Assessing Speech Disorders in Russian Speaking

Children

Background Current Russian Assessments Rublev Russian Articulation Test Preliminary Validation

• While the majority of American’s exclusively speak • The Russian Articulation Screener created by Elleseff (RRAT) • To establish the effectiveness of identifying articulation English, there are currently over 350 languages other (2014) was designed to analyze potential phonological • The RRAT was designed to assess speech skills of errors in monolingual (Russian) or bilingual (English/ than English spoken in homes across the U.S (United errors in Russian-speaking children 2;0 and older. monolingual (Russian) or bilingual (Russian/English) Russian) speaking children, the RRAT was administered States Census Bureau, 2017); one of which is Russian. • The screener contains 72 words that target all Russian speaking school aged children (1;5-21;11) by assessing to four participants (two males, two female) ages 4;0, phonemes in initial, medial, and final word position in pronunciation of single words. 4;0, 4;2, and 5;4. Percent of Russian Speaking Population addition to a select number of consonant clusters. All • Target words were obtained from the Russian adaptation (2.9 million) target words are in Russian and are accompanied by an of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Russian Articulation Screener (RAS) vs. RRAT image to as a visual aid for each word. Inventories (MCDI) since it provided the vocabulary 100 most commonly used by typically developing 90 80 9% 5% Under 5 years monolingual Russian speaking children ages 0;8-3;0 and 70 13% 5-17 years Limitations of the Russian it was normed on over 400+ Russian-speaking children 60 13% 18-24 in St. Petersburg, . 50 Articulation Screener • The RRAT was created to serve as a quick, effective, 40 8% 25-34 • No specification of target word selection criteria. and informative informal assessment; testing each 30 35-44 20 14% • Cannot be assumed that words selected are appropriate phoneme once across all 42 words in each of the word 10 13% 45-54 for the population intended (2;0+) as some words may positions (initial, medial, and final). 0 55-64 be too advanced/difficult for younger children. • Each target word is accompanied by visual Percent of target words Total target words Average administration correctly identified 13% 12% 65-74 • Visual stimuli provided contains a poor representation of presentation of that item. assessed time (minutes) independently 75+ the target word, making it difficult to know if the participant would be able to identify it independently. RAS 72 45 12.0 RRAT 42 90 5.5 • Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) that work in • Several images show the plural form while the target RRAT Sample Target Words various settings are likely to encounter Russian- word indicates the singular form. speaking clients throughout their career. • The phonemes targeted appear on the page with the Conclusions and Future image, which may confuse the child and/or prolong the Directions Similarities and Differences administration time if directly focused on. • Numerous grammatical mistakes are also prevalent. • When assessing bilingual children, it is imperative for an Between English and Russian SLP to determine the distinction between a speech disorder and a language difference by assessing the child • Russian consists of 31 phonemes; 21 consonants and 10 in their L1 and L2 since true speech/language based vowels. deficits will be prominent in both languages. • Russian and English share many of the same • The RRAT provides a standardized informal assessment phonemes, including consonants (/p, b, t, d, k, g, m, analyzing monolingual (Russian) or bilingual (English/ n, s, z, j, l, ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, f, v/) and vowels (/a, e, i, o, u/). Russian) school aged children with potential articulation • There are several phonemes that differ between the impairments. two languages: • While the number of participants is small, the RRAT • English containing seven consonants (/ɹ, ŋ, θ, ð, shows promising results by serving as an efficient and h, dʒ, w/) that a Russian speaker will lack due to • To assess these inconsistencies, this assessment was reliable tool to use either in stand alone or in differences in the phonological system of the administered to one bilingual (Russian/English) female combination with other speech assessments when language (Kester, 2014). child (4;0). assessing school-aged children with potential • In Russian, a trilled /r/ and a phoneme similar to • The participant was placed into a quiet room and was articulation disorders. the English voiced retroflex fricative (/ʐ/) are not given the Russian Articulation Screener by showing one • Continued administration on monolingual or bilingual present in English. image at a time and recording each response. Russian speaking school aged children is recommended • Also, while present in English, there are several • Results indicated that the child struggled with to solidify significance of results. consonants that require additional palatalization approximately 45% (33/72) of the target words due to in order to be accurately pronounced in Russian, several potential issues (e.g. complexity of word, poor References including: /m ʲ, n ʲ, p ʲ, b ʲ, f ʲ, v ʲ, t ʲ, d ʲ, s ʲ, z ʲ, r ʲ, l image representation, improper use of target, etc.). 1 Algeo, J. (1978). What Consonant Clusters Are Possible? WORD, 29(3), 206-224. 2 Bondarko, L. V. (2005). Phonetic and phonological aspects of the opposition of ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ consonants in the modern Russian language. Speech Communication, 47(1), 7-14. ʲ, x, ts, and tʃ ʲ/. • When comparing the target words used in this screener to 3 Corey. (2012). Russian Consonant Clusters. Retrieved from https://therussianblog.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/russian-consonant-clusters/. 4 Елисеева, M. Б., Вершинина, Е. А., & Рыскина, В. Л. (2017). Макартуровский опросник: русская версия. Иваново, RU: Листос. 5 Elleseff, T. (2014). Russian Articulation Screener [Informal Assessment Instrument]. Smart Speech Therapy. • Russian contains 10 vowel phonemes (/a, o, ɛ, i, uː, 6 Elleseff, T. (2016). Working with Russian-speaking clients: Implications for speech-language assessment. Smart Speech Therapy. the Russian MCDI, results showed that only 45% (33/72) 7 Gildersleeve-Neumann, C. E., & Wright, K. L. (2010). English Speech Acquisition in 3- to 5-Year-Old Children Learning Russian and English. Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, 41(4), 429-444. jɛ, jɔ, ju, ja, ɨ) compared to 12 vowel phonemes in 8 Ivanova, S. A. (2016). Russian and English vowel systems [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://athenaeum.libs.uga.edu/bitstream/handle/10724/38071/WP2016_Ivanova.pdf of the target words overlapped on both assessments, sequence=1&isAllowed=y. 9 Holden, K. (1978). INITIAL AND FINAL CONSONANT CLUSTERS IN RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH. Russian Language Journal/Русский язык, 32(112), 19-42. English (/a, e, i, o, u, I, ʊ, æ, ʌ, ə, ɜ, ɔ/). 10 Kester, E.S. (2014). Chapter 12 Russian. In Difference or Disorder? Understanding Speech and Language Patterns in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students (pp. 70-75). indicating that younger children may only be able to Austin, TX: Bilinguistics. 11 Kritikos, E. P. (2003). Speech-Language Pathologists' Beliefs About Language Assessment of Bilingual/Bicultural Individuals. American Journal of Speech-Language • In Russian, the vowel /ɨ/ does not have a direct Pathology, 12(1), 73-91. understand less than half of the target words that are 12 McGranahan, W. J. (1975). RUSSIAN INITIAL CONSONANT CLUSTERS: A COMPARATIVE APPROACH. Russian Language Journal / Русский Язык, 29(102), 13-20. 13 Ostapenko, O. (2005). The Optimal L2 Russian Syllable Onset. LSO Working Papers in Linguistics,5, 140-151. Retrieved from http://www.csun.edu/~bashforth/301_PDF/301_P_P/ comparison to an English vowel due to the nature RussianSyllableOnsets.pdf. provided. 14 Rochtchina, J. (2003). Introductory Lesson 6: Learn Russian Hard and Soft consonants. Vowel reduction (я, е). Retrieved from http://www.russianforeveryone.com/Rufe/Lessons/ Course1/Introduction/IntrUnit6/IntrUnit6.htm of pronunciation of the phoneme and therefore 15 United States Census Bureau. (2017). Census Bureau Reports at Least 350 Languages Spoken in U.S. Homes. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2015/ • Based on this analysis, a new informal assessment was cb15-185.html 16 United States Census Bureau. (2017). LANGUAGE SPOKEN AT HOME BY ABILITY TO SPEAK ENGLISH FOR THE POPULATION 5 YEARS AND OVER Universe: cannot be produced accurately by a native Population 5 years and over. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2015/cb15-185.html. created, called the Rublev Russian Articulation Test 17 Williamson, G. (2014). Syllables and Clusters. Retrieved from https://www.sltinfo.com/syllables-and-clusters/ English speaker. (RRAT). • Consonant clusters in Russian range from 2-4 Acknowledgements consonants in length, allowing for more diverse combinations and a wider span of consonant clusters • Aquiles Iglesias, Founding Director of Communication Sciences & Disorders Program at the University of Delaware for the guidance and support in making this assessment a reality. (four) in syllable-initial (onset) clusters compared to • Марина Елисеева, the department of the Children’s Language and Literacy Education at the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia (St. Petersburg), who generously provided the maximum of three that are allowed in English. me with the Russian adaptation of the MCDI. • Larisa Rublev, my mother who aided me with translating the Russian literature and text.