Effect of Spectral Variation on Phoneme Identification Skills in 2 - 3 year old Typically Developing Children

Abstract

The present study investigated the ability of 2 to 3 year old Kannada speaking typically developing children to identify synthetic phonemes varying in second formant frequency (F2). Two picturable (minimal pair) words with stop consonants contrasting in place of articulation (labial /p/ and retroflex /tA/) in word initial position in Kannada were selected. These words as uttered by 21-year-old female native Kannada speaker were recorded and stored onto the computer memory. Place of articulation continuum was prepared using Acophon 1 programme of SSL Pro3V3 software and tokens were audio recorded onto a CD. The synthesized tokens were presented to thirty (15 boys and 15 girls) 2 to 3 year old children individually. Subjects were instructed to point to the pictures placed before them as they listen to the token and the investigator noted their responses on a scoring sheet. Percent identification scores were calculated. The results indicated that the 50% crossover from labial to retroflex cognate occurred at 1692 Hz in children. Also, phoneme boundary width was wider in girls compared to that in boys. The results of the current study can be used to compare phoneme identification skills in clinical population of same age.