The concept and perceptual ability of speech rate and salient voice perceptual characteristics in school-age children

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the development of concept and perceptual ability of salient perceptual voice characteristics in children. Ninety-four children from Primary one to three together with 20 adults as control subjects were recruited. Subjects were required to listen to recordings of normophonic and dysphonic voice of children. They were required to make gross and fine discrimination on perceptual voice characteristics. Results revealed good test-retest agreement of the concept test. The levels of accuracy improved with grades for all subsections of the concept test except for gross discrimination of overall voice quality. Performance in Primary two was slightly better than Primary one in general and the differences were not statistically significant. Performance in Primary three was significantly better than that in Primary two on loudness, pitch of voice, overall voice quality and fine discrimination of speech rate. Adult-like performance was achieved in Primary two for gross discrimination speech rate and in Primary three for loudness, fine discrimination of speech rate and gross discrimination of overall voice quality. An interesting finding was that children with formal musical training experiences performed significantly better in almost all subsections (except gross discrimination of overall voice quality) than those without formal musical training.