Paula Menyuk | |
---|---|
Born | 1929 New York City |
Died | October 4, 2020 |
Spouse | Norman Menyuk |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Boston University |
Academic work | |
Institutions | School of Education,Boston University |
Paula Menyuk (1929 - 2020) [1] was an American linguist known for her research in language development and disorders. She is one of the founders of the Boston University Conference on Language Development. [2] At the time of her death,she was Professor Emerita at Boston University. [3]
Menyuk was born in New York City and attended Hunter College High School. [4] She received her Bachelor of Science in Speech Sciences from New York University in 1951. She worked as a chief language therapist at Massachusetts General Hospital [5] before pursuing her Masters of Education in Speech and Hearing from Boston University. [4] Menyuk continued on to receive her Doctor of Education in Psycholinguistics from Boston University in 1961. [4] She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,where she studied with Noam Chomsky, [1] before returning to Boston University for the rest of her academic career. [6]
Menyuk rose as a leading expert in child language development and disorders [7] and eventually obtained the rank of Professor Emerita in the Developmental Studies and Applied Linguistics program at Boston University. [3] Menyuk retired from Boston University in 1998. [8]
Menyuk's research was supported by the National Institutes of Health,the U.S. Air Force,and the U.S. Army. [9]
Outside of scholarly work Menyuk had a passion for safe environmental implementation. [10]
Menyuk's research focused on the linguistic behavior of children and adolescents,covering topics such as the development of spoken language,prosody,metalinguistic awareness,and reading. [11] [12] Other work examined language development in children specifically impacted by otitis media. [13] Menyuk's research has been described as aligning with Chomsky's theoretical perspective and centered around explaining how the faculty of language matures during childhood. [14] [15] [16]
Menyuk was a Fulbright Fellow in 1971 [17] and in 1989. [18] Menyuk received the Honors of the Association award from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association [19] and earned the rank of Fellow within the organization. [20]
Boston University created the annual Paula Menyuk award [21] in her honor to support graduate students attending the annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD).
Stuttering,also known as stammering,is a speech disorder characterized externally by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds,syllables,words,or phrases as well as involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the person who stutters is unable to produce sounds.
A communication disorder is any disorder that affects an individual's ability to comprehend,detect,or apply language and speech to engage in dialogue effectively with others. This also encompasses deficiencies in verbal and non-verbal communication styles. The delays and disorders can range from simple sound substitution to the inability to understand or use one's native language. This article covers subjects such as diagnosis,the DSM-IV,the DSM-V,and examples like sensory impairments,aphasia,learning disabilities,and speech disorders.
Otitis media is a group of inflammatory diseases of the middle ear. One of the two main types is acute otitis media (AOM),an infection of rapid onset that usually presents with ear pain. In young children this may result in pulling at the ear,increased crying,and poor sleep. Decreased eating and a fever may also be present. The other main type is otitis media with effusion (OME),typically not associated with symptoms,although occasionally a feeling of fullness is described;it is defined as the presence of non-infectious fluid in the middle ear which may persist for weeks or months often after an episode of acute otitis media. Chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) is middle ear inflammation that results in a perforated tympanic membrane with discharge from the ear for more than six weeks. It may be a complication of acute otitis media. Pain is rarely present. All three types of otitis media may be associated with hearing loss. If children with hearing loss due to OME do not learn sign language,it may affect their ability to learn.
Phonological awareness is an individual's awareness of the phonological structure,or sound structure,of words. Phonological awareness is an important and reliable predictor of later reading ability and has,therefore,been the focus of much research.
Specific language impairment (SLI) is diagnosed when a child's language does not develop normally and the difficulties cannot be accounted for by generally slow development,physical abnormality of the speech apparatus,autism spectrum disorder,apraxia,acquired brain damage or hearing loss. Twin studies have shown that it is under genetic influence. Although language impairment can result from a single-gene mutation,this is unusual. More commonly SLI results from the combined influence of multiple genetic variants,each of which is found in the general population,as well as environmental influences.
Language development in humans is a process which starts early in life. Infants start without knowing a language,yet by 10 months,babies can distinguish speech sounds and engage in babbling. Some research has shown that the earliest learning begins in utero when the fetus starts to recognize the sounds and speech patterns of its mother's voice and differentiate them from other sounds after birth.
Metalinguistics is the branch of linguistics that studies language and its relationship to other cultural behaviors. It is the study of dialogue relationships between units of speech communication as manifestations and enactments of co-existence. Jacob L. Mey in his book,Trends in Linguistics,describes Mikhail Bakhtin's interpretation of metalinguistics as "encompassing the life history of a speech community,with an orientation toward a study of large events in the speech life of people and embody changes in various cultures and ages."
Speech–language pathology (also known as speech and language pathology or logopedics) is a healthcare and academic discipline concerning the evaluation,treatment,and prevention of communication disorders,including expressive and mixed receptive-expressive language disorders,voice disorders,speech sound disorders,speech disfluency,pragmatic language impairments,and social communication difficulties,as well as swallowing disorders across the lifespan. It is an allied health profession regulated by professional bodies including the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and Speech Pathology Australia. The field of speech-language pathology is practiced by a clinician known as a speech-language pathologist (SLP) or a speech and language therapist (SLT). SLPs also play an important role in the screening,diagnosis,and treatment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD),often in collaboration with pediatricians and psychologists.
Boston University Wheelock College of Education &Human Development is the school of education within Boston University. It is located on the University's Charles River Campus in Boston,Massachusetts in the former Lahey Clinic building. BU Wheelock has more than 31,000 alumni,32 full-time faculty and both undergraduate and graduate students. Boston University School of Education was ranked 34th in the nation in 2018 by U.S. News &World Report in their rankings of graduate schools of education. The School of Education is a member institution of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE).
Auditory processing disorder (APD),rarely known as King-Kopetzky syndrome or auditory disability with normal hearing (ADN),is a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting the way the brain processes sounds. Individuals with APD usually have normal structure and function of the outer,middle,and inner ear. However,they cannot process the information they hear in the same way as others do,which leads to difficulties in recognizing and interpreting sounds,especially the sounds composing speech. It is thought that these difficulties arise from dysfunction in the central nervous system. This is,in part,essentially a failure of the cocktail party effect found in most people.
Metalinguistic awareness,also known as metalinguistic ability,refers to the ability to consciously reflect on the nature of language. The concept of metalinguistic awareness is helpful in explaining the execution and transfer of linguistic knowledge across languages. Metalinguistics expresses itself in ways such as:
Speech acquisition focuses on the development of vocal,acoustic and oral language by a child. This includes motor planning and execution,pronunciation,phonological and articulation patterns.
April A. Benasich is an American neuroscientist. She is the Elizabeth H. Solomon Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience,director of the Infancy Studies Laboratory at the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience,and director of the Carter Center for Neurocognitive Research and Professor of Neuroscience at Rutgers University. She is also a principal investigator within the National Science Foundation-funded Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center headquartered at the University of California,San Diego’s Institute for Neural Computation.
Dorothy Vera Margaret Bishop is a British psychologist specialising in developmental disorders specifically,developmental language impairments. She is Professor of Developmental Neuropsychology and Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford,where she has been since 1998. Bishop is Principal Investigator for the Oxford Study of Children's Communication Impairments (OSCCI). She is a supernumary fellow of St John's College,Oxford.
A late talker is a toddler experiencing late language emergence (LLE),which can also be an early or secondary sign of an autism spectrum disorder,or other developmental disorders,such as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder,attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,intellectual disability,learning disability,social communication disorder,or specific language impairment. Lack of language development,comprehension skills,and challenges with literacy skills are potential risks as late talkers age. Outlook for late talkers with or without intervention is generally favorable. Toddlers have a high probability of catching up to typical toddlers if early language interventions are put in place. Language interventions include general language stimulation,focused language stimulation and milieu teaching.
Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is identified when a child has problems with language development that continue into school age and beyond. The language problems have a significant impact on everyday social interactions or educational progress,and occur in the absence of autism spectrum disorder,intellectual disability or a known biomedical condition. The most obvious problems are difficulties in using words and sentences to express meanings,but for many children,understanding of language is also a challenge. This may not be evident unless the child is given a formal assessment.
Mary Dorothy Sheridan,OBE,FFCM was an English paediatrician and public health officer who pioneered the study of child development.
Lois Masket Bloom is an American developmental psychologist and Edward Lee Thorndike Professor Emerita of Psychology and Education at Teachers College,Columbia University. Her pioneering research elucidated the roles of cognition,emotion,and social behavior in language acquisition.
Janna Beth Oetting is an American researcher and speech-language pathologist specializing in the cross-dialectal study of childhood language development and developmental language disorders.
Rhea Paul is an American clinical language scientist known for her work in the field of speech-language pathology. She was Founding Chair in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology in the College of Health Professions at Sacred Heart University and a research scientist and affiliate of Haskins Laboratories at Yale University.