Speech scientists have long proposed that formant exaggeration in infant-directed speech plays an important role in language acquisition. This event-related potential (ERP) study investigated neural coding of formant-exaggerated speech in 6-12-monthold infants. Two synthetic ⁄ i ⁄ vowels were presented in alternating blocks to test the effects of formant exaggeration. ERP waveform analysis showed significantly enhanced N250 for formant exaggeration, which was more prominent in the right hemisphere than the left. Time-frequency analysis indicated increased neural synchronization for processing formantexaggerated speech in the delta band at frontal-central-parietal electrode sites as well as in the theta band at frontal-central sites. Minimum norm estimates further revealed a bilateral temporal-parietal-frontal neural network in the infant brain sensitive to formant exaggeration. Collectively, these results provide the first evidence that formant expansion in infant-directed speech enhances neural activities for phonetic encoding and language learning.

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Using the new table will provide more accurate estimates of the 95% critical range for successive administrations of word recognition tests.

This study explored the impact of recent demographic changes on clinical service delivery in the state of Minnesota. A Web-based survey was used to ask speech-language pathologists in Minnesota about their training, clinical caseloads, and professional experiences with respect to diversity. Primary survey goals were to (a) determine if, and how, recent changes in the overall state demographics were reflected on caseloads of speech-language pathologists, and (b) identify challenges clinicians faced in meeting the needs of an increasingly diverse population. The authors considered the breadth or range of economically, racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse populations represented on caseloads, relative to depth of diversity. Survey results are discussed with respect to challenges inherent in providing services to a diverse caseload, together with the competencies needed in order to meet these professional challenges.