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Background and Introduction: Tablet-based automated audiometry applications are a recent alternative method to perform pure-tone hearing testing. Children, in particular, might benefit from such apps because of the game-like interface. However, how children perceive this alternative approach has not been well studied. This study examined children's preference of hearing test and a relationship between their test preference and hearing test results. Materials and Methods: Forty children 6–12 years of age completed a pure-tone hearing test in both the tablet-based automated (tablet) method and the conventional method. Hearing thresholds were measured at 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 kHz in each ear. An exit interview was conducted to obtain each child's test preference. Results: We found that 59% of the children preferred the tablet method when compared to the conventional method. Preference to the tablet method was stronger in the younger children (6 years) than older children (7–12 years). The linear regression analyses suggest that test preference does not affect the hearing test results in the conventional method, but does negatively affect the results in the tablet method. In addition, poor performance was found among children with a clinical diagnosis, in particular, in the tablet method. Discussion: These results suggest that hearing thresholds may be overestimated in children, especially those with clinical diagnosis such as attention or behavioral issues in the tablet method. Future work is needed to determine which clinical populations have potential benefit from a tablet method. Conclusions: Children's test preference is not a good index of hearing test accuracy.

Mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS) are a group of lysosomal storage disorders caused by a deficiency of one of the enzymes involved in the degradation of glycosaminoglycans. Hearing loss is a common clinical presentation in MPS. This paper reviews the literature on hearing loss for each of the seven recognized subtypes of MPS. Hearing loss was found to be common in MPS I, II, III, IVA, VI, and VII, and absent from MPS IVB and MPS IX. MPS VI presents primarily with conductive hearing loss, while the other subtypes (MPS I, MPS II, MPS III, MPS IVA, and MPS VII) can present with any type of hearing loss (conductive, sensorineural, or mixed hearing loss). The sensorineural component develops as the disease progresses, but there is no consensus on the etiology of the sensorineural component. Enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) is the most common therapy utilized for MPS, but the effects of ERT on hearing function have been inconclusive. This review highlights a need for more comprehensive and multidisciplinary research on hearing function that includes behavioral testing, objective testing, and temporal bone imaging. This information would allow for better understanding of the progression and etiology of hearing loss. Owing to the prevalence of hearing loss in MPS, early diagnosis of hearing loss and annual comprehensive audiological evaluations are recommended.

Introduction Recent research supports the clinical use of automated audiometry for pediatric hearing screenings. However, very few studies have tested whether tablet-based automated audiometry can offer a valid alternative to traditional manual audiometry for estimation of hearing thresholds in children. This study examined the validity and efficiency of automated audiometry in school-aged children. Methods Hearing thresholds for 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 kHz were collected in 32 children ages 6–12 years using standard audiometry and tablet-based automated audiometry in a soundproof booth. Test administration time, test preference, and medical history were also collected. Results Results exhibited that the majority (67%) of threshold differences between automated and standard were within the clinically acceptable range (10 dB). The threshold difference between the two tests showed that automated audiometry thresholds were higher by 12 dB in 6-year-olds, 7 dB in 7- to 9-year-olds, and 3 dB in 10- to 12-year-olds. In addition, test administration times were similar, such that standard audiometry took an average of 12.3 min and automated audiometry took 11.9 min. Conclusions These results support the use of tablet-based automated audiometry in children from ages 7–12 years. However, the results suggest that the clinical use of at least some types of tablet-based automated audiometry may not be feasible in children 6 years of age.

OBJECTIVE: The objectives were to investigate the function of central auditory pathways and of the medial efferent olivocochlear system (MOCS). DESIGN: Event-related potentials (ERP) were recorded following the delivery of the stimulus /da/ in quiet and in ipsilateral, contralateral, and binaural noise conditions and correlated to the results of the auditory processing disorders (APD) diagnostic test battery. MOCS function was investigated by adding ipsilateral, contralateral, and binaural noise to transient evoked otoacoustic emission recordings. Auditory brainstem responses and pure tone audiogram were also evaluated. STUDY SAMPLE: Nineteen children (7 to 12 years old) with APD compared with 24 age-matched controls. RESULTS: Otoacoustic emissions and ABR characteristics did not differ between groups, whereas ERP latencies were significantly longer and of higher amplitudes in APD children than in controls, in both quiet and noise conditions. The MOCS suppression was higher in APD children. CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate that children with APD present with neural deficiencies in both challenging and non-challenging environments with an increase in the timing of several central auditory processes correlated to their behavioral performances. Meanwhile, their modulation of the auditory periphery under noisy conditions differs from control children with higher suppression.

Mucopolysaccharidosis IVA (MPS IVA, Morquio A syndrome) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by the deficiency of N-acetylgalactosamine-6-sulfate sulfatase. Deficiency of this enzyme leads to the accumulation of specific glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), chondroitin-6-sulfate (C6S) and keratan sulfate (KS), which are mainly synthesized in the cartilage. Therefore, the substrates are stored primarily in the cartilage and its extracellular matrix (ECM), leading to a direct impact on bone development and successive systemic skeletal spondylepiphyseal dysplasia. The skeletal-related symptoms for MPS IVA include short stature with short neck and trunk, odontoid hypoplasia, spinal cord compression, tracheal obstruction, obstructive airway, pectus carinatum, restrictive lung, kyphoscoliosis, platyspondyly, coxa valga, genu valgum, waddling gait, and laxity of joints. The degree of imbalance of growth in bone and other organs and tissues largely contributes to unique skeletal dysplasia and clinical severity. Diagnosis of MPS IVA needs clinical, radiographic, and laboratory testing to make a complete conclusion. To diagnose MPS IVA, total urinary GAG analysis which has been used is problematic since the values overlap with those in age-matched controls. Currently, urinary and blood KS and C6S, the enzyme activity of GALNS, and GALNS molecular analysis are used for diagnosis and prognosis of clinical phenotype in MPS IVA. MPS IVA can be diagnosed with unique characters although this disorder relates closely to other disorders in some characteristics. In this review article, we comprehensively describe clinical, radiographic, biochemical, and molecular diagnosis and clinical assessment tests for MPS IVA. We also compare MPS IVA to other closely related disorders to differentiate MPS IVA. Overall, imbalance of growth in MPS IVA patients underlies unique skeletal manifestations leading to a critical indicator for diagnosis.

Background Hearing impairment is a common problem in patients with mucopolysaccharidosis IV (MPS IV) throughout their life. Many of the adult patients with MPS IV exhibit permanent or severe hearing loss. However, there has been no systematic review of detailed audiological test results in MPS IV. Materials and methods Fourteen individuals with MPS IV (13 MPS IVA and 1 MPS IVB; aged between 12 and 38 years old) participated in the current study. We obtained auditory neurophysiological responses (auditory brainstem responses and otoacoustic emissions test) in addition to pure-tone audiometry and middle ear function tests (tympanometry and acoustic reflexes). Results The results indicated various levels and types of hearing loss with abnormal neurophysiological responses even in those patients with MPS IVA with normal pure tone thresholds. We also found a strong relationship between height (short stature is an indicator of skeletal severity) and hearing sensitivity as well as a strong relationship between height and outer hair cell function in the inner ear (measured by otoacoustic emissions) among MPS IVA patients. Conclusion The strong correlation between reduced height and hearing loss indicates that patients with severe skeletal dysplasia may be at higher risk of developing more severe hearing loss. More importantly, the spectrum of hearing disorders indicates that MPS IV patients should have annual neurophysiological hearing tests in addition to audiometric testing from an early age regardless of their skeletal severity to more carefully monitor disease progression.

Mucopolysaccharidosis IVA (OMIM 253000; also known as Morquio A syndrome) is associated with skeletal, airway, and hearing abnormalities. Cochlear implantation is an effective intervention for patients with severe-to-profound hearing loss. Patients can gain substantial improvement in auditory performance, speech perception, and their quality of life from cochlear implantation. Although severe progressive sensorineural hearing loss is a common feature of mucopolysaccharidosis IVA, no detailed description of cochlear implantation for mucopolysaccharidosis IVA has been reported. To review the effectiveness and special considerations associated with cochlear implantation in patients with mucopolysaccharidosis IVA, we here report the case of cochlear implantation in mucopolysaccharidosis IVA by a multidisciplinary team. A retrospective chart review was conducted on a 34-year-old female with mucopolysaccharidosis IVA, who received a cochlear implant. Audiometric thresholds, speech perception scores, and cochlear implant processor mapping information were reviewed during the first 12 months following cochlear implantation. The results of audiological tests indicate improved hearing thresholds as well as remarkable enhancement of speech perception skills over 12 months of cochlear implant use. Cochlear implantation improved auditory performance in a mucopolysaccharidosis IVA patient with postlingually severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss. The benefits of cochlear implantation could be meaningful for other Morquio patients with progressive hearing loss, although the risks of surgery and anesthesia should be carefully considered by a multidisciplinary team of experts during the cochlear implant candidacy process.

Background: Although auditory processing disorder (APD) is a widely recognized impairment, its prevalence and demographic characteristics are not precisely known in the pediatric population. Purpose: To examine the demographic characteristics of children diagnosed with APD at a tertiary health-care facility and the prevalence of pediatric APD. Research Design: A cross-sectional study. Study Sample: A total of 243 children (149 boys and 94 girls) who were referred to the Nemours Audiology Clinics in the Delaware Valley for an APD evaluation. The mean ages were 9.8 yr for boys and 9.7 yr for girls. Out of 243 children referred for an APD evaluation, 94 children exhibited one or more auditory processing deficits in the areas of auditory closure, auditory figure ground, binaural integration, binaural separation, and temporal processing. Data Collection and Analysis: Demographic and audiological data, clinical history (parental reports on prenatal and postnatal information, birth weight and height, medical and developmental history, otologic/audiological history, education information, behavioral characteristics), and results of the APD test battery were retrospectively obtained from the electronic medical records of each participant. The prevalence of APD was estimated using the total number of students enrolled in the same school attended by each participant in the 2011 academic year as cohort. Results: The prevalence of APD was 1.94 per 1,000 children in this study. We found that prevalence of APD among the children who attended private schools was more than two times higher than the children who attended public schools. The results also revealed that the majority of children referred to the clinics were Caucasian (85.6%), whereas minority groups were underrepresented for this geographical area with only 3.7% of Hispanic or Latino children and 5.8% of Black or African American children. Conclusions: The estimated prevalence of APD in the current study was lower than the previously published estimates. The difference might be due to the diagnosis criteria of APD among studies as well as the use of school enrollment number as the referenced population to estimate prevalence in our study. We also found a significant difference in APD prevalence depending on the school types. The findings of higher prevalence rates among the children attending private schools and higher proportion of Caucasians children referred for APD evaluation suggest that more children among those in public schools and in the Hispanic and African American groups should have been referred for an APD evaluation. Hence, the current estimate is likely an underestimate of the actual APD prevalence. The low percentage of Hispanic or African American children referred to the clinic for APD evaluations may be related to the socioeconomic status and linguistic differences among the concerned families. The results of this study raise the importance of adapting the APD test battery for children with a different linguistic background as well as increasing awareness of available clinical resources to all families in our area.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the activity of daily living (ADL) and surgical interventions in patients with mucopolysaccharidosis IVA (MPS IVA). The factor(s) that affect ADL are age, clinical phenotypes, surgical interventions, therapeutic effect, and body mass index. The ADL questionnaire comprises three domains: "Movement," "Movement with cognition," and "Cognition." Each domain has four subcategories rated on a 5-point scale based on the level of assistance. The questionnaire was collected from 145 healthy controls and 82 patients with MPS IVA. The patient cohort consisted of 63 severe and 17 attenuated phenotypes (2 were undefined); 4 patients treated with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), 33 patients treated with enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) for more than a year, and 45 untreated patients. MPS IVA patients show a decline in ADL scores after 10years of age. Patients with a severe phenotype have a lower ADL score than healthy control subjects, and lower scores than patients with an attenuated phenotype in domains of "Movement" and "Movement with cognition." Patients, who underwent HSCT and were followed up for over 10years, had higher ADL scores and fewer surgical interventions than untreated patients. ADL scores for ERT patients (2.5years follow-up on average) were similar with the-age-matched controls below 10years of age, but declined in older patients. Surgical frequency was higher for severe phenotypic patients than attenuated ones. Surgical frequency for patients treated with ERT was not decreased compared to untreated patients. In conclusion, we have shown the utility of the proposed ADL questionnaire and frequency of surgical interventions in patients with MPS IVA to evaluate the clinical severity and therapeutic efficacy compared with age-matched controls.

Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), a neurological hearing impairment, often leads to delays in speech development when diagnosed in childhood. It is unclear whether children with APD make articulation errors due to auditory processing deficits. The purpose of this study was to analyze the articulation error patterns of children diagnosed with APD. We examined speech samples from 26 children diagnosed with APD who participated in a previous research study involving speech perception testing. During this task, each child repeated each of 50 monosyllabic words presented to them in quiet conditions. For each incorrect response, we examined the errors by type of articulation error (substitution, deletion, insertion, or distortion) and syllable position (onset or coda). Speech perception scores were normal in quiet. However, 22 subjects responded incorrectly for one or more words, with substitution errors (40-50%) being the most prevalent type of error. Articulation errors in the coda position (81%) were more ...

Stetson (1951) noted that repeating singleton coda consonants at fast speech rates makes them be perceived as onset consonants affiliated with a following vowel. The current study documents the perception of rate-induced resyllabification, as well as what temporal properties give rise to the perception of syllable affiliation. Stimuli were extracted from a previous study of repeated stop + vowel and vowel + stop syllables (de Jong, 2001a, 2001b). Forced-choice identification tasks show that slow repetitions are clearly distinguished. As speakers increase rate, they reach a point after which listeners disagree as to the affiliation of the stop. This pattern is found for voiced and voiceless consonants using different stimulus extraction techniques. Acoustic models of the identifications indicate that the sudden shift in syllabification occurs with the loss of an acoustic hiatus between successive syllables. Acoustic models of the fast rate identifications indicate various other qualities, such as consonant voicing, affect the probability that the consonants will be perceived as onsets. These results indicate a model of syllabic affiliation where specific juncture-marking aspects of the signal dominate parsing, and in their absence other differences provide additional, weaker cues to syllabic affiliation.

Tablet-based automated audiometry offers a portable alternative to traditional audiometry. The limited research available (e.g., Rourke et al., 2016) supports the clinical use of automated audiometry for pediatric hearing screenings, but its accuracy in children and efficiency outside of clinical environments is undetermined. This study’s objective is to evaluate the validity and efficiency of automated audiometry in school-age children. This initial phase aimed to establish its validity in a clinical setting. Hearing thresholds for 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 kHz were collected in children ages 6–12 years old using standard audiometry and an iPad app automated audiometry in a sound-proof booth. Tympanometry, acoustic reflex thresholds, and distortion product otoacoustic emissions were administered to examine peripheral hearing function. Preliminary results of 16 children show no significant difference between the two test durations. Automated audiometry thresholds were within 5 dB of the standard audiometry t...

Previous studies suggest abnormal auditory efferent systems in children with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) and children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The current study examined the middle ear muscle reflex (MEMR) of three groups of children. The APD group consisted of 32 children with auditory processing deficits and the ADHD group consisted of 50 children. The children with ADHD were either taking ADHD-related medication (n = 31) or not taking such medication (n = 19). All subjects were selected from an existing database. Ipsilateral MEMR responses at 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz in each ear were categorized as normal or abnormal (defined as any response over 90dB HL, or no response). Contingency table analyses and corresponding chi-square tests were used to compare the proportion of abnormal MEMR responses between groups and ears. We found no significant difference between APD and ADHD groups. The children with APD and children with ADHD medication showed no significant ear differen...

Spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs) are found in most healthy ears, and can be used to measure the health of the cochlear structures and feedback mechanism. According to existing literature, right ears tend to exhibit greater numbers of SOAEs than left ears (Bilger et al., 1990) and females tend to show higher incidence of SOAEs than males (Moulin et al., 1993). The SOAE prevalence has not been extensively studied in children with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), a disorder with unknown etiology that reduces one's ability to process auditory information. This study examined the prevalence and ear advantage of SOAEs between genders in children diagnosed with APD. SOAEs were investigated in 19 children (7 girls and 12 boys) with APD and 2 4 typically developing children (14 girls and 10 boys) aged 7-12. Right ear advantage was more prevalent in control (71%) than APD subjects (42 %). However, over 30% more females exhibited a right ear advantage than males in each group. Although the results are not significant, our findings indicate that the lack of right ear advantage for SOAE is more prevalent in children with APD, particularly in males, suggesting that cochlear mechanisms or their control might be somehow affected in APD.

Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), a neurological hearing impairment, often leads to delays in speech development when diagnosed in childhood. It is unclear whether children with APD make articulation errors due to auditory processing deficits. The purpose of this study was to analyze the articulation error patterns of children diagnosed with APD. We examined speech samples from 26 children diagnosed with APD who participated in a previous research study involving speech perception testing. During this task, each child repeated each of 50 monosyllabic words presented to them in quiet. For each incorrect response, we examined the errors by type of articulation error (substitution, deletion, insertion, or distortion) and the syllable position (onset or coda). Speech perception scores were normal in quiet. However, 22 subjects responded incorrectly for one or more words, with substitution errors (40-50%) being the most prevalent type of errors. Articulation errors in the coda position (81%) were more common...

We will demonstrate the ModelTalker Voice Recorder (MT Voice Recorder) -- an interface system that lets individuals record and bank a speech database for the creation of a synthetic voice. The system guides users through an automatic calibration process that sets pitch, amplitude, and silence. The system then prompts users with both visual (text-based) and auditory prompts. Each recording is screened for pitch, amplitude and pronunciation and users are given immediate feedback on the acceptability of each recording. Users can then rerecord an unacceptable utterance. Recordings are automatically labeled and saved and a speech database is created from these recordings. The system's intention is to make the process of recording a corpus of utterances relatively easy for those inexperienced in linguistic analysis. Ultimately, the recorded corpus and the resulting speech database is used for concatenative synthetic speech, thus allowing individuals at home or in clinics to create a synthetic voice in their own voice. The interface may prove useful for other purposes as well. The system facilitates the recording and labeling of large corpora of speech, making it useful for speech and linguistic research, and it provides immediate feedback on pronunciation, thus making it useful as a clinical learning tool.

The perception of voicing categories is affected by speaking rate, so that listeners' category boundaries on a VOT continuum shift to a lower value when syllable duration decreases [Miller and Volaitis, Percept. Psychophys. 46, 505-512 (1989); Volaitis and Miller, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 92, 723-735 (1992)]. Previous rate normalization effects have been found using artificially varied stimuli. This study examines the effect of speech rate on voicing categorization in naturally produced rate-varied speech. The stimuli contained natural decreases in VOT with faster speech rates so that VOT values for /b/ and /p/ overlapped at the fastest rates. Consonant identification results showed that the rate effects on the perceptual boundary between /p/ and /b/ very closely matched the effects of rate on the productions, though there was a small mismatch with fast rate productions whereby voiced stops were systematically miscategorized as voiceless. Another group of listeners judged the goodness of the consonant, indicating that best exemplars were rate-varied and shifted away from the /p/-/b/ boundary. These results are discussed in light of exemplar-based and abstractionist models of speech perception.

This study focuses on the progress of speech perception capabilities in children with auditory processing disorder (APD) measured several years after the initial diagnosis. A recent longitudinal study showed listening and communication difficulties of children diagnosed with APD persist into adulthood (Del Zoppo, Sanchez, and Lind, 2015). In the current study, we examined the speech perception progress of 21 children selected from the Auditory Processing Disorder database of 255 school-aged children in the Mid-Atlantic region as having an initial diagnosis of APD and an APD reassessment at our facility several years later. Average age for initial assessment was 7.9 (7–10) years with the most recent APD evaluation ages 11.5 (9–16) years. Results show that 81% of the children still had auditory processing deficits in their most recent evaluations, 9% had only associated area issues, and 10% exhibited typical auditory processing performance. We found that average standardized scores for all tests, except auditory figure ground, collectively increased in the second assessment. These tests include: competing words, competing sentences, filtered words, composite scores, and phonemic synthesis. While the auditory processing skills of some children with APD are improving over time, some children still show impairment in several processing areas.

A case of lupus erythematosus/lichen planus overlap syndrome (LE/LP overlap syndrome) was reported. A 53-year-old woman developed violaceous erythema around the nostrils and the upper lips and atrophic scaly erythema on the cheeks and neck. Histopathological studies revealed that the patient had distinct discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE), LP, and a lesion with combined features of DLE and LP. Direct immunofluorescent (DIF) studies of the mixed lesion revealed both prominent immunoglobulin (Ig)G deposits in a granular pattern at the basement membrane zone (BMZ) and IgM deposits in the clusters of cytoid bodies; the former are more typical of LE and the latter more of LP. DIF features in combination were unique for LE/LP overlap syndrome. The patient was satisfactorily treated with topical tacrolimus. While reports support the effectiveness of tacrolimus in either LE or LP, this is the first case of LE/LP overlap syndrome treated with topical tacrolimus.

The current study examined the baseline neurophysiological responses between children with auditory processing disorder (APD) and the control group. Auditory event related potentials were recorded in 23 children with APD (ages 7–12 years, mean age = 8.9 years) and 25 age-matched control children in response to a /da/ presented to each ear separately (right and left ear conditions). A no-sound condition was recorded as well. Baseline neurophysiological activity was measured as the root mean square amplitude of the 100 ms pre-stimulus period. Preliminary analysis of data from 19 children with APD and 13 controls indicated that the APD group showed significantly greater pre-stimulus amplitude than the control group in the left ear condition, F(1, 30) = 4.415, p = 0.044, but we did not find significant group differences in the no-sound and right ear conditions, F(1, 30) = 2.237, p = 0.15 and F(1, 30) = 0.088, p = 0.77, respectively. The results suggest that children with APD may need a longer time period to return to a resting state than control children when the left ear is stimulated. Hence, these results may indicate asymmetrical neural activities of the auditory pathways in APD.

In this study, we compared machine classification to expert human judgments of segments produced by children with speech sound disorders and typically developing children. Stimuli were presented for classification in a five-alternative forced-choice paradigm with the target segment presented either in isolation or in word context. The phonemes we were mainly interested in were /s/ and /ʃ/, but instances of /θ/, /t/ and /f/ were also included among the stimuli since they could be confused with some error productions. Experienced speech language pathologists identified the target phonemes in both context conditions and their judgments were compared to the results of an HMM classifier that was trained on the speech of typically developing children. For segments presented in context, percentage agreement between the machine classifier and the consensus human classification was 95.83%. For segments presented in isolation, agreement dropped to 87.29%. Thus, the machine classifier responded more like human liste...

Previous work shows that variation in speech rate influences the perception of voicing distinctions (/b/-/p/) and syllable affiliation (“pea”-“eep”), and it is well-documented that native language influences how listeners perceive phonological distinctions. We analyze the influences of speech rate and native language in the perception of voicing and syllable affiliation by applying a model of perception and response selection to data from Japanese, English, and Korean listeners who identified the voicing and the syllable affiliation of (English) stops produced at slow, moderate, and fast rates. The fitted model indicates that for all three native language groups, perceptual salience decreases substantially as speech rate increases for both voicing and syllable affiliation. Even at slow rates, however, the salience of voicing is lower for coda than for onset stops. In addition, as rate increases, all three groups exhibit an increasing bias toward “onset” responses, with a bias toward “voiced” responses for coda stimuli and toward “voiceless” responses for onset stimuli. Despite broad similarities across all three groups, fine-grained patterns of perceptual salience and response bias vary with listeners’ native language. These data and fitted models illustrate the utility of rate-varied speech in investigations of native language effects in speech perception.

We examined the relationship between speech production and mispronunciation detection ability in children with speech delay (SD). Thirty-three SD children aged between 6;0 and 10;0 participated in a mispronunciation detection test using three types of stimuli: words pronounced correctly by other unfamiliar children (OTHERS); words mispronounced by OTHERS; and the participant?s own speech (SELF) pronounced either correctly or incorrectly. The participant?s articulation was assessed by the standardized GFTA-2 scores. Results indicated that SD children made significantly more errors when judging SELF speech than when judging OTHERS speech. Multiple regression analyses revealed that accuracy of detecting OTHERS mispronounced words was a significant predictor of GFTA-2 scores in these SD children. Interestingly, in the regression model, accuracy for detecting SELF mispronunciations made a significant independent contribution in addition to accuracy at detecting OTHERS mispronunciations. Overall these two measures accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in GFTA-2 scores (R-squared = 0.45). These findings suggest that children with SD may have more coarse phonological representations of their own speech than the speech of other children.

Past research on children with cochlear implants (CIs) focused on improvements in speech perception, but few speech production studies have been reported. The literature on speech development in prelingual children with CIs is particularly sparse. This is partially due to difficulty transcribing young children’s productions. The aim of this study was to examine whether developmental changes in vowels can be captured without phonetically transcribed data. The subject, a prelingually deaf child 22 months old at the start of the study, is one of six children with CIs participating in an ongoing longitudinal study. Audio and video data were collected once or twice per week during auditory/verbal therapy at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children. One author perceptually categorized the child’s vowel‐like vocalizations in terms of broad height (HIGH, MID, and LOW) and place (FRONT, MID, and BACK) features. Acoustic features (barkscale cepstral coefficients) were then used to train linear discriminant functions on the same vowel data and used to predict perceptual vowel categories. In preliminary results 62% of the tokens were correctly classified for place and 67% for height. Results on generalizability of the features will be presented. [Work supported by NIDRR Grant H133E080003 to the RERC on Hearing Enhancement.]

The current study examined the effects of foreign accent and listener experience on the perception of a speaker’s age and native language. Ten audio stimuli were prepared from the recording of five Arabic speakers and five English speakers (18–79 years old) from the Speech Accent Archive [Weinberger (2009)] for the perception experiment. Thirty native speakers of English participated in the perception experiment through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk website, estimated the speaker age, rated the speaker’s accentedness, and estimated the native language of the speaker. The listeners were divided into two groups based on their experience with foreign accented English (experienced and inexperienced groups). Higher correlation was found between perceived age (PA) and actual chronological age (CA) for the native (English) stimuli than for the Arabic‐accented stimuli in both listener groups. The correlation between PA and CA was higher in the experienced listeners than in the inexperienced listeners. Accentedness rating suggests that the inexperienced listeners tend to rate both native and non‐native speakers neutrally on the scale. The results suggest that experiences with any foreign accented speech facilitates identification of age from speech and help to form the ability to perceive differences in the degree of foreign accented speech.

Research on voice fundamental frequency (F0) control suggests that when making a voluntary vocal response to a pitch change in voice auditory feedback, the pitch‐shift reflex typically occurs before the volitional response is initiated. The current study examined the effects of aging on reflexive and volitional voice F0 responses to pitch‐shifted auditory feedback. Thirty participants (age range 19 to 78 years) repeatedly sustained an /u/ vocalization at a steady pitch and loudness while listening to their voice fed backed over headphones. Once per vocalization, feedback pitch was randomly shifted upward or downward for 100 milliseconds and 20 or 100 cents. In the Sustain condition, participants attempted to ignore the pitch change in auditory feedback voice. In the Follow condition, participants immediately changed their pitch in the same direction as the auditory pitch shift they heard. Preliminary results from thirteen participants indicate that there appears to be no effect of aging on the first F0 responses for both magnitude and latency. Voluntary voice F0 changes were delayed in older participants compared to younger participants as expected due to age‐related general slowing. Results broaden our understanding of typical reflexive and volitional voice control capabilities across the age span.

Recent studies show that perception of speaker's age is influenced by a listener's familiarity with the speaker's language. However, these results were based on young adult listeners. The current study examines whether language familiarity influences the perception of speaker's age in elderly listeners. The vowel stimuli was prepared from the sustained vowel /i/ collected from 30 native speakers of American English and 30 native speaker of Japanese. The sentence stimuli was taken from the reading of the North Wind and the Sun by these 60 speakers (in their native language). Fifteen elderly native speakers of English (mean age 73.5 years, range from 67 to 84 years) listened to both stimuli types and estimated the age of speakers. Correlation between perceived age and chronological age was moderate for the sentence stimuli, but weak for the vowel stimuli. Correlation between perceived age and chronological age was stronger when the listeners judged sentence stimuli in their native language than when they judged sentence stimuli in the foreign language (r=0.74 versus r=0.63). The vowel stimuli did not show the effect of speaker language. The results suggest that linguistic information has a critical role in age perception, regardless of listener's age.

The regularity of mora timing in Japanese has remained controversial over the years [Warner and Arai, Phonetica 58, 1–25 (2001)]. It is possible that the degree of regularity varies with speaking style. Four Japanese subjects spoke six‐mora proper names with varying syllable structures where the second name had either three simple syllables (e.g., Tomiko) or two syllables with a long vowel (e.g., Tooko) or a long consonant (e.g., Tokko). These were read either in formal sentences, read in conversational style sentences, or used in spontaneous description of pictures of characters having these names. Moras were measured as the intervals between vowel onsets using an automatic vowel‐onset detection algorithm. Although all styles suggested regular mora timing, the results show that the styles differ in the degree of temporal compensation for the moras constituted by long vowels and long consonants which are shorter than consonant‐vowel syllables. The compensation was clearest in the most formal style of speech.

Listeners can estimate the age of a speaker fairly accurately from their speech (Ptacek and Sander, 1966). It is generally considered that this perception is based on physiologically determined aspects of the speech. However, the degree to which it is due to conventional sociolinguistic aspects of speech is unknown. The current study examines the degree to which fundamental frequency (F0) changes due to advanced aging across two language groups of speakers. It also examines the degree to which the speakers associate these changes with aging in a voice disguising task. Thirty native speakers each of English and Japanese, taken from three age groups, read a target phrase embedded in a carrier sentence in their native language. Each speaker also read the sentence pretending to be 20‐years younger or 20‐years older than their own age. Preliminary analysis of eighteen Japanese speakers indicates that the mean and maximum F0 values increase when the speakers pretended to be younger than when they pretended to b...

The perception of voicing categories is affected by the speaking rate, so that listeners’ category boundaries on a VOT continuum shift to a lower value when the syllable duration decreases (Miller and Volaitis, 1989; Volaitis and Miller, 1992). Previous rate normalization effects have been found using computer‐generated stimuli. This study examines the effect of speech rate on voicing categorization in naturally produced speech. Four native speakers of American English repeated syllables (/bi/ and /pi/) at increasing rates in time with a metronome. Three‐syllable stimuli were spliced from the repetitive speech. These stimuli contained natural decreases in VOT with faster speech rates. Besides, this rate effect on VOT was larger for /p/ than /b/, so that VOT values for /b/ and /p/ overlapped at the fastest rates. Eighteen native listeners of American English were presented with 168 stimuli and asked to identify the consonant. Perceptual category boundaries occur at VOT values 15 ms shorter than the values reported for synthesized stimuli. This difference may be due to the extraordinarily wide range of VOT values in previous studies. The values found in the current study closely match the actual division point for /b/ and /p/. The underlying mechanism of perceptual normalization will be discussed.

Stetson (1951) noted that, when repeated, singleton coda consonants (VC) appear to modulate into onset consonants (CV) as the rate of repetition increases. de Jong et al. (2001) found that naEe listeners robustly perceive such resyllabifications with labial consonants, and in a later study, that such perceptions broadly corresponded to changes in glottal timing. In the current study, stimuli included labial, coronal, and velar stops, creating mixtures of real words (such as ‘‘eat’’), and nonwords (such as ‘‘ead’’). A comparison of the perception of real and nonreal words reveals no robust effect of lexical status. In addition, vowels in the corpus were either tense or lax, so that the CV combination is phonotactically illegal in half of the corpus. The perception of resyllabification also does occur with these lax vowels, though only for voiced coronal and labial stops. Other stops did not exhibit resyllabification. Analyses of glottal and acoustic recordings are currently underway. [Work supported by NIDCD and NSF.]

Previous results (Nagao et al., 2001) show that non‐native listeners exhibit remarkably similar patterns of perceptual resyllabification with English listeners, suggesting that perceptual resyllabification is not a language specific phenomenon. The same listeners tended to identify voiced English tokens as voiceless, in keeping with Japanese voicing categories. In order to determine the degree to which the non‐native perceptual resyllabification was due to extensive exposure to English, monolingual Japanese listeners, 8 from an older and 12 from a younger generation, participated in the same experiment. Monolinguals showed perceptual resyllabification of the same tokens as do English listeners’, consistent with the previous results. Also consistent with previous results, especially older listeners’ responses were more affected by Japanese voicing categories. In addition, older listeners were more likely than English listeners to identify tokens as CV’s, while younger listeners were less likely to. The res...

Tuller and Kelso (JSHR, 1991) show the relative timing of peak glottal opening and oral closure in repetitive /ip/ production differs between /ip/ and /pi/ productions. Also, as repetition rate increases, the timing in /ip/ merges with that in /pi/. The authors interpret this to indicate two stable regions in glottal‐to‐oral phasing, one for codas and one for onsets. The current paper examines a similar corpus of glottal transillumination traces of repeated syllables, which includes both labial and lingual stops. Preliminary examination of peak glottal timing with respect to acoustic landmarks indicating closure shows the same pattern of timing differences at slow rates and neutralization at fast rates. However, peaks in the transillumination traces often do not indicate glottal abduction for the consonant, but rather indicate a relatively open glottis for vocalic voicing, happening in the context of glottal stoppage at the onset of the vowel. In addition, coronal codas exhibit cycle‐to‐cycle variation from glottalized to abducted voiceless forms. Thus while rate does induce stepwise changes in glottal activity, phasing, in the sense of relative timing, does not account for many of the rate effects. Rather, rate appears to be inducing a recomposition of the gestures which comprise the speech.

No abstract available.

Stetson (1951) noted that, when repeated, singleton coda consonants (VC) appear to modulate into onset consonants (CV) as the rate of repetition increases. The current study examines whether nave listeners perceive such resyllabifications, and whether such perceptions are affected by the voicing of the resyllabified consonants. Stimuli were extracted from production experiments in which talkers repeatedly produced singleton voiced and voiceless stops in the CV or VC position. Speakers entrained to a metronome which increased tempo from 450 to 150 ms/syllable. Open‐set identification revealed that (1) while slow VCs are identified as such, fast VCs are identified as CVs a majority of the time and (2) CVs are rarely identified as VCs; however (3) both CVs and VCs at fast rates are often identified as CVCs, especially when the consonant is voiceless. A forced‐choice identification task indicates that fast VCs and CVs, while clearly differentiated at slow rates, are both identified as CVs 80% of the time at fast rates. These results support Stetson’s observations, but like previously reported production results, indicate that fast rate tokens are partially ambiguous between CV and VC forms, an ambiguity which can get resolved by splitting the consonant in question. [Work supported by NIDCD and NSF.]

This paper investigates the degree to which speakers of languages with different syllabic inventories are similar in their perceptions of syllabic affiliation. Stetson (1951) noted that repeated coda (VC) structures become perceived as onset (CV) structures as repetition rates increase. Stimuli were extracted from a repetitive production experiment in which English talkers produced voiced and voiceless labial stop onsets and codas at tempi controlled by a rate varying metronome. Native English, Japanese, and Korean listeners were asked to label the repeated syllable with one of four choices: ‘‘bee,’’ ‘‘pea,’’ ‘‘eeb,’’ ‘‘eep.’’ All three language groups showed perceptual shifts from VC to CV as the speech rate increased. However, Japanese listeners are biased toward identifying VC productions as CVs, and very rarely identified CV productions as VCs. These results indicate a very consistent cross‐language perception of syllabic affiliation, regardless of a language’s syllabic inventory, although the language’s inventory does have a small effect on such perceptions. These results differ from those for the voicing contrast. Voicing contrasts in coda position which are non‐native for Koreans were more poorly categorized by the Korean listeners. [Work supported by NIDCD and NSF.]