Development of new speech materials that achieve phonemic and allophonic coverages for speech evaluation
Speech materials used to elicit speech for clinical and research purposes in communication disorders need to represent the language. Through collaboration with Dr. Naomi Gurevich (Communication Sciences and Disorders, Purdue University Fort Wayne), we first set out to evaluate the standard passages The Caterpillar, The Grandfather Passage, The Rainbow Passage, and Frenchay Dysarthria Assessment in terms of their phonemic and positional coverage, findings only scant positional coverage in all. Thus, we have developed the FITI framework, and developed new speech materials that include both phonemic coverage and allophonic coverage, as well as a tool to prioritize clinical treatment of targets.
- For a quick overview, visit our ASHA 2023 virtual technical session.
- For a review of our work (2023a) in the Informed SLP, visit You wish to know all about my grandfather? Not today, Grandpa. There’s a new set of speech stimuli in town—the FITI! (April 3, 2023; Image from review article)
Current research topics
- Recording of short and syntactically simple FITI phrases (Ryan Corrigan, Doctoral student, Linguistics)
- Comparison of the production of FITI stimuli between native speakers and L2 speakers (Spring 2025)
Publications and Presentation
- Gurevich, N., Assylbekov, Z., Tezekbayev, M., Kim, H., and Washington, J. (2025). A new approach to calculating allophonic balance and functional load. 2025 Linguistic Society of America (LSA) Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.
- Gurevich, N., Kim, H. (2024). The FITI (Functional Importance to Intelligibility) Framework and the Importance of Phonetic Coverage. SIG 19 invited talk, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) 2024 Annual Convention, Seattle, WA. – Handout available HERE.
- Gurevich, N., & Kim, H. (2024). A hierarchical approach to efficient assessment of functional intelligibility: The modular FITI (functional importance to intelligibility) phrase list. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups. https://doi.org/10.1044/2024_PERSP-23-00247
- Gurevich, N., & Kim, H. (2023b). Development of novel speech stimuli with phonetic coverage and phonemic balance. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 8(2), 424-437. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_PERSP-22-00180
- Gurevich, N., & Kim, H. (2023a). The phonetics and phonology of intelligibility: The functional importance to intelligibility of speech sounds. In Clinical Applications of Linguistics to Speech-Language Pathology: A Guide for Clinicians. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003045519-8
- Gurevich, N., & Kim, H. (2022). Examination of consonantal phonetic coverage in standard reading passages. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 7(5), 1573–1582. https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_PERSP-22-00063
- Kim, H., & Gurevich, N. (2021). Positional asymmetries in consonant production and intelligibility in dysarthric speech. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 37(2), 125-142. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2021.2019312