Variability in Child Speech (VariCS)

儿童言语变异性 (VariCS)

• 批准号: ES/W003244/1
• 负责人: Anja Kuschmann
• 金额: $ 83.56万
• 依托单位: University of Strathclyde
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FW003244%2F1
• 关键词: Variability; Child; Speech; VariCS

This project will explore how speech changes as children grow. Learning to speak is one of the biggest developmental tasks, and children vary considerably in how quickly they master all aspects of this complex process. Irrespective of what language or dialect a person uses, producing speech first involves controlling the breath as it leaves our lungs (respiration). We control this air as it passes through our voice box (phonation) and use the tongue, jaw and lips to form specific speech sounds (articulation) that come from the sound waves in our throat, mouth and nose (resonance). Together these aspects are known as the four 'speech subsystems'. Whilst we know a lot about infant speech, as with many other areas of child development, fine-tuning the workings of these subsystems takes place well into adolescence. Currently we know very little about how primary-school aged children coordinate their use of the four speech subsystems, and how much children vary in terms of how and when their speech production patterns mature.However, this variation is important for us to better understand the development of speech in children with speech disorders. Some children produce unclear speech or have a weak sounding voice. This may be the result of facial differences such as cleft palate, or damage to the brain that control the muscles needed for producing speech, which is the case in children with cerebral palsy. These physical problems can affect how well the different speech subsystems work together. For Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) to be able to provide adequate treatment we need to know to what extent children with speech disorders differ from typically developing children. This is why we need better knowledge on the role of variation in typical child speech as children grow.To achieve this, the Variation in Child Speech (VariCS) project will use a longitudinal approach. This means we will repeatedly collect information on the four speech subsystems in 500 primary-school children over two years, obtaining data for each age group from 4 years to 11 years. We will ask children to tell a story, repeat sentences and words, and make long vowel sounds. The data will be collected from children located in the central belt of Scotland, but the nature of the speech tasks and our analyses means that the results will be applicable to typical and disordered speech for many dialects and languages. We will record children's speech using an app to make sure all children do the same tasks and have fun when recording their speech. Based on the recordings, we will gain essential information about the functioning of each speech subsystem, i.e. respiration, phonation, resonance and articulation. For instance, producing a long vowel sound will provide information on a child's lung capacity, which helps us to examine their respiration. We will analyse the speech to find out: i) how speech measures obtained for each subsystem change over time, and ii) whether changes in one subsystem can predict changes in another.The project will provide the first comprehensive information - for all four subsystems - for the developmental pathways of speech production in children aged 4 to 11. At the end of the project, we will have i) comprehensive knowledge on child speech development and its variability over time, allowing us to compare disordered speech to typical speech, ii) information about how much typical speech varies between children, which we will collate in an interactive web resource for SLTs, and iii) a large speech data set that will be made available for further research after the project.

这个项目将探索随着孩子的成长，语言是如何变化的。学习说话是最大的发展任务之一，儿童在掌握这一复杂过程的各个方面的速度上存在很大差异。无论一个人使用什么语言或方言，说话首先涉及控制呼吸，因为它离开我们的肺（呼吸）。我们控制这种空气，因为它通过我们的声音盒（发声），并使用舌头，下巴和嘴唇形成特定的语音（发音），来自我们的喉咙，嘴巴和鼻子（共振）的声波。这些方面被称为四个“语音子系统”。虽然我们对婴儿语言有很多了解，但就像对儿童发展的许多其他领域一样，这些子系统的工作要到青春期才能进行微调。目前，我们对小学儿童如何协调使用这四个言语子系统，以及儿童在言语产生模式成熟的时间和方式上有多大的差异还知之甚少，但这种差异对于我们更好地理解言语障碍儿童的言语发展具有重要意义。有些孩子说话不清楚或声音微弱。这可能是面部差异的结果，如腭裂，或大脑受损，控制产生语音所需的肌肉，这是脑瘫儿童的情况。这些物理问题会影响不同语音子系统的协同工作。对于言语和语言治疗师（SLT）能够提供适当的治疗，我们需要知道有言语障碍的儿童在多大程度上不同于正常发育的儿童。这就是为什么我们需要更好地了解随着儿童的成长，典型儿童语言中的变化所起的作用。为了实现这一目标，儿童语言变化（VariCS）项目将采用纵向方法。这意味着我们将在两年内重复收集500名小学生的四个语音子系统的信息，获得4岁至11岁每个年龄组的数据。我们将要求孩子们讲一个故事，重复句子和单词，并发出长元音。这些数据将从位于苏格兰中部地带的儿童中收集，但语音任务的性质和我们的分析意味着，结果将适用于许多方言和语言的典型和混乱的语音。我们将使用一个应用程序记录孩子们的讲话，以确保所有的孩子做同样的任务，并在记录他们的讲话时玩得开心。根据这些记录，我们将获得有关每个语音子系统功能的基本信息，即呼吸，发声，共振和发音。例如，发出一个长元音将提供有关儿童肺活量的信息，这有助于我们检查他们的呼吸。我们将分析言语，以找出：i）每个子系统的言语测量如何随时间变化，以及ii）一个子系统的变化是否可以预测另一个子系统的变化。该项目将为所有四个子系统提供第一个全面的信息-4至11岁儿童的言语产生发展路径。在项目结束时，我们将有i）关于儿童语音发展及其随时间变化的全面知识，使我们能够将无序语音与典型语音进行比较，ii）关于儿童之间有多少典型语音变化的信息，我们将在一个交互式网络资源中整理SLT，以及iii）一个大型语音数据集，该数据集将在项目结束后用于进一步研究。