Relative timing characteristics of hearing-impaired speakers

Speech duration characteristics of phrase-level utterances produced by 26 severely and profoundly hearing-impaired adults were examined acoustically using relative timing measures. The measures were then compared to the same utterances produced by 13 normal-hearing adults. Although absolute speech durations of the hearing-impaired subjects were significantly longer than their normal-hearing counterparts, relative timing did not differ between groups. Findings are discussed in relation to the biological constraint hypothesis associated with speech timing, as well as the role of auditory feedback in models of speech production.