Publication Date

1979

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Shearer, William M.

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Communication Disorders

LCSH

Musical pitch; Hoarseness

Abstract

In order to investigate the ability of hoarse children to discriminate changes in pitch, the pitch discrimination subtest of the Seashore Measures of Musical Talents was administered to fifteen children identified as hoarse and to fifteen matched control subjects. The children in both groups ranged in age from seven years, three months to thirteen years, ten months. Matched controls were chosen according to age, sex, and socio-economic status. The experimental group was composed of children identified as hoarse by their school speech clinician. Each subject was asked to perform a discrimination task, in which judgments were made according to the direction of pitch variations of fifty pairs of pure tones. The subjects were to decide if the second tone was higher or lower in pitch than the first tone as they listened free-field to a recording of the Seashore pitch discrimination subtest. The number of correct responses on the Seashore subtest was tallied as the subjects' score. Comparisons were made between the hoarse children and their matched controls for their performance on the discrimination task. An analysis of the results revealed that, as a group, children having a hoarse vocal quality were significantly poorer than their matched control group in discriminating changes in pitch. This result was felt to be indicative of the need for a period of ear-training for hoarse children when pitch discrimination difficulty is demonstrated. It was also hypothesized that poor pitch discrimination may be viewed as one of the many factors which contribute to the development of a hoarse vocal quality.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references.

Extent

38 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

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