The effects of age, input modality, and evaluation method on the measured speech imitation performance of profoundly hearing-impaired children.
Item
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Title
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The effects of age, input modality, and evaluation method on the measured speech imitation performance of profoundly hearing-impaired children.
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Identifier
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AAI9707086
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identifier
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9707086
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Creator
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Eran, Orna.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Arthur Boothroyd
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Date
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1996
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Health Sciences, Audiology | Education, Tests and Measurements | Speech Communication
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Abstract
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The recorded imitations of syllables by 12 prelingually, profoundly deaf children were evaluated by three methods: (a) behaviorally, using a closed-set identification task, (b) behaviorally, using an open-set recognition task, and (c) acoustically, in terms of vowel formants. Performance on the three measures was examined in relation to age (3-5 years versus 13-15 years) and input modality (auditory-visual versus auditory-only). Imitation of auditory-visual input was considerably better in older than younger subjects, indicating maturation-related and/or training-related improvements of phonetic-level speech production. In contrast, there was no evidence of age-related changes in imitation of auditory-only input. This last finding is consistent with the hypothesis that speech production measures based on imitation of a purely auditory input can provide a valid index of auditory speech perception capacity in children as young as three years of age. It is also in keeping with the hypothesis that auditory capacity is a fixed entity, determined by cochlear pathology and unresponsive to the effects of age, listening experience, or training. A second finding was that younger children's imitations were not dramatically different for auditory-visual and auditory-only input. This was in contrast to the older children, who showed a large difference. This finding is in keeping with the hypothesis that the quality of speech production in these young hearing-impaired children is driven primarily by auditory capacity. These results were, essentially, independent of the assessment method. These findings, increase confidence in the inferences of fixed auditory capacity and auditory-driven production in younger children, and the validity of imitative production measures as indices of auditory speech perception capacity.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
