This advice-column-style blog for SLPs was authored by Pam Marshalla from 2006 to 2015, the archives of which can be explored here. Use the extensive keywords list found in the right-hand column (on mobile: at the bottom of the page) to browse specific topics, or use the search feature to locate specific words or phrases throughout the entire blog.
Classic Resources on Vowel Production
By Pam Marshalla
Q: The clinic I work for recently purchased your CD lecture called Vowel Tracks. I have a B.A. in psychology and work with children in the Autism Spectrum Disorder as a behavior analyst. I loved your product! Have you published any articles in peer-reviewed journals showing results that prove this methodology is effective with children who have very low intelligibility?
Vowel Tracks is based on my own 35 years of clinical experiences and classic phonetics research on the vowels. I do not do the type of formal research you are asking about; I write about my clinical experiences to share with other clinicians who are seeking advice on practical matters from an experienced fellow clinician. If you need standard classic information on how the tongue shapes to perform the vowels, let me recommend the following:
- Carrell, J., and Tiffany, W. R. (1960) Phonetics: Theory and application to speech improvement. NY: McGraw-Hill.
- Garn-Nunn, P. G., and Lynn, J. M. (2004) Calvert’s descriptive phonetics. NY: Thieme.
- Ladefoged, P. (2005) Vowels and consonants: An introduction to the sounds of languages. Australia: Blackwell.
- McLeod, S. and Singh, S. (2009) Speech sounds: A pictorial guide to typical and atypical speech. San Diego: Plural.