The implementation of the ‘Testing of Phonological Skills (TOPS)’ tool: a computer-based phonological analysis algorithm

ABSTRACT

A computer-based algorithm was used for phonological analysis of Cypriot Greek (CG) word productions elicited from a sample of typically developing (TD) CG-speaking children. Specific focus was on (a) creating a complete CG phonetic and phonological test; (2) implementing a novel computer-based algorithm in the analysis of selected speech stimuli from CG-speaking TD children; and (3) examining independent and relational speech patterns based on the computer-based algorithm. The probe word list consisted of 182 target words and included all CG consonants in all word positions. Normative data were collected on a representative sample of 20 TD CG-speaking children aged 3;0 to 6;0 years. Productions were phonetically transcribed and inserted into the computer algorithm for automatic data reduction of measurable dependent variables including the percentage of consonants correct (PCC), phonetic inventory size (PIS), word-initial onset deletion (IOD), and Regressive Assimilation (RASS). Correlation analyses revealed significant interactions among phonetic and phonological patterns as well as predictive relationships of PCC and segmental word-position. The implementation of this specific probe word list permitted a homogeneous and inclusive sampling analysis. Participants presented specific developmental trajectories of segmental and phonological patterns as a function of age.

KEYWORDS:

• Computer-based phonological analysis
• phonetic analysis
• algorithm
• cross-linguistic

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the children and their caregivers for their participation and commitment to the research project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Statement of ethics

The participants’ caregiver provided informed written consent while ethical approval was granted by the CUT Speech and Language Rehabilitation Clinic session participation protocol 2017–2018 (protocol number CNBC 2020/014/).

Author contributions

Spyros Armostis contributed mainly to designing the study, conducting the statistical analysis, and interpreting results; he gave final approval of the paper to be published. Kakia Petinou contributed to designing the study, conducting literature review, interpreting results, and preparing the manuscript; along with Spyros Armostis, she was responsible for the final approval of the paper to be published. Anna Kyprianou contributed to the literature review, data acquisition and processing, and to the preparation of the paper.

Additional information

Funding

Funding was provided by an internal start-up fund awarded to the second author by the Cyprus University of Technology CUT/START-UP/PETINOU/REHAB 2014–2017.