The development of language and communication may play an important role in the emergence of behavioral problems in young children, but they are rarely included in predictive models of behavioral development. In this study, cross-sectional relationships between language, attention, and behavior problems were examined using parent report, videotaped observations, and performance measures in a sample of 116 severely and profoundly deaf and 69 normally hearing children ages 1.5 to 5 years. Secondary analyses were performed on data collected as part of the Childhood Development After Cochlear Implantation Study, funded by the National Institutes of Health. Hearing-impaired children showed more language, attention, and behavioral difficulties, and spent less time communicating with their parents than normally hearing children. Structural equation modeling indicated there were significant relationships between language, attention, and child behavior problems. Language was associated with behavior problems both directly and indirectly through effects on attention. Amount of parent–child communication was not related to behavior problems.

No abstract

No abstract

SRI-Q allows tracking of global development of speech recognition over time as children progress through a hierarchy of speech perception measures and complements the more detailed assessments obtained from individual tests within the hierarchy.

The habitually confused voice quality terms, nasality and twang, were clarified in two experiments examining physiologic, acoustic, and perceptual distinctions between voice quality combinations of nasality in modal speech and twang. In experiment 1, physiologic and acoustic differences between oral speech, nasal speech, oral twang, and nasal twang were investigated. The results showed that instrumentally validated productions of each voice quality originated at the velopharyngeal port, whereas twang originated at the aryepiglottic sphincter. These physiologic manipulations generated characteristic acoustic differences in format frequency and amplitude shifts. The most significant shifts occurred for frequency at F1 and for amplitude below 1000 Hz (p<0.05). In experiment 2, perceptual distinctions among the voice qualities were identified by naive listeners, music majors, and speech pathology majors. Results of this experiment showed that the listeners perceived four distinct voice qualities by identifying them significantly above the level of chance (p<0.05).