A special issue of Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics has just been published to celebrate Martin J. Ball's 25 years of editorship of the journal. The special issue contains papers from around the world addressing all aspects of clinical linguistics and phonetics.
I was invited to write an article for the special issue, and I chose to triangulate
three topics that have been central to Martin's research contributions: transcription, instrumentation, and education.
McLeod, S. (2011). Speech-language pathologists’ knowledge of
tongue/palate contact for consonant production. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 25(11-12), 1004-1013.
Here is the abstract:
"Speech-language
pathologists (SLPs) rely on knowledge of tongue placement to assess and provide
intervention. 175 SLPs who worked with children with speech sound disorders
(SSD) drew coronal diagrams of tongue/palate contact for 24 English consonants.
Comparisons were made between their responses and typical English-speaking
adults’ contact established by electropalatography. SLPs were most accurate for
consonants with no contact (h, p, f); then velar consonants (g, k, ng). The remaining consonants were rarely accurate
(from most to least accurate: l, t, r, z, n, sh, s, zh, y, v, th(voiceless), d,
m, b, w, th(voiced), ch, j). SLPs demonstrated good knowledge of contact along
the midline, but poor knowledge of contact along lateral margins of the palate.
Importantly, SLPs did not show awareness of: lateral bracing (horse-shoe
contact) for alveolar consonants (t, d, n, s, z); the groove for s, z, sh, zh;
or posterior lateral contact for most other consonants. Accuracy was not
influenced by: length of time as SLP, location of SLP training, location of
current workplace, proportion of caseload with SSD or childhood apraxia of
speech, amount of time spent reading, or exposure to electropalatography. Awareness
of coronal tongue placement for consonant production needs targeting in SLP
education."
