Using ultrasound tongue imaging to analyse maximum performance tasks in children with Autism: a pilot study

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic details and assessment scores

Participant	Group	Sex	Age y;m	DEAP PCC	SCQ Current	SCQ Lifetime	CELF	Leiter
01 M	ASD	M	12;8	97.37	20	35	91	/
02 F	ASD	F	10;7	97.2	9	24	79	78
03 M	ASD	M	6;4	86.1	17	22	56	77
05 M	ASD	M	12;6	94.74	12	12	100	99
06 M	ASD	M	10;9	100	23	25	109	96
07 F	ASD	F	10;11	75	13	19	42	78
08 M	ASD	M	10;5	97.37	8	19	98	99
09 M	ASD	M	7;6	94.44	9	24	52	101
MEAN			10.07	92.78	13.88	22.50	78.38	89.71
SD			2.12	8.29	5.57	6.57	25.27	11.37
01 F	TD	F	9;8	100	1
02 M	TD	M	11;10	97.2	5
03 F	TD	F	7;7	100	8
04 M	TD	M	7;7	94.6	7
05 F	TD	F	6;8	94	2
06 F	TD	F	7;8	100	2
07 M	TD	M	6;0	88.89
08 M	TD	M	6;6	97.4	1
09 M	TD	M	9;4	100	12
10 M	TD	M	12;6	97.3	5
MEAN			8.53	96.94	4.78
SD			2.24	3.60	3.73

DEAP PCC = % consonants correct; SCQ = social communication questionnaire current/lifetime scores; CELF = Core language standard score; Leiter = standard score.

Table 2. Prompt rates in syllables per second from McCann and Wrench (2007)

	Rate in Syllables per Second
Prompt	−3SD	−2SD	−1SD	mean	+1SD	+2SD
p	2.09	3.01	3.93	4.85	5.77	6.69
t	2.07	2.98	3.89	4.8	5.71	6.62
k	1.87	2.75	3.63	4.51	5.39	6.27
tk	1.32	2.09	2.86	3.63	4.4	5.17
ptk	2.45	2.9	3.35	3.8	4.25	4.7

Figure 1. Ultrasound equipment (L) and headset (R). Note: Photograph on left copyright articulate instruments, reproduced with permission. Photograph on right copyright Joanne Cleland, reproduced with permission.

Figure 2. Screen shot of AAA software showing ultrasound image and spectrogram.

Figure 3. Example mean tongue curves from /p/ at slow (red) and fast (green) rates with standard deviations in dotted lines. A zone of significantly different radii are shown as green spokes on the arc. In this example 7 consecutive radii have an average radial difference of 1.5 mm.

Table 3. Maximum rate in syllables per second

		Syllable (s/s)
Participant	Group	p	t	k	tk	ptk
01 M	ASD	5.04	5.26	5.1	6.44	5.92
02 F	ASD	8.36	9.24	7.42	6.42	5.92
03 M	ASD	5.91	5.86	4.14	8.34	7.43
05 M	ASD	6.2	5.8	5.23	5.82	5.16
06 M	ASD	6.09	5.27	4.84	5.38	4.86
07 F	ASD	6.63	5.65	6.39	3.52	2.29
08 M	ASD	6.49	6.81	6.06	6.07	5.03
09 M	ASD	5.13	3.77	4.71	3.87	4.52
MEAN		6.23	5.96	5.49	5.73	5.14
SD		1.04	1.58	1.06	1.53	1.47
01 F	TD	6.2	5.8	5.23	5.82	5.16
02 M	TD	6.64	9.07	6.03	7.08	6.05
03 F	TD	9.19	9.07	4.77	8.34	13.14
04 M	TD	6.49	6.81	6.06	6.07	5.03
05 F	TD	4.16	4.44	4.26	4.14	7.73
06 F	TD	6.94	6.65	5.93	5.81	4.07
08 M	TD	5.91	5.86	4.14	8.34	7.43
09 M	TD	6.43	6.5	6.61	6.25	6.15
10 M	TD	5.89	6.36	5.01	7.4	6.15
MEAN		6.43	6.73	5.34	6.58	6.77
SD		1.31	1.50	0.87	1.35	2.65
p value		.738	.318	.756	.242	.145
Bayes F		2.90	2.00	2.92	1.72	1.25

Shaded cells denote a DDK rate more than 1SD below the norm for that child’s age.

Table 4. Accuracy

		% Accuracy of First Repetition
Participant	Group	p	t	k	tk	ptk
01 M	ASD	100	83.33	100	100	100
02 F	ASD	100	100	100	100	100
03 M	ASD	100	100	100	100	0
05 M	ASD	100	100	100	100	100
06 M	ASD	100	100	100	100	100
07 F	ASD	100	100	100	66.67	80
08 M	ASD	100	100	100	100	100
09 M	ASD	100	100	66.67	66.67	40
MEAN		100	97.92	95.83	91.67	77.5
SD		0	5.89	11.79	15.43	37.70
01 F	TD	100	100	100	100	50
02 M	TD	100	100	100	83.33	100
03 F	TD	100	100	100	83.33	100
04 M	TD	100	100	100	100	66.67
05 F	TD	100	100	100	100	100
06 F	TD	100	100	100	100	100
08 M	TD	100	100	100	100	83.33
09 M	TD	100	100	100	100	100
10 M	TD	100	100	100	66.67	83.33333
MEAN		100	100	100	92.59	87.04
SD		0	0	0	12.11	18.22
p value		ceiling	.304	.304	.892	.509
Bayes F			1.95	1.95	3.02	2.533

Table 5. % consistent

Participant	Group	p	t	k	tk	ptk
01 M	ASD	83.33	83.33	83.33	100.00	100.00
02 F	ASD	83.33	66.67	83.33	83.33	100.00
03 M	ASD	60.00	50.00	66.67	100.00	16.67
05 M	ASD	100.00	83.33	100.00	66.67	100.00
06 M	ASD	83.33	83.33	83.33	100.00	50.00
07 F	ASD	66.67	66.67	83.33	66.67	60.00
08 M	ASD	33.33	33.33	66.67	66.67	0.00
09 M	ASD	50.00	66.67	0.00
MEAN		70.00	66.67	70.83	83.33	60.95
SD		21.68	17.82	30.54	16.67	41.58
01 F	TD	100.00	100.00	100.00	83.33	16.67
02 M	TD	100.00	100.00	100.00	50.00	100.00
03 F	TD	100.00	66.67	83.33	100.00	83.33
04 M	TD	83.33	50.00	66.67	66.67	66.67
05 F	TD	100.00	100.00	100.00	100.00	83.33
06 F	TD	100.00	100.00	100.00	100.00	83.33
08 M	TD	83.33	66.67	66.67	83.33	0.00
09 M	TD	100.00	100.00	83.33	100.00	66.67
10 M	TD	66.67	66.67	60.00	16.67	66.67
MEAN		92.59	83.33	84.44	77.78	62.96
SD		12.11	20.41	16.58	28.87	33.10
p value		.017	.095	.264	.658	.916
Bayes F		.267	.942	1.803	2.727	2.943

Bonferroni correction gives a significance level of .006 and therefore this is not significant.

Table 6. Articulatory t-test results comparing tongue shapes at slowest and fastest rates

Participant	Group	p	p from ptk	t	t from tk	t from ptk	k	k from tk	k from ptk
01 M	ASD	0.02	ns	ns	0.01	0.01	ns	0.01	0.01
02 F	ASD	0.01	0.02	0.01		ns	0.02		ns
03 M	ASD	0.02	ns	0.01	0.02	ns	ns	ns	ns
05 M	ASD	0.01	ns	0.01	ns	ns	0.02	0.54	ns
06 M	ASD	0.01	0.03	0.04	0.02	ns	0.01	ns	ns
07 F	ASD	ns	0.02	0.01	0.01	ns	0.01	0.00	ns
08 M	ASD	0.02	0.02	ns	ns	0.01	0.03	ns	0.04
09 M	ASD	0.02	ns	0.03	ns	0.03	ns	ns	ns
% Group with Significant Result		87.50	50.00	75.00	57.14	37.50	62.50	42.86	25.00
01 F	TD	0.00	ns	ns	0.01	0.02	ns	0.01	ns
02 M	TD	0.01	ns	0.03	0.00	ns	ns	ns	ns
03 F	TD	0.00	ns	0.02	ns	missing	0.03	0.31	0.01
04 M	TD	0.02	ns	0.01	0.01	0.02	ns	0.04	0.01
05 F	TD	0.01	ns	0.02	ns	ns	0.02	ns	ns
06 F	TD	ns	0.03	ns	ns	0.04	0.01	ns	ns
08 M	TD	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
09 M	TD	0.00	0.03	0.02	ns	0.01	0.62	0.44	0.00
10 M	TD	0.02	0.01	ns	ns	ns	0.01	ns	ns
% Group with Significant Result		77.78	33.33	55.56	33.33	50.00	55.56	44.44	33.33

Figure 4. Percentage of each group with significant tongue-shape differences in slow versus fast productions.

Table 7. Standard deviations of tongue-shapes at slow and fast rates in mm

Participant	Group	Mean single slow	Mean single fast	Mean Bi Slow	Mean Bi Fast	Mean tri slow	Mean tri fast
01 M	ASD	0.83	0.97	0.40			1.20
02 F	ASD	6.43	7.77			7.43	8.17
03 M	ASD	16.57	19.10	12.50	15.00	18.67	14.30
05 M	ASD	17.90	19.93	26.40	43.05	18.67	19.03
06 M	ASD	22.83	18.30	21.00	12.35	15.10	22.03
07 F	ASD	16.87	17.57	19.90	11.25	20.97	18.80
08 M	ASD	11.57	14.03	10.65	11.50	10.47	15.47
09 M	ASD	0.83	0.93	1.05	1.20	0.87	1.00
MEAN		11.73	12.33	13.13	15.73	13.17	12.50
SD		8.25	8.013	9.99	14.19	7.26	8.14
01 F	TD	0.33	0.40	0.40	0.55	0.40	0.40
02 M	TD	0.53	0.40	0.55	0.50	0.40	0.40
03 F	TD	12.53	9.50	12.70	16.85	19.70	15.97
04 M	TD	19.73	17.97	28.15	15.15	16.40	17.23
05 F	TD	14.57	19.90	26.70	36.05	21.17	20.47
06 F	TD	19.37	15.30	25.50	13.50	18.40	16.03
08 M	TD	13.90	27.03	9.45	26.80	16.07	23.37
09 M	TD	7.57	9.87	9.00	9.85	15.43	13.87
10 M	TD	0.80	0.90	1.45	1.10	0.63	1.17
MEAN		9.93	11.25	12.66	13.37	12.07	12.10
SD		7.89	9.57	11.45	12.26	8.88	9.015
p value		.652	.807	.932	.738	.794	.925
Bayes		2.792	2.964	2.948	2.732	2.875	3.028

Figure 5. Mean standard deviations for single, bi- and tri-syllables in both groups.

McCann, J., & Wrench, A. A. (2007). A new EPG protocol for assessing DDK accuracy scores in children: A down’s syndrome study. Proceedings of the 16th International Congress of the ICPhS (pp. 1359), Saarbrücken. http://www.icphs2007.de/

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