Acoustic characteristics of vocal tension/harshness in the speech of the hearing impaired.

The purpose of this investigation was to calculate, from vowels in continuous speech, the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N ratio) and average fundamental vocal frequency (F0) for hearing-impaired young adults who demonstrated varying degrees of vocal tension/harshness, and to correlate these acoustic measures with the degree of perceived, vocal tension/harshness. Subjects for this investigation consisted of 20 hearing-impaired males and 20 hearing-impared females who ranged in degree of tension/harshness from severe to normal/relaxed. S/N ratios and F0s were calculated, using a computer analysis program, from audio recordings of the speakers' reading of the first two sentences of the Rainbow Passage. The results indicated significant correlations between S/N ratios and degree of perceived tension/harshness, as well as between the average F0s and perceived tension/harshness. The clinical implications of these objective acoustic measures are discussed.