• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.49-51
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to investigate prosodic characteristics of cerebral palsic adults' speech. The results showed some correlations between their articulation scores and prosodic properties of their speech: speakers with low articulation scores showed slower speech rate, larger number of IPs and pauses, and longer duration of pauses. They also showed steeper slopes of [L +H] in their APs.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.27-37
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• 2015

This study was mainly aimed at investigating on the effects of background noises (i.e., white noise, multi-speaker conversational babble) on stuttering rate and other speech-related measures (i.e., articulation rate, speech effort). Nine Korean-speaking adults who stutter participated in the study. Each of the participants was asked to read a series of passages under each of four experimental conditions (i.e., typical solo reading (TR), choral reading (CR), reading under white noise presented (WR), reading with multi-speaker conversational babble presented (BR). Stuttering rate was computed based on a percentage of syllables stuttered (%SS) and articulation rate was also assessed as another speech-related measure under each of the experimental conditions. To examine the amount of physical effort needed to read, the speech effort was measured by using the 9-point Speech Effort Self Rating Scale originally employed by Ingham et al. (2006). Study results showed that there were no significant differences among each of the passage reading conditions in terms of stuttering rate, articulation rate, and speech effort. In conclusion, it can be argued that the two different types of background noises (i.e., white noise and multi-speaker conversational babble) are not different in the extent to which each of them enhances fluency of adults who stutter. Self ratings of speech effort may be also useful in measuring speech-related variables associated with vocal changes induced under each of the fluency enhancing conditions.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.299-304
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• 2019

Recently, the development of rehabilitation medical technology has resulted in an increased interest in speech therapy equipment. In particular, research on articulation therapy for communication disorders is being actively conducted. Existing methods for the diagnosis and treatment of speech disorders have many limitations, such as traditional tactile perception tests and methods based on empirical judgment of speech therapists. Moreover, the position and tension of the tongue are key factors of speech disorders with regards to articulation. This is a very important factor in the distinction of Korean characters such as lax, fortis, and aspirated consonants. In this study, we proposed a Korean electropalatography (EPG) system to easily measure and monitor the position and tension of the tongue in articulation treatment and diagnosis. In the proposed EPG system, a sensor was fabricated using an AgCl electrode and biocompatible silicon. Furthermore, the measured signal was analyzed by implementing the bio-signal processing module and monitoring program. In particular, the bio-signal was measured by inserting it into the palatal from an experimental control group. As a result, it was confirmed that it could be applied to clinical treatment in speech therapy.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1-10
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• 2023

This study investigated the relative effectiveness of letter-based versus syllable-based measures of speech rate and articulation rate in predicting the articulation score, prosody fluency, and rating sum using "English speech data of Koreans for education" from AI Hub. We extracted and analyzed 900 utterances from the training data, including three balanced age groups (13, 19, and 26 years old). The study built three models that best predicted the pronunciation assessment scores using linear mixed-effects regression and compared the predicted scores with the actual scores from the validation data (n=180). The correlation coefficients between them were also calculated. The findings revealed that syllable-based measures of speech and articulation rates were more effective than letter-based measures in all three pronunciation assessment categories. The correlation coefficients between the predicted and actual scores ranged from .65 to .68, indicating the models' good predictive power. However, it remains inconclusive whether speech rate or articulation rate is more effective.

• Archives of Craniofacial Surgery
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.22-26
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• 2020

Background: This study investigated the outcomes of pharyngeal flap surgery in Asian patients with velopharyngeal dysfunction (VPD), with a focus on postoperative improvements in speech articulation and complications. Additionally, this study explored whether the cause of VPD and the timing of surgery affected outcomes in terms of speech improvement. Methods: A retrospective review was conducted of the medical records of 72 Asian VPD patients who underwent pharyngeal flap surgery performed by a single surgeon from 1996 to 2014. Operative complications were analyzed for all 72 patients, and preoperative and postoperative speech articulation tests were compared for the subset of 43 patients in whom such testing was possible. The relationships of age at surgery and the cause of VPD with the extent of improvement in speech articulation were also investigated. Results: Nine of the 72 patients (13%) experienced wound-related complications. Furthermore, 34 patients (47%) reported persistent snoring lasting for over 3 months, and 16 (22%) reported snoring for over 1 year. Three patients (4%) underwent reoperation. Speech articulation scores significantly improved postoperatively across all groups. Younger age at surgery was associated with greater improvements in speech outcomes, but no significant relationship was found between the cause of VPD and the extent of the postoperative improvement in speech outcomes. Conclusion: Speech outcomes improved after pharyngeal surgery in Asian patients with VPD. Early surgery was associated with favorable speech outcomes, but no association was found between the cause of VPD and postoperative speech outcomes.

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
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• v.1996 no.11
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• pp.114-117
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• 1996

In this study, remote articulation training system which connects the hearing disabled trainee and the speech therapist via B-ISDN is introduced. The hearing disabled does not have the hearing feedback of his own pronunciation, and the chance of watching his speech organs' movement trajectory will offer him the self-training of articulation. So the system has two purposes of self articulation training and trainer's on-line checking in remote place. We estimate the vocal tract articulatory movements from the speech signal using inverse modelling and display the movement trajectory on the sideview of human face graphically. The trajectories of trainees' articulation is displayed along with the reference trajectories, so the trainee can control his articulating to make the two trajectories overlapped. For on-line communication and ckecking training record, the system has the function of video conferencing and transferring articulatory data.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.117-127
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• 2012

This research reports the prosodic characteristics (including articulation speech rate, pause characteristics, duration) of children with cochlear implants with reference to those of children with normal hearing. Subjects are 8-to 10-year-old children, balancing each number of gender as 24. Dialogue speech data are comprised of four types of sentence patterns. Results show that 1) there's a statistically meaningful difference on articulation speech rate between the two groups. 2) On pauses, they are not observed in exclamatory and declarative sentences in normal children. While imperative sentences show no statistical difference on the number of pauses between the two groups, interrogative sentences do. 3) Declarative, exclamatory, and interrogative sentences reveal statistical difference between the two groups in terms of the sentence's final two-syllable word duration, showing no difference on imperative sentences. 4) When it comes to the RFP (duration ratio of sentence final syllable to penultimate syllable), we no statistically meaningful difference between the two groups in all types of sentences exists. 5) Lastly, RWS (the ratio of sentence final two syllable word duration to that of whole sentence duration) shows statistical difference between two groups in imperative sentences, but not in all the rest types.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.167-181
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• 2021

Purpose : This study was conducted to investigate whether phonetic complexity affected the type and frequency of articulation errors and the acoustic duration of consonants and words produced by children with functional articulation and phonological disorders. Methods : The participants in this study were 20 children with functional articulation and phonological disorders and 20 children without such disorders who were between 3 years 7 months old and 4 years 11 months old. The participants were asked to name what they saw in pictures and their responses were recorded. The types and frequencies of articulation errors and the acoustic duration of words were analyzed and words were categorized as being of either 'high' or 'low' phonetic complexity. The acoustic duration of initial and final consonants and vowels following initial consonants were compared between the groups according to articulatory complexity. Results : Children with functional articulation and phonological disorders produced articulation errors more frequently when saying high complexity words and had longer word duration when saying low-complexity words than children without such disorders. There was no major difference in initial and final consonant duration between the groups. but the main effect of articulatory complexity on the duration of both consonants was significant. Conclusion : These results suggest that the articulatory-phonic structure of words influences the speech motor control ability of children with functional articulation and phonological disorders. When articulating consonants, children with functional articulation and phonological disorders had speech motor control ability similar to that of children without such disorders.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.19-27
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• 2019

Lateral approximants are well known as having complex articulatory characteristics, which vary cross-linguistically, across speakers, and across utterances. However, less attention has been paid to the articulation of Korean laterals, which do not contrast with a rhotic and may thus exhibit greater-than-normal variability. The focus of this study is to investigate the general articulatory characteristics of the Korean lateral [l] as well as the articulatory variation using novel 3D ultrasound imaging methods. The results of this study revealed significant between-speaker variation and some vowel-dependent variation with regard to the articulation of the Korean lateral [l], which has not been reported previously. Even though all participants in this study showed an anterior occlusion, the place of articulation and the size of the occlusion varied greatly across speakers. The data also revealed that left-right asymmetry is present in the articulation of the Korean lateral. The individual variation of the Korean lateral [l] suggests that it has a large articulatory-acoustic space for variation, since it has no contrasting sound that causes perceptual confusion.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.57 no.7
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• pp.323-328
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• 2014

Purpose: Adenoid hypertrophy is a physical alteration that may affect speech, and a speech disorder can have other negative effects on a child's life. Airway obstruction leads to constricted oral breathing and causes postural alterations of several oro-facial structures, including the mouth, tongue, and hyoid bone. The postural modifications may affect several aspects of speech production. Methods: In this study, we compared articulation errors in 19 children with adenoid hypertrophy (subject group) to those of 33 children with functional articulation disorders independent of anatomical problems (control group). Results: The mean age of the subject group was significantly higher (P=0.016). Substitution was more frequent in the subject group (P=0.003; odds ratio [OR], 1.80; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.23- 2.62), while omission was less frequent (P<0.001; OR, 0.43; 95% CI, 0.27-0.67). Articulation errors were significantly less frequent in the palatal affricative in the subject group (P=0.047; OR, 0.25; 95% CI, 0.07-0.92). The number of articulation errors in other consonants was not different between the two groups. Nasalization and aspiration were significantly more frequent in the subject group (P=0.007 and 0.014; OR, 14.77 and 0.014; 95% CI, [1.62-135.04] and NA, respectively). Otherwise, there were no differences between the two groups. Conclusion: We identified the characteristics of articulation errors in children with adenoid hypertrophy, but our data did not show the relationship between adenoid hypertrophy and oral motor function that has been observed in previous studies. The association between adenoid hypertrophy and oral motor function remains doubtful.