Publication in Viet Nam about 300 children's speech acquisition

Lê Thị Thanh Xuân and TS Nguyễn Thị Ly Kha

While I was in Viet Nam in May, I had the opportunity spend many productive hours in discussion with Dr Ly Kha Nguyen (TS Nguyễn Thị Ly Kha) (with the assistance of Vietnamese-English interpreters and students including Lê Thị Thanh Xuân). Dr Ly Kha lectured the phonetics and linguistics classes to the speech therapy students in Ho Chi Minh City before I taught them about children with speech sound disorders. In my classes Dr Ly Kha and I would provide additional information to the students based on what each other had said (after waiting for the interpreter to translate). We also visited Children's Hospital Number 1 together to assess a 3-year-old boy using Dr Ly Kha's comprehensive articulation/phonology test she developed for the speech therapy students to use. Her test included items to assess consonants (in syllable initial and syllable final position), vowels, diphthongs, semivowels and tones. Dr Ly Kha had begun using the test to compile local Vietnamese normative information on speech acquisition - the first in the world! One finding of her research that differs from the work in Cantonese, is that Vietnamese children take a number of years to master tones.

I have just learned that her journal article is scheduled for publication in September in NGÔN NGỮ, the Vietnamese linguistics journal.

Her paper, titled "NỘI DUNG ĐÁNH GIÁ KHẢ NĂNG PHÁT ÂM ÂM TIẾT
CỦA TRẺ MẪU GIÁO" reports speech acquisition norms for over 300 children. Here is the abstract (published in English):
"ASSESSMENT CONTENT OF SYLLABLE PRONUNCIATION ABILITY
IN VIETNAMESE SPEAKING PRESCHOOLERS
Defining the assessment content of syllable pronunciation ability in preschoolers is an essential, pressing and necessary matter of speech pathologists in Vietnam. Nowadays there has been almost no research that recommends speech assessment tools to preschoolers in Vietnam, except for some materials used in experiments in screening diagnosis of speech sound disorders. Most of these materials have the assessment content of consonant pronunciation ability, not of tone or semi-vowel pronunciation ability as well as types of Vietnamese syllable structures. Some do not assess diphthong pronunciation ability and so on. According to the survey data of pronunciation ability of 298 normal children and 5 children that have difficulty in pronouncing words by using a new list, this paper adds one more datum to the hypothesis. It is that pronunciation ability of preschoolers can only be assessed when the assessment content correctly includes enough phonic components of Vietnamese syllabification and has no variation on specific features of Vietnamese syllables."

I appreciate her acknowledgment of our conversations/collaboration. For example, it was exciting for me to read my name in the first paragraph.
"1. Vấn đề đánh giá khả năng phát âm âm tiết của trẻ mẫu giáo
Ngôn ngữ, hoạt động ngôn ngữ trước hết và chủ yếu là ngôn ngữ bằng lời. Rối loạn âm thanh lời nói là một trong những khó khăn thường gặp nhất ở trẻ em. Trẻ bị mắc chứng rối loạn âm thanh lời nói thường dễ dẫn đến hệ quả gặp khó khăn trong học tập, nhất là khó khăn trong đọc và viết (Sharynne McLeod, 2011). Qua các nghiên cứu dịch tễ, các nhà âm ngữ trị liệu Hoa Kỳ cho biết rối loạn âm thanh lời nói ảnh hưởng đến 10% số trẻ em, trong đó 80% trường hợp nặng cần trị liệu (Gierut J.A., 1998; Boyse K., 2008). Phát hiện đúng để can thiệp sớm là công việc thiết yếu để có thể giúp những trẻ bị rối loạn âm thanh lời nói có cơ hội chỉnh âm một cách có hiệu quả."

Accessing international speech assessments

One of the aims of my Future Fellowship is to conduct a systematic review of children’s speech assessments that are available in languages other than English. I am reviewing formal (published) assessments/word lists. I am also working with Nicole Limbrick (CSU honours student co-supervised by Dr Jane McCormack) to review informal (unpublished) assessments in English and other languages. Nicole is also considering speech-language pathologists’ decision-making regarding conceptualization and operationalization of informal assessments. 

The first part of undertaking such a review is to purchase/obtain as many assessments as possible. Some of the challenges Sarah Verdon (my research assistant) I have encountered to date include:

•  The website is in a language other than English (of course); but even with the help of Google translate, information can be misunderstood. For example, I purchased the stimulus picture book, but not the score sheets/instruction manual, because I did not go to an affiliated web page.
• The tests can only be purchased after attending a training session in the publisher’s country
• The tests are commissioned/published by the government, so can only be accessed by government employees in that country
•  The tests are no longer available/accessible
• The tests are still in development, so are not yet available/accessible
• The tests do not have a website, so information about contacting the publisher, determining the cost etc is difficult
• The tests' websites do not enable purchase via credit card
• The tests' website lists the purchase price in one currency (e.g., euros), but charges in a different currency and uses a different company name on the credit card receipt (this makes it difficult to reconcile expenditure for the university finance department!)

**If anyone reading this blog could assist with information regarding purchasing/obtaining tests, I would love to hear from you!**

It is my aim to make an annotated list of assessments in languages other than English available to speech-language pathologists around the world. The appendix of the following chapter provides publication details for a number of tests and word lists. It is my aim to purchase/obtain each of these, and any others that may be out there!


McLeod, S. (2011, in press January). Multilingual speech assessment. In S. McLeod & B. A. Goldstein (Eds.) Multilingual aspects of speech sound disorders in children. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Language (dialect)	Name of children's speech (articulation/phonology) test
Arabic (Egyptian)	Mansoura Arabic Articulation Test (MAAT)
Arabic (Jordanian)	Amayreh Articulation Test
	Amayreh Articulation Test: Modified
Cantonese	Cantonese Phonological Assessment Guideline
	Cantonese Segmental Phonology Test
	Hong Kong Cantonese Articulation Test
Dutch	Fonologische Analyse van het Nederlands (FAN)
	Logo-art articulatieonderzoek
	Taaltoets Alle Kinderen
	Taaltoets Allochtone Kinderen
	Utrechts Articulatie Onderzoek
Finnish	Artikulaation arviointitehtäviä
	Artikulaatiotesti. Äänteenmukainen sanakuvatesti
	Fonologiatesti
French	Bilan phonologique
	Casse-tête d’Evaluation de la Phonologie (originally from Auger, 1994)
German	ADD – Aachener Dyslalie Diagnostik
	AVAK – Analyseverfahren zu Aussprachestörungen bei Kindern
	Bilderbuch zur Ausspracheprüfung bei Kindern
	Logo Ausspracheprüfung
	PAP – Pyrmonter Ausspracheprüfung
	Patholinguistische Diagnostik von Sprachentwicklungsstörungen
	PLAKSS – Psycholinguistische Analyse kindlicher Aussprachestörungen
	Ravensburger Stammler Prüfbogen
Greek	Anomilo 4. Screening Test for Speech and Language Disorders for 4-year-old Children
	Assessment of Phonetic and Phonological Development
Hungarian	GMP Diagnosztika [GMP Diagnostics]
Israeli Hebrew	Articulation and Naming Test
	Goralnik Language Screening Test
Japanese	Kōon Hattatsu Yosoku Kensa
	Kōon Kensahō (original reference)
	Kōon Kensahō
	Shinteiban Kotoba no Tesuto Ehon
Maltese	Maltese-English speech assessment for children (MESA)
Norwegian	Artikulasjonsprøve
	Artikulasjonsprøve for registrering av uttalefeil
	Norsk Fonemtest
	Norsk Logopedlags Språklydsprøve
Portuguese (Brazilian)	ABFW – Teste de Linguagem infantile: Nas áreas de fonologia, vocabulário, fluência e pragmática
	Avaliação Fonológica da criança (AFC)
Portuguese (European)	Teste Fonético-Fonológico-ALPE (TFF-ALPE)
Putonghua	Putonghua Segmental Phonology Test (PSPT)
	Picture-naming task
Samoan	Samoan Word List
Spanish	Assessment of Phonological Processes-Spanish
	Assessment of Spanish Phonology – Revised
	Austin Spanish Articulation Test
	Comprehensive Assessment of Spanish Articulation-Phonology (CASA-P)
	Contextual Probes of Articulation Competence: Spanish
	Hodson-Prezas Assessment of Spanish Phonological Patterns
	Southwest Spanish Articulation Test
	Spanish Articulation Measures
Swedish	SVANTE- Svenskt artikulations- och Nasalittets Test [Swedish Articulation and Nasality Test]
Turkish	Ankara artikülasyon testi [Ankara Articulation Test]
	Konuşma sorunlu çocukların sesbilgisel çözümleme yöntemi ile değerlendirilmesi [Assessment of Speech Disordered Children by Phonological Analysis]
	Eskişehir Konuşma Değerlendirme Test Takımı [Eskisehir Assessment of Speech Test]
	Türkçe Sesletim-Sesbilgisi Testi (SST) [Turkish Articulation and Phonology Test]

Excellence in Early Years Education (EYE) Collaborative Research Network Meeting

From 14-16 September the Excellence in Early Years Education (EYE) Collaborative Research Network met in Sydney at the Menzies Hotel for 2.5 days of intensive meetings to launch the CRN. Three universities are involved: Charles Sturt University (NSW), Queensland University of Technology (Queensland), and Monash University (Victoria). The 62 attendees included almost equal numbers of PhD students, early, mid and later career researchers; providing rich opportunities for mutual collaborations.

The speakers included Professor Sue Thomas, Professor Toni Downes, and Professor Jennifer Sumsion, who encouraged us to work together on researching the important and complex (wicked) problems in early years education. 

I was invited to lead a panel on the topic of Building a research career and networking. Later that evening I met with a group of early career researchers to discuss what this meant for them. We had a vigorous discussion about how to present the message and importance of their own research to any audience.