• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.153-163
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• 2015

This study investigated the trends of mobile applications which were developed for prompting speech and language skills for children with disabilities, and analyzed the function and contents of these applications as a tool of speech and language therapy. For this analysis, twenty applications among 71 ones were selected according to the exclusion criteria. These applications were classified by the 8 using types of contents and analyzed the function of mobile applications by the revised mobile contents evaluation standard (ease of use, value of education, interest level, and interactivity). As a results, applications for augmentative and alternative communication were developed much more than any other types. And the ease of use got the highest score whereas the interest level got the lowest score in whole evaluation analysis. The result of this study would suggest way to evaluate applications for speech language therapy and to contribute to developing the contents and function of mobile applications aims to help children with disabilities improving their speech and language skills.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.111-116
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to analyze the association between self-reported voice problems and voice disorders in the Korean adult population. Data were collected from the 4th Korea National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (2008) from 3,135 subjects (1,310 men and 1,825 women) aged 19 years and older. Multi-nominal logistic regression analyses were used to examine the association between self-reported voice problems and voice disorders in the Korean adult population. Adjusting for covariates (age, sex, education level, job, smoking, alcohol drinking, thyroid disorders, pain and discomfort during the last 2 weeks), self-reported voice problems included independently associated functional voice disorders (OR=4.70, 95% CI: 3.14-7.03) and organic voice disorders (OR=3.89, 95% CI: 1.57-9.65). The results of the present study verified that self-reported voice problems are valuable indicators for voice disorders. Further research is needed to ascertain the effect of self-reported voice problems on voice disorder in adults.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.93-100
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to compare the acoustic properties of fricatives, /ㅅ, ㅆ/ produced by children with functional articulation disorder and normal children (N=20, aged 6-7). All subjects showed significant differences in both the length of friction intervals and breathing intervals of fricatives according to the changes in the environment presented within each group. However, there is a difference in the extent of variation in length between the two groups. This means that children with functional articulation disorder have greater difficulty in adjusting fricative noises according to changes in the CV VCV environment than normal children.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.123-133
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• 2010

Speech language pathologists depend on their voice for livelihood and are high risk group of voice disorders. But there are few studies on their prevalence of voice symptoms and voice handicap index. This study aimed to evaluate prevalence of voice symptoms and Korean voice handicap index with 86 speech language pathologists and 90 individuals employed in other occupations. We analyzed self-reported voice symptoms and voice handicap index using a questionnaire for this study. The results showed that the prevalence of voice symptoms of speech language pathologists is 60.5% and voice handicap index scores of speech language pathologists group are significantly higher than those of control group in physical and total score. And we found that alcohol history was a risk factor for voice symptoms. These findings indicate that special vocal hygiene program for speech language pathologists and follow up studies for comparisons of prevalence of voice symptoms and voice handicap index with other professional voice users are necessary.

• MALSORI
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• no.61
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• pp.1-14
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between segmental correctness and speech intelligibility in adults with hearing impairment. Segmental correctness was measured by percentage of correct vowels(PCV) and percentage of correct consonants(PCC). The results were shown as follows: First, PCV and PCC could predict speech intelligibility with statistical significance. Second, in consonant classes divided by place and manner of articulation, the PCC of plosives and alveolar sounds were significant predicting variables in each group ($R^{2}=50%;\;59%$). According to this study, the importance of segmental correctness on speech intelligibility of adults with hearing impairment was confirmed. Also correctness of plosive sounds in manner and alveolar sounds in place were significant factors to speech intelligibility.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.173-177
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• 2018

Purpose: The primary goal of this study was to discover whether the articulatory diadochokinesis (sequential motionrate, SMR) collected using the Motor Speech Disorder Assessment (MSDA) software module can diagnose dysarthria and determine its severity. Methods: Two subject groups, one with spastic dysarthria (n=26) and a control group of speakers (n=30) without neurological disease, were set up. From both groups, the SMR was collected by MSDA at a time, and then analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: For the parameters of syllable rate, jitter, and the mean syllable length (MSL) at the front and back, the control group displayed better results than the dysarthria patients. Conclusions: At the level of articulatory diadochokinesis, the results showed that the use of MSDA software in clinical practice was generally suitable for quickly recording the parameters of syllable rate, jitter, and mean syllable length.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.17-26
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• 2023

This study aimed to reveal how Vietnamese adult learners at three different proficiency levels perceive Korean word-initial obstruents and whether errors can be corrected through perceptual training. To this end, 105 Vietnamese beginner, intermediate, and advanced learners were given perceptual training on Korean word-initial. The training materials were created by actively utilizing Korean minimal pairs as natural stimuli recorded by native speakers. Learners in the experimental group performed five 20-40 minute self-directed perceptual training sessions over a period of approximately two weeks, while learners in the control group only participated in the pretest and posttest. The results showed a significant improvement in the perception of sounds that were difficult to distinguish before training, and both beginners and advanced learners benefited from the training. This study confirmed that large-scale perceptual training can play an important role in helping Vietnamese learners learn the appropriate acoustic cues to distinguish different sounds in Korean.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.67-75
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• 2022

This study compared voice range profiles (VRPs) of modal and falsetto register in 53 dysphonic and 53 non-dysphonic adult women with gliding vowel /a/'. The results shows that maximum fundamental frequency (F0_MAX), maximum intensity (I_MAX), F0 range (F0_RANGE), and intensity range (I_RANGE) are lower in the dysphonic group than in the non-dysphonic group. F0_MAX and F0_RANGE are significantly higher in falsetto register than modal register in both groups. I_MAX and I_RANGE are significantly higher in falsetto register in the non-dysphonic group, but those are not different between two registers in the dysphonic group. There was no statistically significant difference in minimum F0 (F0_MIN) and minimum intensity (I_MIN) between the two groups. Modal-falsetto register transition occurred at 378.86 Hz (F4#) in the dysphonic group and 557.79 Hz (C5#) in the non-dysphonic group, which was significantly lower in the dysphonic group. It can be seen that both modal and falsetto registers in dysphonic adult women are reduced compared to non-dysphoinc adult women, indicating that the vocal folds of dysphonic adult women are not easy to vibrate in high pitches. The results of this study would be the basic data for understanding the acoustic features of voice disorders.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.53-60
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• 2023

This study compared the absolute error of estimated fundamental frequency (AEF0) using voice - (VRP) and speech range profile (SRP) tasks across various etiological groups with voice disorders. Additionally, we explored the association between AEF0 and related voice parameters within each specific etiological group. The participants included 120 individuals, comprising 30 each from the functional (FUNC), organic (ORGAN), and eurological (NEUR) voice disorder groups, and a normal control group (NC). Each participant performed voice and SRP tasks, and the fundamental frequency of connected speech was measured using electroglottography (EGG). When comparing the AEF0 measures across the etiological groups, there were no differences in Grade and Severity among the patients. However, variations were observed in AEF0_VRP and AEF0_SUM. Specifically, AEF0_VRP was higher in the ORGAN group than in the FUNC and NC groups, whereas AEF0_SUM was higher in the ORGAN group than in the NC group. Furthermore, within FUNC and NEUR, AEF0 showed a positive correlation with Grade, while in ORGAN, it exhibited a positive correlation with the mean closed quotient (CQ). Attention should be paid to the application of AEF0 measures and related voice variables based on the etiological group. This study provides foundational information for the clinical application of AEF0 measures.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.91-98
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• 2020

This study investigated the acoustic characteristics of sustained vowel /a/ and sentence utterance produced by patients with muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) using cepstrum-based acoustic variables. 36 women diagnosed with MTD and the same number of women with normal voice participated in the study and the data were recorded and measured by ADSVTM. The results demonstrated that cepstral peak prominence (CPP) and CPP_F0 among all of the variables were statistically significantly lower than those of control group. When it comes to the GRBAS scale, overall severity (G) was most prominent, and roughness (R), breathiness (B), and strain (S) indices followed in order in the voice quality of MTD patients. As these characteristics increased, a statistically significant negative correlation was observed in CPP. We tried to classify MTD and control group using CPP and CPP_F0 variables. As a result of statistic modeling with a Random Forest machine learning algorithm, much higher classification accuracy (100% in training data and 83.3% in test data) was found in the sentence reading task, with CPP being proved to be playing a more crucial role in both vowel and sentence reading tasks.