Acoustic characteristics of voice and speech in Arabic-speaking stuttering children

Marwa Elsherbeny,Omayma Afsah,Hemmat Baz

doi:10.1186/s43163-021-00192-9

Abstract

BackgroundUsing different methodologies, several researchers have reported certain acoustical and physiological differences between fluent utterances of stutterers and normally fluent speakers. The aim of this study was to determine acoustic characteristics of voice and speech in Arabic-speaking stuttering children in comparison to normal children and correlate these characteristics with stuttering severity. A sample of 80 Arabic-speaking Egyptian children (including 40 typically developing children and 40 stuttering children) in the age range 5–8 years were subjected to acoustic analysis of voice and speech using the Praat software.ResultsThe stuttering children showed significantly higher values of jitter and shimmer in prolonged /a/ vowel sample, as compared to the normal group. This may reflect the subtle differences in laryngeal functioning or in the complex interaction among the laryngeal, respiratory, and the vocal tract systems in stuttering children. Both jitter and shimmer of prolonged /a/ vowel demonstrated significant positive moderate correlation with stuttering severity as assessed by SSI3. F0 was significantly higher in females than in males, both in normal and stuttering children.ConclusionsThe present study revealed significant differences in the acoustic parameters of voice and speech between Arabic-speaking stuttering children and normal children. Some of these acoustic parameters were significantly correlated with stuttering severity. Acoustic analysis can be used as simple, quick, and cheap tool for assessment of stuttering in children and might be a valuable addition to the diagnostic set for assessment of stuttering severity.

Highlights

Using different methodologies, several researchers have reported certain acoustical and physiological differences between fluent utterances of stutterers and normally fluent speakers
Exclusion criteria for group II were children with hearing impairment, children with neurological disorders, such as brain damaged motorly handicapped children (BDMH), children with other speech disorders, children with language or voice disorders, and children with history of previous speech therapy
Descriptive data Demographic characteristics of the studied groups The present study was conducted on a sample of 80 Arabic-speaking Egyptian children in the age range 5–8 years, including 42 males and 38 females, arranged into 2 groups as follows: Group I: composed of 40 typically developing children with mean age 6.7 ± 1.1 years

Summary

Introduction

Several researchers have reported certain acoustical and physiological differences between fluent utterances of stutterers and normally fluent speakers. A sample of 80 Arabic-speaking Egyptian children (including 40 typically developing children and 40 stuttering children) in the age range 5–8 years were subjected to acoustic analysis of voice and speech using the Praat software. During stuttering there is abnormal functioning of the whole speech system including the larynx. The Praat software program is a tool for phonetic speech analysis It was developed by Paul Boersma and David Weenink in the Institute of Phonetic Sciences of the University of Amsterdam [6]. The Praat program is free, so it is available for all the voice professionals, in institutions or private offices [7]. The program was utilized for voice and speech analysis in many published studies such as Juste et al [9], Hasseltineet al [10]., and Rezai et al [11]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion