Biomedical subjects

Martin J Ball

Publications and source records attributed to Martin J Ball.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Typically developing and speech-impaired children's adherence to the sonority hypothesis.

During phonological development, children frequently produce consonant clusters as consonant singletons, a process commonly referred to as cluster reduction. The principles of sonority may provide a theoretical basis for explaining patterns of cluster reduction evident in children's speech. Two studies were conducted to investigate whether children's word-initial cluster reductions adhered to the sonority hypothesis. Study one involved 16 children with typically developing speech, and study two involved 40 children with impaired speech. The children's consonant cluster productions characterized by a cluster reduction were analysed. When both groups of participants reduced word-initial clusters to a target consonant, the sonority hypothesis was adhered to; but when the clusters were reduced to a non-target consonant, the sonority hypothesis was violated. Analysis of target and non-target reductions revealed that some reductions of the individual clusters, and those within specific cluster categories, adhered to the sonority hypothesis while others did not. In light of these findings, it is suggested that although sonority is a valuable concept, it may not account for all patterns of cluster reduction evident in children's speech.

Case-Control Studies↗

PubMed2004

Owning up to complexity: a sociocultural orientation to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

To enrich our conception of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), it is necessary to take a wider orientation to this disability category than has been advocated traditionally. Over the past decade, there has been an emerging conception of ADHD from a sociocultural perspective, and this orientation, when linked to the traditional biomedical perspective, provides a more accurate and authentic construct of ADHD. In this article, we advocate that speech-language pathologists approach ADHD with a mindset that is open to the complexities of context-bound human functioning at all levels. Four sources of data demonstrating the richness of the sociocultural orientation are presented and clinical implications are detailed

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗

PubMed2003

Clinical applications of a cognitive phonology.

It is noted that much previous work in phonology has attempted to provide economical theories of sound systems without explicitly attempting to provide theories that have psycholinguistic validity. The work of Bybee on a cognitive approach to phonology is described, and its possible application to disordered speech is considered. It is discussed that cognitive phonology, coupled with gestural phonology, provides descriptive as well as explanatory accounts of disordered speech, and has specific implications for approaches to therapy. The article concludes with a case study of child with severely unintelligible speech, where it seems that the insights of cognitive phonology provide both an explanation for and a description of her speech behaviors.

Articulation Disorders↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Transcribing disordered speech: the segmental and prosodic layers.

In this article we explore the speech layers of a transcription toolkit. We begin by discussing issues of transcription theory and practice, including the difference between broad and narrow phonetic transcription and the importance of narrow transcription with disordered speech, and the measurement of transcriber reliability. We also look at extending symbol sets and using instrumental approaches to deal with atypical speech production. Both segmental and prosodic transcription are dealt with in turn and illustrated with sample transcriptions. We note that, while several phenomena can be subsumed under the prosodic layer, less agreement exists on how to transcribe these than with segmental examples, and that little agreement yet exists on how to notate prosodic disorders. We conclude with illustrations from various adult and child cases.

Humans↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Electronic publishing: opportunities and challenges for clinical linguistics and phonetics.

This paper discusses the contributions of informatics technology to the field of clinical linguistics and phonetics. The electronic publication of research reports and books has facilitated both the dissemination and the retrieval of scientific information. Electronic archives of speech and language corpora, too, stimulate research efforts. Although technology provides many opportunities, there remain significant challenges. Establishment and maintenance of scientific archives is largely dependent upon volunteer efforts, and there are few standards to ensure long-term access. Coordinated efforts and peer review are necessary to ensure utility and quality.

Humans↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Models of phonology in the education of speech-language pathologists.

We discuss developments in theoretical phonology and, in particular, at the divide between theories aiming to be adequate accounts of the data, as opposed to those claiming psycholinguistic validity. It would seem that the latter might have greater utility for thye speech-language pathologist. However, we need to know the dominant models of clinical phonology, in both clinical education and practise, before we can promote other theoretical approaches. This article describes preliminary results from a questionnaire designed to discover what models of phonology are taught in institutions training speech-language pathologists in the United States. Results support anecdotal evidence that only a limited number of approaches (phonemic, distinctive features, and processes) are taught in many instances. They also demonstrate that some correspondents were unable to distinguish aspects of theoretical phonology from similar sounding (but radically different) models of intervention. This ties in with the results showing that some instructors of phonology courses have little or no background in the subject.

Humans↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Distributional and stylistic variation in /r/-misarticulations: a case study.

This article describes the case of a client who displayed some interesting patterns of realization of the target English phoneme /r/. These varied according to both distribution within the word, and style of utterance. We speculate as to the cause of some of these forms, and on possible therapy strategies.

Articulation Disorders↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Phonetic and phonological analysis of progressive speech degeneration: a case study.

In this paper we report on an adult male participant with a rare form of progressive speech degeneration. We present acoustic phonetic data on his vowel and consonant production, and describe his prosody and syllable structure. We suggest possible phonological analyses of his speech, concluding that a gestural approach to phonology best characterizes his speech production and its degeneration.

Articulation Disorders↗