Airflow characteristics of stop-plosive consonant productions of normal-speaking children.

This study of children's speech was designed to investigate peak oral-nasal airflow during the production of stop-plosive consonants in isolated syllable contexts. The subjects were 30 normal-speaking children: five girls and five boys at each of three age levels (8, 9, and 10 years). Each subject produced each of six stop-plosive consonants (/p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, and /g/) in each of three syllable contexts (CV, VCV, and VC) with each of two vowels (/i/ and /a/). A pneumotachometer and an oscillographic recorder were used to obtain permanent airflow records of the test syllables. It was found that the peak flows varied according to the age of subjects, consonant voicing, place of consonant production, consonant position within the test syllable, and the vowel in combination with the test consonant. Results were compared to related findings previously obtained for children and adults.