Results of acoustic analyses of normal conversational speech and deliberately clear speech indicated that clear speech was slower, did not reduce or modify vowels or word-final stop bursts, and did not minimize obstruent sounds (e.g. stop consonants). Implications for the hearing impaired are noted. (Author/DB)

Electroglottographic (EGG) and acoustic waveforms of the first few glottal pulses of voicing were monitored and voice onset time (VOT) measured during an adaptation task performed by adult stutterers and controls. Fluent utterances of stutterers resembled those of controls. After dysfluencies, however, the EGG signal increased gradually, lending…

The article compares use of two acoustical indexes, the Articulation Index and the Speech Transmission Index with both normal hearing and hearing impaired subjects and concludes that a hybrid index which takes the best features from each procedure is the best alternative presently available. (Author/DB)

Monosyllables were recorded from a group of 24 hearing-impaired and six normal-hearing children between three and six years of age. (Author)

A study was conducted of five individuals exhibiting acquired apraxia of speech to examine vowel durations and length of intervals between words produced in utterances that varied in type of utterance as well as in length. Results found evidence that longer vowel durations were a salient characteristic of apraxia of speech. (CR)

The study found no significant trends in the change of acoustical durations of stutter- and disfluency-free speech from readings in an adaptation series with four adapting, four nonadapting, and four nonstuttering subjects (all young adults). Findings suggest that adaptation of stuttering and other fluency-inducing conditions are a result of…

Five men repeated a phrase, beginning at total lung capacity and ending at residual volume. Analysis indicated that voice onset time (VOT) was longer at high lung volumes and shorter at low lung volumes. Lung volume should, therefore, be considered when using VOT as an index of laryngeal behavior in healthy and speech-disordered individuals.…

Ten normally hearing and 10 age-matched subjects with moderate-to-severe hearing impairments (ages 6-9) were recorded producing a protocol of 18 basic syllables. The syllables were analyzed for total duration, voice-onset time of the initial consonant, fundamental frequency at midpoint of vowel, and formant frequencies at midpoint of vowel.…

Consonant identification was examined in four profoundly hearing-impaired children (ages 13-14) under five conditions. Performance was better in the vision alone condition than audition alone using hearing aids in free-field. No consistent differences were recorded across three auditory-visual conditions, including one with syllabic compression…

The paper describes the unexpected finding of evoked otoacoustic emissions from one ear of a subject with severe-to-profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. It is suggested that the subject may have a group of surviving outer hair cells in some regions of the left cochlea with corresponding inner hair cell or neural damage. (Author/DB)

This study evaluated speech intelligibility under noise conditions of varying peaks (10, 20, and 30 decibels) in frequency response, with 26 listeners with sensorineural impaired hearing who used hearing aids and 10 listeners with normal hearing. Results indicated that the peaks affected speech intelligibility more for listeners with impaired than…

Spectrographic analyses were performed of utterances of three groups of children: four producing correct /w,r,l,j/ (ages three-five), four with developmental w/r and w/l substitutions (age four), and four with articulation impairments (ages six-seven). Findings supported the hypothesis that children's underlying forms are unique and represent…

The study examined the relationship between 28 segmental and suprasegmental acoustic parameters of speech production and measures of speech intelligibility for 40 severely to profoundly hearing-impaired persons (mean age 21 years). Findings support the tractability of employing selected acoustic variables for the estimation of speech…