ORCID Profile
0000-0001-8261-6092
Current Organisations
University of Cincinnati
,
University of Toronto
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Publisher: American Speech Language Hearing Association
Date: 18-01-2021
DOI: 10.1044/2020_LSHSS-20-00013
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to characterize narrative competence of typically developing bilingual children using Jamaican Creole (JC) and English. 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. 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. 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.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 28-06-2021
Publisher: American Speech Language Hearing Association
Date: 08-11-2021
DOI: 10.1044/2021_JSLHR-21-00073
Abstract: There is a shortage of information on evidence-based interventions for supporting young multilingual children. The purpose of this review was to identify interventions that have been evaluated with preschool-age multilingual children with a speech and/or language disorder or who are at risk of poor speech, language, literacy, and/or educational outcomes. This review considered speech, language, and early literacy interventions evaluated with preschool-age multilingual children with a speech and/or language disorder or who have been identified as being at risk of language difficulties (PROSPERO ID: 165892). The following electronic databases were searched: EBSCO (CINAHL Plus, ERIC, PsycINFO, Medline, Education) and Linguistics, Language, and Behavior Abstracts. Data were extracted describing article, participant, methodological, and intervention variables, and effect sizes. The Council for Exceptional Children's (CEC) standards for evidence-based practice were used to examine the quality of studies. Fifty-six relevant studies were identified in 52 articles and these studies described 4,551 participants who had speech sound disorder (six articles), developmental language disorder (11 articles), or were considered to be at risk (36 articles). The interventions targeted speech production (seven studies), language (45 studies), and early literacy (11 studies) skills. Most studies reported positive effects. Only 15 studies met all quality indicators specified by the CEC (2014) and these described 18 interventions targeting language and literacy skills. The only intervention with sufficient evidence to be considered an evidence-based practice was Nuestros Niños [Our Children] for children's early literacy and phonological awareness skills. A number of high-quality studies exist that describe speech, language and/or literacy interventions for preschool-age multilingual children with a speech and/or language disorder, or who have been identified as being at risk of language difficulties. However, there remains limited evidence for specific interventions as to their ability to inform evidence-based practices. 0.23641/asha.16632649
Publisher: American Speech Language Hearing Association
Date: 18-07-2022
DOI: 10.1044/2022_JSLHR-21-00386
Abstract: 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. 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. 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. 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. 0.23641/asha.20249382
Publisher: American Speech Language Hearing Association
Date: 12-01-2023
DOI: 10.1044/2022_JSLHR-22-00304
Abstract: 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. 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 –5 [years months]) and adults ( n = 15, ages 19 –54 ) 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. 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. 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. 0.23641/asha.21760469
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 28-05-2020
No related grants have been discovered for Karla Washington.