Development of Language Learning Program based on Analysis of Phonological Processing Abilities of the Children with developmental Phonological Disorders.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

【Purpose】 We investigated the perceptual weighting of syllable-initial fricatives for native Japanese adults and for children with persistent developmental articulation disorder to elucidate the mechanism behind the disorder and to identify an effective treatment.【Method】 Forty-two native Japanese adults and 2 native Japanese children with developmental phonological disorder identified tokens from a /∫/ - /s/ continuum followed by /α/ as /∫α/ or /sα/. Stimuli consisted of natural /s/ and /∫/ noises combined with synthetic /α/ vocalic portions. In order to create the consonant portion, /s/ and /∫/ were separated from /∫α/ and /sα/ syllables recorded by a native Japanese male speaker. These spectra of fricative noises were varied along a nine-step continuum, from one appropriate for /∫/ to one appropriate for /s/. Nine synthetic vocalic portions were created using XKL Klatt, 1984) to form a nine-step continuum, varying in formant transitions changing continuously from one most like /∫/ to one most like /s/.【Results & Discussion】 Most adults weighted to the spectrum of the fricative noise more than to formant transitions in the same manner as English native adults, however, as compared with most adults, a small number of adults and the children with persistent developmental articulation disorder judged based more on the formant transitions than on the spectrum of the fricative noise like 3- to 4-year-old typically developing English native children (Nittrouer & Miller, 1997).【Conclusion】 The perceptual weight assigned by adults suggested that they did not perceive uniformly. The perceptual weight assigned by children with developmental phonological disorder indicated that their speech perception ability might develop differently from that of typically developing children because of speech processing deficits.