objective measurement – Frost Institute for Data Science & Computing

Objective Measurement of Vocalizations in the Assessment of Autism…

April 4, 2022July 31, 2023

Determination of the severity of autism spectrum disorder is based in part on expert (but subjective) clinician observations during the ADOS-2. Two characteristics of child vocalizations—a smaller number of speech-like sounds per vocalization and higher pitched vocalizations (including cries)—were associated with greater autism symptom severity. Read more “Objective Measurement of Vocalizations in the Assessment of Autism Symptoms in Preschool-Age Children” →

Reciprocal patterns of peer speech in preschoolers with and…

February 10, 2022November 16, 2022

Children with hearing loss often attend inclusive preschool classrooms aimed at improving their spoken language skills. Although preschool classrooms are fertile environments for vocal interaction with peers, little is known about the dyadic processes that influence children’s speech to one another and foster their language abilities and how these processes may vary in children with hearing loss. A team of researchers from the University of Miami used new objective measurement approaches to identify and quantify children’s vocalizations during social contact, as determined by children’s proximity and mutual orientation.

Phonemic Diversity Affects Language Development

October 1, 2021October 11, 2022

In this Developmental Science journal article, Daniel Messinger, Lynn Perry, et al., studied phonemic diversity and how it affects language development in preschool children. Their results highlighted a specific feature of the classroom language environment—phonemic diversity—as a promising correlate of children’s developing language capacities.

Objectively Measured Interactions of Preschoolers With and Without Autism

May 3, 2021January 4, 2022

This study objectively measured associations between children’s peer vocal interactions and assessed language abilities in inclusion classrooms for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their peers. All children benefited from peers talking to them, but children with ASD were less central to classroom speech networks than were typically developing children. Read more “Objectively Measured Interactions of Preschoolers With and Without Autism” →