第十八屆 六個月及十二個月大早產兒發音型態分類的臨床應用探討

六個月及十二個月大早產兒發音型態分類的臨床應用探討

Exploring Clinical Application of Voice Types of Preterm Infants at 6 and 12 Months of Age

黃郁文^1*、劉芊妤²、陳麗美³、陳俐文⁴、林永傑⁵

Yu-Wen Huang^1*, Qian-Yu Liu², Li-Mei Chen³, Li-Wen Chen⁴, Yung-Chieh Lin⁵

^1,2,3國立成功大學外國語文學系、^4,5國立成功大學附設醫院小兒科

¹Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, National Cheng Kung University , ^4,5 Department of Pediatrics, National Cheng Kung University Hospital

Background and Objective: Preterm is associated with a range of language difficulties. However, to detect underlying problems and provide medical intervention at an early stage remain to be a challenge. The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of detecting potential language disabilities at an early age by: 1) categorizing voices of preterm babies into different types and observing the voice patterns between 6 and 12 months of age; 2) analyzing the development of vocalization at 6 and 12 months of age.
 

Method: A total of 10 preterm babies with equal numbers of boys and girls participated in the study. The recordings of each preterm baby at six months and twelve months were analyzed according to the four types of voices classified by Titze (1995). The voices are divided into four types with type A and B being the periodic ones whereas type C and D consist more modulations and are relatively aperiodic. The data was analyzed using Praat (Boersma& Weenink, 2017), a scientific computer software package for the analysis of speech in phonetics.
 

Results: 1) The numbers of voice type A and B in both recordings for almost all participants accounted for more than 50 % percent. Moreover, the numbers of voice type C increased at 12 months of age; 2) Six out of the 10 participants had entered the canonical babbling stage at 12 months of age, demonstrating consonant and vowel combinations including CVC, VC, VCV, VCCV; 3) Among the 6 participants, 2 of them even demonstrated production of words.
 

Conclusion: The investigation of preterm vocalizations at 6 and 12 months of corrected age appears as acceptable time points to predict risk of language delay or disorders. Overall voice productions remained periodic at 6 and 12 months of age.

Keywords: Preterm infants, early vocalizations, language development, voice types