Consonant discrimination by Mandarin-speaking children with prelingual hearing impairment

Zhu, Shufeng; Wong, Lena L. N.; Chen, Fei; Chen, Yuan

doi:10.1016/j.ijporl.2015.06.010

Cited by 1 publication

(8 citation statements)

References 42 publications

(68 reference statements)

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“…The minimal pairs that scored one standard deviation lower than the overall mean of the 33 consonant pairs were considered difficult, and those that scored one standard deviation above the overall mean were considered easy. This criterion was used in Zhu et al [ 6 ]. Furthermore, a paired samples t-test with Bonferroni adjustment was conducted to compare the performance of each minimal pair obtained in the quiet and noisy conditions.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous studies have also revealed a significant effect of noise on consonant perception in children with HL [ 6 ] and adults with NH [ 29 ]. The discrimination of fricatives and affricates was an exception.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A discrimination task was employed because it is appropriate for evaluating young children, in particular, those with poor hearing. Zhu et al [ 6 ] proved the successful use of a discrimination task consisting of 16 consonant minimal pairs in children with severe to profound hearing loss.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the current study, a discrimination task (i.e., judging whether two sounds are the same or different) with items within the vocabulary repertoire of children as young as 4 years of age, was used to examine the development of consonant discrimination in children in the second and third year of kindergarten (i.e., K2 and K3) and first and second year of primary school (i.e., P1 and P2). A discrimination task was reportedly more appropriate for preschool children or children with hearing impairment [ 6 ]. Grouping based on year of education, instead of chronological age, was due to the following reasons.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cooke [ 17 ] showed that consonants were not perceived with the same accuracy in noise by adults with NH, and found /t/, /g/, and /tʃ/ were easier to perceive, while /b/ and /v/ were more difficult to identify in most SSN maskers at -6 to 8 dB S/N, whereas Johnson [ 12 ] reported that voicing was the easiest to identify compared to place or manner of articulation features in a multitalker babble at +13 dB S/N. In contrast, Zhu et al [ 6 ] reported low accuracy in Mandarin consonant discrimination in noise, compared to in quiet, but no significant difference in the discrimination of 16 Mandarin consonant minimal pairs in SSN at -10, -5, 0. 5, and 10 dB S/N.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Discrimination of consonants in quiet and in noise in Mandarin-speaking children with normal hearing

et al. 2023

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Objective Given the critical role of consonants in speech perception and the lack of knowledge on consonant perception in noise in Mandarin-speaking children, the current study aimed to investigate Mandarin consonant discrimination in normal-hearing children, in relation to the effects of age and signal-to-noise ratios (S/N). Design A discrimination task consisting of 33 minimal pairs in monosyllabic words was designed to explore the development of consonant discrimination in five test conditions: 0, -5, -10, -15 dB S/Ns, and quiet. Study sample Forty Mandarin-speaking, normal-hearing children aged from 4;0 to 8;9 in one-year-age increment were recruited and their performance was compared to 10 adult listeners. Results A significant main effect of age, test conditions, and an interaction effect between these variables was noted. Consonant discrimination in quiet and in noise improved as children became older. Consonants that were difficult to discriminate in quiet and in noise were mainly velar contrasts. Noise seemed to have less effect on the discrimination of affricates and fricatives, and plosives appeared to be to be more difficult to discriminate in noise than in quiet. Place contrasts between alveolar and palato-alveolar consonants were difficult in quiet. Conclusions The findings were the first to reveal typical perceptual development of Mandarin consonant discrimination in children and can serve as a reference for comparison with children with disordered perceptual development, such as those with hearing loss.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%