ISCA Archive Interspeech 2024
ISCA Archive Interspeech 2024

Production of fricative consonants in French-speaking children with cochlear implants and typical hearing: acoustic and phonological analyses.

Sophie Fagniart, Brigitte Charlier, Véronique Delvaux, Bernard Harmegnies, Anne Huberlant, Myriam Piccaluga, Kathy Huet

The following study investigates fricative consonant production skills in 23 children with cochlear implants (CI group) and 47 children with typical hearing (TH group), matched by chronological and auditory age. The voiceless (/f/,/s/,/ʃ/) and voiced (/v/,/z/,/ʒ/) fricative consonants of French were studied from children's productions to a picture naming task. The results showed lower percentages of correct fricatives as well as fricativization and stopping errors in the CI group. Acoustic analyses showed productions differing between our two groups, with lower mid-frequency amplitude peak values for the /f,s,z/ phonemes, higher amplitude in the low-frequency bands and lower high-frequency energy in the CI group. Furthermore, links between phonological performance and acoustic productions is demonstrated: higher spectral values distinction are associated with a higher percentage of correct phonological production and fewer stopping/fricativization errors.