TOPIC

Articulation research

Everything we have read on articulation. Each paper is summarised from the full article rather than its abstract, so the limitations are in there too, and the funding wherever the paper declares it.

582 PAPERS · PAGE 5 OF 12 · NEWEST FIRST

• SLPCohort2021Dysarthria in children and adults with ataxia telangiectasia.Developmental medicine and child neurologyAll participants with ataxia telangiectasia had dysarthria. Most had mild to mild/severe speech impairment, and all could communicate orally. Children needed to repeat words more often than adults.
• SLPOther2021Mechanisms of Spectrotemporal Modulation Detection for Normal- and Hearing-Impaired Listeners.Trends in hearingHearing-impaired listeners did not show greater random variability, but they weighted modulation features less selectively and more variably than normal-hearing listeners. Broader cochlear tuning may explain the group-level differences.
• SLPOther2021Perceived Sound Quality Dimensions Influencing Frequency-Gain Shaping Preferences for Hearing Aid-Amplified Speech and Music.Trends in hearingListeners with mild-to-moderate hearing loss preferred more low-frequency and less high-frequency gain than standard prescriptions, especially for pop music. These adjustments improved perceived sound quality. However, preferences varied widely between individuals, and the study used sealed earphones, so results may not apply to open-fit hearing aids.
• SLPOther2021The ASL-LEX 2.0 Project: A Database of Lexical and Phonological Properties for 2,723 Signs in American Sign Language.Journal of deaf studies and deaf educationFrequent American Sign Language signs were rated less iconic and shorter in ASL-LEX 2.0, a database of 2,723 signs that may help SLPs choose assessment or teaching targets.
• SLPOther2021Can Dual Compression Offer Better Mandarin Speech Intelligibility and Sound Quality Than Fast-Acting Compression?Trends in hearingDual compression hearing aids improved speech understanding in noise by 0.9 dB compared to fast-acting compression. Users also preferred dual compression for comfort and clarity at +4 dB signal-to-noise ratio, though the small gain may not be noticeable to everyone.
• SLPMeta-Analysis2021Does Probe-Tube Verification of Real-Ear Hearing Aid Amplification Characteristics Improve Outcomes in Adults? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Trends in hearingVerifying hearing aid settings with real-ear measures leads to better speech understanding and higher user preference than relying on initial fit alone. Patients prefer these verified fittings, though the clinical size of the benefit remains unclear.
• SLPRCT2021Detection, Speech Recognition, Loudness, and Preference Outcomes With a Direct Drive Hearing Aid: Effects of Bandwidth.Trends in hearingFull-bandwidth direct drive hearing aids improved high-frequency consonant recognition and sentence-in-noise scores compared to narrow bandwidth. Loudness increased slightly but remained within clinical norms. Eight of fifteen participants preferred the full bandwidth setting.
• SLPOther2021Speech Intelligibility and Spatial Release From Masking Improvements Using Spatial Noise Reduction Algorithms in Bimodal Cochlear Implant Users.Trends in hearingBimodal cochlear implant users needed less noise to understand speech in lab tests when beamforming algorithms were active. The binaural MVDR gave larger improvements than the monaural ADM, especially in babble. No benefit occurred when speech and noise came from the same place.
• SLPOther2021Systematic Comparison of Trial Exclusion Criteria for Pupillometry Data Analysis in Individuals With Single-Sided Deafness and Normal Hearing.Trends in hearingChanging how many blinks trigger trial exclusion did not alter speech intelligibility or pupil dilation results. However, single-sided deafness listeners blinked significantly more in noise than in quiet, suggesting strict exclusion criteria might disproportionately remove difficult trials.
• SLPOther2021Measuring the Influence of Noise Reduction on Listening Effort in Hearing-Impaired Listeners Using Response Times to an Arithmetic Task in Noise.Trends in hearingNoise reduction algorithms did not significantly speed up response times for hearing-impaired listeners in this small study. While a theoretical 'ideal' algorithm helped in very noisy conditions, realistic algorithms showed no benefit over unprocessed sound. The task remains a research tool, not a clinical test.
• SLPSystematic Review2021Speech input processing in children born with cleft palate: A systematic literature review with narrative synthesis.International journal of language & communication disordersChildren born with cleft palate with or without cleft lip may find it harder to hear sounds they mispronounce, especially when their speech errors are posterior. Rhyme, alliteration and sound matching performance was not clearly different from peers, but evidence is limited and mixed.
• SLPOther2021Speech Movement Variability in People Who Stutter: A Vocal Tract Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHRDuring fluent nonsense-word repetition, adults who stutter had more variable lip, tongue and soft palate movements than fluent controls. They also took longer on longer or more complex words. Variability did not track stuttering severity.
• SLPNarrative Review2021Modelling speech motor programming and apraxia of speech in the DIVA/GODIVA neurocomputational framework.AphasiologyThe DIVA and GODIVA models map apraxia of speech to specific brain circuits, distinguishing damage to motor program storage from damage to sequencing and selection pathways. These frameworks explain clinical features like distorted sounds versus syllable segregation but remain theoretical models rather than tested interventions.
• SLPCohort2021Spoken Word Learning in Children With Developmental Language Disorder or Dyslexia.Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHRChildren with dyslexia-only struggled to learn new spoken words across all tasks, despite having average vocabulary and language skills. Children with DLD-only showed only mild difficulties, primarily with verbal semantic recall. The dyslexia group's struggles appeared to be linking new words to meanings, not just phonology.
• SLPCohort2021Characteristics of Speech-Evoked Envelope Following Responses in Infancy.Trends in hearingSpeech-evoked brainstem responses in infants look adult-like only when stimulus levels are boosted by their smaller ear canals. When levels are corrected to match adults, low-frequency responses remain immature. Do not assume infant responses are mature just because they appear normal at standard settings.
• SLPOther2021Listening Effort Is Not the Same as Speech Intelligibility Score.Trends in hearingNearly perfect intelligibility scores can hide effortful mental correction. When words were distorted, listeners' pupils dilated more despite 99.2% correct responses. In cochlear implant users, pupil dilation tracked nonsense responses more than error count.
• SLPOther2021Effect of Channel Interaction on Vocal Cue Perception in Cochlear Implant Users.Trends in hearingTriplet stimulation degraded voice perception and speech intelligibility in noise, but Paired stimulation did not. This suggests Paired modes may save battery life without harming speech performance, though the study used only high-performing users.
• SLPOther2021The Role of Interaural Differences, Head Shadow, and Binaural Redundancy in Binaural Intelligibility Benefits Among School-Aged Children.Trends in hearingSchool-aged children with normal hearing did not reach adult-like speech-in-noise performance by age 15. The main gap was using timing and level differences between ears, while the head shadow effect was already mature.
• SLPOther2021Transient Noise Reduction Using a Deep Recurrent Neural Network: Effects on Subjective Speech Intelligibility and Listening Comfort.Trends in hearingPeople with hearing loss preferred a deep learning algorithm for reducing transient noises over both no processing and a standard algorithm. They found it made speech clearer and more comfortable, though the difference in clarity compared to the standard method was small.
• SLPOther2021Dual-Task Accuracy and Response Time Index Effects of Spoken Sentence Predictability and Cognitive Load on Listening Effort.Trends in hearingPredictable sentences free up mental resources, letting listeners recall digits faster and more accurately even in noise. This suggests clinical benefit for using contextual cues to reduce listening effort, rather than relying solely on volume or clarity.
• SLPOther2021Prosodic realizations of new, given, and corrective referents in the spontaneous speech of toddlers.Journal of child languageToddlers at 2;6 use pitch patterns like adults to mark new, given, and corrective information, but favor high-pitched accents too broadly. Duration was the only acoustic cue distinguishing information types, suggesting pitch control develops later than timing.
• SLPOther2021Effects of Increasing the Overall Level or Fitting Hearing Aids on Emotional Responses to Sounds.Trends in hearingHearing aids did not make nonspeech sounds feel more pleasant for adults with hearing loss. Without frequency compression, hearing aids lowered pleasant ratings; enabling compression restored them to unaided levels, but still below normal hearing.
• SLPCase Report2021Development and Resolution of Nasal Fricatives in a Child with Repaired Bilateral Cleft Lip and Palate: A Case Report.Perspectives of the ASHA special interest groupsIn one child with cleft palate, speech therapy eliminated learned nasal fricatives even though velopharyngeal dysfunction persisted. This prevented unnecessary surgery. Clinicians must distinguish learned errors from structural issues before considering surgical intervention.
• SLPOther2022Modified script training for nonfluent/agrammatic primary progressive aphasia with significant hearing loss: A single-case experimental design.Neuropsychological rehabilitationA man with nonfluent/agrammatic primary progressive aphasia and severe-to-profound hearing loss produced trained scripts accurately and intelligibly after script training with added reading. Gains held for one year. Untrained scripts did not improve.
• SLPSurvey2022Speech and Language Practitioners' Experiences of Commercially Available Voice-Assisted Technology: Web-Based Survey Study.JMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologiesOf 230 surveyed UK speech and language therapists, 181 had not used commercial voice assistants with clients, but 166 of those wanted to try them and 198 wanted training. Therapists who had used them reported speech feedback, independence and confidence, not evidence they improve speech.
• SLPPilot2021Using telehealth-delivered procedures to collect a parent-implemented expressive language sampling narrative task in monolingual and bilingual families with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A pilot study.Frontiers in rehabilitation sciencesMost parents of children and adolescents with autism, including Spanish-speaking families, learned to run a home video language task after telehealth training, and most children completed it. This is a first step, not proof the task replaces clinic testing.
• SLPOther2021The Impact of Alcohol on L1 versus L2.Language and speechAs blood alcohol rose, English accent ratings in Dutch speakers did not improve, but intelligibility ratings of native Dutch speech fell. The study tested read sentences at a festival, not therapy outcomes.
• SLPOther2021Individual Differences in the Adoption of Sound Change.Language and speechFlemish adults who moved to the Netherlands varied in adopting local Dutch vowel production. Some sounded more like local speakers and some did not. Perception showed shifts for the whole migrant group but no clear individual pattern.
• SLPOther2022First-language influence on second language speech perception depends on task demands.Language and speechSpanish-English bilinguals process English words with initial 's' clusters more slowly when asked to explicitly judge the sounds or words. This L1 interference disappears in simple same/different tasks, suggesting the conflict is triggered by high-demand listening tasks rather than automatic perception.
• SLPOther2022Voice and Emphasis in Arabic Coronal Stops: Evidence for Phonological Compensation.Language and speechListeners identifying ambiguous Arabic stops relied on learned phonological patterns rather than just acoustic cues. When timing signals were unclear, they defaulted to the emphatic category. This suggests perception uses language-specific expectations to resolve ambiguity, not just raw sound data.
• SLPOther2021Vowel errors produced by preschool-age children on a single-word test of articulation.Clinical linguistics & phoneticsPreschoolers with speech sound disorder produced fewer vowel errors than consonant errors, but their vowel accuracy dropped sharply on unstressed syllables. Vowel errors correlated with inconsistent consonant production, suggesting that transcribing vowels during assessment may reveal gaps in a child’s underlying speech patterns.
• SLPOther2022Simulating Speech Error Patterns Across Languages and Different Datasets.Language and speechBacking caused the largest simulated sound-pattern effects in Swedish, Norwegian, and English child speech. Stopping caused the next largest effects. The simulated measures did not match clinicians' intelligibility rankings.
• SLPOther2021Influence of aided audibility on speech recognition performance with frequency composition for children and adults.International journal of audiologyFrequency composition did not improve speech recognition in noise for children or adults overall. Only children with very low aided audibility showed a specific benefit for single words, but this did not extend to sentences or adults.
• SLPOther2021Individual Variability in Recalibrating to Spectrally Shifted Speech: Implications for Cochlear Implants.Ear and hearingHalf of normal-hearing listeners successfully adjusted their perception to match shifted speech frequencies, while the other half failed completely. This bimodal split suggests that cochlear implant users may vary significantly in their ability to adapt to frequency mismatches caused by shallow electrode insertion.
• SLPOtherThe Presence of Another Individual Influences Listening Effort, But Not Performance.Ear and hearingYoung people with normal hearing showed increased pupil dilation, suggesting higher listening effort, when performing a speech-in-noise task in the presence of another person. However, their actual speech perception performance did not change. The effort increase was most apparent when the partner joined at the start.
• SLPRCT2022Early speech and language intervention in Brazilian-Portuguese toddlers with cleft lip and/or palate.Clinical linguistics & phoneticsToddlers with cleft palate who received a combined speech and language intervention showed significant gains in vocabulary and sentence complexity immediately after treatment. Speech accuracy and intelligibility improved significantly three months later, while the comparison group showed no such gains.
• SLPOther2022A comparison of speech intelligibility and subjective quality with hearing-aid processing in older adults with hearing loss.International journal of audiologySpeech quality keeps improving even after intelligibility hits its ceiling, but this gap varies widely between listeners. Do not assume a hearing aid that maximises word recognition also sounds good to the patient, because quality ratings were inconsistent across individuals.
• SLPOtherPersonalizing Transient Noise Reduction Algorithm Settings for Cochlear Implant Users.Ear and hearingFor cochlear implant users, customizing a multiband transient noise filter let speech be understood 1.26 dB quieter in cafeteria noise. Customizing a broadband filter raised the needed speech level by 1.73 dB. The standard broadband filter and subjective ratings showed no clear benefit.
• SLPOther2022Phonological complexity in intervention for Spanish-speaking children with speech sound disorder.Clinical linguistics & phoneticsFour Spanish-speaking bilingual children with speech sound disorder showed some improvement in unpracticed sounds after complex Spanish sound intervention. Responses varied widely, and children trained on /l/ showed smaller improvement than cluster-trained children. This is a four-child study, not proof of efficacy.
• SLPOther2022Phonological Preparation in Korean: Phoneme, or Syllable or Another Unit?Language and speechNative Korean speakers named pictures faster when target words shared an initial body or syllable, not when they shared only an initial phoneme. This suggests Korean speech planning may use body and syllable units.
• SLPOther2022Automated phonological analysis and treatment target selection using AutoPATT.Clinical linguistics & phoneticsAutoPATT generated speech inventories with 98 to 100 percent accuracy, compared to 78 to 96 percent for manual analysis. The software missed one complex target due to a coding error, so clinicians must still review its suggestions before selecting treatment goals.
• SLPCohort2022Novel Approaches to Measure Spatial Release From Masking in Children With Bilateral Cochlear Implants.Ear and hearingChildren with bilateral cochlear implants gained speech-in-noise benefits from spatial separation, but needed much wider angles than normal-hearing peers to achieve the same improvement. Positioning teachers or peers opposite the child, rather than just to the side, maximizes their access to auditory cues.
• SLPOther2022N400 Evidence That the Early Stages of Lexical Access Ignore Knowledge About Phonological Alternations.Language and speechA legal tone variant did not reduce the brain mismatch response compared with an unrelated wrong tone. The null result was repeated.
• SLPPilot2021Automatic boost articulation therapy in adults with dysarthria: Acceptability, usability and user interaction.International journal of language & communication disordersFourteen adults with dysarthria found a new computer-based articulation trainer easy to use and attractive. They could operate it independently after brief instruction. However, daily home use was uncertain due to low multimedia familiarity, and this pilot did not test if speech actually improved.
• SLPCohort2022Spoken Language Skills in Children With Bilateral Hearing Aids or Bilateral Cochlear Implants at the Age of Three Years.Ear and hearingAt age three, most children with hearing aids scored below norms in phonology and vocabulary, more so than those with cochlear implants. Better unaided hearing predicted comprehension in hearing aid users. High maternal education predicted comprehension and expressive vocabulary in implant users.
• SLPOther2022The Influence of Sensation Level on Speech-Evoked Envelope Following Responses.Ear and hearingSpeech-evoked brain responses at equal audibility are larger for fricatives than vowels, but all grow by about 50% per 10 dB increase in sensation level. This means response size depends on the sound itself, not just how loud it is relative to threshold.
• SLPCase-ControlListening Difficulties in Children With Normal Audiograms: Relation to Hearing and Cognition.Ear and hearingChildren with listening difficulties but normal hearing scores showed broad deficits in cognition and auditory processing compared to typically developing peers. Cognitive factors like vocabulary and attention switching were strong predictors of listening problems, alongside specific auditory measures.
• SLPOther2022The Effect of Clear Speech on Cantonese Alaryngeal Speakers' Intelligibility.Folia phoniatrica et logopaedica : official organ of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP)Male Cantonese laryngectomees told to overarticulate and slow down had better sentence intelligibility than in habitual speech: scores rose by 9.1% with electrolarynx, 8.9% with esophageal speech, and 1.4% with tracheoesophageal speech.
• SLPCohort2022Effects of Device Limitations on Acquisition of the /t/-/k/ Contrast in Children With Cochlear Implants.Ear and hearingChildren with cochlear implants produced /t/ and /k/ less accurately than peers with normal hearing, but unlike typical development, they acquired both sounds at similar rates. They also made unique errors, such as substituting affricates for stops, which suggests device limitations alter speech learning rather than just delaying it.
• SLPOther2021Speech Development Between 30 and 119 Months in Typical Children I: Intelligibility Growth Curves for Single-Word and Multiword Productions.Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHRChildren speak more clearly in sentences than in single words. Average kids hit 90% clarity in sentences by age 5, but lower-performing peers may not until age 7. Single-word clarity lags behind, requiring more precise sound production.