Formant frequencies in children with normal hearing and profound or severe hearing impairments

The purpose of the present study was to discover the differences in vowel formant production (F1 and F2) in 33 children, aged 5-9 years, with a different hearing status (11 children with normal hearing (NH), 9 children with prelingual severe (SHI) (mean of hearing loss in dBHL, better ear=68,53, SD=18.90) and by 13 children with prelingual profound hearing impairment (PHI) (mean of hearing loss in dBHL, better ear=106.70, SD=4.82). Formant frequencies associated with 7 Slovenian vowels (/i/, closed /e/, open /e/, /a/, open /o/, closed /o/, /u/), produced during naming pictures or reading words from the Slovenian articulation test were obtained. All first formant and second formant frequencies of high front and back vowels of the speakers with hearing impairment were significantly different from those of the normal-hearing children. The findings suggest the role of the auditory feedback in vowel production in speakers with hearing impairment. The knowledge may be used in speech therapy in visual monitoring of vowel production in HI speakers and in acoustical engineering, to give more stress on high frequencies during acoustic processing