Journal Article

The Role of Experience in the Perception of Phonetic Detail in Children’s Speech: A Comparison Between Speech-Language Pathologists and Clinically Untrained Listeners

Munson, Benjamin, Edwards, Jan, Johnson, Julie M

2012

Overview

Purpose: This study examined whether experienced speech-language pathologists (SLPs) differ from inexperienced people in their perception of phonetic detail in children's speech. Method: Twenty-one experienced SLPs and 21 inexperienced listeners participated in a series of tasks in which they used a visual-analog scale (VAS) to rate children's natural productions of target /s/-/[theta]/, /t/-/k/, and /d/-/g/ in word-initial position. Listeners rated the perceived distance between individual productions and ideal productions. Results: The experienced listeners' ratings differed from the inexperienced listeners' ratings in four ways: They had higher intrarater reliability, showed less bias toward a more frequent sound, and were more closely related to the acoustic characteristics of the children's speech. In addition, the experienced listeners' responses were related to a different set of predictor variables. Conclusion: Results suggest that experience working as an SLP leads to better perception of phonetic detail in children's speech. Limitations and future research are discussed. (Contains 4 figures, 2 tables and 2 footnotes.)

• Publisher: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA),American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
• Subject: Accuracy / Acoustic Phonetics / Adolescent / Adult / Adults / Auditory Perception / Autism / Child / Child Development / Child Language / Children / Children & youth / Clinical Competence / Clinical Diagnosis / Clinical Experience / College Students / Comparative Analysis / Diagnosis / Diagnostic Tests / Experience / Expertise / Experts versus Novices / Federal Aid / Female / Humans / Language Acquisition / Listeners / Listening / Listening Comprehension / Listening Skills / Male / Measurement Techniques / Middle Aged / Minnesota / Novices / Observer Variation / Oral Language / Phonetic Transcription / Phonetics / Phonology / Predictor Variables / Pupil Personnel Workers / Questionnaires / Rater Reliability / Rating Scales / Ratings & rankings / Reliability / Speech / Speech Communication / Speech disorders / Speech disorders in children / Speech Language Pathology / Speech Perception / Speech Perception - physiology / Speech therapists / Speech-language pathologists / Speech-Language Pathology - methods / Speech-Language Pathology - standards / Speech-Language Pathology - statistics & numerical data / Statistical Analysis / Stimuli / Studies / Surveys and Questionnaires / Young Adult / Young Children