Pitch Pattern Analysis in Speech of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a multifaceted neurodevelopmental condition. Atypical communication mostly occurs in tandem with ASD. We compared voice pitch of 16 Marathi children and adolescents with ASD of age of 7 to 18 with 27 Typically Developing (TD). Speech samples have been recorded and stored in .wav format with sampling frequency of 48000 Hz. For analysis we used PRAAT, a program for speech analysis, manipulation and synthesis. We divided the ASD and TD group into total 4 groups on basis of age and gender for comparison. We found that differences in voice pitch are present in these comparison groups, and male ASD group have more pitch variation than respective comparison groups. In future we look forward to include more ASD participants in study to increase the Marathi speech database for ASD.

Distinctive prosodic features of people with autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis study

“…Sheinkopf et al, investigating the acoustic characteristics of infants’ crying sound reported two mean pitch values for pain-related and non-pain-related cries. Furthermore, 11 studies 13 , 15 , 18 , 29 , 38 , 45 , 49 , 58 – 60 , 63 found no significant difference (p > 0.05) between groups. By analyzing adult male participants (age > 13), Nayak et al found a higher mean pitch value for ASD than TD group, while for younger male participants (age < 13), the mean pitch value was not different between groups 38 .…”

“…The results of these studies were completely inconsistent. Two studies 14 , 62 reported lower mean pitch value for vocal productions of people with ASD, while ten other studies 10 , 17 , 22 , 38 , 39 , 47 , 61 , 62 , 64 , 65 found higher mean pitch value for ASD individuals. Sheinkopf et al, investigating the acoustic characteristics of infants’ crying sound reported two mean pitch values for pain-related and non-pain-related cries.…”

“…The total sample size of the retrieved studies, considered pitch standard deviation, was 305 and 329 samples for ASD and TD groups, respectively. Eight studies 10 , 13 , 15 , 17 , 47 , 52 , 66 , 67 reported larger pitch standard deviation for people with ASD, while three studies 26 , 38 , 46 obtained smaller pitch standard deviation for ASD individuals. Other studies reported no significant differences between ASD and TD individuals 26 , 29 , 59 , 60 , 62 , 63 .…”

“…The systematic search found 21 studies for the pitch range difference between ASD and TD groups. Thirteen studies reported the wider pitch range in ASD individuals’ vocal productions 10 , 13 , 15 , 21 , 29 , 38 , 45 , 52 , 53 , 61 , 62 , 69 , 70 , while only one study 55 reported a narrower pitch range in ASD group. In seven studies, no significant difference between ASD and TD groups was found for pitch range (Refs.…”

Просодическая Сторона Речи Лиц С Расстройствами Аутистического Спектра: Теоретический Обзор

“…период обучения игре на саксофоне является самым трудным и наиболее важным для успешного овладения искусством игры на саксофоне ([3 , [2], [4]).…”