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Biomedical subjects

P Mirenda

Publications and source records attributed to P Mirenda.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1994

Effects of high and low constraint utterances on the production of immediate and delayed echolalia in young children with autism.

This study examined the effects of adult antecedent utterances on the occurrence and use of echolalia in children with autism during a free play setting. Adult antecedent utterances were differentiated into two types, high and low constraint, based on the degree of linguistic constraint inherent in the adult utterance and social-communicative control exerted on the child's social and verbal interaction. Results of this study identified a variety of patterns of echolalia usage following adult high and low constraint utterances. Overall results found that a majority of immediate echoes followed high constraint utterances and were primarily used as responsives, organizational devices, and cognitives. The majority of delayed echoes followed low constraint utterances and were primarily used as requestives, assertives, and cognitives. Delayed echoes were more likely than immediate echoes to be produced with evidence of comprehension, but there were no differences in comprehension within the two categories of echolalia following high and low constraint utterances. Educational implications are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Enhancing curricula design.

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Communication Devices for People with Disabilities↗
PubMed1991

The effects of two levels of linguistic constraint on echolalia and generative language production in children with autism.

The effects of specific types of adult antecedent utterances (high vs. low constraint) on the verbal behaviors produced by three subjects with autism were examined. Adult utterance types were differentiated in terms of the amount of control the adults exhibited in their verbal interactions with the subjects during a free play setting. Videotaped interactions were analyzed and coded according to a predetermined categorical system. The results of this investigation suggest that the level of linguistic constraint exerted on the child interactants during naturalistic play sessions affected their communicative output. The overall findings suggest that (a) adult high constraint utterances elicited more verbal utterances in general, as well as a majority of the subjects' echolalia; (b) adult low constraint utterances elicited more subject high constraint utterances; and (c) the degree of constraint of adult utterances did not appear to influence the mean lengths of subjects' utterances. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for educational interventions, and suggestions are made for future research concerning the dynamics of echolalia in interactive contexts.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1989

A comparison of symbol transparency in nonspeaking persons with intellectual disabilities.

This investigation compared the transparency of 11 different types of symbols representing objects with 40 nonspeaking subjects who experienced various degrees of intellectual disability. The subjects included a number of individuals with physical impairments or autism in addition to mild, moderate, or severe mental retardation. The symbol sets included: nonidentical objects, miniature objects, identical colored photographs, nonidentical colored photographs, black-and-white photographs, Picture Communication Symbols (PCS), Picsyms, Rebus, Self-Talk, Blissymbols, and written words. Statistical analyses indicated that real objects were more readily recognized than were any of the symbol sets and that Blissymbols and written words were more difficult than were any of the other sets. In addition, the results suggest the existence of a hierarchy of difficulty at the object (noun) level for the symbol sets assessed. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for selecting an initial symbol set for nonspeaking individuals. In addition, some suggestions for using the assessment protocols in clinical practice are presented, along with future research implications.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Synthetic and natural speech preferences of male and female listeners in four age groups.

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the preferences of listeners of both sexes in four age groups with regard to natural and computer-generated synthetic speech in six different contexts. The subjects (listeners) for this study included 5 males and 5 females in each of four age groups (6-8 year olds, 10-12 year olds, adolescents, and adults). The listeners rated their preferences for 11 different voices (four natural and seven synthetic) on a 5-point Likert scale. Their preferences were rated for six communication contexts dependent on the potential user of the voice (adult male, adult female, child male, child female, computer, and self). The data were analyzed separately for each of the six communication contexts. In general, female listeners across the age range indicated that only natural female voices (adult or child) were acceptable alternatives to their own speech, thus rejecting the natural male voices as well as the synthetic voices. Male listeners appeared to be somewhat more flexible in terms of gender-appropriateness for themselves and other adult men, but selected female-sounding voices for women and female children. Children preferred to have computers produce synthesized speech, while adults preferred computers with more natural-sounding voices. The results of this investigation raise a number of issues related to the combined effects of age and gender-appropriateness of natural and synthetic speech. These are discussed in terms of their implications for the future development of synthetic speech technology used in communication devices.

Adolescent↗