Effects of lengthening the speech signal on auditory word discrimination in kindergartners with SLI

In the present study, it was investigated whether kindergartners with specific language impairment (SLI) and normal language achieving (NLA) kindergartners can benefit from slowing down the entire speech signal or part of the speech signal in a synthetic speech discrimination task. Subjects were 19 kindergartners with SLI and 24 NLA controls. Results showed both types of speech manipulation to positively influence word discrimination for the entire group of children. Further analysis made clear that the effects were due to the improvement of the scores of the lowest 25% scorers (8 SLI, 3 NLA).

Learning outcomes:

As a result of this activity, the reader will be able to: (1) give an overview on the effects of speech manipulation on discrimination abilities of children with SLI, (2) be able to look with more nuance at the reported effects of the FFW software program.