Synthesized Speech Used For The Evaluation Of Children’s Hearing And Speech Perception

Evaluation of Cognitive Processes using Synthesized Words: Screening of Hearing and Global Speech Perception

“…The method is based on the insight that specifically synthesized speech containing far less acoustic information than natural speech does would be suitable for the screening of hearing and global speech perception in populations that are difficult to test using traditional procedures [16,17]. Naturally produced speech is obviously inappropriate for hearing examination since human articulation of speech sounds and sequences of speech sounds leads to complex and redundant acoustic information in relation to frequency, intensity and temporal patterns [18,19].…”

“…Previous experiments and investigations using specifically synthesized monosyllables to examine children's hearing capacity and age-specific global speech perception confirmed that the method is appropriate to use with children from as young as 3-year-olds [16,17]. Therefore, a device has been developed (Fig.…”

“…Inappropriately heard frequency patterns of speech sounds will result in inappropriate recognition of their quality. In addition, speech perception difficulties can also arise in case of normal hearing with or without known reasons [16]. Speech perception deficit may cause long-lasting difficulties in communication and learning.…”

“…Based on experiences and facts, an easily usable, quick and reliable method for screening the children's hearing and recognition ability concerning frequency cues of speech sounds seems to be relevant from the aspect of info-communication. Recognizing the speech sounds in a sound sequence (irrespective of its being a meaningful or a meaningless item) requires various processes, and particularly the identification of frequency patterns [4,16]. The term 'global speech perception' will be used for identifying these processes.…”