Children's Pronunciation Research Articles

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) for the diagnosis of pronunciation of speech sound disorders in Korean children.

This study presents a model of automatic speech recognition (ASR) that is designed to diagnose pronunciation issues in children with speech sound disorders (SSDs) to replace manual transcriptions in clinical procedures. Because ASR models trained for general purposes mainly predict input speech into standard spelling words, well-known high-performance ASR models are not suitable for evaluating pronunciation in children with SSDs. We fine-tuned the wav2vec2.0 XLS-R model to recognise words as they are pronounced by children, rather than converting the speech into their standard spelling words. The model was fine-tuned with a speech dataset of 137 children with SSDs pronouncing 73 Korean words that are selected for actual clinical diagnosis. The model's Phoneme Error Rate (PER) was only 10% when its predictions of children's pronunciations were compared to human annotations of pronunciations as heard. In contrast, despite its robust performance on general tasks, the state-of-the-art ASR model Whisper showed limitations in recognising the speech of children with SSDs, with a PER of approximately 50%. While the model still requires improvement in terms of the recognition of unclear pronunciation, this study demonstrates that ASR models can streamline complex pronunciation error diagnostic procedures in clinical fields.

Examining the Role of Edu-Cartoons in Imparting Reading Skills to Children. A Case of Selected Pre-Primary Schools in Tabora – Tanzania

Educational cartoons have emerged as a prominent factor in developing pre-primary children. Video and mobile platforms facilitate the acquisition of various skills and promote early childhood preparedness. This study focuses on examining the role of Edu-cartoons in imparting necessary reading skills to pre-primary children while identifying the significance of Edu-cartoons in imparting reading skills to children as the specific objective of this study. The study is informed by the Social Learning Theory by Albert Bandula; Krejcie and Morgan's formula was used to obtain a sample size of 200 participants, and a computer-aided koboTool program with cartoons giving instructions to children was used to solicit information on Edu-cartoons reading skills from 150 children. Further, 25 pre-primary teachers and 25 parents were also exposed to semi-structured interviews on Android phones aided with KoboTool programs. Data collected from Temihill, St. Francis, Westland, Greenlane, and Shauri Jema pre & primary schools were analysed using SPSS version 27.1. The findings reveal that, apart from website sources such as Ubongo Kids and Kilimani Sesame, children access the same content from local Television and TV cables. Moreover, the study finds that Edu-cartoons help improve children's pronunciation skills during reading, develop reading comprehension and increase vocabulary to children. The study recommends that parents and teachers guide children on where they can access relevant information resources to enhance reading competencies

An Analysis of Consonant Pronunciation Errors by EFL Preschool Children (5-Years-Old): Distinctive Features Approach

English students as second language learners must prioritize pronunciation. This study examines the pronunciation errors involved in the pronunciation of English consonants in Preschool Children (5 years), evaluates the analysis using a distinctive features approach based on Schane (1973), and discovers the possible factors that cause the errors. This study uses a descriptive qualitative approach. The data for this study came from listening to and observing the natural pronunciation of three Indonesian preschool. The writer analyzed the data, identified errors in children's pronunciation, classified, discovered, and concluded the data. As a result, most 5-year-old preschoolers make consonant pronunciation errors. Students mispronounce eight consonants. They are [tʃ], [ʤ], [θ], [s, [z], [ʃ], and [v]. The sound [tʃ] is changed by the sound [k], [ʤ] is changed by the sound [d], [θ] is changed by the sound [t], [ʃ] is changed by [s], and [v] is changed by [p]. Then, there is a [s] sound and a [z] sound when deletion occurs. Students also make articulation errors because some English consonant sounds do not exist in Indonesian, which is one of the factors that allows students to replace or change English sounds.

Upaya Guru Kelas dalam Menanamkan Pendidikan Karakter Jujur Melalui Metode Bercerita di TK Kemala Bhayangkari Muara Bungo

This research is motivated by several problems that the author found at the Bhayangkari Muara Bungo Kindergarten, students often lie, every time they say a word, many children don't want to be honest, and also lie, if asked, many also answer by lying, children don't want to admit their mistakes, because children are afraid of being scolded. and are afraid of being punished by the teacher, therefore children are afraid to be more open or honest. The purpose of this research is to find out how class teachers try to instill honest character education through the method of telling stories to children at the Kemala Bhayangkari Muara Bungo Kindergarten. This research is descriptive qualitative field research (filed research). The research was located at Kemala Bhayangkari Muara Bungo Kindergarten. The key informants were the class teachers and the supporting informants were the study teachers and the school principal. This research technique is snowball sampling, and the data collection techniques for this research are observation, interviews and documentation. The results of this research show that class teachers and field teachers tell stories through the Sikancil & Simonyet fairy tale and the Honesty Cup because fairy tales, one of the intrinsic elements in fairy tales, is that they have a message or moral message. Fairy tales can really be used as social media that can shape a character. children because fairy tales have moral values that children can learn. Telling stories using puppets can improve children's pronunciation because it can attract students' attention so that students are happy and can easily understand what is being told and taught. Telling stories using picture media, students will be able to read the contents of the story by looking at the pictures shown by the teacher, telling stories using picture media, students will be more enthusiastic about listening to stories presented by the teacher, telling stories using picture media will help to clarify messages or events so that children pay more attention to the story being told.

Pendidikan Inklusi: Gangguan Keterlambatan Bicara (Speech Delay) pada Siswa SDN Sukasari 5

Children's language gradually develops according to the stimulation given by parents, teachers and society. The language development of children aged 6-12 years can be seen through speaking fluently, mastery of language and delivery of words is more complex. This study aims to identify cases of children who are late to speak, to find out the efforts of teachers and parents in overcoming children who are late to speak and to design a concept model for developing language skills of children who are late speaking. The approach used in this study is a qualitative descriptive approach. Data sources consist of: subjects (children, teachers, parents and speech therapists). Data was collected through observation, and interviews. The results showed that there were children who were late in speaking at the age of 6-12 years at the Sukasari 5 State Elementary School with a type of speech and language expressive disorder. Factors that affect children's speech delay consist of: intelligence, use of a second language, speech style/model that is imitated, health, and family relationships. The concept of the model that the researcher offers in this study is in the form of strategies/techniques to overcome speech delays in children, namely: training children to speak correctly, slowly and repeatedly, when speaking always pay attention to the grammar spoken, always involving children in speaking in every situation by improving children's pronunciation is still wrong, and using several systems such as regular consultations to find out the child's development to doctors and child psychologists.

Codeswitching of bilingual preschoolers in Pakistan: A study of Arabic and Urdu alphabets

Urdu is the official language of Pakistan, while Arabic is the language of the Holy Quran, Muslims' sacred book. Pakistan, as a Muslim country with a religious bond, makes it obligatory for Muslims to recognize and interpret Allah's commandments, as well as to pray and recite the Holy Quran. The most effective skill is oral communication. It has become one of the fundamental language learning skills, alongside listening, reading, and writing. Pronunciation is the process of processing speech sounds to communicate. The current research study focuses on the codeswitching of bilingual preschoolers while learning the Arabic and Urdu alphabets. The study demonstrates why preschool children fail to recognize images of simple words in Arabic and Urdu at the same time and how this challenge can be tackled with the ingenuity of a committed teacher. The researcher used the Oral Proficiency Test (OPT) to assess the quality of the children's pronunciation, and he processed the data using Setiyadi’s (2020) Triangulation of method, which includes three data collection techniques: observation, interview, and questionnaire. The observation focused on how the teacher pronounced both alphabets and how the children responded by pronouncing the same at the top of their voices to make good use of articulators. Later, an interview and a questionnaire were conducted to collect data that could be used to ensure the validity of the observational results. Creswell & Baez’s (2020) Model of the Structure of Study was implemented. The research on bilingual preschoolers is significant in that it reveals that the children had difficulty in discerning resembling sounds from the Arabic and Urdu alphabets and that this difficulty caused them to deviate from one alphabet to the other. Speech therapists, pathologists, psychologists, bilingual scholars, and researchers will all benefit from the research.

Pemerolehan Bahasa Pertama terhadap Anak Usia 2 sampai 4 Tahun Menurut Tataran Morfologi dan Sintaksis

Language is the main means of communication in human life in this world, both in the form of writing, spoken or only in the form of certain symbols. Without language, humans cannot communicate because humans are social creatures who inevitably have to interact with other humans. Language acquisition in humans begins when children learn to speak. Language acquisition in every child is not the same, according to his age. In this study, children's language acquisition will be studied in terms of morphology and syntax. This study uses a descriptive research method because the research contains an overview of the stage of language pronunciation in children. The data collection technique uses a method with a proficient technique by recording and recording the words spoken by the child. Conclusions in general in the language acquisition of children aged 2 to 4 years can be developed with the stages of morphology and syntax. The researcher found that the process of acquiring discussion was the first at the age of 2 to 4 years, namely the acquisition of morphology, the emergence of free morefemale forms. Second, the acquisition of syntax, the child is able to say several words that can become one word. Third, at the age of 2 to 4 years, the acquisition of morphology and syntax of children begins to perfect in vowel sounds and is also accompanied by consonant sounds.

Dynamic spectral characteristics of defective sounds pronunciation in students with minimal dysarthric disorders

The article is devoted to the analysis of the spectrographic characteristics of defective sounds pronunciation in children with minimal dysarthric disorders (mild dysarthria). These characteristics were obtained in the process of an experimental-phonetic study. It involved the study of the nature of changes that occur during the transition from one sound to another and also during the pronunciation of a single sound. The article presents the results of the experiment carried out on the basis of a qualitative analysis of dynamic spectrograms of syllables; describes the most permanent signs characterizing the defective sounds pronunciation in syllables of various structures (open, closed). The nature of the mutual influences of sounds in various structures of syllables is revealed. Comparative data were obtained for the acoustic (formant) proximity of various variants of defective pronunciation to the sound standard in children with minimal dysarthric disorders. The contextual phonetic influences at the level of syllables are determined, taking into account the acoustic characteristics of sounds and their defective variants.

A Method of Evaluating Korean Articulation Quality for Rehabilitation of Articulation Disorder in Children

Articulation disorders are characterized by an inability to achieve clear pronunciation due to misuse of the articulators. In this paper, a method of detecting such disorders by comparing to the standard pronunciations is proposed. This method defines the standard pronunciations from the speeches of normal children by clustering them with three features which are the Linear Predictive Cepstral Coefficient (LPCC), the Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MFCC), and the Relative Spectral Analysis Perceptual Linear Prediction (RASTA-PLP). By calculating the distance between the centroid of the standard pronunciation and the inputted pronunciation, disordered speech whose features locates outside the cluster is detected. 89 children (58 of normal children and 31 of children with disorders) were recruited. 35 U-TAP test words were selected and each word’s standard pronunciation is made from normal children and compared to each pronunciation of children with disorders. In the experiments, the pronunciations with disorders were successfully distinguished from the standard pronunciations.

Acoustic characterization of Singaporean children's English with American and British counterparts: A case study on approximants

We investigate English pronunciation patterns in Singaporean children in relation to their American and British counterparts by conducting acoustic analysis on /l/ and /ɹ/. A total of 110,405 utterances from American (140 speakers), British (82 speakers) and Singaporean (192 speakers) children aged 6–13 were studied. We find that similar to British children, Singaporean children do not lower F3 as much as American children when producing syllable-final /ɹ/s, suggesting a lack of rhoticity. A one-way ANOVA test demonstrated that these differences are statistically significant across speaker groups: F(2,411) = 750.9, p < 0.001, and a post-hoc Tukey's HSD test showed that all differences in pairwise comparisons are significant too. Interestingly, similarity between Singaporean and British pronunciation patterns are not observed for syllable-final laterals (dark /l/). We observe that Singaporean children's dark /l/s are produced with characteristics distinct from both those of American and British children. While American and British children demonstrate lowering of F1 and F2 in transitions into dark /l/s, these are not exhibited in Singaporean children's pronunciation. One-way ANOVA tests showed that these differences are significant: F(2, 1519) = 55.09, p < 0.001 for F1; F(2, 1519) = 118.7, p < 0.001 for F2, and post-hoc Tukey's tests reached statistical significance too.

SOUNDS AND PRONUNCIATION (Children's First Language Acquisition Model in the Pragmatic Process)

Abstract: The aim of the study was to determine the stages of the linguistic first language acquisition process which emphasized the aspects of sound and pronunciation in children aged two to four years. Research focuses on phonological analysis of sound and pronunciation in a pragmatic perspective. This type of qualitative research uses a cross sectional approach, namely data collection from the age of two to four years at the same time in order to obtain complete and fast data so that it can describe each individual in the process of acquiring his language. The focus of research is all sounds or sounds that are spoken or produced by the child in a pragmatic view, namely when communicating. Sub focus in research is the sound and pronunciation of children according to the theory of Susan M. Gass and Larry Se, at the initial stage the pronunciation of children is not the same as the pronunciation of adults. Some sounds can be distinguished at first such as: the difference between consonants in [ta] and [da]. Even when children start using words that more or less resemble adult words, at least in a sense, there are different pronunciations, namely deletion of syllables (em..bek→goat), elimination of sound (japah→jerapah→giraffe), and simplification process words (fis→fish). The results showed that there was a relationship between the ability of sound produced by children and pragmatic rules according to their age. In the acquisition of languages and stages of linguistic processes with almost the same age there are also differences between children with each other.

Quantitative analysis of vowel production in cerebral palsy children with dysarthria

ObjectiveThe present study aimed to identify certain acoustic parameters for speech evaluation in cerebral palsy children with dysarthria. MethodsThe subject included 30 native Mandarin-Speaking children with cerebral palsy, who were 5–15 years old, and 13 healthy children in a similar age range. Each subject was recorded while producing a list of 12 Mandarin words, which included three syllables (‘ba’, ‘bi’ and ‘du’), in all four Mandarin tones. The formants (F1 and F2) of monophthong vowels /a, i, u/ were extracted from each vowel token. Based on F1 and F2, the vowel acoustic indexes VSA, VAI and FCR were calculated and analyzed. ResultsCompared with the control group, the cerebral palsy group had significantly low F1 and F2 in vowel /a/ (P < 0.05), and F2 in vowel /i/ (P < 0.05), while F1 and F2 in vowel /u/ and F1 in vowel /i/ had no significant difference. Between the healthy group and cerebral palsy group, the differences in VSA, VAI and FCR were all statistically significant. ConclusionChildren with cerebral palsy have reduced vowel space and speech articulation. The significant difference in vowel acoustic indexes (VSA, VAI and FCR) among the two groups revealed that the three indexes were sensitive to the variation of the vowels production in children with cerebral palsy, and that these may be used as an evaluation method of speech intelligibility caused by impaired vowel pronunciation in children with cerebral palsy, and the effect of rehabilitation therapy.

ARTICULATION OF CHILDREN IN PRESCHOOL PREPARATORY PROGRAM

The development of speech and language culture of pre-school children is one of important (if not the most important) tasks of preschool education. The paper contains the results of research on pronunciation of preschool children realized on a sample of 119 children of pre-school preparatory program. We have presented a standardized test of articulation. Research has highlighted the particular importance of early treatment of disorders in sound pronunciation of preschool children. Early identification of difficulties in pronunciation of children provides more adequate help and support from teachers, which help children with difficulties in articulating to get better achievements, not only in pre-school, but also later in school. This emphasizes the need for training teachers to determine the speech-language status of children, to use the articulation exercises of critical sounds in Serbian language sound system, and thus to correct the articulation disorders which do not belong to the etiology of speech pathology. For this purpose it is specially emphasized that children's literature is the basis for the realization of activities in the area of discrimination and articulation of sounds and speech in general, and in the later stages of the formation of children's vocabulary, logically connected and cultivated speech, expressive speech and a number of other targeted activities. Accordingly, in this paper we analyzed the role of the so-called "nonsense", "playful" children’s literature and practically presented papers that can be used in order to develop the speech of preschool children.

The impact of kiddy dentures on maxillary arch growth

BackgroundKiddy dentures are used to restore the self-confidence, chewing function, and pronunciation of children or when a care provider is concerned about the loss of incisor teeth. However, most studies to date have investigated normal dental arch development, and only a few have explored the effect of kiddy dentures on upper arch development. MethodsFourteen Taiwanese children (7 male and 7 female) who were wearing kiddy dentures due to the loss of their upper anterior teeth were enrolled in this study. Inclusion criteria were the premature loss of maxillary incisors, the patient wearing kiddy dentures with both upper primary first molars as abutments, and the patient having complete records allowing a full longitudinal clinical follow-up. Dental casts were obtained immediately (T1), at 6 months (T2), and at 12 months (T3) after delivery of the kiddy dentures. The measured parameters included intercanine width (ICW, C1 to C2), interfirst molar width (IDW, D1 to D2), and intersecond molar width (IEW, E1 to E2). All the measurements were performed by one experienced examiner using a vernier caliper. ResultsThe mean ages of the enrolled children for the periods T1, T2, and T3 were 43.8 ± 8.3 months, 50.6 ± 8.5 months, and 56.7 ± 8.4 months, respectively. There was no significant difference in gender when ICW, IDW, and IEW were compared. The mean changes in ICW values were 23.6 ± 6.2 mm, 24.2 ± 5.9 mm, and 24.6 ± 6.4 mm for T1, T2, and T3, respectively. There were statistically significant differences between T1 and T2, T2 and T3, and T1 and T3 for ICW (p < 0.05). The mean changes in IDW were 25.7 ± 8.4 mm, 25.8 ± 9.0 mm, and 25.8 ± 9.1 mm for T1, T2, and T3, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between T1 and T2, T2 and T3, and T1 and T3. The mean changes in IEW were 30.6 ± 10.1 mm, 31.2 ± 8.8 mm, and 31.3 ± 8.2 mm for T1, T2, and T3, respectively. There was statistical significance between T1 and T2 or T1 and T3 for IDW (p < 0.05). ConclusionKiddy dentures do interfere with the transverse growth of the dental arch over the abutment tooth area during a 1-year follow-up period. However the teeth adjacent to the confined abutments still show transverse growth.

Innovative Approach of Correction of Sound Pronunciation with Elements of Phonetic Rhythmic

On the basis of Academician Y. A. Buketov Karaganda state university (Kazakhstan) there has been developed and implemented into educational process the correctional technology of prevention, identification and elimination of disorders of sound pronunciation in children with logopathy with the use of auxiliary (special) means helping to increase the effectiveness of process of vocational training of the students being trained in Defectology. To achieve quality changes in process of vocational training of students in the specialty "Defectology"; to reorient the content of the main subjects for special education teachers taking into account their professional requirements and order of employers. The methods are based on development and implementation into educational process of innovative technologies on correction of prevention, identification and elimination of sound pronunciation disorders in children with logopathy with the use of auxiliary (special) means. The results of the carried out experiment, which allow to draw a conclusion on quality changes in the course of training of special education teachers when using in educational process the professionally oriented correctional technologies are presented. For the first time the process of vocational training of future special education teachers is carried out with studying the major subject "Correction of sound pronunciation with elements of phonetic rhythmics", which allows to carry out the training of specialists in a complex with specialist disciplines of a logopedic cycle of the specialty "Defectology". It can be used by students of special education in practice of innovative approaches of correction of sound pronunciation with elements of phonetic rhythmics in correction of speech of children with any speech pathology, as well as in preventive and diagnostic work with children of preschool and school age. Besides, the offered technology of correction of sound pronunciation with elements of phonetic rhythmics can be adapted for any language containing the sounds identical in their acoustic-articulatory characteristics to the sounds of the Russian language. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n2s1p206

Research on Pronunciation Assessment Detection Method Based on 3D Modeling and Sensor Technology

It is necessary for hearing-impaired children after hearing compensation for language rehabilitation, Rehabilitation evaluation system can timely understanding of the effect of rehabilitation, rehabilitation program reasonable.This paper presents multiple feedback method and system for hearing-impaired children pronunciation evaluation based on 3D technology, information technology, the use of modern means of measuring real-time speech. The evaluation system collect the tongue palate, lip face and voice pronunciation information of hearing-impaired children through sensor and voice input devices.The reference value to compare the data with the standard output,The system can overcome the shortcomings of traditional method is subjective.To assess abnormal and the degree of abnormal of hearing-impaired children s function. Provide the basis for the development of language rehabilitation training plan, establish a scientific evaluation method and evaluation system.

청각장애 아동과 일반 아동의 마찰음에 나타난 음향음성학적 특성 비교

Alveolar fricative sounds /s/ and /s'/ are learned last for normal children in the speech development process for Koreans. These are especially difficult to articulate for hearing-impaired children often causing articulation errors. The acoustic phonetic evaluation uses testing tools to provide indirect and object information. These objective resources can be compared with standardized resources on speech when interpreting the results of a test. However, most previous studies in Korea did not consider acoustic studies that used the spectrum moment values of hearing-impaired children. Therefore, this study was conducted to compare the characteristics of hearing-impaired children's pronunciation of fricative sounds using spectrum moment values. For this purpose, the study selected a total of 10 hearing-impaired children (5 boys and 5 girls) currently in 3rd or 5th grade and attending one of the elementary schools in Seoul or Gyeonggi-do. For the selection process, their age, type of hearing aid, implantation of hearing aid (CI) before two years of age, hearing capacity (dB) before and after wearing the hearing aid, duration of speech rehabilitation, and time of learning alveolar fricative sounds were all considered. Also, 10 normal children (5 boys and 5 girls) were selected among 3rd or 5th grade students attending one of the elementary schools in Seoul or Gyeonggi-do. The subjects were asked to read the carrier sentence, "I say _______," including a list of 12 meaningless syllables composed of CV and VCV syllables, including alveolar fricative sounds /s/ and /s'/ and vowels /a/, /i/, and /u/. The recorded resources were processed through the Time-frequency Analysis Software Program to measure M1 (mean), M2 (variance), M3 (skewness), and M4 (kurtosis) of the fricative noise. No significant differences were found when comparing spectrum threshold values in the acoustic phonetic characteristics of hearing-impaired children and normal children in alveolar fricative sound pronunciation according to vowels /a/, /i/, and /u/, alveolar fricative sounds /s/ and /s'/, and syllable structure (CV, VCV) other than, for M3 in the comparison of groups according to disability. In the comparison of syllable structures, there were statistically significant differences in M1, M2, M3, and M4 with clinical significance. However, there was no significant difference in results when comparing the alveolar fricative sounds according to the vowels.

Automatically assessing the ABCs

Automatic literacy assessment is an area of research that has shown significant progress in recent years. Technology can be used to automatically administer reading tasks and analyze and interpret children's reading skills. It has the potential to transform the classroom dynamic by providing useful information to teachers in a repeatable, consistent, and affordable way. While most previous research has focused on automatically assessing children reading words and sentences, assessments of children's earlier foundational skills is needed. We address this problem in this research by automatically verifying preliterate children's pronunciations of English letter-names and the sounds each letter represents (“letter-sounds”). The children analyzed in this study were from a diverse bilingual background and were recorded in actual kindergarten to second grade classrooms. We first manually verified (accept/reject) the letter-name and letter-sound utterances, which serve as the ground-truth in this study. Next, we investigated four automatic verification methods that were based on automatic speech recognition techniques. We attained percent agreement with human evaluations of 90% and 85% for the letter-name and letter-sound tasks, respectively. Humans agree between themselves an average of 95% of the time for both tasks. We discuss the various confounding factors for this assessment task, such as background noise and the presence of disfluencies, that impact automatic verification performance.

Learning New Words Affects Nonword Pronunciation in Children

In two experiments we examined how children's nonword pronunciations are influenced by learning words. In Experiment 1, children pronounced nonwords before and after learning words sharing orthographic rimes with the nonwords. These rimes varied in spelling-to-sound consistency and regularity. Children's nonword pronunciations were more sensitive to consistency and regularity after instruction than before. Experiment 2 expanded upon Experiment 1 by modifying the instruction to highlight regularity and consistency in rime unit neighborhoods and by including both younger (M age = 7.6) and older (M age = 9.92) participants. After instruction, Experiment 2 participants demonstrated greater sensitivity to rime unit consistency and regularity than Experiment 1 participants. In both experiments, the children, especially the younger participants, made more adultlike pronunciations after instruction than before. We conclude that learning words varying in consistency and regularity increased the children's sensitivity to these properties.

The study on the phonological awareness in toddlers and preschoolers

目的 研究中国幼儿中文和英文语音觉知的特点.方法选择18个月幼儿和学前儿童,评估语言发育水平、语音觉知能力、记忆能力、发音准确性和英语学习成绩.第一个阶段对18～24个月幼儿分两组分别进行中文和英文的语音输入约100h,第二个阶段对所有儿童进行英语教学14周.结果 3岁以上幼儿语言和记忆发育水平随年龄而增长;女孩的语音分辨能力比男孩好;大年龄组幼儿的语音分辨能力显著高于低年龄组,中文的语音分辨能力在2～3岁之间提高最明显,英文语音分辨能力在4～5岁之间提高最明显;中文语音分辨能力与年龄、语言水平和记忆水平显著正相关,英文的语音分辨能力与年龄、中文语言水平和记忆水平显著正相关;发音准确性与中文语音分辨能力正相关.结论 幼儿的语音觉知能力,女孩强于男孩,6岁之前随年龄而增长.当儿童的母语和记忆等认知能力发展到较好水平时,获得非母语的觉知能力将更快、更好、发音更准确,学习外语将更有效。