Simplification of syllable structure in childhood apraxia of speech: a 2-year follow-up French case study.

Although Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) has been extensively investigated in the clinical literature, most of the findings regarding impairments in the production of syllable structure, recorded within this population, have been mainly focused on English. The main purpose of this two-year follow-up case study was, therefore, to examine whether syllable complexity may be considered as a robust indicator in CAS and whether it can explain the persistence of errors and, if so, at what age. This was tested in a boy followed up annually from age 5 to 7 who was administered a narrative task. Data analyses used the Phon program to estimate accuracies of different syllabic structures, phones, singleton and cluster consonants. Overall, the findings suggest that this child experienced difficulty producing syllabic structure commensurately with the level of complexity of the target structures. Notably, the presence of syllable planning/sequencing deficit found in French data clearly supports the hypotheses according to which (a) there is a relationship between the level of complexity of syllabic structures and their simplification and (b) the persistence of errors on the most complex syllables remains, becoming a robust indicator for identifying CAS from other speech disorders. Further cross-language investigations on syllable complexity in CAS are needed to design better assessments and to plan efficient intervention.

Syllable duration changes during babbling: a longitudinal study of French infant productions.

At the babbling stage, the syllable does not have the temporal characteristics of adult syllables because of the infant's limited oro-motor skills. This research aims to further our knowledge of syllable duration and temporal variability and their evolution with age as an indicator of the development of articulatory skills. The possible impact of syllable position, as well as that of type of intrasyllabic associations and intersyllabic articulatory changes on these parameters has also been tested. Oral productions of 22 French infants were recorded monthly from 8 to 14 months. 11 261 Consonant-Vowel (CV) syllables were annotated and temporally analyzed. The mean duration varied according to syllable position, but not to the intrasyllabic or intersyllabic articulatory changes. Moreover, the syllable duration decreased significantly from the age of 10 months onwards, whereas the temporal variability remained the same.

Rehabilitation of speech disorders following glossectomy, based on ultrasound visual illustration and feedback.

Intraoral surgery for tongue cancer usually induces speech disorders that have a negative impact on communication and quality of life. Studies have documented the benefit of tongue ultrasound imaging as a visual articulatory feedback for speech rehabilitation. This study aims to assess specifically the complementary contribution of visual feedback to visual illustration (i.e. the display of ultrasound video of target language movements) for the speech rehabilitation of glossectomised patients. Two therapy conditions were used alternately for ten glossectomised French patients randomly divided into two cohorts. The IF cohort benefitted from 10 sessions using illustration alone (IL condition) followed by 10 sessions using illustration supplemented by visual feedback (IL+F condition). The FI cohort followed the opposite protocol, i.e. the first 10 sessions with the IL+F condition, followed by 10 sessions with the IL condition. Phonetic accuracy (Percent Consonants Correct) was monitored at baseline (T0, before the first series) and after each series (T1 and T2) using clinical speech-language assessments. None of the contrasts computed between the two conditions, using logistic regression with random effects models, were found to be statistically significant for the group analysis of assessment scores. Results were significant for a few individuals, with balanced advantages in both conditions. In conclusion, the use of articulatory visual feedback does not seem to bring a decisive advantage over the use of visual illustration, though speech therapists and patients reported that ultrasound feedback was useful at the beginning. This result should be confirmed by similar studies involving other types of speech disorders.

Reliability of the Language ENvironment Analysis system (LENA™) in European French.

In this study, we examined the accuracy of the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) system in European French. LENA is a digital recording device with software that facilitates the collection and analysis of audio recordings from young children, providing automated measures of the speech overheard and produced by the child. Eighteen native French-speaking children, who were divided into six age groups ranging from 3 to 48 months old, were recorded about 10-16 h per day, three days a week. A total of 324 samples (six 10-min chunks of recordings) were selected and then transcribed according to the CHAT format. Simple and mixed linear models between the LENA and human adult word count (AWC) and child vocalization count (CVC) estimates were performed, to determine to what extent the automatic and the human methods agreed. Both the AWC and CVC estimates were very reliable (r = .64 and .71, respectively) for the 324 samples. When controlling the random factors of participants and recordings, 1 h was sufficient to obtain a reliable sample. It was, however, found that two age groups (7-12 months and 13-18 months) had a significant effect on the AWC data and that the second day of recording had a significant effect on the CVC data. When noise-related factors were added to the model, only a significant effect of signal-to-noise ratio was found on the AWC data. All of these findings and their clinical implications are discussed, providing strong support for the reliability of LENA in French.