Purpose: Atypical vowel production contributes to reduced speech intelligibility in children and adults with Down syndrome (DS). This study compares the acoustic data of the corner vowels /i/, /u/, /ae/, and /[open back unrounded vowel]/ from speakers with DS against typically developing/developed (TD) speakers. Method: Measurements of the…

Purpose: Speech production deficits and reduced intelligibility are frequently noted in individuals with Down syndrome (DS) and are attributed to a combination of several factors. This study reports acoustic data on vowel production in young adults with DS and relates these findings to perceptual analysis of speech intelligibility. Method:…

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine how the speech disorder profiles in Down syndrome (DS) relate to reduced intelligibility, atypical overall quality, and impairments in the subsystems of speech production (phonation, articulation, resonance, and prosody). Method: Auditory-perceptual ratings of intelligibility, overall quality, and…

The early development of vocalic and consonantal production in Mandarin-learning infants was studied at the transition from babbling to producing first words. Spontaneous vocalizations were recorded for 24 infants grouped by age: G1 (0 ; 7 to 1 ; 0) and G2 (1 ; 1 to 1 ; 6). Additionally, the infant-directed speech of 24 caregivers was recorded…

The vocal development of two identical twin male infants (one with normal hearing and one with profound bilateral hearing loss) was compared at the ages of 8, 12, and 15 months. Among major differences were format patterns of vocalic elements, histograms of syllable type, and variation in vowel usage. (Author/DB)

Most studies on CV co-occurrence patterns in early phonetic development have been based on Indo-European languages. Data from infants learning Mandarin, which has a substantially different phonological system from Indo-European languages, can confirm or refute the findings of previous studies, thus shedding further light on the theoretical bases…

This study used a contrasting word task to evaluate the relationship between specific acoustic features of speech and perceptual judgments of word intelligibility of 16 adults with cerebral palsy-dysarthria. The scaled intelligibility was predicted with 62.6 percent accuracy by acoustic measures related to one consonant contrast and three vowel…