Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Acoustic And Spectral Characteristics Of Young Children's Fricative Productions: A Developmental Perspective, Shawn L. Nissen, Robert Allen Fox

Faculty Publications

Scientists have made great strides toward understanding the mechanisms of speech production and perception. However, the complex relationships between the acoustic structures of speech and the resulting psychological percepts have yet to be fully and adequately explained, especially in speech produced by younger children. Thus, this study examined the acoustic structure of voiceless fricatives (/f, θ, s, ʃ/) produced by adults and typically developing children from 3 to 6 years of age in terms of multiple acoustic parameters (durations, normalized amplitude, spectral slope, and spectral moments). It was found the acoustic parameters of spectral slope and variance (commonly excluded from …

How Individuals With Parkinson's Disease Modify Their Speech In A Repetition For Clarification, Lynn Marie Watkins

Theses and Dissertations

The speech of individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) is typically characterized as lacking in proper prosody because of its monopitch and monoloud quality, in addition to its reduced intensity. These qualities make it difficult for others to understand speakers with PD. The purpose of the current study was to identify what individuals with PD would do vocally, if anything at all, to improve speech production following a simulated misunderstanding of what they had just said. The study evaluated the performance of 5 individuals with PD and compared their performance to 5 age- and sex-matched controls. Specifically, measures of vocal intensity …

Exploration Of Lip Shape Measures And Their Association With Tongue Contact Patterns, Jessica Lynn Wagner

Theses and Dissertations

A variety of tools and techniques have been developed to measure the movements of the vocal tract, specifically of the tongue and lips. In recent years, computer technology has allowed for extensive exploration of these precise movements and for the development of speech recognition systems. However, there has been relatively little work on the combination of visible facial movements and internal articulatory activity. In this study, two different technologies were used to explore the internal and external movements of speech production in eight speakers: palatometry quantified tongue contact patterns and computerized video image analysis was used to derive lip shape …

An Investigation Of Vocal Abuse In School Teachers, Jodi L. Franczak

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of vocal abuse in school teachers and teacher's aides pre and post one academic term. Vocal abuse was defined as any of several behaviors, including long periods of talking, yelling, smoking, consuming alcohol, etc. that can result in damage to the laryngeal mechanism. Initially, the participants of the study included fifteen elementary school teachers and five elementary teacher's aides from two schools: the Red Lake Madsen Public School, and Golden Learning Center. Six participants were excluded from the study for various reasons. Participants were randomly assigned to either Group 1 …

Speech And Occupational Therapy: An Interdisciplinary Approach To Intervention, Laura Greiss Hess

Laura Greiss Hess