Speech deterioration in postlingually deafened adults

Abstract

Postlingually deafened adults reading the Rainbow Passage differed from hearing-control subjects in producing greater pitch variability and mean pitch on stressed and unstressed vowels, greater fluctuations in pitch within sentences, less correlation of intrinsic pitch with vowel height and slower temporal parameters. When reading the Phonetic Inventory Sentences, they revealed less differentiation of place of articulation in fricative and plosive consonants. The present findings, taken together with those of longitudinal and implant studies, are applied to constraining models of the role of self hearing in the elaboration of speech.