• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.291-305
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• 2020

Purpose : The duration of speech segments reflects children's speech motor development. The purpose of this study was to determine whether segmental sound and word duration varies by age among preschool children. Methods : A total of 60 children aged 4~5 years participated in this study. Participants took the picture-naming test to produce single-word speech data. The duration of the consonant at the initial position of the word and the final position of the word, the voice onset time of plosive, the duration of the vowel following the initial consonant, and the duration of the word were measured. Results : As age increased, the duration of the initial consonant, the duration of the word, and the voice onset time decreased significantly. The main effects of age, manner of articulation, and place of articulation on the duration of the initial consonant were significant. The duration of consonants in the nasal sound and plosives and the duration of bilabial and alveolar sound differed significantly between groups. The main effects of age and vocal type on voice onset time were significant. The main effect of age on the duration of the consonant in the final position of word and on the duration of the vowel were not statistically significant. Conclusion : The results of this study showed that the duration of segmental sound and the word were associated with speech development between 4 and 5 years old. Accordingly, duration of the segmental sound and the word may serve as an acoustic cue as they reflect speech development and speech motor control maturity.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.7-16
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• 1972

By analyzing the frequency of the speech under test to be affected the effect of a co-articulation, we find out the fact that a conversational speech is far from the collective sound continued by a monotone, and define also the frequency range of a Formant at the Korean conversational speech.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.43-50
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• 2006

The aim of this study was to identify pronunciation difficulties of Korean learners of English in their articulation of English sibilants /dg, g, z/. Forty-five syllables were produced five times by twelve college students. Test scores were measured from the score board made by FluSpeak, a speech training software program, which was designed for English pronunciation practice and improvement. Results show that 1) the subjects had lower scores in producing /g/ than /dg/ and /z/ from all positions, and 2) subjects had lower scores in inter-vocalic position than in pre-vocalic position and in post-vocalic position when they produced /dg/, /g/, and /z/. The results suggest that on the whole Korean learners have much difficulty in producing /g/, and they also have more auditory and articulatory problems in intervocalic than in the other positions when they produce these sibilants.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.53-66
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• 2018

This study investigated the development of English phonological awareness in preschool children based on a longitudinal study. It carried out a phonological matching task, mispronunciation task, articulation test, explicit phoneme awareness task, rhyme matching task, and initial-phoneme matching task for three-, four- and five-year-old children. A letter knowledge test was also added to the tests for the 5-year-old children. The results revealed that the development of phonological awareness follows a progression of syllable, then onset and rhyme, then phoneme. It was also revealed that language skills such as vocabulary, detection of mispronunciations, and articulation were partially related to the development of phoneme awareness. Finally, we also found that letter knowledge partially affected the children's development of phonological awareness.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.1
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• pp.237-259
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• 1997

Cleft Palate speech appears to have hyper/hyponasality with velopharyngeal insufficiency and articulation disorders. Previous studies on Cleft Palate speech have shown that speech tends to have lower airflow and air pressure. To examine the aerodynamic characteristics of Cleft Palate speech, Aerophone II Voice function Analyzer was used. We measured sound pressure level, airflow, air pressure and glottal power. Three Cleft Palate adults and five normal adults participated in this experiment. The test words are composed of: (1) the sustained vowel /o/ (2) /CiCi/, where C is one of three different stop consonants in Korean (3) /bimi/. Subjects were asked to produce /bimi/ five times without opening their lips. All the data was statistically tested by t-test for Cleft Palate patients before operation groups and control groups and paired t-test for Cleft Palate patients before and after operation groups. The results were as follow: (1) Cleft Palate patients generally speak with incomplete oral closure and lower oral air pressure. As a result, the SPL of Cleft Palate before operation is 3 dB lower than control groups. (2) Airflow of Cleft Palate in phonation and articulation is lower than that of control groups. However, it increased after operation. Lung volume and mean airflow in phonation are significantly increased (p<0.05). (3) Although velopharyngeal function (velar opening rate) of Cleft Palate is poor in comparison with control groups, it was recovered after operation. In this event maximum flow rate and mean airflow rate are significantly increased (p<0.05). (4) Air pressure of Cleft Palate in speech is lower than that of control groups. In general, the air pressure of Cleft Palate increased after operation. In this event air pressure of glottalized consonant is significantly increased (p<0.04). (5) Glottal Power(mean power, mean efficient and mean resistant) of Cleft Palate patients is lower than that of control groups. But mean efficient and mean resistant of Cleft Palate patients increased significantly (p<0.05) after operation.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.33-40
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• 2024

This study investigated acoustic features in spectral moment analysis, comparing accurate articulations with distortions of alveolar fricatives such as dentalization, palatalization, and lateralization. A retrospective analysis was conducted on speech samples from 61 children (mean age: 5.6±1.5 years, 19 females, 42 males) using the Assessment of Phonology & Articulation for Children (APAC) and Urimal-test of Articulation and Phonology I (U-TAP I). Spectral moment analysis was applied to 169 speech samples. The results revealed that the center of gravity of accurate articulations was higher than that of palatalization, while palatalization was lower than dentalization. The variance of dentalization was higher than that of both accurate articulations and palatalization. The skewness of dentalization was higher than that of accurate articulations, and the skewness of palatalization was higher than that of accurate articulations. The kurtosis of palatalization was higher than that of both accurate articulations and dentalization. No significant differences were observed for the position of fricatives (initial, medial) and tense type (plain, tense) across all variables of spectral moment analysis for each distortion type. This study confirmed distinct patterns in center of gravity, variance, skewness, and kurtosis depending on the type of alveolar fricative distortion. The objective values provided in this study will serve as foundational data for diagnosing alveolar fricative distortions in children with speech sound disorders.

• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.133-139
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• 2020

Background and Objectives: The Gaps-In-Noise (GIN) test is a clinically effective measure of the integrity of the central auditory nervous system. The GIN procedure can be applied to a pediatric population above 7 years of age. The present study conducted the GIN test to compare the abilities of auditory temporal resolution among typically developing children, children with speech sound disorder (SSD), and children with cognitive difficulty (CD). Subjects and Methods: Children aged 8 to 11 years-(total n=30) participated in this study. There were 10 children in each of the following three groups: typically developing children, children with SSD, and children with CD. The Urimal Test of Articulation and Phonology was conducted as a clinical assessment of the children's articulation and phonology. The Korean version of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III (K-WISC-III) was administered as a screening test for general cognitive function. According to the procedure of Musiek, the pre-recorded stimuli of the GIN test were presented at 50 dB SL. The results were scored by the approximated threshold and the overall percent correct score (%). Results: All the typically developing children had normal auditory temporal resolution based on the clinical cutoff criteria of the GIN test. The children with SSD or CD had significantly reduced gap detection performance compared to age-matched typically developing children. The children's intelligence score measured by the K-WISC-III test explained 37% of the variance in the percent-correct score. Conclusions: Children with SSD or CD exhibited poorer ability to resolve rapid temporal acoustic cues over time compared to the age-matched typically developing children. The ability to detect a brief temporal gap embedded in a stimulus may be related to the general cognitive ability or phonological processing.

• Korean Journal of Audiology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.133-139
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• 2020

Background and Objectives: The Gaps-In-Noise (GIN) test is a clinically effective measure of the integrity of the central auditory nervous system. The GIN procedure can be applied to a pediatric population above 7 years of age. The present study conducted the GIN test to compare the abilities of auditory temporal resolution among typically developing children, children with speech sound disorder (SSD), and children with cognitive difficulty (CD). Subjects and Methods: Children aged 8 to 11 years-(total n=30) participated in this study. There were 10 children in each of the following three groups: typically developing children, children with SSD, and children with CD. The Urimal Test of Articulation and Phonology was conducted as a clinical assessment of the children's articulation and phonology. The Korean version of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III (K-WISC-III) was administered as a screening test for general cognitive function. According to the procedure of Musiek, the pre-recorded stimuli of the GIN test were presented at 50 dB SL. The results were scored by the approximated threshold and the overall percent correct score (%). Results: All the typically developing children had normal auditory temporal resolution based on the clinical cutoff criteria of the GIN test. The children with SSD or CD had significantly reduced gap detection performance compared to age-matched typically developing children. The children's intelligence score measured by the K-WISC-III test explained 37% of the variance in the percent-correct score. Conclusions: Children with SSD or CD exhibited poorer ability to resolve rapid temporal acoustic cues over time compared to the age-matched typically developing children. The ability to detect a brief temporal gap embedded in a stimulus may be related to the general cognitive ability or phonological processing.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.468-477
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• 2023

Background This article describes the development of the Myanmar Articulation, Resonation, Nasal Emission, and Nasal Turbulence test for children with cleft lip and palate (CLP), and evaluation of its validity and reliability. Methods It was created by three Thai researchers and a Burmese research assistant based on Burmese phonology. The content validity was evaluated by six Burmese language experts. All test items were divided into three groups: high-pressure oral consonants, low-pressure oral consonants, and nasal consonants. Results All items (58-word and 32-phrase/sentence) gave an excellent level of the expert agreement (item-level content validity indexes = 1.00). The target items were illustrated as color pictures. Each picture was clearly drawn and easy to identify. As a pilot study of face validity, all pictures were administered to 10 typical-developing children. The actual testing was assessed by 10 CLP children, and the developed test was analyzed through consultation of the Burmese teachers and interpreters from a speech camp. Testing scores for a total including three groups of target items were shown acceptable for internal consistency reliability (ranged from 0.4 to 0.88). Conclusion The constructed test is valid in terms of its content.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.3257-3269
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• 2020

Articulation disorders are characterized by an inability to achieve clear pronunciation due to misuse of the articulators. In this paper, a method of detecting such disorders by comparing to the standard pronunciations is proposed. This method defines the standard pronunciations from the speeches of normal children by clustering them with three features which are the Linear Predictive Cepstral Coefficient (LPCC), the Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MFCC), and the Relative Spectral Analysis Perceptual Linear Prediction (RASTA-PLP). By calculating the distance between the centroid of the standard pronunciation and the inputted pronunciation, disordered speech whose features locates outside the cluster is detected. 89 children (58 of normal children and 31 of children with disorders) were recruited. 35 U-TAP test words were selected and each word's standard pronunciation is made from normal children and compared to each pronunciation of children with disorders. In the experiments, the pronunciations with disorders were successfully distinguished from the standard pronunciations.