Development of auditory and somatosensory goals for alveolar sibilant production in later childhood

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Vol. 139; no. 4; p. 2192
• Main Authors: Vick, Jennell C., Schreiber, Nolan T., Mental, Rebecca L., Foye, Michelle L., Lee, Gregory S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-04-2016
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/1.4950524

An age-related increase in the fricative contrast /s/-/ʃ/, measured acoustically, occurs in children up to 7 years of age, with 5- and 7-year-olds producing contrasts that are greater than those of younger children, but still significantly smaller than the contrasts produced by adults. Kinematic studies have demonstrated that adult-like speech motor control does not emerge until later adolescence, although no articulatory studies of sibilant production in later childhood have been reported. In this study, the aim was to understand the relative use of somatosensory and acoustic/auditory goals for the production of the fricative contrast in older children (10–15 years of age) and adults. The fricative contrast was measured in the acoustic signal and in articulatory data gathered from the tongue blade. The acoustic and articulatory contrasts were analyzed to test the magnitude of the covariation of the two domains. We further analyzed the development of the contrast in both domains as a function of later speech development. Results will be discussed in the context of the hypothesis that sibilants are produced with prominent goals in both the somatosensory and auditory domains but that auditory goals predominate in older children because of continued refinement of feedforward commands.