Thirty children (aged 4-10) and 10 adults repeated 2 target syllables, which were analyzed acoustically to evaluate development of identification and discrimination in children for the vowel duration cue to final consonant voicing. Results showed that category boundary, category separation, response consistency, and perceptual consistency…

This study of 60 young adults found that longer closure durations occurred in initial stop consonants compared with medial stops, and in bilabial stops compared with lingua-alveolar stops. Semi-intelligible hearing-impaired speakers produced stop consonants with longer closure durations than hearing young adults and hearing-impaired young adults…

Comprehensive data are presented about the typical and atypical errors made when children produce consonant singletons, emphasizing error sounds actually used (including distortions and phonological process errors), frequency of errors at various ages, and scope of phonological process application. Clinical criteria are presented for determining…

Results are reported of a study of voice onset time characteristics of stops in initial clusters in American English words produced by children and adults. (Author/RM)

This study examined the influence of metrical patterns (syllable stress and serial position) of words on the production accuracy of 20 children (ages 22 months to 28 months). Among results were that one-fourth of the initial unstressed syllables were omitted and that consonant omissions, though few, tended to occur in the initial position.…

Measurement of voice onset time productions associated with three bilabial, three alveolar, and two velar stops in 3- to 7-year-olds and adults indicated that, by five years of age, children have acquired all voicing contrasts; however, not all sounds are produced in an adult-like manner. (Author/CB)

Research reports on the nature of speech, instrumentation for the investigation of speech, and practical applications of research are included in this status report for the April 1-June 30, 1980, period. The reports deal with the following topics: (1) the perceptual equivalent of two acoustic cues for a speech contrast is specific to phonetic…

Conversational speech samples from 33 two-year-olds were analyzed to determine word and syllable shapes produced, inventories of initial and final consonantal phones, and percentage of consonants correct. A profile of the normally developing two-year-old's range of sounds and structures is presented to aid assessment of young children with…

This study found that consonantal lingual-palatal contact patterns of 10 normal hearing children were consistent across subjects, whereas productions by 18 hearing-impaired subjects (ages 10-15) showed wide variability across subjects, contact patterns, and listener identifications. Hearing-impaired subjects who produced more correctly identified…

Research reports on the nature of speech, instrumentation for the investigation of speech, and practical applications of research are included in this status report for the July 1-December 31, 1980, period. The 19 reports deal with the following topics: (1) the structuring of language; (2) whether movements are prepared in parts; (3)…

One of a regular series on the status and progress of studies on the nature of speech, instrumentation for its investigation, and practical research applications, this report consists of 14 papers. Topics covered in the papers are (1) skilled actions, (2) the control of fundamental frequency declination, (3) selective effects of masking on speech…

Thirteen manuscripts and extended reports on the nature of speech, instrumentation for its investigation, and practical applications of research are presented in this status report on speech research for the period of July-December 1979. The topics dealt with include speech perception, children's memory for sentences and word strings in relation…

This report is one of a regular series on the status and progress of speech research. The 16 manuscript topics are: the relative accessibility of semantic and deep structure syntactic concepts, some relationships between articulation and perception, reflex activation of laryngeal muscles by sudden induced subglottal pressure changes, dynamic…