Folia phoniatrica最新文献

The role of the physiology is emphasized here, perhaps to the eventual denial of the importance of the acoustic cues involved at these stages. The acoustic cues are the result of the physiology and are a further development of the features of speech. The selection of the sounds of babbling is a function of the physiological readiness and is an internal function [Locke, 1983]. Sounds are produced that are not used in final adult speech [Locke, 1983]. It is the acoustic cues of the environment that perhaps cause the 'babbling drift' toward adult speech of the environment [Brown, 1958]. In line with the above-mentioned ideas regarding branchial arch development, most of the components of the outer and middle ear are derivatives of the first branchial arch, which though limited musculature is involved, especially for sound perception, might downplay the role of acoustics at these earliest stages even further. If it can be said that cortical organization and representation development follow a similar sequence as is evidenced from the branchial arches and their derivatives, the importance of acoustic stimuli, at this point, would be even further questioned for these early stages. The assumption should be made that a muscle or muscle group does not function prior to this established branchial arch pair sequence. The major distinction here has been utilization of the structures in a 'conscious', deliberate, voluntary manner with a specific goal in mind. The babbling and even feeding that children undergo provides evidence that these structures function perhaps long before any sequence of branchial arch pair developmental sequence can be applied.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The observation of articulatory movements, particularly of velar movements, is of considerable theoretical and practical interest in evaluating the velopharyngeal function of the cleft palate patient. A new electromagnetic device is presented for tracking the movements of the velum and the tongue simultaneously in correlation with the posterior pharyngeal wall and the hard palate in the midsagittal plane. An inductive measuring principle is used; a miniature transmitting coil is placed at the lower margin of the velum, another coil is used for recording the position of the posterior pharyngeal wall as well as the surface of the hard palate and the movements of the tongue dorsum. The measuring principle is described and the movements of the velum during speech production are demonstrated in cleft palate patients with different speech results.

In response to the questions raised at the outset, the following summary statements can be made: (1) Listeners were reliable in making pleasantness judgments. All listening groups were reliable, but the two older listening age-groups had the highest correlation coefficients. (2) Speakers were judged as less pleasant as their age levels increased. (3) Young listeners made judgments nearer the unpleasant end of the scale than did the older listeners. (4) Male speakers were judged as more pleasant than were female speakers. (5) Female listeners rated speakers as being more pleasant than did the male listeners.

The Auditory Test Battery for children, a test instrument for the German language, which measures acoustic orientation and speech perception on different linguistic levels, is described. Speech perception data for each subject, gathered from 8 implanted children, are presented.