CASL Research Centre

One of our MSc students is interested in finding out about foster carers' awareness of speech, language and communication needs of the children they foster.

Please share with anyone you think might be interested in filling out her survey.

the project has ethical approval from the university.

for further details, please contact Dr Ann Hodson, [email protected].

thank you for your help,
Ann

Foster carers' awareness of speech, language and communication needs of care experienced children. Online survey BOS

New open access research output: “Comparing Vocal Health and Attitudes to Voice care in Primary Teachers and Voiceover Artists − A Survey Study Using the Health Belief Model”
Journal of Voice, 19 March 2023, early online

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2023.02.005 (will be active soon)

Felix Schaeffler, Anna M. Parry, Janet Beck, Meagan Rees, Sonja Schaeffler, and Tess Whittaker.

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Please participate to help our research... No experience necessary.

Perceptions Study Online survey BOS

We are looking for Lawyers working in Scotland to give us their views on Speech, Language and Communication Needs in the criminal justice system.

Here is the link. Please share with your contacts, if they would be interested in taking party.

Contact Dr Ann Hodson, [email protected] for further details.

Thank you!

A focus on Speech, Language and Communication Needs within the criminal justice system: Scottish lawyers’ perspectives Online survey BOS

Call for Papers – Special Collection on “Distanced data collection: remote data collection and online experimentation” Call for Papers – Special Collection on “Distanced data collection: remote data collection and online experimentation” Guest editors: Florent Dueme, Indranil Dutta, Katerina Iliopoulou, Laurel Lawyer, Yu-Jung Lin Research in laboratory phonology has evolved rapidly over the past few years to i...

ICPLA 2023

The International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association conference website is live.
https://icpla2023.plus.ac.at/

Please note the following key dates
Abstract submission starts15th November 2022
Abstract submission deadline15th January 2023
(latest midnight on earth)
Abstract acceptance notifications:13th March 2023
Conference programme published:2nd May 2023
Deadline for abstract edits:21st May 2023
(latest midnight on earth)

ICPLA2023 – July 4th – July 7th 2023 Call for Submissions Grüßgott, Servus and welcome to Salzburg! We are looking forward to seeing you in the summer of 2023 when not only the hills, but all of Salzburg will be alive with the sound of ICPLA! Days before the city of Salzburg becomes vibrant with the famous summer festival, we are ple...

How we speak when we speak to a beat: The influence of temporal coupling on phonetic enhancement Stressed syllables in languages which have them tend to show two interesting properties: They show patterns of phonetic ‘enhancement’ at the articulatory and acoustic levels, and they also show coordinative properties. They typically play a key role in coordinating speech with co-speech gesture,...

A new research output:
Dokovova, M. & Scobbie, J. M. & Lickley, R., (2022) “Matched-accent processing: Bulgarian-English bilinguals do not have a processing advantage with Bulgarian-accented English over native English speech”, Laboratory Phonology 13(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/labphon.6423
Abstract
The Interlanguage Speech Intelligibility Benefit (ISIB) hypothesis for Talkers suggests that there is a potential benefit when listening to one’s second language when it is produced in the accent of one’s first language (matched-accent processing). This study explores ISIB, considering listener proficiency. According to second language learning theories, the listener’s second language proficiency determines the extent to which they rely on their first language phonetics, hence the magnitude of ISIB may be affected by listener proficiency. The accuracy and reaction times of Bulgarian-English bilinguals living in the UK were recorded in a lexical decision task. The English stimuli were produced by native English speakers and Bulgarian-English bilinguals. Listeners responded more slowly and less accurately to the matched-accent stimuli than the native English stimuli. In addition, they adapted their reaction times faster to new speakers with a native English accent compared to a Bulgarian accent. However, the listeners with the lowest English proficiency had no advantage in reaction times and accuracy for either accent. The results offer mixed support for ISIB for Talkers, and are consistent with second language learning theories according to which listeners rely less on their native language phonology when their proficiency in the second language has increased.

Deaf Action is behind a new festival being held in Edinburgh this August. The Deaf Festival will celebrate language and culture and is a Scottish first.

More than 100 people involved in the arts and politics gathered at the official launch earlier this week and were told that the event will be led by deaf people in the organisation and production. There will be drama, magic, comedy, cabaret, tours and exhibitions. A deaf rave is also on the agenda.

https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2022/06/new-festival-coming-to-edinburgh-in-august/

A new research output
Wrench, A. and Balch-Tomes, J. (2022) 'Beyond the edge: Markerless pose estimation of speech articulators from ultrasound and camera images using DeepLabCut', Sensors, 22(3), article no. 1133.
https://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/11795
Abstract
Automatic feature extraction from images of speech articulators is currently achieved by detecting edges. Here, we investigate the use of pose estimation deep neural nets with transfer learning to perform markerless estimation of speech articulator keypoints using only a few hundred hand-labelled images as training input. Midsagittal ultrasound images of the tongue, jaw, and hyoid and camera images of the lips were hand-labelled with keypoints, trained using DeepLabCut and evaluated on unseen speakers and systems. Tongue surface contours interpolated from estimated and hand-labelled keypoints produced an average mean sum of distances (MSD) of 0.93, s.d. 0.46 mm, compared with 0.96, s.d. 0.39 mm, for two human labellers, and 2.3, s.d. 1.5 mm, for the best performing edge detection algorithm. A pilot set of simultaneous electromagnetic articulography (EMA) and ultrasound recordings demonstrated partial correlation among three physical sensor positions and the corresponding estimated keypoints and requires further investigation. The accuracy of the estimating lip aperture from a camera video was high, with a mean MSD of 0.70, s.d. 0.56, mm compared with 0.57, s.d. 0.48 mm for two human labellers. DeepLabCut was found to be a fast, accurate and fully automatic method of providing unique kinematic data for tongue, hyoid, jaw, and lips.

Beyond the edge: Markerless pose estimation of speech articulators from ultrasound and camera images using DeepLabCut

2022 PhD Bursary Competition.
Individuals with a strong academic record can now apply for a funded QMU PhD studentship in CASL. The closing date for applications is 11 March 2022. Full details of our four topics and how to apply are available at https://www.qmu.ac.uk/study-here/postgraduate-research-study/graduate-school-and-doctoral-research/phd-bursary-competition

In brief, here are the project titles and the contact. More details on each appear in the comments below.

Personality assessment from voices: Judgment validity and signal dynamics [BUR 22-14] - Dr Felix Schaeffler

Application of ultrasound to swallowing assessment [BUR 22-15] - Dr Joan Ma

Aptitude or Attitude? Understanding Inter-individual Differences in Accent Adaptations [BUR 22-16] - Dr Sonja Schaeffler

Speech, Language and Communication Needs of Adults with Autistic Spectrum Disorder in the Criminal Justice System [BUR 22-17] - Dr Ann Clark.

PhD Bursary Competition | Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh Each year Queen Margaret University invites applications from individuals with a strong academic record for funded PhD studentships.

A new research paper:

Mousikou, Strycharczuk, Turk & Scobbie (2021) "Coarticulation across morpheme boundaries: An ultrasound study of past-tense inflection in Scottish English." Journal of Phonetics, vol. 88 (early online).

https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1dlWTLixzo1Wu is a link that will provide FREE access to the paper for its first 50 days. "Anyone clicking on this link before November 04, 2021 will be taken directly to the final version of the article on ScienceDirect, which they are welcome to read or download. No sign up, registration or fees are required." After 4 November, the paper reverts to pay-per-view (though your institution is likely to have a subscription, giving students and academics ongoing free access). Normal access after 4 November is via
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2021.101101

Redirecting

A new research paper from CASL. This OpenAccess illustrative case study from Dr Zoe Roxburgh, Dr Joanne Cleland,* Prof James M Scobbie and Dr Sara Wood is in the journal Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, titled:

"Quantifying changes in ultrasound tongue-shape pre- and post-intervention in speakers with submucous cleft palate: an illustrative case study"

Roxburgh treated a child for speech disorders associated with a submucous cleft, in part using Ultrasound Tongue Imaging (UTI) for real time biofeedback. High quality UTI recordings were also made. They are analysed here to explore compensatory articulations pre and post treatment. The longitudinal intervention study uses a radial grid in AAA software for efficient testing for (pockets of) significant target differences within session, combined with a global composite of the tongue-surface distances between two targets (Mean Radial Difference).

The articulatory analysis supplemented impressionistic phonetic transcriptions and identified covert contrasts. Articulatory errors identified in this study using ultrasound were in line with errors identified in the speech of children with cleft palate in previous literature.

While compensatory error patterns commonly found in speakers with cleft palate have been argued to facilitate functional phonological development, the nature of the findings in this paper suggest that the compensatory articulations uncovered are articulatory in nature.

Synchronised video camera data (frontal view of the lips) was recorded as well as ultrasound and audio. More about this case (and a second one) and the use of Visual Articulatory Models (impersonal animated digital cross-sections of the head that explain articulation) are in -

Roxburgh, Z. (2018) Visualising articulation: Real-time ultrasound visual biofeedback and visual articulatory models and their use in treating speech sound disorders associated with submucous cleft palate. PhD Thesis, QMU - https://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/8899

The paper and abstract are at the following link, and are, as noted, free to download for all.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02699206.2021.1973566

*University of Strathclyde

Visualising articulation: real-time ultrasound visual biofeedback and visual articulatory models and their use in treating speech sound disorders associated with submucous cleft palate

CASL Research Centre updated their business hours.