Models of language and speech processing & the ICF & Theories of Language Development Flashcards
Stackhouse and Wells Model (1997)
Psycholinguistic perspective
2 points
Psycholinguistic perspective
• Child receives information about an utterance > remembers it > selects and produces words
• Children with speech/language difficulties experience one or more breakdowns along this framework
Speech Processing Model Stackhouse & Wells (1997)
This approach views a child’s speech problems as being derived from a breakdown at one or more levels of input, stored linguistic knowledge or output. However, it can also be used for typically developing children.
• Highlights the link between speech, language and literacy development
• Before learning to read and spell, children have already established a speech processing system to deal with their spoken language. This system is also the foundation for their written language development.
Stackhouse and Wells Model (1997) - Clinical Implications
Identify where the child’s speech/language processing skills are breaking down
• Highlight to parents/caregivers the importance of language
exposure and input for successful language learning
Bloom & Lahey’s Model
Bloom & Lahey looked at defining what is language:
- Form: morphology (grammar), syntax (sentences) and
phonological awareness.
- Content: semantics.
- Use: pragmatics.
6 Theories of Language Development
- Biological / Neural maturation Theory
- Nativist / [Psycho] linguistic Theory
- Behaviourism Theory
- Cognitive Theory [cognitive constructivism]
- Social Interactionist / Sociocultural Theory
- Stackhouse and Wells
- Biological / Neural Maturation Theory
Language is a product of brain functions, affected by environment and genetics.
• The brain is plastic i.e., potential to change
• Some macrostructures such as Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas are more critical than others for language
Implications:
• Genes provide an initial map for brain development, but it is the experiences and relationships babies and children have every day that literally shape their brains!
• Basic principles of neuroscience indicate that early intervention produces more favourable outcomes.
• Consider “critical” or “sensitive” periods for language learning (period of heightened responsiveness)
- Nativist / Linguistic Theory
Major proponents: Chomsky; Pinker
• Children have an innate (i.e., inborn) ability to learn language.
• LAD: Language Acquisition Device
• Children require only minimal language exposure to prime the LAD.
• Language input and social interaction have minimal influence on development.
• This theory emphasises the: “amazing language-learning ability (and drive to communicate) demonstrated by typically developing children.”
- Behaviourism Theory
Major proponents: Skinner; Bair; Lovaas A view that learning is passive - occurs as a result of responding to environmental stimuli; child has a clean slate and behaviour is shaped through + and – reinforcement Key terminology - Antecedent events - Shaping - Operant conditioning - Consequent events (four types) - Behavioural chaining Learning occurs when an environmental stimulus triggers a response or behaviour.
Behaviourism Theory - Shaping
Language is produced because caregivers selectively reinforce words.
Parents shape these sounds into words and give feedback to child when they imitate parent = a form of positive reinforcement
Behaviouralism Theory - Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning: “involves learning to make a response because it produces a reinforcing effect and, learning not to make a response because it produces a punishing effect”
Behaviourism Theory - Consequent event
- Positive reinforcement: works by presenting a motivating item to the person after the
desired behaviour, making the behaviour more likely to happen in the future – e.g., SLP giving stickers, high-fives after child exhibits desired behaviour. - Negative reinforcement: works by removing an item after a particular behaviour is exhibited, making the behaviour more likely to happen in the future because of the removal of a negative stimuli – e.g., SLP stops making stern or sad face after child exhibits desired behaviour
- Punishment: works by presenting a negative stimulus or removing a positive reinforcer following undesired / inappropriate behaviour – e.g., SLP removes favourite game or says “no”
- Extinction (aka ignoring): based on behavioural principle that when a response is not reinforced it will go away – e.g., SLP ignores child tapping on table
- Cognitive Theory
Major proponents: Piaget; Flavell Key terminology & concepts - Representational & symbolic play - Piaget’s four (4) cognitive stages - object permanence - means-end behaviour (causality) - Linkages exist between children’s motor ability, play behaviour, and language development. - Representational/ symbolic play is relevant to language development
Piaget’s four (4) cognitive stages:
- Sensorimotor: birth → 2 years
- Pre-operational: 2 → 7 years
child learns to use language to meet needs;
begins to solve physical problems - Concrete operational: 7 → 11 years
child learns to categorise and organise information - Formal operational: 11 → 15 years
learns to be an abstract thinker
Cognitive Theory
Sensorimotor stage: birth → 2 years
Means-end behaviour (cause and effect)
Child demonstrates intentionality
Child identifies a problem and makes a plan to solve the problem
Examples: child pushes a button or pulls a string to make a toy move (cause and effect)
child call “ma-ma” and waits for mother to appear
Cognitive Theory
Sensorimotor stage: birth → 2 years
Why is means-end behaviour relevant to language development?
Communication: intentionality, plans to solve a problem, begins to anticipate outcome
- anticipates an outcome
- selects appropriate behaviour to achieve outcome
- maintains behaviour to achieve outcome
- terminates / revises behaviour when outcome reached
Cognitive Theory
Sensorimotor stage: birth → 2 years
Object permanence
Child realises an object exists even when it cannot be seen.
Very young children cannot understand that objects continue to exist when they can’t be seen or felt
i.e., will quickly lose interest in (and not search for) a hidden toy.
Cognitive Theory
Sensorimotor stage: birth → 2 years
Why is object permanence relevant to language development?
- required if objects not present are going to be spoken about
- otherwise can only communicate about things that can be seen
Cognitive Theory
Pretend Play is either
- Representational [Dramatic] Play:
• Pretend play which emerges when a child begins to use familiar objects in appropriate ways to represent their world. - Symbolic Play:
• Pretend play in which a child uses one object to represent another
Cognitive Theory
Why is representational / symbolic play relevant to language development?
Why is representational / symbolic play relevant to language development?
• Infant’s have an early understanding of the symbolic nature of both e.g., a spoken word is an acoustic sequence that symbolises a semantic concept, in play a banana can represent a telephone
• Play sequences > linked to development of word sequences
• Play contexts > children can produce more complex grammatical language
• Play > linked to narrative development
- Social Interactionist / Sociocultural Theory
Major proponents: Vygotsky, Bloom, Bruner…
Key terminology
- Infant-directed talk
- Scripts
- Zone of proximal development
Communication interaction plays a central role in children’s language acquisition:
- Effects of social interaction on child language development – severe neglect or abuse
- Effects of social interaction on child language development – stimulating language development
(Infant-directed talk / baby-talk / motherese / parentese)
- Social Interactionist / Sociocultural Theory
Scripts: Parent-child routines
- Scripts: Scaffolding of predictable structure of an event that provides “slots” for participation and aids comprehension (Owens, 2012, p 438)
- Familiar interactions allows the child to anticipate his / her role in the interaction (builds pragmatic communication skills)
- Joint action routines (shared action sequences) provide the basis for many scripts
- Examples: repeated book-reading with pausing; peek-a-boo; “waving bye-bye”
Linear theories of phonological acquisition
Assume that:
•each discrete segment of this string of sound elements consists of a bundle of distinctive features
•all sound segments have equal value & all distinctive features are equal.
•phonological rules/processes generated apply only to the segmental level (as opposed to the suprasegmental level) and to changes that occur in the distinctive features (Dinnsen, 1997)
Linear theories of phonological acquisition:
3 theories
- Behaviourist theory
- Structuralist/ Universal order theory
- Natural phonology theory
- Behaviourist Theory (e.g. Mowrer, 1952; Skinner, 1972)
Focusses on observable behaviours – early vocalisations associated with e.g., food
• Includes stimulus (environment) -response (verbal behaviours) paradigm
• Emphasises role of reinforcement
-learner’s vocalisations become self-reinforcing when they are like the adult’s
-adult selectively reinforces sounds that resemble target language
• Need to communicate is inherent in this theory
• Limitation: speech too complex to be achieved by reinforcement
- Structuralist/Universal Order Theory (e.g., Jakobson, 1968,1971)
‘Universals’ exist in the development of all languages e.g., if a language has back consonants, it must have front consonants; if fricatives, then also stops
‘Principle of maximal contrast’ accounts for basic consonant and vowel structure of language
E.g., open vs closed sound is most basic contrast /p/ vs /a/ (ah)
Then… oral vs nasal
• Suggest that there is invariant and innate order in stages of phonemic development
• Rate of progression through stages can differ
• Sequence of stages based on feature oppositions or contrasts rather than sounds
• Structuralists’ concern with describing precise features of sounds led to development of IPA
• Limitation: Some studies → acquisition order may differ
- Natural Phonology Theory (e.g. Stampe, 1969, 1979)
- Stampe introduced the term ‘phonological process’ (1969)
- Theory with most contribution to our profession
- Children begin with a set of innate and universal processes so that they can simplify production > then suppressed according to the rules of that language
- Processes are thought to be phonetically-motivated (by physical properties of speech)
- Suppression of processes done in response to listening to native speakers – change innate process to match adult form
- Some sounds ‘more natural than others’ (Edwards & Shriberg, 1983)
- Natural Phonology Theory cont
Underlying representation assumed to be adult form
Underlying representation > Natural phonological processes Child’s surface representation
• E.g., if child says /bɒt/ for ‘spot’, assumed that underlying representation is /spɒt/
Baby: mmm, this is good dinner. Ill tell mum “bago al baka” mum throws out his food hmm talking out loud is harder than I thought
Innate system changes by three mechanisms:
1. limitation – process applies to fewer sounds and in fewer environments
2. ordering – processes are used in a more organised way e.g., ‘shop’ is first /dɒp,dɔp/, then becomes /tɒp,tɔp/
3. suppression – process disappears
Limitation: unusual processes are not accounted for within this theory, are not considered ‘natural’ - children appear to be passive in this process which contradicts findings of others (e.g. Kiparsky & Menn, 1976)
Phonological Processes
- Children develop sounds in stages called ‘phonological processes’ or ‘natural processes’ (e.g., many children say /tɐp,tʌp/ for /kɐp,kʌp/)
- Many are present in typically developing children
- Hierarchical use is recognised and known
- Processes usually suppressed by specific ages in typically developing speech sound systems
Three categories of phonological processes
- Syllable structure processes
- Substitution or systemic processes
- Assimilation processes
When do we expect resolution of these processes?
early – before 3yrs of age
middle - between 3-5 years of age
late - at around 5yrs of age
ongoing - may occur at different ages
Typical Syllable Structure Processes
4 types
• Reduplication: 2nd syllable becomes a replication of 1st. (e.g., ‘wawa’ for ‘water’) EARLY
• Weak syllable deletion: the omission of an unstressed syllable (e.g., ‘nana’ for ‘banana’) EARLY
• Final consonant deletion: omission of final consonant (e.g., /bе/ for ‘bed’/ /bi/
for ‘beach’) EARLY
• Cluster reduction: simplification of consonant clusters into a single consonant (e.g., ‘poon’ for ‘spoon’) LATE
Typical substitution/systemic processes
Fronting: place of speech sound production more anteriorly located than intended sound. For example: MIDDLE
•velar fronting: /ti:/ (‘tea’) for /ki:/(‘key’) or
•palatal fronting: /sɪp/ (‘sip’) for /ʃɪp/ (‘ship’)
Stopping: manner of speech sound production changed. For example: MIDDLE
•stopping of fricatives (e.g., /ti:/(‘tea’) for /si:/(‘sea’)
•stopping of affricates (e.g. /tʉ:/(‘too’) for /ʧʉ:/(‘chew’). This is also called deaffrication (stop component).
Typical substitution/systemic processes (cont)
Gliding of liquids: a liquid is changed into a glide (e.g., /wed/ (‘wed’) for ‘red’ ; /wʊk/ (‘wook’) for ‘look’, /bəwu:n/ (‘bawoon’) for ‘balloon’….) LATE
Fricative simplification: use of a more simple fricative than the target sound e.g., /fɐm/ (‘fum’) for ‘thumb’ LATE
Pre-vocalic voicing: an unvoiced sound changes to a voiced sound before a vowel e.g., /gi:/(‘gey’) for ‘key’ EARLY-MIDDLE
Assimilation processes
Speech sound errors where the sound has been influenced by a neighbouring sound in the utterance ONGOING
Labial assimilation: (e.g., /fwɪŋ/(‘fwing’) for ‘swing’,/bɪp/ (‘bip’) for ‘zip’)
Velar assimilation: (e.g., /ɡᴐɡ/ (‘gog’) for ‘dog’,/kɪk/ (‘kick’) for ‘kiss’) Nasal assimilation: (e.g., /mɐni/ (‘munny’) for ‘bunny’,/nɐn/ (‘nun’) for ‘done’)
Liquid assimilation: (e.g., /lеləʉ/ (‘lellow’) for ‘yellow’)
Regressive (/bɪp/ (‘bip’) for ‘zip’) and progressive (/kɪk/ (‘kick’) for ‘kiss’) assimilation
Factors Affecting Typical Fluency
• Fluency is multifactorial
• Typical fluency can be impacted by the motoric, linguistic, emotional and cognitive factors of a speaking situation
- Motoric = factors such as fatigue, tiredness, rate of speech
- Linguistic = language demands/load required
- Cognitive = complexity of speaking task
- Emotional = positive or negative emotions related to a speaking task (e.g., nervousness)
What is the ICF?
The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health.
The ICF is:
1. A conceptual framework for the description of health and health-related states.
2. A multi-purpose classification tool designed to serve various disciplines and different sectors.
The ICF has two (2) parts:
Part 1: Functioning and Disability a) Body component b) Activities component c) Participation component Part 2: Contextual Factors a) Environmental factors b) Personal factors
Part 1: Functioning and Disability - Body Component
Body structure and function:
→ Body structures are anatomical parts of the body such as organs, limbs and their components.
e.g., structures involved in voice and speech (structure of nose; mouth; pharynx, larynx…)
→ Body functions are the physiological functions of body systems (including psychological
functions)
e.g., mental functions (consciousness, attention…); sensory functions and pain (seeing, hearing, taste…); voice and speech functions (articulation functions, fluency and rhythm of speech functions); muscle functions (muscle tone…); swallowing functions
Classification of Body Functions
- Mental
- Sensory
- Voice and speech
- Cardiovascular, haematological, immunological and respiratory
- Digestive, metabolic and endocrine
- Genitourinary, reproductive
- Neuromuscular and movement related
- Skin and related
Part 1: Functioning and Disability - Activities & Participation component
§ Activity is the execution of a task or action by an individual
§ Participation is involvement in a life situation
Classification of Activities and Participation
- Learning & applying knowledge
- General tasks and demands
- Communication
- Mobility
- Self care
- Domestic life
- Interpersonal interactions and relationships
- Major life areas
- Community, social & civic life
Part 2: Contextual Factors
The ICF takes into account the social aspects of disability and does not see disability as only a ‘medical’ or ‘biological’ dysfunction.
The inclusion of contextual factors acknowledges the impact of the environment on the person’s functioning and personal factors that enable or disable a person with a health condition.
Environmental Factors
Make up the physical, social, and attitudinal environment in which people live and conduct their lives.
E.g., natural environment and human-changes to the environment (sound, light…); support and relationships (immediate family, friends, people in positions of authority, health professionals, domestic animals…), products and technology (products and technology of communication), attitudes (attitudes of immediate and extended family, strangers, health professionals, societal attitudes), services, systems and policies (transportation services, legal services, heath services systems and policies).
Classification of Environmental Factors
- ProductsandTechnology
- NaturalEnvironmentandHuman-MadeChangestoEnvironment 3. SupportandRelationships
- Attitudes
- Services,SystemsandPolicies
Personal Factors
• The background of an individual’s life and living
• Impacts of attributes of the person.
e.g., ethnicity, gender, educational background, coping abilities/styles
Observational Assessment of Communication
Where and how?
- Helpful to observe communication in as many contexts as possible (e.g.,
home, clinic, waiting room, classroom, playground) - Observations (e.g., parent-child interaction, mealtimes)
- Speech/ language sample/s
- Work samples (e.g., written narratives)
What can we observe?
Body structures & functions:
• Language • Speech • Voice • Fluency • Swallowing
Activity & participation, e.g.,:
• Learning • Communication • Self care • Domestic life
• Interpersonal interactions and relationships
Environmental & personal factors
Observation of communication
How is the child communicating – is the child using:
• joint visual attention?
• age appropriate eye contact?
• facial expressions?
• gestures e.g., pointing, showing, waving, taking adult by the hand?
• sounds and what type of sounds e.g., C, CV, CVC?
• gestures with sounds/words?
• single words?
• words combinations?
Language sampling
• An important component of the clinical evaluation of children’s language abilities
• Provides:
A realistic interpretation of performance of linguistic capabilities [in context]
An efficient and valid rationale for the assessment of language
Goal:
“…to elicit a sample of the child’s most mature language and/or communication skills possible.”
Language sampling Types
Conversations: in play – ‘play-based’ language sample
Conversations: with an adult partner (governed by rules of discourse e.g., turn taking, topic maintenance, conversation repair)
Narratives: story tell e.g., picture, event; story retell
Narratives: expository / procedural (acquired later in childhood through adolescence)
Language sampling - Gathering and transcribing:
- Utterance: Sounds (e.g., interjections ‘oh’; animal ‘moo’; repetition ‘huh’; sounds accompany ‘vroom’), word, phrases, sentences that are meaningful, intelligible, and add to the conversation.
- Each fully intelligible utterance should be assigned an utterance number i.e., unintelligible utterances not numbered.
- Analyses usually requires at least: 50 utterances
- Aim for: 100 utterances
Language sampling - Analysis
§Content: semantic - semantic relations
§Form: morphological - Brown’s 14 morphemes
- Mean length of utterance – morphemes (MLUm)
§Use: pragmatic functions - Dore’s ‘Primitive Speech Acts’
Content: Semantic relations
Examples:
Agent – action: car crash, daddy crash, mummy eat
Agent – object: daddy [eat] cookie, mummy [catch] ball
Action – object: find mitten, throw ball, eat cookie
Possessor – possession: my bottle, daddy shoe
Form: Mean Length of Utterance – morphemes (MLUm)
- Average length of morphemes in the speaker’s utterances.
- MLUm norms are available for children
- Count the number of morphemes for each utterance – use standard guidelines
- Total all of the morphemes
- Total number of morphemes is divided by the number of utterances
Observational Assessment – Speech Sound Development
Connected speech samples (e.g., conversation/ narrative) are very important when observing/assessing a child’s speech sound development.
What to consider:
• Phonetic inventory
• Phonological processes
• Sound production in different word positions (initial, medial, final)
• Consistency of sound errors/ productions of words
• Overall intelligibility rating
• Calculation of speech rate
Spontaneous Speech Sample
Disadvantages
• difficulty transcribing unintelligible responses when intent of message is unclear
• time required to elicit & transcribe an adequate sample
• difficulty in obtaining a representative sample of sounds of language spoken – range may be restricted
Advantages
• provides more accurate picture of child’s phonological system
• phoneme productions in variety of phonetic contexts
• can observe error patterns & variability
• can judge severity & intelligibility
• can assess rate, intonation, stress, syllable structure
• can use sample for other speech & lang. analyses
