Descriptive analysis of the development of the Arabic speech sounds among typically developing colloquial Egyptian Arabic-speaking children

Background Literature only mentioned a few kinds of research that did study the development of the speech sounds of the Colloquial Egyptian Arabic dialect. Moreover, these studies focused on describing the phonological processes that children undergo in early childhood rather than describing the exact time of acquisition of these sounds. Besides, no study involved a statistically enough sample size of children across the different age ranges. Thus, this study aimed to explore the development of the Arabic phonemes among 360 typically developing Egyptian children who speak the CEA dialect, between the ages of 1.6 years and ≤ 7.4 years. Results The results of a 93-picture-naming test of children were analyzed. A phoneme is considered acquired when 90% of the children could properly utter the target phoneme in all word positions and mastered when 100% of children could correctly pronounce the target phoneme in all word positions. The results revealed that by the age of 1.6–2.0 years, the 6 long vowels of the CEA dialect, besides the /h/,/ʔ/, /b/, /w/, /j/, /m/, and /n/ were mastered. /t/ and /d/ sounds were mastered by the age of 2.6 years followed by /l/ sound by the age of 3.0 years. Then, /ħ/, /ʕ/ sounds were mastered followed by /k/, and /g/ at the age of 3.0 and 3.6 years, respectively. At the age of 5.0 years, /f/ sound was mastered, then /x / and /ʃ/ sounds were mastered by the age of 4.6 years, followed by /s/, /sˁ/, /tˁ/, /dˁ/. By the age of 5.6 and 6.0 years, /ɣ/, /r/, and /z/ were mastered. The /q/, /θ/, /ð/, and /ðˁ/ sounds were mastered by the age of 6.0–6.6 years. This study revealed that fricative sounds developed before the stop sounds and front stops before the back stops, and emphatic Arabic sounds were the last to develop at the school age (> 5 years). Conclusions This study presented a chart of the development of the Arabic phonemes of the CEA to be used as a guide to decide upon the correct trimming to start articulatory therapy for children with articulation and/or phonological disorders.

Word-Final Phoneme Segmentation Using Cross-Correlation

The goal of this paper is to present a word-final target phoneme automated segmentation method based on cross-correlation coefficients computed between a reference sound wave and a sample sound wave. Most existing Speech Sound Disorder (SSD) Screening solutions require human intervention to a greater or lesser extent and use segmentation methods based on hard-coded time frames. Moreover, existing solutions extract features from the frequency domain, which entails large amounts of computational power to the detriment of real-time feedback. The pre-processing algorithm proposed in this paper, implemented in a Python version 3.7 script, automatically generates 2 new .wav files corresponding to the phonemes found in word-final position in the initial sound waves. The newly-generated .wav files are meant to be used as valid and homogeneous input in a subsequent classification stage aimed at rigorously discriminating mispronunciations of the target phoneme and assist Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) with the SSD screening.

Preschoolers use partial letter names to select spellings: Evidence from Portuguese

ABSTRACTTwo studies examined children's use of letter–name spelling strategies when target phoneme sequences match letter names with different degrees of precision. We examined Portuguese-speaking preschoolers' use of h (which is named /a′ga/ but which never represents those sounds) when spelling words beginning with /ga/ or variants of /ga/. We also looked at use of q (named /ke/) when spelling /ke/ and /ge/. Children sometimes used h for stimuli beginning with /ga/ and /ka/, and q when spelling words and nonwords beginning with /ke/ and /ge/ they did not use these letters when stimuli began with other sequences. Thus, their spellings evinced use of letter-name matches primarily when consonant-vowel sequences matched, such that vowels must be exact but consonants could differ in voicing from the target phoneme.

The impact of phonemic and lexical distance on the phonological analysis of words and pseudowords in a diglossic context

The study examined the impact of the phonemic and lexical distance between Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and a spoken Arabic vernacular (SAV) on phonological analysis among kindergarten (N=24) and first grade (N=42) native Arabic-speaking children. We tested the effect of the lexical status of the word (SAV, MSA, and pseudoword), as well as the linguistic affiliation of the target phoneme (SAV vs. MSA), on initial and final phoneme isolation. Results showed that, when words were composed of SAV phonemes only, the lexical status of the word did not affect phoneme isolation. However, when MSA and pseudowords encoded both SAV and MSA phonemes, kindergarteners found MSA words significantly more difficult to analyze. Comparing children's ability to isolate SAV versus MSA phonemes revealed that all children found MSA phonemes significantly more difficult to isolate. Kindergarteners found MSA phonemes that were embedded within MSA words even more difficult to isolate. Results underscore the role of the lexical status of the stimulus word, as well as the linguistic affiliation of the target phoneme in phonological analysis in a diglossic context.

The trouble with Merge: Modeling speeded target detection

The model of phoneme monitoring proposed by Norris et al. is implausible when implemented in a localist connectionist network. Lexical representations mysteriously inform phoneme decision nodes as to the presence or absence of a target phoneme.

Use of Visual Techniques in Therapy for Developmental Apraxia of Speech

The literature reveals numerous references to the use of the visual modality in the facilitation of volitional speech in persons with developmental apraxia of speech. This paper describes the development of Signed Target Phoneme (STP) Therapy, using the hand shapes of the American Manual Alphabet to cue phonemes (not Cued Speech as developed by Dr. Orin Cornett). Adding STP to traditional therapy methods, the authors implemented their speech therapy programs with a 5-year-old boy diagnosed as having developmental apraxia of speech. Preliminary results using this technique indicate a positive relationship between application of STP procedures and a more rapid acquisition of target phonemes. More documentation is needed to substantiate these findings, which the authors feel merit further investigation.

The Effects of Different Masking Noises on Children with /s/ or /r/ Errors

Children with /s/ or /r/ misarticulations were administered an articulation test for their target phoneme in three conditions. In the first condition, the children spoke in quiet. In the second condition, half of the children spoke while hearing an 80 dB SPL s-noise (high pass 2000 Hz) and the other half spoke under 80 dB of r-noise (low pass 1250 Hz). In the third condition, the noises were switched. It was assumed that a noise selected to overlap with the frequency range of the target phoneme would be most disruptive to articulation in the final stages of phoneme mastery. The hypothesis was borne out for the children with /s/ errors. The children had more errors under the s-noise that the r-noise. However, both noises caused a breakdown of articulation among children with /r/ errors. Though a feedback explanation can be reduced in both instances, there does seem to be a differences between these two speech defective populations.

The Inference of Speech Perception in the Phonologically Disordered Child. Part II

Several procedures used to assess speech perception of children with disorders at the phonological level of language are described. In most cases of segmental substitution, children discriminated target and substitution phonemes regardless of whether both were spoken by an adult, or one form was produced by an adult and the other was the child's internal representation of the target phoneme. However, in about a third of the cases there was consistent failure to discriminate the target phoneme from the substituted phoneme. Perceptual approaches to the treatment of sound production problems are questioned when perception is inferably differential. Certain phonetic effects, and their implications for theories of phonological acquisition and disorder, are discussed.

Phoneme Acquisition Using the Paired-Stimuli Technique in the Public School Setting

An attempt to modify the articulatory behavior of a large number of children through use of the paired-stimuli technique is documented. The technique is based on the assumption that target phonemes produced acceptably in a training word will generalize to other phonetic contexts through use of a behavior modification program. Using the McDonald Screening Deep Test, the children were tested immediately before, immediately after, and two weeks after training on the target phoneme. The program is considered successful because of its effectiveness and its ease of administration.

Markedness Theory and Articulation Errors

Articulation errors of 19 children were subjected to a markedness analysis to determine whether their substitutions consisted of phones that were less complex than the target phonemes with respect to articulatory and perceptual effort. The unit for the analysis consisted of individual distinctive features and distinctive feature bundles. The analysis explored changes in features from more complex to less complex and the reverse. The children did not substitute phonemes requiring less effort than the target phoneme consistently. Their substitutions also consisted of phonemes that, according to markedness theory, might be considered to require greater effort than the target phoneme.