Browsing by Author "Lokubalasuriya, T."

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Developing a word list to assess articulation skills in Sinhala speaking children with cleft lip and palate: age range between 3 Years to 3 ½ Years
(Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, 2014) Bandara, M.M.M.K.; Lokubalasuriya, T.; Udangamuwa, S.; Sell, D.
Cleft lip and palate (CLP) cause disordered articulation, which is defined as cleft type errors (CTC). Currently in Sri Lanka, speech and language therapists conduct informal assessments to assess cleft type errors. However, there is no consistency between these measures used. In this context, developing a culturally and linguistically appropriate assessment to identify cleft errors is a great necessity. This need was addressed at a primary level by developing a word list to assess articulation skills for Sinhala speaking children with cleft lip and palate for the age range of 3-3½years. 30 typically developing children were selected as participants from a preschool setting. The word list comprised of 24 words for 18 consonants in word initial and medial position. Each word was represented by a toy or an object. The competency analysis was identified based on Templin’s 75 % assigning criterion guidelines. All 30 subjects were able to produce all sounds in initial position within the attempts of spontaneous, first repeat or second repeat. 28 subjects were able to produce all sounds in medial position within the spontaneous attempts, first repeat or second repeat. Only 2 subjects were unable to produce sound /r/ in medial position. The study findings suggest that all 18 consonant sound and all 24 words used in sound initial and medial position can be use to assess articulation skills of Sinhala speakers within the age range of 3 to 3 ½ years. For future directions, the word list could be standardized as a formal assessment by validating among children with and without CLP.
Developing and validating a Sinhala phonology assessment for children aged between 3 to 6 years: trends observed and lessons learnt
(Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, 2014) Nonis, P.D.M.; Ranaweera, M.; Saleem, S.; Udugama, K.L.L.G.; Lokubalasuriya, T.; Hettiarachchi, S.
Clinical experience of speech and language therapists working in Sri Lanka has put into question the current reliance on norms for English (Grunwell, 1985) to determine a child’s speech skills and phonological acquisition in Sinhala. Cross-linguistic studies have revealed differences in ‘universal principles’ and ‘language-specific’ aspects (Amayreh & Dyson, 1998). At present, there is an urgent need to develop and validate formal language-specific standardized assessments for speech and phonology for Sinhala. The aims of the study were; 1)to develop and validate test items for a Sinhala speech and phonology assessment for children aged between 3;0 to 6;0 years, 2)to document the typical phoneme acquisition and typical phonological processes in Sinhala-speaking children aged between 3;0 to 6;0 years. The ‘Sinhala Speech and Phonology Assessment’ was devised based on the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (Dodd et al. 2002) and administered to 250 Sinhala-speaking children between the ages 3;0 to 6;00 years. The use of test items were determined by measures of content validity, test-retest reliability and inter-rater reliability. The trajectory of Sinhala speech sound acquisition showed universal sound acquisition sequences and language-specific features in both the order and rate of speech sound development. The sequence of speech sound acquisition for Sinhala showed early acquisition of plosives and some nasals with comparatively later acquisition of fricatives, the palatal nasal and flap/tap sound. Language-specific phonological processes of lateralization and denasalisation of prenasalised stops were also evident. The test items demonstrated effectiveness at generating target speech data and typical phoneme and phonological development in children between 3;0 to 6;0.