Vowels of four-year-old children with cerebral palsy in Mandarin-learning environment

Abstract

Characteristics of vowel productions of children with cerebral palsy (CP) were investigated with data from two 4-year-old children with CP and two typically-developing (TD) children in Mandarin-learning environment. Clear vowel productions from picture naming and natural conversation in three 50-minute audio recordings of each child were transcribed and analyzed. Seven parameters were examined: vowel duration of /a/, F2 slope in transition of CV sequence, cumulative change of F2 for vowel /a/, degree of nasalization in oral vowel (A1-P1), percent of jitter, percent of shimmer, and the signal to noise ratio (SNR). Major findings are: (1) The CP group showed shorter vowel duration of /a/; (2) TD group has larger F2 slope in CV transition; (3) No obvious differences were found between TD and CP groups in cumulative change of F2 for vowel /a/, degree of nasalization (A1-P1), and voice perturbation (percent of jitter, percent of shimmer, and SNR). Further study with more participants and with careful data selection can verify findings of this study in search for valid parameters to characterize vowel production of children with CP.