Remediating Residual Rhotic Errors With Traditional and Ultrasound-Enhanced Treatment: A Single-Case Experimental Study.

Purpose The aim of the study was to examine how ultrasound visual feedback (UVF) treatment impacts speech sound learning in children with residual speech errors affecting /ɹ/. Method Twelve children, ages 9-14 years, received treatment for vocalic /ɹ/ errors in a multiple-baseline across-subjects design comparing 8 sessions of UVF treatment and 8 sessions of traditional (no-biofeedback) treatment. All participants were exposed to both treatment conditions, with order counterbalanced across participants.

Tongue shapes for rhotics in school-age children with and without residual speech errors.

Speakers of North American English use variable tongue shapes for rhotic sounds. However, quantifying tongue shapes for rhotics can be challenging, and little is known about how tongue shape complexity corresponds to perceptual ratings of rhotic accuracy in children with residual speech sound errors (RSE). In this study, 16 children aged 9-16 with RSE and 14 children with typical speech (TS) development made multiple productions of 'Let Robby cross Church Street'.

Treatment for Residual Rhotic Errors With High- and Low-Frequency Ultrasound Visual Feedback: A Single-Case Experimental Design.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore how the frequency with which ultrasound visual feedback (UVF) is provided during speech therapy affects speech sound learning.

Method: Twelve children with residual speech errors affecting /ɹ/ participated in a multiple-baseline across-subjects design with 2 treatment conditions. One condition featured 8 hr of high-frequency UVF (HF; feedback on 89% of trials), whereas the other included 8 hr of lower-frequency UVF (LF; 44% of trials).

Ultrasound Images of the Tongue: A Tutorial for Assessment and Remediation of Speech Sound Errors.

Diagnostic ultrasound imaging has been a common tool in medical practice for several decades. It provides a safe and effective method for imaging structures internal to the body. There has been a recent increase in the use of ultrasound technology to visualize the shape and movements of the tongue during speech, both in typical speakers and in clinical populations.

Using automatic alignment to analyze endangered language data: testing the viability of untrained alignment.

While efforts to document endangered languages have steadily increased, the phonetic analysis of endangered language data remains a challenge. The transcription of large documentation corpora is, by itself, a tremendous feat. Yet, the process of segmentation remains a bottleneck for research with data of this kind.

Representation of harmonic frequencies in auditory memory: a mismatch negativity study.

Most natural sounds are composed of a mixture of frequencies, which activate separate neurons in the tonotopic auditory cortex. Nevertheless, we perceive this mixture as an integrated sound with unique acoustic properties. We used the Mismatch Negativity (MMN), a marker of auditory change detection, to determine whether individual harmonics are represented in sensory memory.

A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of language processing and its cognitive correlates in prematurely born children.

Objective: Abnormalities in brain structure, cognition, and behavior have been described in children born prematurely. However, no direct in vivo evidence has yet demonstrated abnormal neural processing in these children. Our aim was to compare brain activity associated with phonologic and semantic processing of language between term and preterm children using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).