Computerized Profiling, a free PC program for language analysis 

Dear Colleague,

I am writing to let you know of a free software resource that you may find
valuable if you assess and treat children with language impairments.
Computerized Profiling, or CP for short, is a set of PC programs that produce
linguistic analyses of language samples in several domains: phonology (single
words and connected speech), syntax, vocabulary, narrative, and
conversational pragmatics. Let me emphasize: 

    CP is NOT for sale; it is a FREE program. 

    If you indicate an interest in the program by checking the appropriate
    box on the web site, you will receive information on FREE updates as they
    are developed. 

    You will NOT receive advertising for any commercial product as a result
    of your examination or use of CP. 

CP can be downloaded free of charge from the web site at
http://www.cwru.edu/artsci/cosi/cp.htm. The aim of the authors (myself, Marc
Fey of University of Kansas Medical Center, and Ron Channell of Brigham Young
University) is to promote the use of computers and sophisticated methods of
linguistic analysis by speech-language pathologists. By distributing CP for
free, we hope to give everyone access to these tools. 

I am attaching below a summary of the different components of CP and the
kinds of analyses they produce. Further information about CP can be found at
the web site, along with downloading instructions, and other resources
relevant to language sample analysis. 

Best regards,

Steven H. Long, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication Sciences
Case Western Reserve University

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Computerized Profiling (CP) Summary

CP can be used to analyze both language samples transcribed orthographically
and phonological samples transcribed phonetically. The following analyses are
available in CP: 

CORPUS

    Utterance count, showing number of P (child) and T (adult or other
    conversational partner) sentences, number of different sentence types,
    number of complete and intelligible sentences 

    Index of utterances produced, showing syntactic productivity at the
    utterance level 

    Concordance of words used 

SEMANTICS

    Profile In Semantics-Lexical (PRISM-L, Crystal, 1982), a highly detailed
    lexical analysis based upon the concept of semantic fields. 

    Analysis of Propositions (APRON, based on Johnston & Kamhi, 1984; Kamhi &
    Johnston, 1992; Lahey, 1988) an analysis of the propositional content of
    children's utterances. 

    Early Vocabularies (based on Nelson, 1973), a simplified lexical analysis
    that allows for a meaningful evaluation of the productions of children in
    the single word and early multi-word stages of production. 

GRAMMAR

    Language Assessment, Remediation, and Screening Procedure (LARSP,
    Crystal, Fletcher, and Garman, 1989), an age- and stage-related system
    for profiling children's syntactic and, to some extent, discourse
    development. 

    Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn, Scarborough, 1990), a method for
    evaluating and quantifying the grammatical complexity of young children's
    spontaneous language samples. IPSyn is based upon the grammatical
    categories and developmental scheme of Assigning Structural Stage
    (Miller, 1981). 

    Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS, Lee, 1974), a procedure for
    measuring the grammatical and, to some extent, lexical complexity of a
    spontaneous language sample. 

PHONOLOGY

    Profile of Phonology (PROPH, based on Crystal, 1982; Grunwell, 1987;
    Ingram, 1981; Shriberg & Kwiatkowski, 1982), a comprehensive phonological
    analysis that includes structural statistics, variability/homonymy
    analysis, word shape analysis, vowel target analysis, consonant target
    analysis, percentage consonants correct, phonetic inventory, and
    phonological process analysis. 

    Profile of Prosody (PROP, Crystal, 1982), a procedure for analyzing
    intonation patterns and their relationship to grammatical structure. 

PRAGMATICS

    Conversational Acts Profile (CAP, Fey, 1986), an assessment of the
    conversational acts of a child and his or her conversational partner and
    their role in the ongoing discourse. 

NARRATIVE

    Narrative Analysis Procedure (NAP, based on Halliday and Hasan, 1976, as
    modified by Halldorson, 1993), an assessment of the appropriate use of
    cohesion devices in narrative samples. 

UTILITIES

In addition to these core analyses, CP includes utilities that allow you to:

    compare two transcriptions of the same sample or two analyses of the same
    transcript for grading or reliability purposes 

    search through completed data files for examples of particular
    constituent structures, e.g., SVO clauses, CVC word shapes, or
    Possessor-Possession utterances 

    edit dictionaries and other data files used by the program when it parses
    syntactic structures, looks up phonetic forms, classifies lexical items,
    etc. 

    practice coding for a language analysis procedure you are trying to
    master by comparing your entries to a data file created by an experienced
    coder 

    carry out various supplementary analyses that require no further coding
    but can help illuminate trends in the data 

ADD-ONS TO CP

    Instructional Movies. To help you learn CP, we have created 123 ScreenCam
    movies that demonstrate the use of each program module step by step. The
    movies play on any Windows computer. 

    PROPHecy. This is a Windows data input program that works with the PROPH
    module of CP. It uses the free SIL Encore phonetic font and has the usual
    interface features of a Windows program. 

    PROPHet. This is a Windows program that allows you to gather a
    phonological sample entirely on your computer. It displays digital
    photographs of words you select from a database and provides a convenient
    way for you to record transcriptional data as you interact with the
    speaker. If needed, it also lets you award multimedia "prizes" to the
    speaker so that task motivation remains high. The transcriptional data
    that you record are saved in a file that can be read and analyzed by the
    PROPH module of CP. PROPHet uses the SIL Encore phonetic font and has the
    usual interface features of a Windows program. 

    PROPHer. This is a Windows program that simplifies the task of generating
    phonetic text in Microsoft Word. You type phonetic text, then copy and
    paste it into a Word document. PROPHer uses the SIL Encore phonetic font
    and has the same keyboard mapping as PROPH, PROPHecy, and PROPHet. 

    Microsoft Word Macro to Convert PROPH Files. This macro converts the
    "pseudo-phonetic" characters (e.g., the characters for schwa, esh, eng)
    used in PROPH reports to true IPA symbols in a Microsoft Word document.
    It uses the SIL Encore phonetic font, which must be installed on your
    computer. 

    Microsoft Word Macro to Convert CP Profiles/Help Files. This macro
    converts the characters for bullets and boxes used in CP help files and
    profile reports so that these documents can be opened and printed from
    Microsoft Word 97