Modifying Speech to Children Based on Their Perceived Phonetic Accuracy

Abstract

Purpose We examined the relationship between adults' perception of the accuracy of children's speech, and acoustic detail in their subsequent productions to children. Methods Twenty-two adults participated in a task in which they rated the accuracy of 2- and 3-year-old children's word-initial /s/and /∫/ using a visual analog scale (VAS), then produced a token of the same word as if they were responding to the child whose speech they had just rated. Result The duration of adults' fricatives varied as a function of their perception of the accuracy of children's speech: longer fricatives were produced following productions that they rated as inaccurate. This tendency to modify duration in response to perceived inaccurate tokens was mediated by measures of self-reported experience interacting with children. However, speakers did not increase the spectral distinctiveness of their fricatives following the perception of inaccurate tokens. Conclusion These results suggest that adults modify temporal features of their speech in response to perceiving children's inaccurate productions. These longer fricatives are potentially both enhanced input to children, and an error-corrective signal.

Gradient perception of children’s productions of /s/ and /θ/: A comparative study of rating methods

“…Our underlying assumption was that use of a continuous measurement tool such as VAS should enable listeners to provide a more nuanced description of the fine phonetic characteristics of children’s speech than would be possible with a discrete measure, such as an identification task. Previous work found support for this assumption by showing that VAS ratings of productions of /s/ and /ʃ/, averaged across a group of listeners, strongly correlated with the acoustic parameter of centroid frequency (Julien & Munson, 2012; Munson, Johnson, & Edwards, 2012). However, based on their analysis, we cannot infer anything about the responses of individual listeners.…”

“…Average judgments of naïve listeners have two additional benefits. First, they are ecologically valid, as they presumably predict the cumulative feedback that children receive from members of the language community during social interactions, a claim that is developed in more detail in Julien and Munson (2012). Second, they can be used as continuous measures when a suitable acoustic or articulatory measure does not exist.…”

“…Subsequent research by Munson and Urberg Carlson (2015) has shown that VAS is psychometrically superior to two other continuous measures of within-category variation, Likert scale judgments and direct magnitude estimates of category goodness. Julien and Munson (2012) showed that VAS ratings of children’s /s/ and /ʃ/ productions are correlated with the centroid frequency of the fricative. Centroid frequency distinguishes between productions of /s/ and /ʃ/.…”

Bias in the perception of phonetic detail in children’s speech: A comparison of categorical and continuous rating scales

“…Our speculation about how listeners might perceive the productions analyzed by Macken and Bartonis based on the results of numerous studies that elicit continuous ratings of children’s productions of sounds (Julien & Munson, 2012; McAllister Byun, Halpin, & Harel, 2015; Munson & Brinkman, 2004; Munson, Johnson, & Edwards, 2012; Munson, Schellinger, Edwards, Beckman, & Meyer, 2010; Strömbergsson, Savli, & House, 2015). These studies have shown that listeners are capable of providing continuous ratings of children’s productions, provided that the productions themselves vary continuously in how closely they resemble canonical productions of sounds.…”

What Do Caregivers Tell Us about Infant Babbling?

“…Parent response to child production varies dependent upon whether or not the production is perceived as phonetically accurate versus inaccurate (Julien & Munson, 2012) and familiar versus non-familiar (Olson & Masur, 2012).…”