Approaches to Assessment

Assessment Approaches

• Analysis of Phonetic Inventories– Consonant Inventory– Vowel Inventory

• Stress Patterns• Syllable Sequence/Structure Analysis• Consonant Cluster Production• Distinctive Feature Analysis• Place and Manner Analysis• Phonological Process Analysis• Contextual Testing

Analysis of Phonetic Inventories

• Performed with children in Stage 2 and early Stage 3 See Bliele page 32 for table

• Describes ability to pronounce– Distinctive features– Sounds– Syllables– Stress patterns

• Does not specify if person speaks correctly

Table II.1

Consonant Inventories/Production Analysis

• Performed on children Stages 2 to 4• Attached to age norms• Norms exist for consonant inventories of

unintelligible and intelligible speech (page 34) Table 5.1 and 5.2

• For analysis of intelligible speech, a consonant is established when it occurs in at least two different words.

• For analysis of unintelligible speech, a consonant is established when it occurs in at list three different words.

Table 5.1

Table 5.2

Consonant Inventory

• The developmental level of a client’s consonant inventory is that most closely approximating the number and type of client’s established consonants. (see page 106 Bliele, tables 11.1 and 11.2)

• Categories for acquisition of consonants and consonant clusters– Categories Percentage Chances (5) Chances (10)– Mastered 75-100 4/5-5/5 8/10-10/10

words– Acquired 50-74 3/5 5/10-7/10– Emerging 10-49 2/5 1/10 – 4/10– Rare 1-10 0/5 1/10– Absent 0 0/5 0/10 Bliele (pg 106)

Table 11.1

Table 11.2

Most frequently misarticulated sounds

/s, z, , , , , t, d, v, r, w/

Vowel Inventory

Pollock (1991) recommends vowels and dipththongs to be assessed:

Non-rhotic/I, I, ei, , ae, u, , ou, , , , aI, au, i)

Rhotic (vowel = shwar)/, I , , , /

Stress Patterns

• Beat of words– Primary stress is indicated by placing a

line above the vowel or beginning of syllable

• peٰrmit or ٰpermit• permiٰt or perٰmit

• Only include an aspect of a child’s phonetic inventory if it occurs in two or more words

Syllable Sequence/Structure Analysis

• Analyze syllable sequences in words.– Describe words in terms of

• Syllable boundaries• Sequences of consonants and vowels

– Use period to indicate syllable boundaries• CCV.CV.CV

• Syllable Structure– Describe two levels of syllable structure

• Syllable level• Consonant and vowel level

S C V

Consonant Cluster Production

•Performed with clients Stages 2-4•Categories for acquisition of

consonants and consonant clusters– Categories Percentage Chances (5) Chances

(10)– Mastered 75-100 4/5-5/5 8/10-10/10

words– Acquired 50-74 3/5 5/10-7/10– Emerging 10-49 2/5 1/10 – 4/10– Rare 1-10 0/5 1/10– Absent 0 0/5 0/10 Bliele (pg 106)

Distinctive Feature for Consonants

• Sounds are categorized into classes• Natural classes are groups of sounds in a

language that share the same features– Articulatory– Acoustic or– Auditory

• Each sound is analyzed in terms of constituent features. These features and not the phonemes are the smallest and most basic unit of phonological analysis

• Features are theoretical constructs• System aims at providing a limited set of

universal features that is adequate for describing the phonological constrasts of all languages in the world

Distinctive Feature Approaches

• Speech sample should satisfy the following criteria– Describe patterns used by the speaker– Identify the ways in which these

patterns differ from those used by normal speakers

– Determine the implications of these disordered patterns for effective communication

– Provide a basis for assessing changes during treatment

Distinctive Feature Approaches

• DF theory groups sounds into classes according to the common features which define them

• Singh and Polen (1972) features are more related to speech production – See table 4.5– Front/Back– Nonlabial/labial– Nonsonorant/sonorant– Nonnasal/nasal– Nonsibilant/sibilant– Voiceless/voiced

Table Singh and Polen (1972)

Distinctive Feature Analysis Chart

Distinctive Feature Approaches

• You can use– Tests and subtests

• Traditional phonetic description can be used in much the same manner– Manner and place tables

Place and Manner Analysis

Traditional Chart

Place and Manner Analysis

Distinctive Feature for Vowels

• See Bliele, 1.2 pg.4 and Bankson, 1.1 pg.13 Place

Height

Phonological Process Analysis

• Simplifies groups of sounds and eliminate sound contrasts

• Processes– Natural– Idiosyncratic

Phonological Process Analysis

• Methods developed– Procedures for the analysis of

children’s language (Ingram, 1976)– Phonological analysis: A multifaceted

approach (Lund and Duchan (1978, 1983)

– Natural process analysis (Shriberg and Kwiatkowski (1980)

– Assessment of phonological processes (Hodson, 1980)

Contextual Testing

• Purposes– Influence of surrounding phones– Consistency of misarticulations

• Deep Test of Articulation (McDonald)– Objected to three position testing because

• Word and speech appear in sequence of syllables• Sounds do not appear in initial, medial and final positions

but as releasers and arrestors in syllables• Too small a sample

Contextual Testing - McDonald

– Types of consonant connections• Simple = CV, VC, CVC• Double =

– Between two vowels (VCV)– Across word boundaries– Perform both arresting and releasing functions

in a sequential manner• Compound = consonant cluster• Abutting = two adjacent consonants are

components of two different syllables

• Finally, stimulability may be a better predictor for therapy

A procedure for completing phonological analysis and error

pattern analysisNewman, et. al. Assessment and Remediation of Articulatory and

Phonological Disorders. Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill

Transcribe

• Transcribe the sample phonetically as a list of words

• You can group according to their initial and final consonants

Example

Analyze

• Analyze the syllable structures • A list of the different word

structures of in the sample should be made

• Write the syllable structure next to the word

Example

Analyze

• Analyze substitutions and distortions

• Syllable initial and syllable final• Errors should try to be coded as

substitutions instead of distortions whenever possible

• In these cases try to use narrow transcription

Example

List

• Phonemes used correctly • Phonemes used correctly

somewhere/anywhere in the sample (note word position), in some context

• Phonemes appearing in the sample as substitutions, but never used correctly

• Phonemes that were not represented in the sample words

Summaries

Summary Word Structures

• V• CV• CVCV• CVCVCV• VVCV

Summary of Substitutions, Omissions, Distortions

Example

• Phonemic Repertoire1. Used correctly all the time: w, h2. Used correctly in some context: p, b, m, w, t, d, n,

h3. Appearing; not used correctly: none4. Not represented in sample words:

Examine

• Examine the substituting and omission columns for phonological processes

• Scan the omission column for final consonant deletion, number of times it does and does not occur and phonemes for which it applies

• Scan the substitutions for stopping, fronting of palatals and/or velars, gliding or liquid simplification, cluster reduction, assimilation, voicing or devoicing and other processes

Examine (continued)

• Notation should be made of which phonemes are affected

Distinctive Feature Analysis Chart

Traditional Description of Consonants Chart

Correct Sounds and Substitutions Chart

Example

• Processes1.Final consonant deletion – all phonemes2. Stopping3. Liquid simplification4. Vocalization5. Cluster reduction6. Fronting

Contrastive Analysis

• Used for– Dialect speakers– Second language learners

• McGregor, Williams, Hearst and Johnson (1997)

Contrastive Analysis Process

• Become familiar with the linguistic variety– Literature– Compare speech with other members of family– Collect local norms– Interviews

• Collect data for contrastive analysis• Identify true errors

– List all nonstandard patterns– Evaluate if patterns consistent with D1/L1– If patterns are inconsistent they are true errors

• Some inconsistent errors may indicate the person is in process of acquiring

– Interpret the results• Use other information to verify your judgments, to

validate