Original Research Article
Year: 2019 | Month: September | Volume: 9 | Issue: 9 | Pages: 194-200
Acoustic Analysis of Voice in Subjects with Hearing Loss
Narasimhan. S. V1, Dr. Nataraja. N. P2
1Reader, 2Director & Professor,
Dept. of Speech & Language Pathology, JSS Institute of Speech & Hearing, Mysuru, Karnataka, India
Corresponding Author: Narasimhan. S. V
ABSTRACT
Background: Earlier research has documented voicing errors as one of the most common types of errors in the speech of subjects with hearing loss. Hearing loss, either congenital or prelingual,marked effects on voice production. Even though many researchers in the past have used acoustic analysis of speech for studying the voice characteristics and errors in voice production of the children with hearing loss, most of these studies are hardly conclusive.
Aim of the study: The present study aimed at investigating the differences in fundamental frequency related, Intensity related, perturbation related and noise-related voice parameters between children with hearing loss and age-matched control subjects.
Method: Two groups of subjects participated in the study. Group A comprised of 30 children with hearing loss and group B comprised of 30 age-matched normal hearing children. Phonation samples of vowels /a/, /i/ and /u/ were recorded, and acoustic voice parameters were extracted and statistically analysed.
Results: The result of the present study showed that the results of the present study showed that the F0 related parameters, I0 related parameters, perturbation related parameters and noise related parameters were significantly different between the subjects with hearing loss and normal hearing subjects.
Conclusion: The study approves that the acoustic voice parameters area reliable and powerful marker of voice characteristics among the subjects with hearing loss.
Key words: Voice, Acoustic analysis, Fundamental frequency, Jitter, Shimmer, Harmonic to noise ratio, Hearing impairment, Hearing loss.