Spaai G W, Derksen E S, Hermes D J, Kaufholz P A
Institute for Perception Research/IPO, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
Folia Phoniatr Logop. 1996;48(1):22-34. doi: 10.1159/000266379.
Incorrect production of intonation contours is a common phonatory problem in prelingually, profoundly deaf speakers. To help deaf speakers improve this, a visual display system for teaching intonation has been developed. In this system, called the Intonation Meter, visual feedback of intonation is given as a continuous representation of the pitch contour containing only the perceptually relevant aspects of the intonation pattern. This pitch-contour representation is supposed to facilitate the interpretation of the visual feedback of the pitch contour. A study was carried out, using a Single-Subject Design, in which subjects alternately received intonation training by means of regular methods and intonation training by means of regular methods in which also use was made of the Intonation Meter, to evaluate the effectiveness of the Intonation Meter for teaching intonation to young deaf children. Prelingually profoundly deaf children aged 6 to 7 years and 9 to 11 years participated in this study. The results showed that the 9 to 11 year old children showed most progress when the Intonation meter was used in intonation training whereas 6 to 7 year olds progressed well irrespective of whether or not the Intonation Meter was used, which is in accordance with the theory of a critical period for language learning. Alternatively, it is hypothesized that the cognitive requirements of the visual feedback might be to advanced for very young children to be helpful in learning to produce certain pitch contours.
语调轮廓产生不正确是语前聋、极重度聋患者常见的发声问题。为帮助聋人改善这一情况，已开发出一种用于教授语调的视觉显示系统。在这个称为语调仪的系统中，语调的视觉反馈以音高轮廓的连续表示形式给出，其中仅包含语调模式中与感知相关的方面。这种音高轮廓表示旨在促进对音高轮廓视觉反馈的解释。采用单受试者设计进行了一项研究，在该研究中，受试者交替接受常规方法的语调训练以及同时使用语调仪的常规方法的语调训练，以评估语调仪对年幼聋童教授语调的有效性。6至7岁和9至11岁的语前极重度聋童参与了这项研究。结果表明，9至11岁的儿童在语调训练中使用语调仪时进步最大，而6至7岁的儿童无论是否使用语调仪都进步良好，这与语言学习关键期理论相符。或者，有人假设视觉反馈的认知要求对于非常年幼的儿童来说可能过高，以至于无法帮助他们学习产生特定的音高轮廓。
