ASHA Learning Pass

This session presents a study of 19 children ages 5-7 with inaccurate /r/ who were followed every 3 months until they acquired /r/ or turned 8 years old, whichever came first. Acquisition was determined for three separate allophones of /r/: vocalic, prevocalic, and postvocalic. Signal processing revealed acoustic differences between the three allophones, which may clarify why some allophones are acquired earlier than others. Accuracy percentages were tracked during the acquisition period, and two profiles of allophonic acquisition were revealed. In one profile, children acquired vocalic /r/ first, followed by postvocalic and finally prevocalic. In a second profile, children progressed minimally until they experienced a spurt in accuracy of all three allophones nearly simultaneously. This knowledge can be used to inform eligibility and remediation.

Learning Outcomes
You will be able to:

• Recognize three differences in /r/ based on allophonic context 
• Differentiate two profiles of allophonic acquisition for /r/ 
• Integrate knowledge of clients' acquisition patterns into intervention

Presenter Information

Juliet Weinhold, PhD, CCC-SLP (Presenting Author), is a clinical associate professor at Arizona State University, where she teaches phonetics, speech science, anatomy, and speech/language acquisition. She directs the Late Acquired Speech Sounds Project, focusing on acoustic analysis of /r/ and the effect of orofacial myofunctional disorders on acquisition of /s, z/ and palatal fricatives/affricates. Her research aim is to provide evidence justifying earlier eligibility for children with SSD of late acquired sounds. She had 23 years of clinical experience before coming to ASU.

Financial Disclosures:

• Full-time faculty at Arizona State University

Nonfinancial Disclosures:

• No nonfinancial relationships relevant to the content of the session

Sarah Conger (Presenting Author) is a first-year graduate student studying speech-language pathology at University of Washington. She earned her undergraduate degree in Speech and Hearing Science from Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University, and completed her honors thesis on the prediction of /r/ acquisition using signal processing and descriptive analyses.

Financial Disclosures:

• No financial relationships relevant to the content of the session

Nonfinancial Disclosures:

• No nonfinancial relationships relevant to the content of the session

Assessment Type

Self-assessment—Think about what you learned and report on the Completion Form how you will use your new knowledge.

To earn continuing education credit, you must complete the learning assessment by the end date below.

Program History and CE Information

Content origination date: November 2021
End date: March 9, 2028

This course is offered for 0.1 ASHA CEUs (Intermediate level, Professional area).