Telepractice effects: Vowel space characteristics in deaf and hard-of-hearing pediatric patient, provider and caregiver speech

Abstract

When talkers are aware of speech perception difficulty on the part of the listener due to adverse conditions, they will adopt a “clear speech” style that provides the listener with more salient acoustic cues to access and comprehend the message. Does the use of telepractice affect the vowel articulation in deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) pediatric patients, providers and caregivers? This study examined the phonetic modification of the vowel space area in speech of DHH children with cochlear implants (CI) (n = 7, mean age 4 years 11 months), their caregivers and a speech-language pathologist (SLP) during one 30-min in-person and one sequential tele-session, order counterbalanced. The first and second formants of vowels /i/, /a/ and /u/ in child, provider and caregiver productions were measured and vowel space area was calculated. The preliminary analysis including four child-mother dyads demonstrated a significantly larger vowel space area in speech of DHH children and the SLP in the tele- compared to the in-person session. No significant difference in the caregiver vowel space area was identified. The results suggest that DHH children and the clinical provider adjust their vowel articulation in order to accommodate the listener during tele- compared to in-person speech-language intervention.