An Investigation of Speech Perception in Children with SLI on a Continuum of Formant Transition Duration.

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Journal of Speech, Language, Hearing Research

Volume

48

Issue

4

Publication Date

2005

First Page

805

Last Page

816

Abstract

Fifteen children diagnosed with specific language impairment (SLI) and 15 typically developing (TD) children were tested for identification performance on 2 synthetic speech continua varying in formant transition durations (FTDs). One continuum varied from /ba/ to /wa/, and the other varied from /da/ to /ja/. Various d'-related measures from signal detection theory were used to compare category boundaries and indirectly derive sensitivity to phonetic changes in category tokens along each continuum. The SLI group showed less consistent identification performance along the /ba/-/wa/ series relative to the TD group, as well as reduced sensitivity to phonetic changes along the continuum. On the /da/-/ja/ series, the SLI group revealed less consistent identification performance on the short FTD end but similar identification levels to the TD group at the long FTD end. The overall results support the contention that children with SLI reveal a deficiency in the processing of speech sounds at the level of segmental identity.

Comments

Published by American Speech-Language-Hearing Association in the Journal of Speech, Language, Hearing Research. Publisher PDF is available through link above. Publisher requires a subscription to access article.

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