraint for velar place of articulation.
D) a combinatorial constraint for velar place of articulation.

Question 30

A) CV; CVC
B) CV; CVC; CCVC
C) CV, CVCVC; CVCVCVC
D) CVCVC; CV; CVC; CCVC

Question 31

A) CVCVCVC
B) CVC
C) CVCVC
D) CCVC

Question 32

A phonologically frozen form is evident when:

A) a child has persistent difficulty with a particular manner of articulation despite a period of intervention.
B) a child produces a word using an earlier version despite his or her system being more advanced.
C) a child says a particular word in a more advanced form relative to the rest of his or her phonological system.
D) a child has persistent difficulty with a particular place of articulation despite a period of intervention.

Question 33

If a song lyric was "laid him on the green" and a listener heard the lyric as "Lady Mondegreen", this is an example of a:

A) spoonerism.
B) malapropism.
C) mondegreen.
D) eggcorn.

Question 34

A) a 20:1 word-initial phoneme collapse to [t].
B) stopping of singleton consonants and consonant clusters to [t].
C) inconsistent speech disorder.
D) idiosyncratic sound preference substitution of [t].

Question 35

Levi (6;3 years) has autism and speaks English. You have received a referral to assess his prosody. As part of the assessment you ask him to say "cheese cake and chocolate", then "cheese, cake, and chocolate". This task is assessing:

A) stopping of affricates.
B) working memory.
C) affect.
D) chunking.

Question 36

Daniel (10;1 years) has childhood dysarthria, specifically spastic dysarthria associated with cerebral palsy. His speech is partially intelligible. During a conversational speech task focus on phonation you notice that he has:

A) imprecise consonant articulation.
B) muffled resonance.
C) difficulty regulating pitch and loudness, and a strained-strangled voice quality.
D) good pitch and loudness, but poor lexical stress.

Question 37

Blake (4;4 years) has a percentage of consonants correct (PCC) of 68% (based on a conversational speech sample). Blake's speech is primarily characterized by substitution processes (e.g., consonant cluster simplification, velar fronting in word-initial position only, palatal fronting, gliding of liquids). His errors are consistent. Based on these brief observations, Blake most likely has:

A) mild-moderate phonological impairment.
B) mild phonological impairment.
C) severe phonological impairment.
D) moderate articulation impairment.

Question 38

A) 4
B) 7
C) 10
D) 11

Question 39

On a spectrogram of the word seem /sim/, you would expect to see:

A) aperiodic vibration in the higher frequencies for /s/ and pulses for the vowel and nasal only.
B) formants and pulses for /s/ then aperiodic vibration for the vowel and nasal in the higher frequencies.
C) aperiodic vibration in the higher frequencies for /s/ and pulses for the vowel only, then no pulses for the nasal.
D) periodic vibration in the lower frequencies for /s/ and pulses for the vowel and nasal only.

Question 40

Convert contrasts can be identified by:

A) careful phonetic transcription of words produced as homonyms by a child.
B) listening to a child in conversation with a caregiver, via a one-way mirror.
C) acoustically analyzing a child's productions of different words perceived as homonyms by a listener.
D) extensive training in listening to and transcribing children's speech.