Listeners' familiarity and perception of an idiosyncratic phonologic pattern

Area of Science:

• Speech-Language Pathology
• Developmental Linguistics
• Childhood Communication Disorders

Background:

• Phonological impairment in preschoolers can lead to unique speech sound substitutions.
• Idiosyncratic errors, such as producing /l/ for /j/, present challenges in speech perception.
• Understanding these errors is crucial for effective speech therapy and language development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of listener familiarity on the perception of an idiosyncratic phonological error.
• To determine if a mother's familiarity with her child's speech improves her ability to decode specific sound substitutions.
• To compare the decoding accuracy of familiar versus unfamiliar listeners for /l/-for-/j/ errors.

Main Methods:

• Recorded speech samples of a preschooler with phonological impairment producing /l/ for /j/ were used.
• Minimal pairs contrasting /j/ and /l/ sounds were presented in a randomized order.
• The child's mother and five unfamiliar adult listeners were tasked with identifying target sounds.

Main Results:

• No significant difference was found in the ability of any listeners to identify target /l/ words.
• The child's mother demonstrated a higher accuracy in identifying target /j/ words compared to unfamiliar listeners.
• Listener familiarity significantly influenced the decoding of the child's specific /l/-for-/j/ error pattern.

Conclusions:

• Listener familiarity, particularly parental familiarity, plays a critical role in deciphering idiosyncratic phonological errors.
• This suggests that familiar listeners develop unique perceptual strategies to understand non-standard speech productions.
• Findings have implications for speech-language pathologists in leveraging caregiver knowledge during assessment and intervention.