Gradient perception of children's productions of /s/ and /θ/: A comparative study of rating methods.
Sarah K Schellinger, Benjamin Munson, Jan Edwards
PMID 27552446WHAT IT FOUND
Adult listeners' line ratings of children's /s/ and /θ/ productions varied across the whole scale and tracked how a group heard the sounds.
A single rating line may capture fine sound detail that a simple /s/ or /θ/ choice misses.
Key findings
01Listeners used the whole rating line rather than only endpoints, and 16 of 21 had ratings that could be separated into more than two categories.
02Every listener's line rating moved along the scale in line with how the group judged the sound as /s/ or /θ/; 19 of 21 showed a strong relationship.
03The group's proportion of /s/ judgments predicted individual line ratings better than transcription as /s/ or /θ/, and also beyond a six-category transcription system.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study used naïve adult listeners, not speech-language pathologists, so it does not show that clinicians rate children's speech in the same way. The child productions came from typically developing children, not a clinical speech disorder sample. It tested only /s/ versus /θ/, so the result may not apply to other speech sounds, especially stop consonants. The study did not test whether visual analog ratings can track change over time during treatment. For intermediate sounds, the relationship between individual line ratings and group binary judgments was weaker than for sounds clearly heard as /s/ or /θ/. Agreement across the 21 rating listeners was moderate.
Declared interests
The authors have no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that a rating line will work in your clinic. The study used naïve adult listeners, not speech-language pathologists, and did not test whether the ratings can reliably track change during treatment.