SSD: Norms, Patterns, Theories, Phonetics

Infant speech perception and vocalization

prelinguistic development

Are all infant vocalizations communicative?

no, sometimes they just make noises

when investigating a child’s hearing and speech perception, you look at what first and then what?

sound localization → auditory discrimination

understanding spoken speech

perception

infant perception is inferred from

certain overt actions (e.g. head turn) behaviors

Researchers have studied different responses infants give to different speech sound stimuli

Two main behavioral methods have been used:

• high-amplitude sucking method

• visually reinforced head turn method

• measures rate and intensity of sucking patterns

• we can see a change in their sucking pattern when presented with a sound. if they don’t change their sucking pattern - they may have a hearing impairment

high-amplitude sucking method

a child is conditioned to turn their head towards a specific direction when they hear a sound (change the tones of the sounds), and are then rewarded with a visual stimulus like a lit-up toy or animation, reinforcing the head turn response

visually reinforced head turn method

Infants begin to hear sounds in ____

for how many months?

utero; 4 months

in sound localization, _____ day old infants may show eye movement or head movement toward a sound source (e.g., rattling noise)

2-7

Infants prefer _______ to other kinds of sounds

human voice

__ day old infants prefer their mother’s voices to voices of others

3

Infants respond ______ to passages their mothers read aloud during pregnancy

Infants respond _____ to sounds of their own language than to sounds of foreign languages

better

order of infant speech production

1. reflexive vocalization

2. non-reflexive vocalizations

3. protophones

4. canonical babbling

Automatic vocalizations, controlled by the physical (bodily) state of the infant

reflexive vocalizations

Voluntary productions, including cooing and babbling

non-reflexive vocalizations

Initial sound forms related to later, more typical, speech sounds

protophones

Vocalizations that include adult-like sounds

canonical babbling

vocables, phonetically consistent forms, invented words

protowords

Child’s word-like productions that “function” like words, but are not “true” words

protowords

protowords may include: (4 things)

1. single or repeated vowels

2. syllabic nasals

3. syllabic fricatives

4. single or repeated consonant (often a nasal or a stop) plus vowels

Factors influencing typical acquisition of speech

• Gender

• Socioeconomic Status

• Language Development

• Individual Variability

malocclusion

jaw overbite/underbite

Variables inhibiting Speech Sound Learning

• Significant malocclusions

• Unrepaired clefts of the palates and velopharyngeal insufficiency

• Impaired neurophysiological structures and functions, associated with cerebral palsy and childhood apraxia of speech

• Somewhat slower diadochokinetic skills (speech motor skills)

• Significant hearing loss

First “true” words have _____________, produced in ________ contexts, with expected __________

consistent phonetic forms; predictable; consequences

Early word learning stage includes ______ syllables or _________ syllables

single or reduplicated

______ syllables are more common than ____ ones

open; closed

_____, _____, and/or ______ are more common than fricatives

Stops, nasals, and/or glides

Theories of Speech Sound Learning

• Research has shown that caregivers model and reinforce the child’s imitated productions, and correct errors

• Speech is learned through normal interactions, not by explicit teaching

• Mothers speak slowly, with more clear articulation when they talk to their young children to promote learning

infant vs adult structures of articulation

infant: more compressed

adult: teeth; larynx gets bigger and drops

early 13 sounds

what age?

[b, p, n, m, d, h, w, t, k, g, ŋ, f, j]

(all plosives, nasals, and glides)

2;0 – 3;11

middle 7 sounds

what age?

[v, ʧ, ʤ, l, s, ʃ, z]

4;0 – 4;11

late 4 sounds

what age?

[ θ, ð, ɹ, ӡ]

5;0 – 6;11

clinical use of norms

• Norms vary across studies

• Only gross and general patterns are useful

• Individual differences are masked in group norms

• Work settings have guidelines on how to use norms. Sometimes guidelines need updating

• Such other variables as academic needs, coexisting conditions (e.g., language impairment) need to be considered

8 patterns that disappear by age 3

• affrication

• reduplication

• final consonant deletion

• denasalization

• voicing

• velar fronting

• assimilation

• devoicing

when a stop or fricative sound is substituted with an affricate sound

“chi” for “see”

“joor” for “door

affrication

Omission of final consonants
Ca for cat

final consonant deletion

when a nasal sound is substituted with a non-nasal sound

“boo” for “moo”

“doze” for “nose”

denasalization

Replacement of velars and /ng/ with sounds more anterior, particularly alveolars
Doat for goat / rin for ring

velar fronting

A sound in a word changes to become more like another sound in the word. It can affect place of articulation, manner of articulation, or voicing
Cook for Took / Boab for boat

assimilation

Repetition of a syllable of a target word
Ba-ba for bottle / da-da for dog

reduplication

when a voiceless consonant in the beginning of a word or syllable is substituted with a voiced sound

“gomb” for “comb”

voicing

when a voiced consonant at the end of a word is substituted with a voiceless consonant

“mat” for “mad” / “pick” for “pig”

devoicing

“Single most practical measurement of oral communication competence”

speech intelligibility

___year-olds’ speech is generally intelligible to parents

2

Speech of most 5-year-olds is nearly ___% intelligible

100

T/F correct production of speech sounds means intelligibility

false

________ with the child’s speech and the ______ of utterances are significant variables

familiarity and context

phonetics vs phonology

phonetics:

• Concerned with the production/transmission and reception of sound (what is used and what is said)

• Does not concern a specific language

phonology:

• Concerned with the correct patterns of sound used in different languages

• Changes with and concerns every language

aerodynamic properties

• Buildup of subglottic air pressure that blows the vocal folds apart and causes them to vibrate

• The air pressure also may be built up in the oral cavity to produce pressure consonants

How would you describe intraoral air pressure when producing vowels?

buildup air in the mouth with little to no pressure

the rate at which vocal folds vibrate, causing the sensation of vocal pitch

frequency

(intensity) is the magnitude of vibration, causing the sensation of loudness

amplitude

a measure of time during which vibrations are sustained

duration

Segmentals are consonants and vowels and the suprasegmentals include such prosodic features as _____, ____, _________, and _______

pitch, stress, rate of speech, and juncture

Rising and falling pitch and variable stress on certain syllables can signal differences in _______

meaning

Faster or slower rate of speech may affect ________ and _______

prosody and intelligibility

(e.g., a pause) helps make semantic or grammatical distinctions in speech

juncture

the study of physical, physiological, and acoustic variables of speech sound production

phonetics

family of phones or sounds, members of which are perceived as belonging to the same class

phoneme

variations of a phoneme that are not a separate phoneme

allophone

example of an allophone

“He has tea” versus “I loathe tea”

LEAF / WOOL – compare /l/ production

Each language has an _________ of sounds

inventory

American English has ___ consonants, ___ vowels, and __ diphthongs

24; 14; 6

what creates different dialects of a language?

allophonic variaton

Phonemic contrasts make a difference in meaning

minimal pairs

two words differ by one sound

minimal pairs

In connected speech, sounds may be less distinct or may even change their form due to the effect of ______________

coarticulation

the slight or significant change in sounds due to the influence of surrounding sounds in an utterance

coarticulation

what are the two main categories of phoneme classification?

consonants and vowels

consonants produced in side-by- side combination; may be prevocalic or postvocalic

clusters

produced with an open vocal tract

vowels

single vowels but diphthongs are two vowels produced with quick gliding movement

monopthongs

consonants may be…

prevocalic (initial), intervocalic (medial), and postvocalic (final)

_________ initiate syllables, but ______ are the nucleus of syllables

consonants; vowels

Syllables may be ____ or _____

open or closed

A consonant or a cluster initiates the syllable

onset

The _____ is the vowel

nucleus

The final consonant is the _____

coda

The ______ is what follows the onset

rhyme

In the word break, the cluster br is the _____, the diphthong ea is the ______, and the final k is the _____; the diphthong ea and the final k make up the rhyme

onset; nucleus; coda

do English words always follow this pattern (CVC)?

no; words may begin and end with a vowel (e.g., eat, act, you, bee)

Refers to how the airstream that passes through the vocal tract is modified to produce consonants

manner of articulation

Refers to the location in the vocal tract where the articulators contact and constrict to produce consonants

place of articulation

the result of the vibrations of the vocal folds

voicing

There is no universal agreement on the number or the definition of _____________

phonological patterns

Common categories of phonological patterns include:

1. Syllable structure patterns

2. Substitution patterns

3. Assimilation patterns

Note that there is no distortion process; distortions are articulation disorders

9 Syllable Structure Patterns

1. Unstressed syllable deletion

2. Reduplication

3. Diminutization

4. Epenthesis

5. Final Consonant deletion

6. Initial consonant deletion

7. Cluster reduction

8. Cluster deletion

9. Cluster substitution

a speech pattern where a child omits one or more unstressed syllables from multisyllabic words

Examples "Umbrella" might become "brella, "Above" might become "buv”

Unstressed syllable deletion

a phonological process where a toddler repeats a syllable to make a word

A child might say "wawa" for "water"

Reduplication

children add an "i" to the end of words to make them easier to say

For example, "dog" becomes "doggy

Diminutization

a sound or syllable is added to a word, often between two sounds

"Buh-lue" instead of "blue,"Dog-uh" instead of "dog

Epenthesis

Final consonant deletion

a phonological process where children omit the final consonant sound in a word

• “Cuh" for "cup"

• "Dah" for "dog"

a phonological process where a child omits the first consonant sound in a word.

For example, a child might say "up" instead of "cup" or "un" instead of "sun".

Initial consonant deletion

when a speaker simplifies a group of consonants (a consonant cluster) within a word by omitting one or more of the sounds, resulting in a less complex pronunciation

for example, saying "poon" instead of "spoon" by dropping the "s" sound from the cluster "sp"

Cluster reduction

7 substitution patterns

1. Stopping

2. Deaffrication

3. Velar fronting

4. Depalatization

5. Backing

6. Liquid gliding

7. Vocalization

when a fricative or affricate is substituted with a stop consonant

pan for fan

dump for jump

stopping

when an affricate is substituted with a stop or fricative

dog for jog

sips for chips

deaffrication

when velar sounds are substituted with alveolar sounds

dough for go

velar fronting

when a palatal sound is substituted with an alveolar stop or fricative

fit for fish

sip for chip

depalatalization