Parent coaching to target language outcomes for Chinese-learning autistic preschoolers: A preliminary study.

Purpose: The present study evaluates the preliminary effectiveness of a parent-implemented support program to enhance language outcomes in Chinese-learning preschoolers with a confirmed diagnosis or at elevated likelihood of autism, a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition. The program is delivered entirely online with the option of a group format. Because of cross-cultural differences in adult learning and parent-child interaction and because parent coaching programs for autism that are delivered online are only emerging, a specific study to evaluate the effectiveness of online support for Chinese families is warranted.

Review of the Phonological System of Contemporary Urdu Spoken in Pakistan.

Purpose: Urdu is the lingua franca and national language of Pakistan, and is the 10th most-spoken language worldwide with over 230 million speakers. The Urdu phonological system has been examined over the past decades. However, the system has been evolving.

Spontaneous Generation of Unconventional Language and Its Link with Grammatical Performance in Chinese Adults With and Without ASD.

This study investigated the generation of unconventional language in the spontaneous speech of Chinese adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and how it was related to their grammatical performance, when compared to neurotypical (NT) controls. Twenty Cantonese-speaking adults with ASD and 20 NT controls completed three interview tasks in the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition (ADOS-2), and their spontaneous speech was recorded and transcribed. Utterances containing unconventional language (neologisms, idiosyncratic phrases, and pedantic language), morphosyntactic errors, mean length of utterance (MLU), and mazes were computed.

Empowering Hong Kong Chinese families with autism: A preliminary study of the online Hanen More Than Words Program.

Purpose: Parent involvement is crucial for tailored early intervention programs. The Hanen More Than Words (HMTW) program is a parent-implemented language intervention for autistic children. The current study examined the effectiveness of the HMTW program delivered online among Chinese families.

Brief Report: Atypical Temporal Sensitivity in Coarticulation in Autism: Evidence from Sibilant-Vowel Interaction in Cantonese.

Purpose: Atypicalities in the prosodic aspects of speech are commonly considered in clinical assessments of autism. While there is an increasing number of studies using objective measures to assess prosodic deficits, such studies have primarily focused on the intonational and rhythmic aspects of prosody. Little is known about prosodic deficits that are reflected at the segmental level, despite the strong connection between prosody and segmental realization.

Efficacy of a Self-Directed Video-Based Caregiver-Implemented Language Programme.

Introduction: Caregiver-implemented language programmes are effective for alleviating early language difficulties. This study examined the efficacy of a self-directed video-based caregiver-implement language programme in Chinese families.

Method: This study consisted of two stages.

Corrigendum: Systematic review and meta-analysis of screening tools for language disorder.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fped.2022.

Oral Diadochokinetic Performance on Perceptual and Acoustic Measures for Typically Developing Cantonese-Speaking Preschool Children.

Purpose: This study investigated native Cantonese-speaking preschool children's diadochokinetic performance, including rate, accuracy, and regularity. The second aim of this study was to examine whether language-specific patterns exist by comparing diadochokinetic rates with the average DKK rate for native English speakers.

Method: Sixty-four typically developing preschool children who were native Cantonese speakers participated.

Predicting Which Children Will Normalize Without Intervention for Speech Sound Disorders.

Purpose: The speech of some children does not follow a typical normalization trajectory, and they develop speech sound disorders (SSD). This study investigated predictive correlates of speech sound normalization in children who were at risk of SSD.

Method: A prospective population cohort study of 845 Cantonese-speaking preschoolers was conducted over 2.

Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Screening Tools for Language Disorder.

Unlabelled: Language disorder is one of the most prevalent developmental disorders and is associated with long-term sequelae. However, routine screening is still controversial and is not universally part of early childhood health surveillance. Evidence concerning the detection accuracy, benefits, and harms of screening for language disorders remains inadequate, as shown in a previous review.

Phonological Development in Urdu-Speaking Children: A Systematic Review.

Background Speech and language researchers study phonological acquisition and evaluate the errors that children make to understand this complex process. This information provides clinicians with a scientific reference for better assessment and intervention services to children with articulation/phonological disorders. Urdu is a language spoken by more than 200 million speakers worldwide.

Effect of Complexity on Speech Sound Development: Evidence From Meta-Analysis Review of Treatment-Based Studies.

In the current study, we aimed at understanding the effect of exposure to complex input on speech sound development, by conducting a systematic meta-analysis review of the existing treatment-based studies employing complex input in children with speech sound disorders. In the meta-analysis review, using a list of inclusion criteria, we narrowed 280 studies down to 12 studies. Data from these studies were extracted to calculate effect sizes that were plotted as forest plots to determine the efficacy of complexity-based treatment approaches.

Development and pilot evaluation of the Cognition domain of the Hong Kong Comprehensive Assessment Scales for Toddlers.

: To describe the development of the Cognition domain of the Hong Kong Comprehensive Assessment Scales for Toddlers (HKCAS-T).: Participants included 345 toddlers aged 18-41 months, with 258 recruited from Maternal and Child Health Centers (MCHCs) and 87 with cognitive delay recruited from Child Assessment Centers (CACs). They were individually administered the 83-item pilot version by medical practitioners or educational psychologists between 2017 and 2019 in MCHCs and CACs in Hong Kong.

Lifelong Tone Language Experience does not Eliminate Deficits in Neural Encoding of Pitch in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Atypical pitch processing is a feature of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), which affects non-tone language speakers' communication. Lifelong auditory experience has been demonstrated to modify genetically-predisposed risks for pitch processing. We examined individuals with ASD to test the hypothesis that lifelong auditory experience in tone language may eliminate impaired pitch processing in ASD.

Temporal Coordination and Prosodic Structure in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Timing Across Speech and Non-speech Motor Domains.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit disordered speech prosody, but sources of disordered prosody remain poorly understood. We explored patterns of temporal alignment and prosodic grouping in a speech-based metronome repetition task as well as manual coordination in a drum tapping task among Cantonese speakers with ASD and normal nonverbal IQ and matched controls. Results indicate similar group results for prosodic grouping patterns, but significant differences in relative timing and longer syllable durations at phrase ends for the ASD group.

Revisiting the Cutoff Criteria of Intelligibility in Context Scale-Traditional Chinese.

Background This study evaluated the validity of the Intelligibility in Context Scale-Traditional Chinese (ICS-TC) and explored its potential as a screening tool for speech sound disorder (SSD) in Cantonese-speaking children in Hong Kong. Method The parents of 789 Cantonese-speaking children aged between 2;4 (years;months) and 6;9 completed the ICS-TC. Children were categorized into 2 groups: (a) an SSD group whose initial consonant scores in a standardized assessment were equal to or lower than -1.

Rhythmic speech and stuttering reduction in a syllable-timed language.

Speaking rhythmically, also known as syllable-timed speech (STS), has been known for centuries to be a fluency-inducing condition for people who stutter. Cantonese is a tonal syllable-timed language and it has been shown that, of all languages, Cantonese is the most rhythmic (Mok, 2009). However, it is not known if STS reduces stuttering in Cantonese as it does in English.

The Topography of Stuttering in Cantonese.

Objective: This is the first study to investigate the behavioral nature (topography) of stuttering in Cantonese. Cantonese, a Sino-Tibetan language, is both tonal and syllable-timed. Previous studies of stuttering topography have mainly been in Western languages, which are mainly stress-timed.

A Review of Phonological Development of Mandarin-Speaking Children.

Purpose: Research into the phonological development of Chinese children is in its infancy compared with the relatively extensive data available on the English-speaking population. This article provided a comprehensive review of empirical studies on the acquisition of Mandarin phonology.

Method: Studies over the past 45 years that describe phonological development in Mandarin-speaking children were located through electronic databases, citation searches, keyword searches through online search engines, and manual searches of libraries.

Speech sound disorders or differences: Insights from bilingual children speaking two Chinese languages.

The study investigated how Putonghua-Cantonese bilingual children differ from monolinguals in their acquisition of speech sound and phonological patterns. Fifty-four typically developing Putonghua-Cantonese bilingual children aged 3;6-6;0 were recruited from nurseries in the North District of Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Cantonese Articulation Test (Cheung et al.

Lexical tone and stuttering in Cantonese.

Cantonese is a tone language, in which the variation of the fundamental frequency contour of a syllable can change meaning. There are six different lexical tones in Cantonese. While research with Western languages has shown an association between stuttering and syllabic stress, nothing is known about whether stuttering in Cantonese speakers is associated with one or more of the six lexical tones.

Pitch Perception in Tone Language-Speaking Adults With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Enhanced low-level pitch perception has been universally reported in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This study examined whether tone language speakers with ASD exhibit this advantage. The pitch perception skill of 20 Cantonese-speaking adults with ASD was compared with that of 20 neurotypical individuals.

Do Individuals with High-Functioning Autism Who Speak a Tone Language Show Intonation Deficits?

This study investigated whether intonation deficits were observed in 19 Cantonese-speaking adults with high-functioning autism (HFA) when compared to 19 matched neurotypical (NT) controls. This study also investigated the use of sentence-final particles (SFPs) and their relationship with intonation in both groups. Standard deviations (SDs) of the fundamental frequency (F0), the total number and the type of SFPs were calculated based on narrative samples.

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Two Syntactic Treatment Procedures With Cantonese-Speaking, School-Age Children With Language Disorders.

Purpose: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the efficacy of sentence-combining (SC) and narrative-based (NAR) intervention approaches to syntax intervention using a randomized-controlled-trial design.

Method: Fifty-two Cantonese-speaking, school-age children with language impairment were assigned randomly to either the SC or the NAR treatment arm. Seven children did not receive treatment as assigned.

Phonetic variations and sound changes in Hong Kong Cantonese: diachronic review, synchronic study and implications for speech sound assessment.

The aim of this article was to describe phonetic variations and sound changes in Hong Kong Cantonese (HKC) to provide speech-language pathologists with information about acceptable variants of standard pronunciations for speech sound assessments. Study 1 examined the pattern of variations and changes based on past diachronic research and historical written records. Nine phonetic variations were found.