TY - GEN

T1 - Perception and acoustic features of speech of children with autism spectrum disorders

AU - Lyakso, Elena

AU - Frolova, Olga

AU - Grigorev, Aleksey

PY - 2017/1/1

Y1 - 2017/1/1

N2 - The goal of our study is to reveal verbal and non-verbal information in speech features of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). 30 children with ASD aged 5–14 years and 160 typically developing (TD) coevals were participants in the study. ASD participants were divided into groups according to the presence of development reversals (ASD-1) and developmental risk diagnosed at the birth (ASD-2). The listeners (n = 220 adults) recognized the word’s meaning, correspondence of the repetition word’s meaning and intonation contour to the sample, age, and gender of ASD child’s speech with less probability vs. TD children. Perception data are confirmed by acoustic features. We found significant differences in pitch values, vowels formants frequency and energy between ASD groups and between ASD and TD in spontaneous speech and repetition words. Pitch values of stress vowels were significantly higher in spontaneous speech vs. repetition words for ASD-1 children, ASD-2, and TD children aged 7–12 years. Pitch values in the spontaneous speech of the ASD-1 were higher than in the ASD-2 children. The coarticulation effect was shown for ASD and TD repetition words. Age dynamic of ASD children acoustic features indicated mastering of clear articulation.

AB - The goal of our study is to reveal verbal and non-verbal information in speech features of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). 30 children with ASD aged 5–14 years and 160 typically developing (TD) coevals were participants in the study. ASD participants were divided into groups according to the presence of development reversals (ASD-1) and developmental risk diagnosed at the birth (ASD-2). The listeners (n = 220 adults) recognized the word’s meaning, correspondence of the repetition word’s meaning and intonation contour to the sample, age, and gender of ASD child’s speech with less probability vs. TD children. Perception data are confirmed by acoustic features. We found significant differences in pitch values, vowels formants frequency and energy between ASD groups and between ASD and TD in spontaneous speech and repetition words. Pitch values of stress vowels were significantly higher in spontaneous speech vs. repetition words for ASD-1 children, ASD-2, and TD children aged 7–12 years. Pitch values in the spontaneous speech of the ASD-1 were higher than in the ASD-2 children. The coarticulation effect was shown for ASD and TD repetition words. Age dynamic of ASD children acoustic features indicated mastering of clear articulation.

KW - Acoustic features

KW - Autism spectrum disorders

KW - Children

KW - Repetition speech

KW - Speech perception

KW - Spontaneous speech

KW - Typically developing

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85029476710&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-319-66429-3_60

DO - 10.1007/978-3-319-66429-3_60

M3 - Conference contribution

AN - SCOPUS:85029476710

SN - 9783319664286

T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)

SP - 602

EP - 612

BT - Speech and Computer - 19th International Conference, SPECOM 2017, Proceedings

A2 - Karpov, Alexey

A2 - Mporas, Iosif

A2 - Potapova, Rodmonga

PB - Springer Nature

T2 - 19th International Conference on Speech and Computer

Y2 - 11 September 2017 through 15 September 2017

ER -