Authors:
João Marques
1
;
João Lima
1
;
Márcia Keske-Soares
2
and
Fabrício Rubin
3
Affiliations:
1
Centro de Tecnologia, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, Brazil
;
2
Centro de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, Brazil
;
3
Petroleo Brasileiro S.A., Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Keyword(s):
Inference Logic, Speech Therapy, Phonological Assessments Tools, Consonant Clusters, Predicting Phonetics.
Abstract:
To conduct phonological assessments in children, it is necessary to have a set of words that contains a representative sample of adult vocabulary. One of the obstacles to obtain a minimal set is the need to include words with various consonant clusters so that such complex phonetic structures can be validated. In the current literature, there is only one way to determine whether a child is capable of producing a consonant cluster: through the application of a phonological assessment, which contains several words with diverse phonetic structures to be evaluated. In this context, logical inferences are one of the fundamental pillars in any learning area, as they establish logical connections between information to form knowledge about a specific subject. This work proposes an alternative way to indirectly assess a child’s ability to produce consonant clusters, based on their ability to articulate similar clusters. The proposed algorithm is fed with the consonant clusters produced and n
ot produced by the child during the assessment. The goal is to discern which other clusters the child is capable or incapable of producing, using the separation of consonant clusters into simpler phonetic structures. The method was validated with a database containing over 1200 phonological assessments conducted in school-age children, native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. The accuracy of our approach was 97% with 12% false positives and 8% false negatives, indicating that the method is interesting and significantly faithful to real-world results but still leaves room for future improvements. Nevertheless, it is believed that it can be used to reduce the number of words needed in a phonological assessment, through indirect evaluation of specific phonetic structures.
(More)