Summary of Keynote Speeches from the 2024 Voice AI Symposium, presented by the Bridge2AI-Voice Consortium.

Introduction: The 2024 Voice AI Symposium, hosted by the Bridge2AI-Voice Consortium in Tampa, FL, featured two keynote speeches that addressed the intersection of voice AI, healthcare, ethics, and law. Dr. Rupal Patel and Dr.

Evidence-Based Recommendations for Tablet Recordings From the Bridge2AI-Voice Acoustic Experiments.

Background: As part of a larger goal to create best practices for voice data collection to fuel voice artificial intelligence (AI) research, the objective of this study was to investigate the ability of readily available iOS and Android tablets with and without low-cost headset microphones to produce recordings and subsequent acoustic measures of voice comparable to "research quality" instrumentation.

Methods: Recordings of 24 sustained vowel samples representing a wide range of typical and disordered voices were played via a head-and-torso model and recorded using a research quality standard microphone/preamplifier/audio interface. Acoustic measurements from the standard were compared with two popular tablets using their built-in microphones and with low-cost headset microphones at different distances from the mouth.

Validity of Acoustic Measures Obtained Using Various Recording Methods Including Smartphones With and Without Headset Microphones.

Purpose: The goal of this study was to assess various recording methods, including combinations of high- versus low-cost microphones, recording interfaces, and smartphones in terms of their ability to produce commonly used time- and spectral-based voice measurements.

Method: Twenty-four vowel samples representing a diversity of voice quality deviations and severities from a wide age range of male and female speakers were played via a head-and-thorax model and recorded using a high-cost, research standard GRAS 40AF (GRAS Sound & Vibration) microphone and amplification system. Additional recordings were made using various combinations of headset microphones (AKG C555 L [AKG Acoustics GmbH], Shure SM35-XLR [Shure Incorporated], AVID AE-36 [AVID Products, Inc.

Covert contrasts and categorical perception: a comparison of two measurement tools.

This study considers adults' perception of subtle differences in the error productions of /r/ and /l/ in young children. Given that these two phonemes share a common substitution [w], the potential covert contrast between these three sounds was investigated. The utility of two perceptual rating scales was compared: a linear visual analogue scale (VAS) and a triangular scale that considered the possibility of covert contrast among /r,l,w/.

Derivational Morphology Bridges Phonology and Orthography: Insights Into the Development of Word-Specific Spellings by Superior, Average, and Poor Spellers.

Purpose Morphology, which is a bridge between phonology and orthography, plays an important role in the development of word-specific spellings. This study, which employed longitudinal sampling of typically developing students in Grades 3, 4, and 5, explored how the misspellings of words with derivational suffixes shed light on the interplay of phonological, orthographic, and morphological (POM) linguistic features as students learn to integrate POM features appropriately to generate correct spellings. Method Sixty typically developing Grade 3 students were tested using the Spelling subtest from the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Second Edition (Wechsler, 2001) and were divided into superior, average, and poor spellers.

Quantitative Measurement of Communication Ability in Children with Angelman Syndrome.

Background: Angelman syndrome is a rare disorder in which most individuals do not develop speech. Testing of communication ability using traditional neuropsychological measures reveals a performance level at or near the floor of the instrument resulting in an inability to detect change when experimental therapeutics are applied.

Methods: Nine individuals, with molecularly confirmed AS, ranging in age from 34 to 126 months, and a single healthy control child (age 16 months) were audio and video-recorded while interacting with a licensed speech-language pathologist in an attempt to elicit vocalization and non-verbal communication.

Linguistic pattern analysis of misspellings of typically developing writers in grades 1-9.

Purpose: A mixed-methods approach, evaluating triple word-form theory, was used to describe linguistic patterns of misspellings.

Method: Spelling errors were taken from narrative and expository writing samples provided by 888 typically developing students in Grades 1-9. Errors were coded by category (phonological, orthographic, and morphological) and specific linguistic feature affected.

African American English dialect and performance on nonword spelling and phonemic awareness tasks.

Purpose: To evaluate the role of dialect on phonemic awareness and nonword spelling tasks. These tasks were selected for their reliance on phonological and orthographic processing, which may be influenced by dialect use.

Method: Eighty typically developing African American children in Grades 1 and 3 were first screened for dialect use and then completed a standardized test of phonological processing and a nonword spelling measure.

Spelling patterns in preadolescents with atypical language skills: phonological, morphological, and orthographic factors.

Several investigations have considered the spelling abilities of children with reading disability; however, the spelling patterns of children with a language learning disability (LLD) have been largely ignored. This study examined the spelling error patterns of three groups of children who met strict inclusion criteria-those with a known LLD (n = 8), chronological-age-matched peers (CA; n = 8), and a younger spelling-age-matched group (SA; n = 8). An experimental spelling measure was specially designed and administered to elucidate the underlying linguistic features (clusters, digraphs, etc.

A New Look at Performance on Theory-of-Mind Tasks by Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Purpose: A hallmark of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) is disruption in theory-of-mind development, including the understanding of false beliefs. Previous studies have typically assessed the development of first- and second-order false belief concepts in ASD, with tasks primarily emphasizing physical causality and logical inferencing. The present study investigated how preadolescents and adolescents with ASD performed on false belief tasks that included social inferencing of psychological states as well as logical inferencing of physical states.

Scaffolds for Learning to Read in an Inclusion Classroom.

Purpose: This article describes a study on the scaffolding of learning to read in a primary-level, continuous-progress, inclusion classroom that stressed a critical thinking curriculum and employed a collaborative teaching model. Two emergent reading groups were the focus of study-one group that was taught by a general educator and the other by a special educator. The primary purposes were to discern the teachers' discourse patterns in order to define whether scaffolding sequences were more directive or more supportive and the degree to which these sequences represented differentiated instruction for children with a language learning disability (LLD).