Black Children With Developmental Disabilities Receive Less Augmentative and Alternative Communication Intervention Than Their White Peers: Preliminary Evidence of Racial Disparities From a Secondary Data Analysis.

Purpose: Ensuring equitable access to augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention services for children with complex communication needs (CCN) is crucial. Evidence suggests that racial disparities exist in access to communication interventions, disadvantaging Black children. However, no research has investigated specifically the evidence for racial disparities in AAC services for children with developmental disabilities and CCN.

Speech-Language Pathologists' Feelings and Practices Regarding Technological Apps in School Service Delivery.

Purpose: Thousands of technological applications (apps) have emerged in the past decade, yet few studies have examined how apps are used by speech-language pathologists (SLPs), their effectiveness, and SLPs' feelings regarding their use. This study explored how SLPs use apps and their feelings regarding their use in schools, as well as considerations made by SLPs prior to implementing apps in therapy sessions.

Method: A survey was distributed electronically to school-based SLPs in Ohio, yielding 69 valid responses.

Goodness and Accentedness Ratings of /hVt/ Tokens by Aware and Naive Listeners.

Purpose: This study compares goodness and accentedness ratings of speech tokens rated by listeners who are naive to and aware of speakers' native language backgrounds. Listener responses to open-ended questions regarding goodness and accentedness ratings are also examined.

Method: Twenty-eight monolingual speakers of U.

Exploring a Phonological Process Approach to Adult Pronunciation Training.

Purpose: The production of speech sound classes in adult language learners is affected by (a) interference between the native language and the target language and (b) speaker variables such as time speaking English. In this article, we demonstrate how phonological process analysis, an approach typically used in child speech, can be used to characterize adult target language phonological learning.

Method: Sentences produced by 2 adult Japanese English language learners were transcribed and coded for phoneme accuracy and analyzed according to the percent occurrence of phonological processes.

Using multiple measures to document change in English vowels produced by Japanese, Korean, and Spanish speakers: the case for goodness and intelligibility.

Purpose: This study examined the effectiveness of using goodness ratings and intelligibility scores to document changes in vowel production following pronunciation training. The relationship between listener perceptions of goodness and intelligibility was also examined.

Method: Fifteen English language learner speakers (5 Japanese, 5 Korean, and 5 Spanish) participated in 16 sessions of vowel-focused pronunciation training.

Acoustic quantification of /i/-/I/ overlap in children 21 to 33 months.

This longitudinal investigation examined the temporal and spectral characteristics of the high front vowels /i/ and /I/ as produced by nine monolingual US English children from 21-33 months. Vowel overlap was quantified in two-dimensional (F1, F2) and three-dimensional (F1, F2, duration) space using Spectral Overlap Assessment Measure (SOAM). These findings were compared with the results from Support Vector Machine (SVM) vowel classification, vowel duration ratios, and measures of effect size, to determine whether a spectral/temporal trading effect existed in the early vowel productions of young children.

Quantitative and qualitative documentation of early literacy instruction.

Quantitative and qualitative procedures were used in this pilot study to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a language and literacy instruction model for meeting the needs of children with impairments, delays, and differences in regular Head Start classrooms. Although the project addresses a variety of literacy domains, this article focuses on rhyming and letter naming. In the instruction model, children were exposed to motivating examples of rhyme and letter targets in different activity structures embedded across the curriculum.