- Title
- Simply singing: characteristics and consequences for speech perception by young children with impaired hearing
- Creator
- Moore, Robyn Cantle
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2005
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- The notion that singing is easier than speech for young children with impaired hearing to discriminate auditorily (Tait, 1984) prompted inquiry into whether this style of speech presentation has the propensity to enhance intelligibility of speech for young children who use cochlear implant-assisted hearing. The primary study established the physical criteria (acoustic parameters) of monophthong vowels produced in typical singing speech and equivalent samples of clearly enunciated speech (Picheny, Durlach & Braida, 1986, 1989; Uchanski, Choi, Braida, Reed, & Durlach, 1996). A series of critical instance case studies examined whether singing speech facilitated the auditory processing and comprehension of language for (a) young children with 3-5 years of normal hearing, and (b) young children with 3-5 years of documented success with cochlear implant-assisted hearing. It was demonstrated that vowels produced in typical singing speech have a fundamentally different 'acoustic skeleton' to vowels associated with superior intelligibility of speech (Ferguson & Kewley-Port, 1999; Neel, 2000; Picheny et.al., 1986; Uchanski et.al., 1996). Moreover, for the cases examined, an apparent relationship existed between the auditory processing of singing speech and hearing status. Evidence emerged to suggest that singing speech may further disadvantage children with compromised hearing ability, relative to their hearing-age peers. These findings have implications for the use of singing speech as a teaching strategy in the delivery of early school curricula (social, cultural and foundation knowledge).
- Subject
- children; speech impaired; hearing impaired; singing speech
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1418348
- Identifier
- uon:37338
- Rights
- Copyright 2005 Robyn Cantle Moore
- Language
- eng
- Hits: 413
- Visitors: 412
- Downloads: 0