An empirical study of factors associated with certain indices of the speech sound of young children

77 Pages·5.759 MB·English

by  Spiker, Charles C

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The writer wishes to express his sincere appreciation to
Dr* Orvis c* Jtewixi -who directed this study* Br* tosrin gave freely
of his time in training the writer in the method of recording used
in the study* and also helped in the organisation of the research
program as a whole*
The writer Is also indebted to Br# Harold F# Bechtoldt
and to Br* BauX «l* BXcmmsrs for their advice on statistical
problems* both in connection with the design of the study* ar&
the analysis of the data* Be also wishes to express his apprecta*
tion to Dr* Beth L* Wellman and to Dr* Htamaers for their suggestions
in the preparation of the final manuscript*
The writer*s greatest debt is owed to Mss Irene Bams*
\
who cooperated in designing the study* in collecting the data* and
in obtaining subjects for the study* Without her help* the study
could not have been carried cut*
Special thaufes go to the many parents who cooperated by
enrolling their children in the research program.
H i
of Contents
m & im n m .'
I Introduction 1
Sujwaary of the literature X
Statement of the Rroblems 5
H General Methodology 7
Description of the Sample 7
General Experimental Design 8
Hie Collection of the Speech Sound Data XO
The procedure for determining observer agree*
meat in the recording of the speech sounds 10
The procedure for recording speech sounds in
the major study 15
The Administration of the Intelligence Tests 17
in Results 18
The Consistency of the Basle Data 18
The consistency of the speech sound indices 18
The consistency of the intelligence test scores 24
Factors Associated with the Speech Sound Indices2 9
The influence of age upon the speech sound
indices 29
Hi® analysis of gains from the first to the
second sessions for the speech sound indices 51
Sex differences in the speech sound indices 55
The relationships between X*Q* score® and the
Speech Sound Indices SS
The relationships in the total sample between
1* Q* and speech sound indices 35
The relationships in the older age groups
between IQ and speech sound indices 37
The prediction of speech sound indices and
I* Q» by multiple regression S8
XV Discussion and Smjmary 42
Discussion of Results 42
Summery 51
Appendix 1 54
Appendix IX $X
Appendix III 64
Bibliography
It
a a « M t
Table mate
I A fable of the laatercoirelatiom of the Speech Sound
Indices each Age SaveX# ana the Gcmblried
Is tto to for the total Group and for the llth ,
l$th# and 15th Age levels# £$
IX A fable of to Correlations between Bach of to
Intelligence feats and Bach of to Speech
Sound Indices 56
XXX The fype Scores for Bach Individiml for Each of t o
Several Mvlslons of to Basic Bata 67
X? to Frequency and IQ Scores for Each Individual for
to Several Divisions of to Basic Bata 69
1
WitMn to last dooa&e, ©ai^Merable progreea t o to n to e
in to stogr of the &pmm b&mim of Infants and young idiildreit*
ter amt Improml bectooto for to recording and analysing of to
speech sounds of Infante ham aided in t o dtoewry of ewgral
mriables and factors tshich haw bean etarn to be relewnb to to
prediction of t o speech b to tlo r of tim e sribjoetB*
Mar to the introduction of the a$tolaM.csi phaas of Mia
tosabb cycle an to to ie unit of sampling for to re-cording of
speech sounds .frtooed h§r young iM ltesn (If }* it ims not peeaito
to mk® mWs$mtm$r emlmtlons of to ftextmmbal reliability or
ebJeetirXty of to data reported in studios of this behavior* t o
usual w it of sampling M l aoae unit of bln* and in those studios
in ishioh observer agreement m reported, to e&tenb of to agrees
w nt tma r&roly toreaelw (It)# to selection of a rclatiw 2y oa»
ambiguous ©ysto of qptot* (to X tortolom i fhonotic Alplmbst)
t o also contributed to geswsOly- increased confidence in to
u tility of to respite of those studies in ishich i t t o to n
used* Both of to so tohniapses have also to o possible useful
toporie«n3@ mm& to result® of different stoles*
2
Using this badle methodcGLogy, M n and his students have
reported a series of related studies investigating some of the -variables
and factors believed to be relevant to the prediction of the speech
sound production of infants* Numerous data were collected for sub**
3eet$ from birth through thirty months of age* Analyses of these
data were made* and the development with age was determined for the
number of different consonant sounds, the number of different vowel
sounds, and the frequencies with which these classes of phonemes were
used (1% 4)« It was found that the courses of devdopaent for
these aspects of speech behavior were relatively regular throughout
the thirty month age range* It has also been mhom that the occupa­
tion of the infant s father is a factor which is associated with the
number of different sounds which the infant produces in given
situations (11)* there is sm& evidence that infants under six: months
of age, living In orphanages, produce fewer different sounds than
do children of the same age living in their own homes (!)•
Numerous studies have shown that, at the preschool level,
there is a strong relationship between children's scores on various
tests classified as Intelligence tests on the one hand, and, on the
other, a variety of measures which m y be roughly classified as
measures of language behavior* The evidence for a relationship
between scores on intelligence test® and the production of speech
sounds 1® both meager and difficult to interpret*
Wellman, Case, ttuagert, and Bradbury (21), la a study of
preschool children frm 2 to 0 years of age, report no relationships
$
between to manta! &&©■ seor©G obtained Srm the %$&$ St&nf0rd*atot
intelligence teat .Mi s©wral measures of to eorrectoss of
pronunciation of 4 Ptoses of speech sounds, when the source of
vartesc# attributed to chronological age bad been partdalXed out* t o
speech sow! measures consisted of to number of different eonm & t
sounds, vowel sounds, diphthongs, and consonant blends which to
children p?®mwm& cciwotly in key words which were evoked in a
structured to t situation* to sounds were recorded and ©vaXmtcd
for correctness by an observer t o w trained in ptoaebim* If t o
ohlM failed to attempt to key word, to phoneme contained in to
key word me counted as neither passed nor failed*
WiXXiam (22), in a study of children of SO to 78 mcnto
of age, used a modified and shortened foaem of to articulation to t
developed by Wellman, $£, §£*, mentioned, above# Mental age m w
were stained for toe© ©MXdrm fraa the 1918 stan£ord*aia©t
intelligence scale, and these m m correlated with to total number
of phonemes used correctly In key words* B H correlation when to
age facto- m s held constant by partial correlational techniques,
me *12 with 58 cases la to Maple* Such a correlation can readily
b© accounted for on to basis of chance*
tafia (8) found to t to speech sounds of ten children
classified as feebleminded, with an average age of 4 year© and an
average IQ of 2% approsdmated to speech sounds produced by normal
infants of about 12 months of age, with respect to to number of
different consonant and vaml types they produced, as well as with
4
to the flu en cies wttfe iM ii mod comoaant sounds msre
produced to a thirty breatoualt sample*
3M n and to n (14) report the results of a study concerned
apaclficaHy «&th to© relationship between luhtoarm toteHigQiTO,. tost
scores on the one hand, and ito i they called toe Differential
Ibrcantag© to te and tot' Differential Usaber to te , on the other* Both
of these latter measures art based on discrepancies between to speech
sounds of toe child and an adult standard, urito respect to toe number
of different sounds and to frequencies of these sounds* t o numbers
of eases at each of to ago levels studied are quite small and, while
most of to correlations m rc positive, no conclusive results m m
obtained*
t o writer attempted a similar analysis (SO) in toich
i^hlmann IQ scores mm correlated with indies# of to preducticm of
vosel and consonant types and frequancies, to re the latter bad been
adjusted for their regression cm age* t o total group of subjects,
frost 1 to SO months of age, mm divided, into two sub**graups, cm
sub-^group consisting of infants from 1 to IE monto of age, to
other, of children from IE to SO monto of age* to relationship©
mm a ll positive and tended to be higher in to upper age group*
Appradmately half of t o correlation coefficients stained for to
t o subwgroupe were significant beyond to B% level of confident*
Unfortunately, to samples a t each of to successive age levels mm
partially related and no valid contusions can be &mm item to
statistical treatment*
problems investigated in this study have largely grown
oat of the suggestive results reported from the previous study by the
w riter, One problem which* to the w riter^ knowledge* has not yet
been investigated, concerns the constancy of tb© production of speech
sounds* That is, does the child who occupies a given rank within a
group, with respect to the production of speech types at a given time*
tend to maintain his relative position In that group at a later timet
Hero we are particularly concerned with rather short intervals of
tine* It seems confusing to refer to such constancy as ^reliability*
in the usual »instrument reliability* meaning of the term, since in
this case we do not know If the factors indicated by the speech
Indices fluctuate or remain constant in time for a given individual.
It seems likely tin t, unless the situational antecedents of the speech
sound behavior are rather carefully controlled, the speech behavior
of the child w ill vary considerably frost one time to the next. The
relationship between indices obtained in one situation a t a given
time and corresponding indices obtained in a similar situation after
a brief time interval should provide some information about the degree
to v&ich these variations have been controlled. Specifically, then,
the first problem can be stated i frm speech indices obtained in a
given situation, how well can cm® predict corresponding speech indices
obtained in a similar situation after the lapse of a few days time?
A second question, related to the first, concerns the effect
of the time interval and a ll the factors associated with it, upon the