Purpose: This study evaluates the extent to which automated indices of vocal development are stable and valid for predicting language in infants at increased familial likelihood for autism and/or language impairment and relatively lower likelihood infants.
Method: A group of infants with autistic siblings (Sibs-autism; 20 infants) and a comparison group of infants with non-autistic siblings (Sibs-NA; 20 infants) wore Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) recording devices for 16 hr on 2 days within a 1-week period. Extant software was used to derive several putative indices of vocal development from these recordings. Stability of these variables was examined across and within groups. Expressive and receptive language aggregates were calculated for each participant. Multiple regression analyses were used to (a) evaluate zero-order correlations for variables derived from LENA recordings with concurrent and future language and (b) test whether those associations were moderated by group status.
Results: Both stability and validity differed by variable and group status. All variables reached acceptable stability in the Sibs-autism group within two to three observations, whereas stability of most variables was attenuated in the Sibs-NA group. No variables were associated with concurrent language in the theoretically motivated direction across groups, but two variables were strongly associated with concurrent expressive language in only the Sibs-NA group. Additionally, two variables were associated with later expressive language, though these correlations were again stronger in the Sibs-NA versus Sibs-autism group.
Conclusions: Although selected automated indices of vocal development were stable in Sibs-autism and/or valid for predicting expressive language within Sibs-NA, no scores showed strong, theoretically motivated associations with language within the Sibs-autism group. Automated indices of vocal development may, thus, have limited validity or clinical utility for predicting language development in infants at elevated familial likelihood for autism.
Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.24415735.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11001377 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1044/2023_JSLHR-23-00069 | DOI Listing |
Niger Med J
January 2025
Department of Clinical Services, National Ear Care Centre, Kaduna, Nigeria.
Background: Benign laryngeal lesions, characterized by non-cancerous growths in the larynx, significantly impact voice quality and respiratory function. These lesions, which include vocal cord polyps, nodules, papillomas, and cysts, often result from factors such as vocal abuse, viral infections, and chronic inflammation. While studies on benign laryngeal lesions are well-documented globally, data specific to Northern Nigeria remains sparse.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Biol Sci
January 2025
Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz-Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Invalidenstr 43, Berlin 10115, Germany.
Vocalizations play a crucial role in the social systems of many animals and may inadvertently reveal behavioural characteristics of the sender. Bats, the second largest mammalian order, rely extensively on vocalizations owing to their nocturnal lifestyle and complex social systems, making them ideal for studying links between vocalizations and consistent behavioural traits. In this study, we developed a new testing regime to investigate whether consistent individual vocalization differences in nectarivorous bats are associated with specific behavioural types.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Biol Sci
January 2025
Graduate School of Integrated Science and Technology, Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu 432-8011, Japan.
The brain optimizes timing behaviour by acquiring a prior distribution of target timing and integrating it with sensory inputs. Real events have distinct temporal statistics (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
January 2025
Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America.
It has been proposed that social groups are maintained both by reward resulting from positive social interactions and by the reduction of a negative state that would otherwise be caused by social separation. European starlings, Sturnus vulgaris, develop strong conditioned place preferences for places associated with the production of song in flocks outside the breeding season (gregarious song) and singers are motivated to rejoin the flock following removal. This indicates that the act of singing in flocks is associated with a positive affective state and raises the possibility that reward induced by song in flocks may play a role in flock maintenance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Voice
January 2025
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China. Electronic address:
Objective: The Mandarin Chinese version of the Vocal Performance Questionnaire (VPQ-CM) for evaluating vocal performance.
Methods: A total of 120 participants with vocal disorders and 120 healthy participants completed this study. Investigators translated the original VPQ into the VPQ-CM, and participants completed the questionnaire fill it.
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!