The impact of noise and dysphonic voice on vowel recognition in 8–12-year-old children

This study examined the effects of noise and voice quality on vowel recognition in 8–12-year-old children. Vowels were recorded in an /hVd/ context by six female talkers: three with normal voices and three with mild to severely dysphonic voices. Children completed a forced-choice vowel recognition task, identifying vowels presented in talker-specific speech-shaped noise at two signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs): −6 and −9 dB. Accuracy was analyzed by voice quality, talker, SNR, child age, and their interactions. Preliminary analyses revealed significantly higher vowel recognition for normal voices across both SNRs, with performance declining at −9 dB for both voice types. An age-by-voice quality interaction showed that younger children performed poorly in both conditions, with minimal differences between normal and dysphonic voices. In contrast, older children demonstrated a larger performance gap, benefiting more from normal voices but struggling with dysphonic voices. Vowel recognition also varied by talker and vowel, with certain dysphonic talkers and vowels (e.g., “hawd,” “whod") causing greater deficits. Additional analyses will examine voice quality features and formant cues to determine their impact on children’s vowel recognition. Findings suggest that degraded voice quality can compound the challenges children face when understanding speech in noisy environments.