Speech Sound Discrimination Ability in Young Children Comparison of Choosing Picture Test and “Same or Different” Test

• Published in: AUDIOLOGY JAPAN Vol. 19; no. 5; pp. 279 - 283
• Main Authors: Suzuki, Shigetada, Notoya, Masako, Kanasaku, Miyako, Takeshima, Suzuko, Miyazaki, Tameo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Japan Audiological Society 1976
• ISSN: 0303-8106; 1883-7301
• DOI: 10.4295/audiology.19.279

In order to examine children's auditory discrimination ability of speech sounds, the results of two popular methods were compared. The subjects were 59 of 4-year-old and 33 of 5 year-old children whose articulation of /t/, /k/, and /t∫/ sounds were normal, and their ability to discriminate these sounds was supposed to be normal. All speech sound used as stimuli were eight Japanese syllables: [ta] meaning “rice field”, [te] “hand”, [to] “door”, [ka] “mosquito”, [ki] “tree”, [ke] “hair”, [ko] “hen's cry” and [t∫i] “blood”. Each subject was asked to point a pair of pictures showing [ta]-[ka], [te]-[ke], [to]-[ko], [t∫i]-[ki] after the stimulus sounds were delivered (choosing picture test), and also each was asked to answer “same” or “different” to the stimulus sounds given in a pair (same-or-different test). Correct responses more than 75% were obtained in 91.5% of subjects in choosing picture test and 74.6% in the same-or-different test in 4-year-old subjects, and 100.0% in choosing picture test and 94.0% in the same-or-different test in 5-year-old subjects respectively. Difference of each result was statistically analysed. The conclusions were as follows: 1. Both methods were not satisfactory for a few subjects who could not follow the test procedure. 2. For 4-year-old children, choosing picture test was more adequate than the other.