RESUMO
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to characterize the communicative participation and functional speech intelligibility (i.e., how children use communication and how well they are understood across everyday life) of typically developing (TD) bilingual Jamaican preschoolers and those with functionally defined speech sound disorders (fSSDs) in the COVID-19 milieu. Findings were also compared to an existing corpus of baseline data to document and explore differences in children's speech-language outcomes secondary to pandemic-related social restrictions. METHOD: Thirty bilingual Jamaican preschoolers, 21 TD and nine with fSSDs, were assessed during the pandemic via telepractice. Association and univariate mean testing were completed to characterize children's communicative participation and functional speech intelligibility. Data were then compared to an existing corpus of baseline data (collected in person between 2013 and 2019), which included direct child assessment and parent reports and consisted of TD (n = 226) Jamaican Creole-English-speaking preschoolers and those with fSSDs (n = 39) to compare performance profiles across data sets. All participants attended schools in Kingston, Jamaica. RESULTS: Measures of communicative participation remained stable in the context of the COVID-19 milieu for children in the TD and fSSD groups, but functional speech intelligibility outcomes for children with fSSDs deviated between in-person findings collected from children pre-pandemic. Between-groups differences were also found on measures of speech production accuracy but were no longer significant when considering telepractice as a covariate. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this investigation serve to characterize the communicative participation and functional speech intelligibility of TD bilingual Jamaican preschoolers and those with fSSDs in the COVID-19 milieu. By extension, the results comparing data from preschoolers collected during the pandemic to an existing corpus of baseline data from a different group of preschoolers provide critical insights about multilingual children's speech-language outcomes in the context of acutely changing environmental circumstances. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25461505.
Assuntos
COVID-19 , Multilinguismo , Inteligibilidade da Fala , Humanos , Pré-Escolar , Masculino , Feminino , Jamaica , Transtorno Fonológico/diagnóstico , Linguagem Infantil , SARS-CoV-2RESUMO
PURPOSE: There is a shortage of available methods to accurately inform the developmental status of children whose cultural and linguistic backgrounds vary from the mainstream. The purpose of this review article was to describe different approaches used to support the accurate characterization of speech, language, and functional communication in children speaking Jamaican Creole and English, an understudied paradigm in the speech pathology research. METHOD: Approaches used across four previously published studies in the Jamaican Creole Language Project are described. Participants included 3- to 6-year-old Jamaican children (n = 98-262) and adults (n = 15-33). Studies I and II described validation efforts about children's functional communication using the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS; speech) and the Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six (FOCUS; speech and language). Study III described efforts to accurately characterize difference and disorder in children's expressive grammar using adapted scoring, along with adult models to contextualize child responses. Last, Study IV applied acoustic duration (e.g., whole word) and an adapted scoring protocol to inform variation in speech sound productions in the Jamaican context where a post-Creole continuum exists. RESULTS: Studies I and II offered promising psychometric evidence about the utility of the ICS and the FOCUS. Study III revealed strong sensitivity and specificity in classifying difference and disorder using adult models. Last, in Study IV, linguistically informed acoustic analyses and an adapted protocol captured variation in speech productions better than a standard approach. CONCLUSIONS: Applying culturally responsive methods can enhance the accurate characterization of speech, language, and functional communication in Jamaican children. The innovative methods used offer a model approach that could be applied to other linguistic contexts where a mismatch exists between speech-language pathologists and their clientele. PRESENTATION VIDEO: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23929461.
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Transtornos da Comunicação , Idioma , Criança , Humanos , Pré-Escolar , Jamaica , Fala , FonéticaRESUMO
PURPOSE: This study characterized communicative participation and related aspects of functional communication for Jamaican Creole (JC)-English-speaking preschoolers with and without functionally defined speech sound disorders (fSSDs). This study included parent reports and direct assessment measures from an existing corpus of baseline data collected prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. METHOD: The communicative participation of typically developing (TD; n = 226) bilingual JC-English-speaking preschoolers and those with fSSDs (n = 39) was documented using the Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six (FOCUS). Functional speech intelligibility was recorded using the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) in English and JC (ICS-JC). Objective measures of speech production were collected through direct child assessment in both languages and then transcribed and calculated for percent of consonants (PCC), vowels (PVC), and phonemes correct (PPC). Within-group relationships were explored using association testing, and differences between groups were explored through multivariate analyses. RESULTS: FOCUS scores and ICS and ICS-JC scores were found to be minimally to moderately related for Jamaican preschoolers in the TD group (r = .28-.34, p < .002) and strongly related in the fSSD group (r = .56-.60, p < .002). No relations were observed between the FOCUS scores and PCC/PVC/PPC in either language. There was a statistically significant difference between all FOCUS scores for Jamaican preschoolers in the TD and fSSD groups (p ≤ .002). CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide additional evidence for using the FOCUS beyond documenting change in communicative participation to support clinical decision-making in planning and developing speech-language interventions. This study also documents an important characterization of JC-English-speaking children with and without fSSDs, offering data on children's abilities that can be used in future comparisons of communicative participation and speech functioning observed during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
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COVID-19 , Multilinguismo , Criança , Humanos , Jamaica/epidemiologia , Pandemias , COVID-19/epidemiologia , Inteligibilidade da FalaRESUMO
PURPOSE: This study examined the speech acoustic characteristics of Jamaican Creole (JC) and English in bilingual preschoolers and adults using acoustic duration measures. The aims were to determine if, for JC and English, (a) child and adult acoustic duration characteristics differ, (b) differences occur in preschoolers' duration patterns based on the language spoken, and (c) relationships exist between the preschoolers' personal contextual factors (i.e., age, sex, and percentage of language [%language] exposure and use) and acoustic duration. METHOD: Data for this cross-sectional study were collected in Kingston, Jamaica, and New York City, New York, United States, during 2013-2019. Participants included typically developing simultaneous bilingual preschoolers (n = 120, ages 3;4-5;11 [years;months]) and adults (n = 15, ages 19;0-54;4) from the same linguistic community. Audio recordings of single-word productions of JC and English were collected through elicited picture-based tasks and used for acoustic analysis. Durational features (voice onset time [VOT], vowel duration, whole-word duration, and the proportion of vowel to whole-word duration) were measured using Praat, a speech analysis software program. RESULTS: JC-English-speaking children demonstrated developing speech motor control through differences in durational patterns compared with adults, including VOT for voiced plosives. Children's VOT, vowel duration, and whole-word duration were produced similarly across JC and English. The contextual factor %language use was predictive of vowel and whole-word duration in English. CONCLUSIONS: The findings from this study contribute to a foundation of understanding typical bilingual speech characteristics and motor development as well as schema in JC-English speakers. In particular, minimal acoustic duration differences were observed across the post-Creole continuum, a feature that may be attributed to the JC-English bilingual environment. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.21760469.
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Multilinguismo , Fonética , Criança , Humanos , Adulto Jovem , Adulto , Jamaica , Estudos Transversais , Idioma , AcústicaRESUMO
Due to the lack of normative data about bilingual speech development and limited availability of diagnostic tools optimised for this population, bilingual children under consideration for speech-language services are at an elevated risk of misdiagnosis. In the absence of validated assessment tools, speech-language pathologists may use measures of accuracy and variability of speech production to diagnose suspected speech sound disorders in bilingual children. Research in general motor development suggests that variability and accuracy may trade off in the course of maturation, whereby movement variability spikes before the transition to a more mature stage of motor control. Such variability-accuracy tradeoffs have been described in monolingual speech development but are understudied in bilingual populations, where cross-linguistic transfer occurs. This study aimed to examine variability, accuracy, and cross-linguistic transfer in the speech of 20 bilingual children speaking Jamaican Creole and English. We hypothesised that children who showed higher accuracy in their productions would also exhibit more variable speech, indicating a variability-accuracy tradeoff. The Word Inconsistency Assessment from the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology was administered to measure accuracy and variability in the English context, where misdiagnosis is likely to occur. Contrary to our hypothesis, we observed that individuals with higher accuracy tended to be less variable in their productions. Future research should examine longitudinal trajectories of accuracy and variability and consider a more culturally-appropriate definition of 'accuracy' in documenting bilingual speech sound development.
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Idioma , Multilinguismo , Humanos , Fala , Fonética , Medida da Produção da Fala , Pré-Escolar , Masculino , Feminino , JamaicaRESUMO
PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to characterize speech acoustics in bilingual preschoolers who speak Jamaican Creole (JC) and English. We compared a standard approach with a culturally responsive approach for characterizing speech sound productions. Preschoolers' speech productions were compared to adult models from the same linguistic community as a means for providing confirmatory evidence of typical speech patterns specific to JC-English speakers. METHOD: Two protocols were applied to the data collected using the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (DEAP) Articulation subtest: (a) the standardized DEAP protocol and (b) a culturally and linguistically adapted protocol reflective of the Jamaican post-Creole (English to Creole) continuum. The protocols were used to analyze responses from JC-English-speaking preschoolers (n = 119) and adults (n = 15). Responses were analyzed using acoustic (voice onset time, whole-word duration, and vowel duration) and perceptual (percentage of consonant correct-revised and response frequencies) measures. RESULTS: The culturally responsive protocol captured variation in the frequency and acoustic differences produced in the post-Creole continuum, with higher amounts of "other" responses compared to "standard" target responses for both children and adults. Adults' whole-word durations were shorter and showed more consistent prevoicing during initial plosives compared to the children. CONCLUSIONS: Applying culturally responsive methods, including knowledge of the variation produced in the post-Creole continuum and with adult models from the same linguistic community, improved the ecological validity of speech characterizations for JC-English preschoolers. Acoustic properties of speech should be investigated further as a means of describing bilingual development and distinguishing between difference and disorder. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.20249382.
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Fonética , Fala , Acústica , Criança , Humanos , Jamaica , Acústica da Fala , Medida da Produção da Fala/métodosRESUMO
Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate the appropriateness of standardized assessments of expressive grammar and vocabulary in a sample of preschool-age dual language learners (DLLs) who use Jamaican Creole (JC) and English. Adult models from the same linguistic community as these children were used to inform culturally and linguistically appropriate interpretation of children's responses to a standardized assessment. Method JC-English-speaking preschoolers (n = 176) and adults (n = 33) completed the Word Structure and Expressive Vocabulary subtests of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Preschool-Second Edition. Adults' responses were used to develop an adapted scoring procedure that considered the influence of JC linguistic features on responses. DLLs' responses scored using the standard English and adapted JC procedures were compared. Results JC-English DLLs and adults used similar linguistic structures in response to subtest questions. DLLs' scores differed significantly from the standardized sample on both subtests. Preschoolers received higher raw and corresponding standard scores with adapted scoring compared to standard scoring. Adapted scoring that made use of adult models yielded high classification accuracy at a rate of 93.8% for Word Structure and 92.1% for Expressive Vocabulary. Conclusions Adapting standardized assessment scoring procedures using adult models may offer an ecologically valid approach to working with DLL preschoolers that can support a more accurate assessment of language functioning. These findings suggest that the use of standardized assessments for bilingual JC-English speakers requires a culturally responsive approach. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14403026.
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Idioma , Multilinguismo , Criança , Linguagem Infantil , Pré-Escolar , Humanos , Jamaica , Testes de Linguagem , VocabulárioRESUMO
Purpose The purpose of this study is to characterize narrative competence of typically developing bilingual children using Jamaican Creole (JC) and English. Method Story comprehension and fictional storytelling tasks in JC and English were completed by 104 bilingual preschoolers aged 4-6 years. Story comprehension was analyzed using inferential story comprehension questions representing Blank's Question Hierarchy. Fictional storytelling was analyzed using the Monitoring Indicators of Scholarly Language framework for narrative macrostructure and microstructure. Results Story comprehension was significantly correlated within each language, but only questions from Level 4 of Blank's Question Hierarchy showed significant correlations between languages. Fictional storytelling was significantly better in English than in JC for macrostructure (total score, internal response, plan, consequence) and microstructure (total score, adverbs, elaborated noun phrases). Story complexity in JC and English was significantly correlated. In terms of developmental effects, children's macrostructure and story complexity appear to be better at 4 years than 5 years, with English outperforming JC. Furthermore, age correlated with story comprehension in JC. Conclusion Comparison of narrative competence in bilingual children provides much needed insights into language development, with examination of JC and English bilinguals representing an understudied bilingual context.
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Linguagem Infantil , Idioma , Competência Mental/psicologia , Multilinguismo , Narração , Negro ou Afro-Americano/psicologia , Criança , Pré-Escolar , Estudos de Coortes , Compreensão , Feminino , Humanos , Desenvolvimento da Linguagem , Testes de Linguagem , MasculinoRESUMO
The present study investigated the sensitivity and specificity of the English Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) and the ICS-Jamaican Creole (ICS-JC) translation with bilingual preschool-aged Jamaican children. Participants in this study were 262 English-Jamaican Creole simultaneous bilingual children (aged 3;3 to 6;3, M = 4;11, SD = 7.8). The ICS and ICS-JC were administered to parents in auditory form, rather than written form. Although recent evidence has demonstrated the validity and reliability of the ICS as an assessment tool in various languages, further data are needed to determine diagnostic accuracy of the ICS and ICS-JC in Jamaican children. The sensitivity and specificity of both tools were high in this cohort of children, indicating that in the Jamaican context, these versions of the ICS could be used as screening tools to identify children who require further assessment of speech sound disorders. A cut-off score of 4.12 was used for both tools to achieve high sensitivity (0.84) and specificity (0.70) values for the ICS, as well as high sensitivity (0.84) and specificity (0.71) for the ICS-JC. The results of this study also demonstrate that administration of the auditory ICS is a valid way of collecting parent reports about children's speech intelligibility, which has implications for use of the ICS in languages with no written form or with parents who have a low level of literacy in the languages they use. This investigation is relevant not only to this underserved population but broadens knowledge of research-based tools for working with bilingual children.
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Multilinguismo , Transtorno Fonológico , Criança , Linguagem Infantil , Pré-Escolar , Humanos , Jamaica , Reprodutibilidade dos Testes , Inteligibilidade da FalaRESUMO
PURPOSE: Previous work suggests that variability across repeated productions of the same word may be useful in diagnosing speech sound disorder (SSD) in bilingual children. However, there is debate over what level of variability in transcribed productions should be considered typical even in monolingual speech development. High variability in the input represents a factor that could promote increased production variability in bilinguals. For this reason, the current study examines transcription-based token-to-token variability in bilingual children speaking Jamaican Creole (JC) and English. METHOD: Twenty-five bilingual children aged 3;4-5;1 and twenty-five monolingual children aged 2;9-4;1 from a previous study were recorded producing eleven items in three repetitions. RESULT: Contrary to our hypothesis, bilingual children showed similar rates of token-to-token variability compared to the monolingual children. In a separate analysis of bilingual data across languages, bilingual children were more variable in JC compared to English productions. CONCLUSION: The difference between language contexts suggests that creole languages, which exist on a usage continuum, may be associated with increased variability in production. Our findings suggest that token-to-token production variability may be of similar clinical utility for bilingual and monolingual populations.
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Idioma , Multilinguismo , Criança , Linguagem Infantil , Humanos , Jamaica , FonéticaRESUMO
Purpose The purpose of this study was to characterize grammatical production in Jamaican Creole (JC) and English using the Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn; Scarborough, 1990 ) in a sample of typically developing bilingual Jamaicans. Method Spontaneous language samples were collected in JC and English from 62 preschoolers aged 4-6 years. Language samples were analyzed for IPSyn subdomains (Total Score, Noun Phrases, Verb Phrases, Questions/Negations, Sentence Structures), mean length of utterance in morphemes, and number of different words. Child and family demographic information were also collected along with nonverbal IQ performance. Results IPSyn Total Score in JC and English were significantly correlated, and significant correlations were found between IPSyn subdomains in each language for Noun Phrases, Verb Phrases, and Sentence Structures, but not Questions/Negations. Item analysis for the IPSyn items showed that only 7 of the 56 items did not perform similarly in both languages, with performance on only 2 of these being significantly different. IPSyn scores in both languages were correlated with mean length of utterance in morphemes and number of different words, but only IPSyn JC was correlated with nonverbal IQ and age. Conclusion The IPSyn shows promise as a mainstream tool useful in characterizing grammatical productions across languages in typically developing bilingual Jamaican preschoolers.
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Linguagem Infantil , Terapia da Linguagem/métodos , Idioma , Multilinguismo , População Negra , Criança , Pré-Escolar , Feminino , Humanos , Testes de Linguagem , MasculinoRESUMO
PURPOSE: To describe validation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS; McLeod, Harrison, & McCormack, 2012a) and ICS-Jamaican Creole (ICS-JC; McLeod, Harrison, & McCormack, 2012b) in a sample of typically developing 3- to 6-year-old Jamaicans. METHOD: One-hundred and forty-five preschooler-parent dyads participated in the study. Parents completed the 7-item ICS (n = 145) and ICS-JC (n = 98) to rate children's speech intelligibility (5-point scale) across communication partners (parents, immediate family, extended family, friends, acquaintances, strangers). Preschoolers completed the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (DEAP; Dodd, Hua, Crosbie, Holm, & Ozanne, 2006) in English and Jamaican Creole to establish speech-sound competency. For this sample, we examined validity and reliability (interrater, test-rest, internal consistency) evidence using measures of speech-sound production: (a) percentage of consonants correct, (b) percentage of vowels correct, and (c) percentage of phonemes correct. RESULTS: ICS and ICS-JC ratings showed preschoolers were always (5) to usually (4) understood across communication partners (ICS, M = 4.43; ICS-JC, M = 4.50). Both tools demonstrated excellent internal consistency (α = .91), high interrater, and test-retest reliability. Significant correlations between the two tools and between each measure and language-specific percentage of consonants correct, percentage of vowels correct, and percentage of phonemes correct provided criterion-validity evidence. A positive correlation between the ICS and age further strengthened validity evidence for that measure. CONCLUSIONS: Both tools show promising evidence of reliability and validity in describing functional speech intelligibility for this group of typically developing Jamaican preschoolers.