Teaching /ba/ and /pa/ to Deaf Children Using Real-Time Spectral Displays

A study was made of the ability of deaf children to profit from visually displayed spectral information in learning to produce /ba/and /pa/. In a school for the deaf eight subjects were taught these syllables by means of visual displays of speech, and eight subjects by means of conventional training techniques. Ability to produce these sounds was tested before, immediately after, and six to eight weeks after training. Performance was assessed by means of listener judgments, and by means of measurements of the time of onset of voicing for /ba/ and for /pa/. Most of the deaf children were better able to say /ba/ than /pa/ before training. Skill in the production of /pa/ improved with training, but skill in the production of /ba/ did not. The group taught by means of visual displays showed more improvement than the conventionally trained group. This improvement was maintained through the six to eight week period following training.