Auditory Discrimination of Voiceless Fricatives in Children

Abstract

Auditory discrimination of the voiceless fricatives/θ f ∫ s/was studied in 200 subjects between the ages of four and six and a half years. In the test task the subject was asked to remember one of the sounds and then to indicate each time this sound was presented. Two types of errors were analyzed. An error of omission was a failure to identify the remembered sound, and this type of error did not change with age. An error of commission, a failure to discriminate between the remembered sound and one of the other voiceless fricatives decreased with age. The results are interpreted as support for a theory of the development of auditory perception of speech in which discrimination of some properties in speech, such as relatively weak spectral cues and second formant transitions, have to be learned by a child.