This paper investigated the effect of voice quality on children's ability to process spoken language. A group of 24 children, mean age 11 years 5 months, listened to a series of recorded short passages, half spoken by a female with normal voice and half spoken by a female with a classic vocal impairment (dysphonic voice). The children were tested for their ability to recall words and to draw a final target inference. Children performed better on both preceding indices when listening to the normal voice. The implications of the findings are discussed, with particular reference to the classroom situation.

This paper investigated the effect of voice quality on children's ability to process spoken language. A group of 24 children, mean age 11 years 5 months, listened to a series of recorded short passages, half spoken by a female with normal voice and half spoken by a female with a classic vocal impairment (dysphonic voice). The children were tested for their ability to recall words and to draw a final target inference. Children performed better on both preceding indices when listening to the normal voice. The implications of the findings are discussed, with particular reference to the classroom situation.