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Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/22

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Author: search.filters.author.Schaeffler, SonjaStart date: 2023

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    Is the Past a Different Culture? Tracking Changes in Prosodic Features of Child-Directed Broadcasting Across Six Decades
    (University of California, 2025) Kempe, Vera; Gravelle, C. Donnan; Perschke, Stina; Williams, Glenn; Schaeffler, Sonja
    While research has explored cross-cultural variation in childdirected speech (CDS), little is known about if and how it may have changed over time. We explore whether CDS has undergone historical change by analyzing prosodic features in child-directed (CD) broadcasts from a German children’s bedtime program (1959–present) and comparing them to adultdirected (AD) weather forecasts from the same period. The program originated in East Germany and continued after German reunification in 1990, potentially reflecting a sociocultural shift toward more child-centric attitudes characteristic of Western liberal democracies. Pitch variation in CD broadcasts, although higher than in AD broadcasts, remained stable over time. In contrast, articulation rates showed no register difference pre-1990; only after 1990 did CD broadcasts exhibit the slower articulation rates typical of CDS. This suggests that some features of CDS may be subject to cultural evolution over historical time, which can be accelerated by major historical events.
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    English (Scottish) speech development
    (Oxford University Press, 2026) Scobbie, James M.; Cleland, Joanne; Lawson, Eleanor; Schaeffler, Sonja; McLeod, Sharynne
    Scottish English is primarily spoken in Scotland, U.K. It is a national quasi-standard variety of English with a range of social and geographical variants. It can be characterized as a highly distinctive accent (or accent group) of English, mainly due to its relationship to Scots. Its strongly distinct character may be more phonetic, prosodic and lexical than strictly phonemic and phonological, so for practical reasons it can be assumed that its inventory and consonant phonotactics overlap sufficiently with other varieties for many “British English” clinical resources to be applicable. Scottish English is, however, rhotic in its prestige varieties, which makes it markedly different from non-rhotic Southern Standard British English and other non-rhotic varieties. There are few specific studies of children’s acquisition of Scottish English, though Scottish children are often incorporated in larger studies in the U.K. Research on Scottish English has focused on social variation, speech production, and remediation techniques augmented with real time visual biofeedback, involving children with speech sound disorders and cleft palate. Commonly-used speech assessments and interventions have not been developed specifically for this variety of English.
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    Does Child-Directed Speech Facilitate Language Development in All Domains? A Study Space Analysis of the Existing Evidence
    (Elsevier, 2024-03-04) Kempe, Vera; Ota, Mitsuhiko; Schaeffler, Sonja
    Because child-directed speech (CDS) is ubiquitous in some cultures and because positive associations between certain features of the language input and certain learning outcomes have been attested it has often been claimed that the function of CDS is to aid children’s language development in general. We argue that for this claim to be generalisable, superior learning from CDS compared to non-CDS, such as adult-directed speech (ADS), must be demonstrated across multiple input domains and learning outcomes. To determine the availability of such evidence we performed a study space analysis of the research literature on CDS. A total of 942 relevant papers were coded with respect to (i) CDS features under consideration, (ii) learning outcomes and (iii) whether a comparison between CDS and ADS was reported. The results show that only 16.2% of peer-reviewed studies in this field compared learning outcomes between CDS and ADS, almost half of which focussed on the ability to discriminate between the two registers. Crucially, we found only 20 studies comparing learning outcomes between CDS and ADS for morphosyntactic and lexico-semantic features and none for pragmatic and extra-linguistic features. Although these 20 studies provided preliminary evidence for a facilitative effect of some specific morphosyntactic and lexico-semantic features, overall CDS-ADS comparison studies are very unevenly distributed across the space of CDS features and outcome measures. The disproportional emphasis on prosodic, phonetic, and phonological input features, and register discrimination as the outcome invites caution with respect to the generalisability of the claim that CDS facilitates language development across the breadth of input domains and learning outcomes. Future research ought to resolve the discrepancy between sweeping claims about the function of CDS as facilitating language development on the one hand and the narrow evidence base for such a claim on the other by conducting CDS-ADS comparisons across a wider range of input features and outcome measures.
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    Tongue Shape Complexity in Children With and Without Speech Sound Disorders
    (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2023-06-02) Dokovova, Marie; Sugden, Ellie; Cartney, Gemma; Schaeffler, Sonja; Cleland, Joanne
    Purpose: This study investigates the hypothesis that younger speakers and speakers with more severe speech sound disorders are more likely to use simpler (undifferentiated) tongue gestures due to difficulties with, or immaturity of, lingual motor control. Method: The hypothesis is tested using cross-sectional secondary data analysis of synchronous audio and high-speed ultrasound recordings from children with idiopathic Speech Sound Disorders (n=30, aged 5;0 to 12;11) and typically developing children (n=29, aged 5;8-12;10), producing /a, t, ɹ, l, s, ʃ/ in an intervocalic /aCa/ environment. Tongue shape complexity is measured using “number of inflections” (NINFL) and “modified curvature index” (MCI) from splines fitted to ultrasound images at the point of maximal lingual gesture. Age, perceived accuracy, and consonant are used as predictors. Results: The results suggest that as age increases children with Speech Sound Disorders have lower MCI compared to typically developing children. Increase in age also led to decrease of MCI for the typically developing group. In the group of children with Speech Sound Disorders perceptually incorrect /ɹ/ productions have lower MCI than correct productions, relative to /a/. Conclusion: There is some evidence of systematic tongue shape complexity differences between typically developing children and children with Speech Sound Disorders when accounting for increase in age. Among children with Speech Sound Disorders, increase in age and perceptually incorrect consonant realizations are associated with decreasing tongue shape complexity.
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    Comparing Vocal Health and Attitudes to Voice care in Primary Teachers and Voiceover Artists – A Survey Study Using the Health Belief Model
    (Elsevier, 2023-03-19) Schaeffler, Felix; Parry, Anna M.; Beck, Janet M.; Rees, Meagan; Schaeffler, Sonja; Whittaker, Tess
    Objectives A range of professions experience high demands on their voices and are potentially at risk of developing voice disorders. Teachers have been studied extensively in this respect, while voiceover artists are a growing professional group with unknown levels of voice training, voice problems and voice care attitudes. To better understand profession-specific voice care requirements, we compared voice training, voice care habits and self-reported voice problems of these two professional groups and measured attitudes to voice care, informed by the Health Belief Model (HBM). Study design The study was a cross-sectional survey study with two cohorts. Methods We surveyed 264 Scottish primary school teachers and 96 UK voiceover artists . Responses were obtained with multiple-choice and free-text questions. Attitudes to voice care were assessed with Likert-type questions that addressed five dimensions of the HBM. Results Most voiceover artists had some level of voice training, compared to a minority of teachers. Low numbers of teachers reported regular voice care, compared to over half of voiceover artists. Higher numbers of teachers reported work-related voice problems. Voiceover artists reported greater awareness for vocal health and perceived potential effects of voice problems on their work as more severe. Voiceover artists also saw voice care as more beneficial. Teachers perceived barriers to voice care as substantially higher and felt less confident about voice care. Teachers with existing voice problems showed increased perceptions of voice problem susceptibility and severity and saw more benefit in voice care. Cronbach's alpha was below 0.7 for about half of the HBM-informed survey subsets, suggesting that reliability could be improved. Conclusions Both groups reported substantial levels of voice problems, and different attitudes to voice care suggest that the two groups require different approaches to preventative intervention. Future studies will benefit from the inclusion of further attitude dimensions beyond the HBM.