LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 15:7 July 2015
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Word List in Tulu Language to Assess Speech Production Skills in
3-8 Year Old Tulu Speaking Children – A Preliminary Study

Parinitha P. Shetty, MASLP, Shwetha Prabhu, Ph.D. Candidate,
Meghna A. K., MASLP, and T. A. Subba Rao, Ph.D.

Abstract

In a multi-lingual country like India where every language has its own phonological system, there is a need for language specific articulation test. Although in recent times there has been increasing awareness among parents for early intervention in children with articulation problems within the regional areas of the nation, the availability of articulation tests in the regional languages is very limited. The present study makes a preliminary attempt at developing an assessment tool to assess the articulatory skills of Tulu speaking children, who form a significant population in South India. Word list was developed based on familiarity rating and was administered on 50 children, aged 3-8 years. The target speech sounds were embedded in words which were presented in picture form to elicit responses from the participants. The responses were analysed qualitatively and in terms of production accuracy across age groups.

Keywords: Tulu, articulation, children, preliminary study

Introduction

Among the communication disorders that are assessed and managed by Speech - Language Pathologists, articulation impairment is a common type of speech production problem seen in young children. It is defined as ''Atypical production of speech sounds...that may interfere with intelligibility'' (ASHA, 1993). Although in India, the prevalence of articulation impairment as a disorder by itself is not very clear, systemic review commissioned by the National Health Service Centre for Reviews and Dissemination at the University of York on behalf of the National Health Technology Assessment Programme of the NHS in the UK estimated its prevalence to be roughly ranging from 2-25% in children aged 5-7 years. (Law, Boyle, Harris, Harkness, & Nye, 2000). When articulation impairment which is organic or functional in nature is not intervened early, it can have detrimental effects on a child's social, educational and emotional life. It is reported that individuals with deviant articulation or phonology are victims of unfavourable comments, teasing, ostracism, exclusion, labelling and frustration (Van Riper & Erickson, 1996). This signifies the importance and need of the articulation tests that can aid in the early assessment and management of children with articulation problems. ''An articulation test is an evaluation which yields information about the nature, number and characteristics of articulatory errors as they occur in a person’s speech'' (Nicolosi, Harryman & Kresheck, 1996). Although Articulation tests are available in western countries, they cannot be directly administered on Indian children as the population in which they were developed and standardized is different. Since India is a multi- lingual country, there is a need for language specific articulation test, as every language has its own phonological system. Given India's multi-dialect, multi-lingual and multi-cultural background, attempts have been made at developing articulation tests in picture form in India's official state languages like Tamil (Usha, 1986), Telugu (Padmaja, 1988), Bengali (Banik, 1988), Hindi (Pandit, 1989), Malayalam (Manoj, 1998) and Kannada (Babu, Rathna & Bettagere, 1972) by eliciting responses from children aged between 2-8 years. All these tests have established norms for age of acquisition by using a cut off criteria to judge the sounds as acquired. Given the present scenario of increasing awareness in parents for early intervention of children with articulation problems within the regional areas, literature is very scarce with articulation test in local languages being developed only in Konkani (D’Souza, 2001) and Coorgi (Somanna, 2007) languages.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Parinitha P. Shetty (Corresponding Author)
Masters in Audiology, Speech-Language Pathology (MASLP)
Department of Speech Pathology
Dr. M. V. Shetty College of Speech & Hearing
Vidyanagar
Mangalore-575013
Karnataka
India
parisshetty@gmail.com

Shwetha Prabhu, Ph.D. Candidate
Assistant Professor
Department of Speech Pathology
Dr. M. V. Shetty College of Speech & Hearing
Vidyanagar
Mangalore-575013
Karnataka
India
shwethagprabhu@gmail.com

Meghna A.K.

Masters in Audiology, Speech-Language Pathology (MASLP)
Department of Speech Pathology
Dr. M. V. Shetty College of Speech & Hearing
Vidyanagar
Mangalore-575013
Karnataka
India

Dr. T. A. Subba Rao, Ph.D.
Professor & Principal
Dr. M. V. Shetty College of Speech & Hearing
Vidyanagar
Mangalore-575013
Karnataka
India
subbaraota@yahoo.com
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