The impact of impaired vocal quality on children's ability to process spoken language

Abstract

This paper investigated the effect of voice quality on children's ability to process spoken language. A group of 24 children, mean age 11 years 5 months, listened to a series of recorded short passages, half spoken by a female with normal voice and half spoken by a female with a classic vocal impairment (dysphonic voice). The children were tested for their ability to recall words and to draw a final target inference. Children performed better on both preceding indices when listening to the normal voice. The implications of the findings are discussed, with particular reference to the classroom situation.

Voice amplification for primary school teachers with voice disorders: A randomized clinical trial

“…With regard to the point of view of the children, most of the teachers in the study reported that children became immediately used to the novelty, and they also benefitted from listening. Also this aspect is in agreement with some previous reports indicating that poor voice quality in teachers reduces the intelligibility of speech [14,15,24,25], while amplification both reduces the need for repetition and permits better concentration [15].…”

University Students' Response Characteristics to Hoarse and Normal Lecture Voice in Multimedia Class

“…In addition, these findings are similar to those of Song(2016) on the response characteristics from 20 female university students only in one department to hoarse and normal lecture voice samples by same professor [7]. The present study also confirms what previous studies have found regarding speakers with voice disorders [3,4].…”

“…They analyzed the impact of the voice problem on the students' spoken language processing. Regardless of gender or cognitive ability, children responded less well in thinking of a word or answering a question about materials which were read in a hoarse voice [3]. Mckinnon et al, (1986) asked university students to listen to speech sample with stuttering, articulation disorder, and hypernasal voice and then with a normal voice, and compared their responses.…”

“…Morton & Watson(2001) researched to evaluate the impact of teachers' voice problems on education. After recording a paragraph with a normal voice and a hoarse voice, they presented these material to elementary school children.…”

The Stakeholder Model of voice research: Acknowledging barriers to human rights of all stakeholders in a communicative exchange

“…Firstly, the impact of voice disorder on the comprehension of the listener has been documented (Morton & Watson, 2001;Rogerson & Dodd, 2005). Speakers with dysphonic voices were understood less easily with listeners, largely children, comprehending less than when they listened to non-dysphonic speakers Secondly, there is the impact of the attribution of the listener.…”