Rational: Ling’s Speech Development Model
Due July 14th, 2010
Stepha Locke
EPSE 565A
Ling, Daniel (1976). Order or Chaos? Speech and the Hearing Impaired Child: Theory
and Practice. 2nd edition. 2002. Washington DC: A.G. Bell.
Ling proposed that his order is critical for three reasons: to avoid wasting
time by working on a skill without the proper foundation, to avoid incorrect
production and bad habits, and to avoid frustration both on the part of the student
and on the part of the teacher. There are five hierarchical broad stages which
overlap slightly, each with its own order of development within. It is important that
speech sounds are learned in syllables, followed by practice at a phonetic level, and
then used in communicative speech in a timely manner to provide meaning.
Undifferentiated Vocalizations is the first broad stage, and with good reason.
Page 111 introduced a study (Carr, 1953, 1955) of deaf’s children’s spontaneous
vocalizations, explaining that many speech sounds are produced within those
spontaneous vocalizations, and these should be used as the basis for development as
we know the child can already produce them; therefore we are just prescribing
meaning. Sounds not currently produced can be taught using the sounds the child
already has.
The second broad stage is Nonsegmental Patterns: pitch, intensity, and
duration. These develop naturally in the hearing child from the beginning, and are
necessary to teach before specific sounds so that the child has independent control
of voice patterns and tongue movement. As pitch is the most difficult, due to lack of
visual or tactile input available, loudness (intensity) should be taught first. It is also
important to differentiate between intensity and pitch so that the child does not
equate loudness with low pitch, and softness with high pitch (or vice versa). This is
also the stage to introduce working on breath control. Everything developed in this
stage will be used in future stages.
Vowels are the third broad stage. Although the high-front vowels can be
difficult for the hearing impaired child to learn, due to low visibility tongue
placement and low acoustic properties, the placement should be taught early to
avoid the habit of speaking too far back in the mouth (hypernasality). Ling advises
high-front vowels be taught first, along with the low central and high back
placements, concurrently. Tactile information is a useful tool to teach high front
vowels; lip rounding should not be allowed to substitute for tongue placement. The
second step within this stage includes low back vowels and low front vowels.
Thirdly, moving between tongue positions is necessary for dipthongs, and can also
help the child associate tongue placement with the vowels. Some vowels it is easier
to teach from dipthongs instead of vice versa. Controlled tongue movements are
even more important than the specific order vowels and dipthongs are taught in.
Even while still teaching vowels, certain consonants will be necessary simply
to work with the vowels; this brings us into the next broad stage: Simple
Consonants. Consonants must be taught in three positions: initial, medial and final.
Ling suggests that consonants differing in manner of production can and should be
taught concurrently. Ling uses manner, place, and voicing to classify the sounds, as
theses classifiers are specific without being too abstract. Within the broader stage of
simple consonants, there are four steps. The first step sounds can be readily
incorporated, as most do not involve the tongue and are simple to produce. The
sounds in the second and third step vary only by place of production from the first
step, and the sounds increase by complexity up to step four. Stops and plosives are
treated differently as they function differently in speech and also differ
physiologically. Lower frequency sounds are taught before the higher frequency
sounds to provide auditory feedback to those with severe hearing loss; visual and
ornosensory cues are also more readily available in earlier sounds. Other than
certain nasals and fricatives, consonants can really only be taught properly as part
of a syllable. It makes sense to teach voiceless fricatives before voiced fricatives for a
number of reasons: voiceless are easier, and contrast with other sounds better so
can be taught concurrently; reducing the voiceless sound can sometimes produce
the voiced (but not the other way around); it can help with hypernasality; there is a
foundation in the whispering work done in vowels and dipthongs.
Manner of production carries the most information when it comes to speech,
followed by duration, followed by place and finally voicing. Place is more crucial to
intelligibility than voicing (for example, whispering is without voice). Voice is more
about breath control and is therefore limited in syllable teaching. Manner and place
should be automatic before timing can be taught. First proper vowel duration is
necessary (rice versus rise) and then the duration of vowel consonant interaction
can be worked on, followed by voice onset time (VOT). VOT is very consistent with
consonants and can therefore help differentiate between them, making it easier to
build on what is already in place.
Once certain consonants are mastered, it is necessary to teach consonant
blends. Consonant blends are a compound, and each component must be strong
before you can work at combining them. It is important to remember that the
elements can change in the blending process, thereby acting not as two letters but as
a single form; affricates can be used to help develop blends. Just as consonants,
blends can be in the initial placement, the medial placement (medial lexical), or the
final placement; there are also blends that happen between words (interlexical
blends), but they function similar to medial lexical blends.
Initial blends should be taught by organic difficulty (easiest to hardest). First
the two-organ sequentially formulated blends (such as /sm/) should be taught
because each sound is produced sequentially (the /s/ is formed and then the /m/),
and producing a blend using both the lips and tongue is easier than forming a blend
using the tongue alone. Those blends using the tongue alone are called the one organ
sequentially formulated blends when each sound is still produced sequentially
(/sn/), and should be taught next. Thirdly, two organ simultaneously formulated
blends can be taught; in these the second element must be partially formed before
the first element is completed (/br/). Fourth, one organ simultaneously formulated
blends are taught; these contain the most radically changed elements: if the first
element is unvoiced, so is the second (/tr/). Lastly, complex blends can be taught
when the other four types are mastered; these combine various types of blends
(/spr/).
Final blends should also be taught by organic difficulty, and again there are
four types and then complex blends. First, continuant-continuant blends should be
taught, as their elements are not radically changed but rather juxtaposed (/ns/).
Continuant-stop blends are taught next; in these the second element cannot be
formulated until the first element is completed (/st/), and sometimes releasing the
second element is only necessary when followed by a word beginning with a vowel.
Thirdly, stop-consonant blends should be taught, where the stop as the first element
is unreleased (/ts/). Final stops must be mastered before teaching this blend.
Fourth, stop-stop blends are taught (/pt/); these are the most difficult to learn, and
/t/ in isolation must be mastered before this skill is taught. Lastly, complex blends
can be taught once mastery of the simpler blends is achieved (/sps/).
Medial-lexical blends (and interlexical or between word blends) include
many more combinations of sounds than other blends. The teacher needs to be
aware how blends change the characteristics of the individual sounds, and mastery
of the previous broad stages are necessary so the student can concentrate on the
blend as oppose to tongue position. Quick succession of one syllable words can help
work on medial lexical and interlexical blends (“big-dog”)
Ling admits that at the time he wrote this article, there was not a lot of
research to support his sequential and slightly overlapping stages of development,
which is why his rational (and therefore this one) is so extensive. I might add that
the fact we are still using Ling’s sequence at this point in time, decades later, is a bit
of a rational in itself. I assume there is now adequate research to support Ling’s
theories (although I haven’t done extensive investigation myself).