What question did this study set out to answer?

June 1, 1979

Acoustic Qualities of Phonation in Young Hearing-Impaired Children

Key Points

The study aims to analyze the acoustic qualities of phonation in young hearing-impaired children compared to normal-hearing peers.
Recorded monosyllables from 24 hearing-impaired and 6 normal-hearing children aged 3-6.
Conducted both gross (spectrographic) and fine (computer-aided) acoustic analyses of phonation samples.
Evaluated various acoustic characteristics including mean fundamental frequency, duration, and intonation contour.
The type of intonation contour was crucial for differentiating between better and poorer deaf speakers.
Hearing-impaired subjects exhibited four distinct types of deviant intonation contours.
Identified abnormalities of phonation such as diplophonia and breathiness.

Abstract

Monosyllables were recorded from a group of 24 hearing-impaired and 6 normal-hearing children between three to six years of age. Tokens of the syllables /ba/ and /bo/ were placed on listening tapes and a panel of 10 experienced listeners made ratings of relative voice quality. The phonation samples were subjected to both a gross (spectrographic) and a fine (computer-aided) acoustic analysis. The following acoustic characteristics were examined: (1) mean fundamental frequency, (2) duration, (3) mean period-to-period changes in intensity and in fundamental frequency, (4) spectral energy ratio above and below 1000 Hz, and (5) intonation contour. The type of intonation contour appeared to be the most important characteristic separating the better from the poorer deaf speakers. The hearing-impaired subjects produced four different types of deviant intonation contours. In addition, two abnormalities of phonation, diplophonia and breathiness, are described.

Ask AI

Helpful

Bookmark