Program of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201, USA.
Hearing, Speech & Language Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701, USA.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2023 Jun 1;153(6):3501-3512. doi: 10.1121/10.0019803.
The purpose of the study was to examine the acoustic features of sibilant fricatives and affricates produced by prelingually deafened Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants (CIs) in comparison to their age-matched normal-hearing (NH) peers. The speakers included 21 children with NH aged between 3.25 and 10 years old and 35 children with CIs aged between 3.77 and 15 years old who were assigned into chronological-age-matched and hearing-age-matched subgroups. All speakers were recorded producing Mandarin words containing nine sibilant fricatives and affricates (/s, ɕ, ʂ, ts, tsʰ, tɕ, tɕʰ, tʂ, tʂʰ/) located at the word-initial position. Acoustic analysis was conducted to examine consonant duration, normalized amplitude, rise time, and spectral peak. The results revealed that the CI children, regardless of whether chronological-age-matched or hearing-age-matched, approximated the NH peers in the features of duration, amplitude, and rise time. However, the spectral peaks of the alveolar and alveolopalatal sounds in the CI children were significantly lower than in the NH children. The lower spectral peaks of the alveolar and alveolopalatal sounds resulted in less distinctive place contrast with the retroflex sounds in the CI children than in the NH peers, which might partially account for the lower intelligibility of high-frequency consonants in children with CIs.
本研究旨在探讨人工耳蜗植入（CI）的学龄前聋儿与年龄匹配的正常听力（NH）儿童在产生摩擦音和塞擦音时的声学特征。研究对象包括 21 名年龄在 3.25 至 10 岁之间的 NH 儿童和 35 名年龄在 3.77 至 15 岁之间的 CI 儿童，他们被分为年龄匹配组和听力匹配组。所有的参与者都被要求说出包含 9 个摩擦音和塞擦音的汉语单词，这些音位于单词的起始位置，分别为/s, ɕ, ʂ, ts, tsʰ, tɕ, tɕʰ, tʂ, tʂʰ/。声学分析用于检测辅音的持续时间、归一化幅度、上升时间和频谱峰值。结果表明，无论年龄匹配组还是听力匹配组，CI 儿童在持续时间、幅度和上升时间等特征上都接近 NH 儿童。然而，CI 儿童的齿龈音和龈后音的频谱峰值明显低于 NH 儿童。CI 儿童的齿龈音和龈后音频谱峰值较低，导致其与卷舌音的位置对比不明显，这可能部分解释了 CI 儿童高频辅音理解能力较低的原因。
