The study investigated the Lombard effect (evoking increased speech intensity by applying masking noise to ears of talker) on the speech of esophageal talkers, artificial larynx users, and normal speakers. The noise condition produced the highest intensity increase in the esophageal speakers. (Author/DB)

Results of nasalance measurements of 18 hearing-impaired children (ages 3-11) under the conditions of aided speech, unaided speech, and speech with amplification found no significant differences when comparisons were made between younger and older groups and when made according to the severity of hearing loss. (Author/DB)

A new method to calculate a spectral harmonics-to-noise (HNR) ratio is presented. The method discriminates between harmonic and noise energy in the magnitude spectrum by means of a comb-filtering operation in the cepstrum domain. HNR is seen to be a useful parameter in the analysis of voice quality. (Author/DB)

This paper offers practical suggestions for vocal hygiene programs designed to prevent, identify, and treat vocal abuse by young children. Suggestions include construction of homemade instructional materials and use of commercially available resources. (DB)

This paper presents an approach to voice therapy with adolescents, emphasizing the importance of psychosocial and family influences as they relate to vocal behavior. The goals of therapy for the adolescent with dysphonia usually follow an orderly sequence, first dealing with individual behavior and later with family and peer group influences. (JDD)

This study compared the retention patterns obtained for children diagnosed with phonological disorders, 10 with developmental apraxia of speech and 10 with phonologically based speech areas. In both groups, in cases of sound substitutions, voicing was retained most frequently and place of articulation least frequently. An inverse relationship…

Discussion of speech sampling in the assessment of children with phonological disorders focuses on the use of nonlinear phonological analysis, a method whereby multiple aspects or levels of a child's phonological system are examined. Principles and suggestions offer general guidance for adequate sample elicitation. (Contains references.)…

This study compared the speech and prosody-voice profiles for 30 male speakers with either high-functioning autism (HFA) or Asperger syndrome (AS), and 53 typically developing male speakers. Both HFA and AS groups had more residual articulation distortion errors and utterances coded as inappropriate for phrasing, stress, and resonance. AS speakers…

Aerodynamic measures are frequently used to analyse and document pathological voices. Some normative data are available for speakers from the English-speaking population. However, no data are available yet for Chinese speakers despite the fact that they are one of the largest populations in the world. The high variability of aerodynamic measures…

Modal and falsetto registers are the basic vocal qualities used in female speaking voices. The purpose of this study was to identify the frequency at which modal register changed to falsetto register and the frequency range of each modal and falsetto register produced under three loudness levels: soft, comfortable and loud phonations in normal and…

The report examines vocal frequency differences between normal speaking children and 65 children (mean age 9-years) with vocal nodules and accompanying vocal quality disturbances. In part I of the study children were screened by a physician and their voices were recorded and analyzed by a digitizer-computer system for mean vocal frequency,…

Ten esophageal speakers and ten normal speakers produced repetitions of the disyllable /mama/ using five different conditions of syllable stress. Nine normal listeners judged both relative and absolute syllable stress. Reliable judgments were made of the syllable stress, and speakers were able to effect systematic changes in listener perceptions…

The article reviews common misconceptions about oral pharyngeal structure and function and suggests the need for more adequate training in order to make more reliable decisions about the adequacy of the speech mechanism. (CL)

Five cases of adolescents with functional aphonia (lack of speech despite normally appearing vocal chords) are presented. Therapeutic management is described which followed the symptomatic voice therapy approach. A consistent theme for four of the adolescents was stressful family environment, academic failure, and inadequate peer support.…