ABSTRACTFUNDAMENTAL FREQUENCY CHARACTERISTICS AFFECT JUDGMENTS OF SEGMENTAL, SUPRASEGMENTAL, AND INDEXICAL PROPERTIES OF CHILDREN WHO STUTTERByDanielle Gage Stuttering is a speech and language disorder characterized by disruptions in the production of speech sounds. Stuttered speech often includes repetitions of words or parts of words, prolongations of speech sounds, blocks or pauses, interjections such as “um”, or “like”, or delays of initiating sounds. A critical question from a theoretical standpoint is whether the perception of prosody within a speech signal is independent of the perception of other components of the speech signal or interdependent with other components. Prior findings have indicated that the speech of typically developing child talkers, when modified to a lower pitch contour, was judged to be slower, less fluent, and less intelligible than speech with a higher pitch. The present study tested the generalizability of these findings to speech of children who stutter. Fundamental frequency of speech of children who stutter was raised, lowered, or kept at its original level. Listeners assessed anxiety, cognitive abilities, fluency, gender, likeability, speech rate, speech and language abilities based on an 8 point scale. In addition, listeners estimated the age of the speaker, and the percentage of intelligible words. Results are discussed in terms of theories of speech perception and the practical implications for stuttering therapy.
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