Optimizing acoustic and perceptual assessment of voice quality in children with vocal nodules

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, 2009.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Masaki, Asako
Other Authors: Robert E. Hillman.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2010
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/54666
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author Masaki, Asako
author2 Robert E. Hillman.
author_facet Robert E. Hillman.
Masaki, Asako
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description Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, 2009.
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spelling mit-1721.1/546662019-04-10T22:42:40Z Optimizing acoustic and perceptual assessment of voice quality in children with vocal nodules Masaki, Asako Robert E. Hillman. Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, 2009. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-109). Few empirically-derived guidelines exist for optimizing the assessment of vocal function in children with voice disorders. The goal of this investigation was to identify a minimal set of speech tasks and associated acoustic analysis methods that are most salient in characterizing the impact of vocal nodules on vocal function in children. Hence, a pediatric assessment protocol was developed based on the standardized Consensus Auditory Perceptual Evaluation of Voice (CAPE-V) used to evaluate adult voices. Adult and pediatric versions of the CAPE-V protocols were used to gather recordings of vowels and sentences from adult females and children (4-6 and 8-10 year olds) with normal voices and vocal nodules, and these recordings were subjected to perceptual and acoustic analyses. Results showed that perceptual ratings for breathiness best characterized the presence of nodules in children's voices, and ratings for the production of sentences best differentiated normal voices and voices with nodules for both children and adults. Selected voice quality-related acoustic algorithms designed to quantitatively evaluate acoustic measures of vowels and sentences, were modified to be pitch-independent for use in analyzing children's voices. Synthesized vowels for children and adults were used to validate the modified algorithms by systematically assessing the effects of manipulating the periodicity and spectral characteristics of the synthesizer's voicing source. (cont.) In applying the validated algorithms to the recordings of subjects with normal voices and vocal nodules, the acoustic measure tended to differentiate normal voices and voices with nodules in children and adults, and some displayed significant correlations with the perceptual attributes of overall severity of dysphonia, roughness, and/or breathiness. None of the acoustic measures correlated significantly with the perceptual attribute of strain. Limitations in the strength of the correlations between acoustic measures and perceptual attributes were attributed to factors that can be addressed in future investigations, which can now utilize the algorithms that were developed in this investigation for children's voices. Preliminary recommendations are made for the clinical assessment of pediatric voice disorders. by Asako Masaki. Ph.D. 2010-04-28T17:17:17Z 2010-04-28T17:17:17Z 2009 2009 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/54666 607313724 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 xi, 109 p. application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.
Masaki, Asako
Optimizing acoustic and perceptual assessment of voice quality in children with vocal nodules
title Optimizing acoustic and perceptual assessment of voice quality in children with vocal nodules
title_full Optimizing acoustic and perceptual assessment of voice quality in children with vocal nodules
title_fullStr Optimizing acoustic and perceptual assessment of voice quality in children with vocal nodules
title_full_unstemmed Optimizing acoustic and perceptual assessment of voice quality in children with vocal nodules
title_short Optimizing acoustic and perceptual assessment of voice quality in children with vocal nodules
title_sort optimizing acoustic and perceptual assessment of voice quality in children with vocal nodules
topic Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/54666
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