Objective: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental impairment. To better understand the role of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in different countries in supporting children with ASD, the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP) Child Language Committee developed a survey for SLPs working with children or adolescents with ASD. Method and Participants: The survey comprised 58 questions about background information of respondents, characteristics of children with ASD, and the role of SLPs in diagnosis, assessment, and intervention practices. The survey was available in English, French, Russian, and Portuguese, and distributed online. Results: This paper provides a descriptive summary of the main findings from the quantitative data from the 1,114 SLPs (representing 35 countries) who were supporting children with ASD. Most of the respondents (91%) were experienced in working with children with ASD, and the majority (75%) worked in schools or early childhood settings. SLPs reported that the children’s typical age at diagnosis of ASD on their caseload was 3–4 years, completed mostly by a professional team. Conclusions: The results support positive global trends for SLPs using effective practices in assessment and intervention for children with ASD. Two areas where SLPs may need further support are involving parents in assessment practices, and supporting literacy development in children with ASD.

The investigation longitudinally examined the phonetic skills of Cypriot-Greek children with late onset of expressive vocabulary. The rate of phonological development within short time increments and the identification of possible speech constraints motivating slow development of expressive language were examined. Participants were seven Cypriot-Greek children identified as late talkers, and seven age-matched normally developing counterparts. Phonetic skills were examined at ages 30, 33, and 36 months for both groups based on spontaneous language samples. Phonological analyses focused on the construction of all subjects' phonetic inventories over time. Both groups exhibited an increase of specific phoneme use over time. Late talkers had significantly poorer phonetic inventories when compared to the control group. Within the experimental group the analysis revealed the persistent omission of word-initial consonants. Results are discussed in terms of language-specific phonological constraints and their relation to slow development of speech.

The current investigation examined the development of voice onset time (VOT) in Standard-Greek (SG) and Cypriot-Greek (CG)-speaking children at age levels 2;0–2;5, 2;6–2;11, 3;0–3;5, and 3;6–4;0 years. SG presents with a two-way voicing contrast (voiced and voiceless unaspirated stops) whereas CG is a three-way contrast dialect containing voiceless unaspirated, voiceless aspirated, and pre-voiced stops. A cross-sectional design was used. The main goals were: (1) to determine the age at which Greek and Cypriot Greek children acquire voicing contrasts, and (2) to examine the mechanism used during the process of acquisition. Stimuli included pseudo words in minimal pair contrasts differing in stop voicing (e.g. [′gaga] vs [′kaka]). Children were taught the target words using fast mapping procedures. Each member within a word pair referred to an unfamiliar object. Audio-recorded samples were analysed from wide-band spectrograms. Results indicated a greater overall variation of voicing patterns for children than adults, in both Greek and Cypriot VOT contrasts. Greek children acquired consistent pre-voicing and short lag aspiration patterns very early on, achieving adult values for VOT contrasts for alveolar and for velar places of articulation as early as 2;0–2;5 years old. On the contrary, a developmental lag in the acquisition of voicing contrasts was noted for Cypriot children as compared to the Greek counterparts. Accounts about the developmental differences among Greek and Cypriot children with respect to the adult VOT contrasts are discussed.

The acoustic characteristics of stress were examined in young children’s productions of minimal pairs of novel words (e.g., sofi versus so’fi). Fourteen 2-year-olds participated as subjects. Their productions were analyzed in terms of vowel duration, syllable duration, peak amplitude, and peak fundamental frequency. The analyses revealed that children produced stressed and unstressed syllables distinctly along each of the dimensions examined. The absolute and relative (unstressed/stressed) values of the children’s productions were compared to those of the single adult experimenter, who modeled the novel words, permitting a unique comparison of input to children’s productions. One systematic difference was the relative values; the children’s stressed and unstressed syllables were less distinct than the adults along each of the acoustic correlates. Furthermore, the acoustic features of both stressed and unstressed syllables appear to be subject to developmental change. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for young children’s production capabilities and for the relationship between input and children’s production characteristics.

In this article, we focus on an exceptional instance of nonadult positioning of clitics in early Cypriot Greek and Cypriot Greek with specific language impairment (SLI). We attribute misplaced clitics to children's incomplete knowledge concerning properties of the inflectional (Infl) particles, which interact in crucial ways with finite V(erb) movement to M(ood). We claim that children perceive Infl particles as phrasal specifiers or adjuncts, unable to check the V-features of M, hence perform V-to-M movement even in their presence, and clitics emerge in (nonadult) postverbal position, giving the impression that they have been misplaced. We point out that functional heads seem to be perceived as phrasal in other early languages and possibly also in domains other than Infl, and we explain why clitics are not found misplaced in standard Greek and standard Romance, with the exception of Portuguese. Finally, the absence of qualitative differences between the early populations and populations with SLI we studi...