Perception, self-awareness, and voice: 3- to 6-year-old children
Date
2023
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Purpose. The study’s first purpose was to examine the development of perception and self-awareness of vocal loudness and voice quality in 3- to 6-year-old children with and without voice disorders. A second aim was to investigate cognitive influences in the development of self-awareness of voice. A third and ultimate aim was to study the role of self-awareness of voice and other cognitive mechanisms (voice perception, language comprehension, and executive functions) in pediatric vocal learning. ☐ Methods. Fifty 3- to 6-year-old phonotypical children and 10 children with voice disorders completed a battery of cognitive tests including tests of self-awareness and perception of voice, language comprehension, and executive functions. Twenty-two of the 5- to 6-year-old phonotypical children also participated in vocal training for “resonant voice” and were recorded pre- and post-intervention to capture voice changes in acoustic (cepstral peak prominence) and perceptual measures (visual analog scale for resonance). ☐ Results. (1) Voice perception developed with age; older children more accurately identified vocal loudness and voice quality compared to younger children. Children with voice disorders performed similarly to phonotypical children for loudness perception but more poorly than the roughly age-equivalent phonotypical comparison group for voice quality perception. Vocal loudness self-awareness developed early and did not differ across phonotypical age groups. Children with voice disorders performed with poorer accuracy than their peers for this parameter. Performance for voice quality self-awareness was at chance level for all children. (2) For phonotypical children, loudness self-awareness negatively correlated with loudness perception. In the voice disorders group loudness self-awareness correlated positively with executive functions and language comprehension. Voice quality self-awareness positively correlated with age. (3) Vocal loudness perception and age were positively associated with vocal learning while language comprehension was negatively associated. Neither self-awareness of loudness nor self-awareness of voice quality were connected to vocal learning. ☐ Conclusions. Results suggest that self-awareness of vocal loudness and voice quality have a different developmental trajectory and that loudness perception, language comprehension, and age play a significant role in the acquisition of a novel voicing pattern, “resonant voice.” Neither loudness self-awareness nor voice quality self-awareness appeared to influence vocal learning in this data set.
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Keywords
Cognitive development, Pediatric voice, Self-awareness of voice, Vocal learning, Voice perception