Production of contrast between sibilant fricatives by children with cochlear implants

Todd, Ann E.; Edwards, Jan; Litovsky, Ruth Y.

doi:10.1121/1.3652852

Cited by 29 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(57 reference statements)

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“…The multitaper spectrum (MTS) is equivalent to the pointwise average of K uncorrelated spectra estimated with the discrete Fourier transform (DFT); hence, the asymptotic distributions of the ordinates of an MTS-estimate have 1/Kth the variance of those of a DFTestimate (Percival and Walden, 1993). A number of studies have estimated sibilant spectra with the MTS, rather than the DFT (e.g., Blacklock, 2004;Koenig et al, 2013;Todd et al, 2011); however, the results presented here are likely not dependent on this methodological choice since the linguistic effects on acoustic measures, such as peak frequency, have been found to be comparable when either the DFT or the multitaper method is used to estimate the spectrum (Reidy, 2015).…”

Section: E Computation Of Peak Erb N Number Trajectoriesmentioning

confidence: 75%

Spectral dynamics of sibilant fricatives are contrastive and language specific

Reidy

2016

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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Previous research has extensively investigated the spectral properties of sibilant fricatives with little consideration to how these properties vary over time. To investigate such spectro-temporal variation, productions of English /s/ and /S/ and of Japanese /s/ and /ˆ/ in word-initial, prevocalic position were elicited from adult native speakers. The spectral dynamics of these productions were analyzed in terms of a psychoacoustic measure of peak frequency: "peak ERB N number." Peak ERB N number was computed at 17 evenly spaced points across each fricative production. The resulting peak ERB N number trajectories were analyzed with orthogonal polynomial growth-curve models, to determine how peak frequency varied temporally within each fricative. Three analyses compared (1) the English sibilants to each other, (2) the Japanese sibilants to each other, and (3) English /s/ to Japanese /s/. The results indicated that, in both English and Japanese, the sibilant fricatives differ acoustically in terms of both static (i.e., overall level) and dynamic (i.e., shape) aspects of the peak ERB N number trajectories. Furthermore, English /s/ and Japanese /s/ exhibited language-specific differences in the shape, but not overall level, of peak ERB N number trajectories.

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Section: E Computation Of Peak Erb N Number Trajectoriesmentioning

confidence: 75%

Spectral dynamics of sibilant fricatives are contrastive and language specific

Reidy

2016

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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“…Other contrasts that are relevant for sibilants include vowel context (e.g., Koenig et al, 2013) and hearing status of the speaker (e.g., Todd et al, 2011). It remains an open question whether other contrasts such as these are sensitive to spectral estimation method; however, the broader point of this research note still holds-that this question should be settled empirically, in terms of estimates of these contrasts, rather than analytically, in terms of the asymptotic variance of the spectral estimator.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparison of spectral estimation methods for the analysis of sibilant fricatives

Reidy¹

2015

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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It has been argued that, to ensure accurate spectral feature estimates for sibilants, the spectral estimation method should include a low-variance spectral estimator; however, no empirical evaluation of estimation methods in terms of feature estimates has been given. The spectra of /s/ and /ʃ/ were estimated with different methods that varied the pre-emphasis filter and estimator. These methods were evaluated in terms of effects on two features (centroid and degree of sibilance) and on the detection of four linguistic contrasts within these features. Estimation method affected the spectral features but none of the tested linguistic contrasts.

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“…It is important to emphasize the fact that, while results from the present study, as well as other studies that use standardized measures, show overlap in outcomes between early implanted children and normally hearing peers, these measures cannot be taken to further demonstrate that the CI users have “normal language.” The results can only be interpreted to mean that the children have age-appropriate skills as measured by the standardized language measures. For example, Todd et al (2011) showed that productions of phonemes by children with CIs had less contrast than those of NH children of the same chronological age, and NH children with the same duration of auditory experience. The authors concluded that reduced contrast may explain in part why the speech of children with CIs is less intelligible than that of their peers with NH.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Differential Listening Experience on the Development of Expressive and Receptive Language in Children With Bilateral Cochlear Implants

Hess

Zettler-Greeley²,

Godar³

et al. 2014

Ear &Amp; Hearing

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Objectives Growing evidence suggests that children who are deaf and use cochlear implants (CIs) can communicate effectively using spoken language. Research has reported that age of implantation and length of experience with the CI play an important role in a predicting a child’s linguistic development. In recent years, the increase in the number of children receiving bilateral CIs (BiCIs) has led to interest in new variables that may also influence the development of hearing, speech, and language abilities, such as length of bilateral listening experience and the length of time between the implantation of the two CIs. One goal of the present study was to determine how a cohort of children with BiCIs performed on standardized measures of language and nonverbal cognition. This study examined the relationship between performance on language and nonverbal intelligence quotient (IQ) tests and the ages at implantation of the first CI and second CI. This study also examined whether early bilateral activation is related to better language scores. Design Children with BiCIs (n = 39; ages 4 to 9 years) were tested on two standardized measures, the Test of Language Development and the Leiter International Performance Scale-Revised, to evaluate their expressive/receptive language skills and nonverbal IQ/memory. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to evaluate whether BiCI hearing experience predicts language performance. Results While large intersubject variability existed, on average, almost all the children with BiCIs scored within or above normal limits on measures of nonverbal cognition. Expressive and receptive language scores were highly variable, less likely to be above the normative mean, and did not correlate with Length of first CI Use, defined as length of auditory experience with one cochlear implant, or Length of second CI Use, defined as length of auditory experience with two cochlear implants. Conclusions All children in the present study had BiCIs. Most IQ scores were either at or above that found in the general population of typically hearing children. However, there was greater variability in their performance on a standardized test of expressive and receptive language. This cohort of children, who are mainstreamed in schools at age-appropriate grades, whose mothers’ education is high, and whose families’ socioecononomic status is high, had, as a group, on average, language scores within the same range as the normative sample of hearing children. Further research identifying the predictors that contribute to the high variability in both expressive and receptive language scores in children with BiCIs will provide useful information that can aid in clinical management and decision making.

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Production of contrast between sibilant fricatives by children with cochlear implants

Cited by 29 publications

References 43 publications

Spectral dynamics of sibilant fricatives are contrastive and language specific

Spectral dynamics of sibilant fricatives are contrastive and language specific

A comparison of spectral estimation methods for the analysis of sibilant fricatives

The Effect of Differential Listening Experience on the Development of Expressive and Receptive Language in Children With Bilateral Cochlear Implants

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