The Development of Perception and Self-Awareness of Voice in Children With and Without Voice Disorders

The aim was to investigate the development of perception and self-awareness of two vocal dimensions, vocal loudness and voice quality, in 3- to 6-year-old children with and without voice disorders.

Between-subjects experimental design.

Sixty 3- to 6-year-old children participated in the study and provided analyzable data (50 phonotypical children and 10 children with voice disorders). Children were split into two age groups for data analysis: 3- to 4- vs 5- to 6-year-olds. All study procedures were conducted remotely via Zoom. Participants completed tasks assessing their (a) perceptions of others' voices and (b) self-awareness of their own voice, each along dimensions of vocal loudness and voice quality.

For perception of voice, older phonotypical children identified differences in vocal loudness and voice quality more accurately than younger peers. Children with voice disorders performed similarly to same-age phonotypical children on loudness perception but performed more poorly on perception of voice quality. For self-awareness, vocal loudness was found to develop early in all children, and did not differ statistically across age groups, although children with voice disorders were numerically slightly less accurate than phonotypical children on that test. All children performed at chance level on the voice quality self-awareness test.

The results indicate that perception of both vocal loudness and voice quality show developmental trajectories. Self-awareness of vocal loudness and voice quality exhibit a different trajectory: self-awareness of vocal loudness is already well-developed in 3- to 4-year-old children, while self-awareness of voice quality is yet to mature at age 5-6 years. The study also demonstrates for the first time that children with voice disorders may differ from phonotypical children on some features of voice perception and self-awareness of voice. Data from children with voice disorders were analyzed descriptively, providing initial insights into these differences.