Speech-Sound Discrimination Skills as Measured by Reaction Time for Normal and Articulatory Defective Speaking Children

1972 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 595-600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick F. Weiner ◽  
Mervyn L. Falk
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Auditory Discrimination ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Sound Discrimination ◽  
Normal Speaking ◽  
Nonsense Syllables

Reaction time measures were obtained from 30 normal speaking children and 30 articulatory defective children on a task which required determining similarities or differences between speech sounds presented in nonsense syllables. The results showed that there was no significant difference between these groups in the time needed to make the discriminations. These results are in opposition to the findings of various authors who have concluded that children with articulation deficits also demonstrate some type of auditory discrimination deficit.

The Relation of Speech-Sound Discrimination to Developing Speech

1972 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 48-58
Author(s):  
Michael Beaken
Keyword(s):  
Speech Sound ◽  
Auditory Discrimination ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Language Recognition ◽  
Sound Discrimination

Articulation and discrimination of speech-sounds are closely related in children's developing phonology. As in most other areas of language, recognition of a meaningful contrast is acknowledged to precede its active use (Ervin-Tripp, 1966: 59; Friedlander, 1969). It is becoming clear that the process of developing auditory discrimination follows the same general path as developing articulation in speech, though parallels between the two processes are not exact.

Distinctive Phonetic Features as Relevant and Irrelevant Stimulus Dimensions in Speech-Sound Discrimination Learning

1974 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 417-425
Author(s):  
Stuart I. Ritterman ◽  
Nancy C. Freeman
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Discrimination Learning ◽  
Irrelevant Dimension ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Irrelevant Stimulus ◽  
Relevant Dimension ◽  
Phonetic Features ◽  
Sound Discrimination ◽  
Nonsense Syllables

Thirty-two college students were required to learn the relevant dimension in each of two randomized lists of auditorily presented stimuli. The stimuli consisted of seven pairs of CV nonsense syllables differing by two relevant dimension units and from zero to seven irrelevant dimension units. Stimulus dimensions were determined according to Saporta’s units of difference. No significant differences in performance as a function of number of the irrelevant dimensions nor characteristics of the relevant dimension were observed.

Relationship of Articulatory Defects to Speech-Sound Identification

1974 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 352-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorraine M. Monnin ◽  
Dorothy A. Huntington
Keyword(s):  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Kindergarten Children ◽  
Speech Signals ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Identification Task ◽  
Preschool Age Children ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Normal Speaking

Normal-speaking and speech-defective children were compared on a speech-sound identification task which included sounds the speech-defective subjects misarticulated and sounds they articulated correctly. The identification task included four tests: [r]-[w] contrasts, acoustically similar contrasts, acoustically dissimilar contrasts, and vowel contrasts. The speech sounds were presented on a continuum from undistorted signals to severely distorted speech signals under conditions which have caused confusion among adults. Subjects included 15 normal-speaking kindergarten children, 15 kindergarten children with defective [r]s, and 15 preschool-age children. The procedure employed was designed to test, in depth, each sound under study and to minimize extraneous variables. Speech-sound identification ability of speech-defective subjects was found to be specific rather than a general deficiency, indicating a positive relationship between production and identification ability.

Relationship between Two Nontraditional Procedures for Assessing Speech-Sound Discrimination

1989 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 499-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas G. Bountress ◽  
Joseph C. Sever ◽  
Joyce T. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Special Educators ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Alternative Methods ◽  
Reading Specialists ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Aged Population ◽  
The Past ◽  
Sound Discrimination

Tests of speech-sound discrimination are used by special educators, reading specialists and speech-language pathologists in assessing children's ability to differentiate between speech sounds occurring in standard English. Such tests are important in determining if speech-sound articulation errors are caused by difficulty in making such differentiations. However, during the past 10 years, these tests have been criticized on the basis of their reliability and validity. The purpose of this study was to examine the use of two alternative methods of assessing speech-sound discrimination with a school-aged population to determine if they elicited responses in a similar manner.

“Same” and “Different” Concepts and Children’s Performance on Speech Sound Discrimination

1973 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 513-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Beving ◽  
Roy E. Eblen
Keyword(s):  
Speech Sound ◽  
The Other ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Sound Discrimination ◽  
Nonsense Syllables

Thirty children four to eight years of age were tested with two speech-sound discrimination tasks. In one, they were asked to identify a pair of nonsense syllables as “same” or “different,” and in the other they were asked to repeat the syllable pair. The youngest children (mean age four years, seven months) scored better on the imitation task than on the “same-different” task, while the other groups (mean ages six years, seven months and eight years, six months) did not differ in their ability to perform either task. The youngest group differed from the two older groups in their score on the same-different task but not on the imitation task. Thus, the preschoolage subjects were thought to be unable to make the cognitive judgment “same” or “different,” although they were able to discriminate as well as the older children.

Administration and Socioeconomic Level Effects on Auditory Discrimination of Elementary School Children

1981 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 591-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew S. Kerr ◽  
Clement P. Meunier
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Elementary School Children ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Age Effect ◽  
Auditory Discrimination ◽  
Socioeconomic Level ◽  
Discrimination Test ◽  
Low Socioeconomic ◽  
Discrimination Ability ◽  
Sound Discrimination

A 40-item speech sound discrimination test was administered to 158 children to assess the effects of socioeconomic level and administrative mode, oral or tape, on auditory discrimination ability. Results indicated a model of administration effect, age effect, and an interaction between age and socioeconomic level. Individual oral administration produced substantially fewer errors than a standardized tape. Low socioeconomic-level children made significantly fewer error scores as age increased, while mid-socioeconomic status children did not. All results were consistent across oral and tape administration.

Variables Influencing Performance on Speech-Sound Discrimination Tests

1974 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur H. Schwartz ◽  
Ronald Goldman
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Background Noise ◽  
Paired Comparison ◽  
Stimulus Item ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Item Presentation ◽  
Phonetic Cues ◽  
Sound Discrimination

Stimulus items were presented in three different contexts and under two different listening conditions to a total of 72 nursery, kindergarten, and first-grade children divided into equally sized groups on the basis of age. Results indicated that both the context of stimulus item presentation and the presence of background noise affected accuracy of performance. Children in all three groups consistently made more errors in the context using limited grammatical and phonetic cues. Noise disrupted performance in all contexts, but the greatest disruption occurred in the paired-comparison context. It appeared that contexts employing grammatical cues were more resistant to disruption from background noise. The results of this investigation also indicated that the performance of young children may have been affected by factors other than their ability to discriminate speech sounds.

scholarly journals Speech-evoked cortical auditory responses in children with normal hearing

2013 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aseel Almeqbel
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Aids ◽  
Auditory Evoked Potentials ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Speech Discrimination ◽  
Cortical Level ◽  
Significant Difference

Objective: Cortical auditory-evoked potentials (CAEPs), an objective measure of human speech encoding in individuals with normal or impaired auditory systems, can be used to assess the outcomes of hearing aids and cochlear implants in infants, or in young children who cannot co-operate for behavioural speech discrimination testing. The current study aimed to determine whether naturally produced speech stimuli /m/, /g/ and /t/ evoke distinct CAEP response patterns that can be reliably recorded and differentiated, based on their spectral information and whether the CAEP could be an electrophysiological measure to differentiate between these speech sounds.Method: CAEPs were recorded from 18 school-aged children with normal hearing, tested in two groups: younger (5 - 7 years) and older children (8 - 12 years). Cortical responses differed in their P1 and N2 latencies and amplitudes in response to /m/, /g/ and /t/ sounds (from low-, mid- and high-frequency regions, respectively). The largest amplitude of the P1 and N2 component was for /g/ and the smallest was for /t/. The P1 latency in both age groups did not show any significant difference between these speech sounds. The N2 latency showed a significant change in the younger group but not in the older group. The N2 latency of the speech sound /g/ was always noted earlier in both groups.Conclusion: This study demonstrates that spectrally different speech sounds are encoded differentially at the cortical level, and evoke distinct CAEP response patterns. CAEP latencies and amplitudes may provide an objective indication that spectrally different speech sounds are encoded differently at the cortical level.

scholarly journals Speech Sound Discrimination by Mongolian Gerbils

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolin Juechter ◽  
Rainer Beutelmann ◽  
Georg M. Klump
Keyword(s):  
Speech Sound ◽  
Meriones Unguiculatus ◽  
Suitable Model ◽  
Mongolian Gerbils ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Signal To Noise ◽  
Response Latencies ◽  
Human Speech ◽  
Perceptual Maps ◽  
Sound Discrimination

The present study establishes the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) as a model for investigating the perception of human speech sounds. We report data on the discrimination of logatomes (CVCs - consonant-vowel-consonant combinations with outer consonants /b/, /d/, /s/ and /t/ and central vowels /a/, /aː/, /ɛ/, /eː/, /ɪ/, /iː/, /ɔ/, /oː/, /ʊ/ and /uː/, VCVs - vowel-consonant-vowel combinations with outer vowels /a/, /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ and central consonants /b/, /d/, /f/, /g/, /k/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /p/, /s/, /t/ and /v/) by young gerbils. Four young gerbils were trained to perform an oddball target detection paradigm in which they were required to discriminate a deviant CVC or VCV in a sequence of CVC or VCV standards, respectively. The experiments were performed with an ICRA-1 noise masker with speech-like spectral properties, and logatomes of multiple speakers were presented at various signal-to-noise ratios. Response latencies were measured to generate perceptual maps employing multidimensional scaling, which visualize the gerbils' internal representations of the sounds. The dimensions of the perceptual maps were correlated to multiple phonetic features of the speech sounds for evaluating which features of vowels and consonants are most important for the discrimination. The perceptual representation of vowels and consonants in gerbils was similar to that of humans, although gerbils needed higher signal-to-noise ratios for the discrimination of speech sounds than humans. The gerbils' discrimination of vowels depended on differences in the frequencies of the first and second formant determined by tongue height and position. Consonants were discriminated based on differences in combinations of their articulatory features. The similarities in the perception of logatomes by gerbils and humans renders the gerbil a suitable model for human speech sound discrimination.

scholarly journals Repeated Parental Singing During Kangaroo Care Improved Neural Processing of Speech Sound Changes in Preterm Infants at Term Age

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaisamari Kostilainen ◽  
Eino Partanen ◽  
Kaija Mikkola ◽  
Valtteri Wikström ◽  
Satu Pakarinen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Preterm Infants ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Intervention Group ◽  
Oddball Paradigm ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Emotional Speech ◽  
Kangaroo Care ◽  
Sound Changes ◽  
Sound Discrimination

Preterm birth carries a risk for adverse neurodevelopment. Cognitive dysfunctions, such as language disorders may manifest as atypical sound discrimination already in early infancy. As infant-directed singing has been shown to enhance language acquisition in infants, we examined whether parental singing during skin-to-skin care (kangaroo care) improves speech sound discrimination in preterm infants. Forty-five preterm infants born between 26 and 33 gestational weeks (GW) and their parents participated in this cluster-randomized controlled trial (ClinicalTrials ID IRB00003181SK). In both groups, parents conducted kangaroo care during 33–40 GW. In the singing intervention group (n = 24), a certified music therapist guided parents to sing or hum during daily kangaroo care. In the control group (n = 21), parents conducted standard kangaroo care and were not instructed to use their voices. Parents in both groups reported the duration of daily intervention. Auditory event-related potentials were recorded with electroencephalogram at term age using a multi-feature paradigm consisting of phonetic and emotional speech sound changes and a one-deviant oddball paradigm with pure tones. In the multi-feature paradigm, prominent mismatch responses (MMR) were elicited to the emotional sounds and many of the phonetic deviants in the singing intervention group and in the control group to some of the emotional and phonetic deviants. A group difference was found as the MMRs were larger in the singing intervention group, mainly due to larger MMRs being elicited to the emotional sounds, especially in females. The overall duration of the singing intervention (range 15–63 days) was positively associated with the MMR amplitudes for both phonetic and emotional stimuli in both sexes, unlike the daily singing time (range 8–120 min/day). In the oddball paradigm, MMRs for the non-speech sounds were elicited in both groups and no group differences nor connections between the singing time and the response amplitudes were found. These results imply that repeated parental singing during kangaroo care improved auditory discrimination of phonetic and emotional speech sounds in preterm infants at term age. Regular singing routines can be recommended for parents to promote the development of the auditory system and auditory processing of speech sounds in preterm infants.

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