Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Amplitude envelope perception, phonology and prosodic sensitivity in children with developmental dyslexia

  • Published:
Reading and Writing Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Here we explore relations between auditory perception of amplitude envelope structure, prosodic sensitivity, and phonological awareness in a sample of 56 typically-developing children and children with developmental dyslexia. We examine whether rise time sensitivity is linked to prosodic sensitivity, and whether prosodic sensitivity is linked to phonological awareness. Prosodic sensitivity was measured by two reiterant speech tasks modelled on Kitzen (2001). The children with developmental dyslexia were significantly impaired in the reiterant speech tasks and in the phonological awareness tasks (onset and rime awareness). There were significant predictive relations between basic auditory processing of amplitude envelope structure (in particular, rise time), prosodic sensitivity, phonological awareness, reading, and spelling. The auditory processing difficulties that characterise children with developmental dyslexia appear to impair their sensitivity to phrase-level prosodic cues such as metrical structure as well as to phonology, but in this study phonological and prosodic sensitivity made largely independent contributions to reading.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The multiple regressions for the Spanish Onset measure are not shown as there was only one significant auditory predictor, Rise Duration Rove, B = −.342, R 2 change = 0.11.

References

  • Blumstein, S. E., & Stevens, K. N. (1981). Phonetic features and acoustic invariance in speech. Cognition, 10, 25–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boets, B., Ghesquiere, P., van Wieringen, A., & Wouters, J. (2007). Speech perception in preschoolers at family risk for dyslexia: Relations with low-level auditory processing and phonological ability. Brain & Language, 101, 19–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Choi, J.-Y., Hasegawa-Johnson, M., & Cole, J. (2005). Finding intonational boundaries using acoustic cues related to the voice source. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 118(4), 2579–2587.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corriveau, K., & Goswami, U. (2009). Rhythmic motor entrainment in children with speech and language impairment: Tapping to the beat. Cortex, 45, 119–130.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corriveau, K., Pasquini, E., & Goswami, U. (2007). Basic auditory processing skills and specific language impairment: A new look at an old hypothesis. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 50, 1–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Curtin, S., Mintz, T. H., & Christiansen, M. H. (2005). Stress changes the representational landscape: Evidence from word segmentation. Cognition, 96, 233–262.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cutler, A. (1996). Prosody and the word boundary problem. In J. L. Morgan & K. Demuth (Eds.), Signal to syntax. Bootstrapping from speech to grammar in early acquisition (pp. 87–99). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Boysson-Bardies, B., Sagart, L., & Durant, C. (1984). Discernible differences in the babbling of infants according to target language. Journal of Child Language, 11(1), 1–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunn, L. M., Dunn, L. M., Whetton, C., & Pintilie, D. (1982). British picture vocabulary scale. Windsor, UK: NFER-Nelson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elliott, C. D., Smith, P., & McCullogh, K. (1996). British ability scales (2nd ed.). Windsor, UK: NFER-Nelson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Findlay, J. M. (1978). Estimates on probability functions: A more virulent PEST. Perception and Psychophysics, 23, 181–185.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fry, D. B. (1954). Duration and intensity as physical correlates of linguistic stress. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 26, 138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gerken, L. (1994). Prosodic structure in young children’s language productions. Language, 72, 683–712.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gerken, L., & McGregor, K. (1998). An overview of prosody and its role in normal and disordered child language. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 7, 38–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goetry, V., Wade-Woolley, L., Kolinsky, R., & Mousty, P. (2006). The role of stress processing abilities in the development of bilingual reading. Journal of Research in Reading, 29(3), 349–362.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goswami, U., Fosker, T., Huss, M., Fegan, N., & Szűcs, D. (2008). Developmental dyslexia and auditory perception: The ba/wa distinction. Manuscript submitted for publication.

  • Goswami, U., Thomson, J., Richardson, U., Stainthorp, R., Hughes, D., Rosen, S., et al. (2002). Amplitude envelope onsets and developmental dyslexia: A new hypothesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 99(16), 10911–10916.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg, S. (1999). Speaking in shorthand—A syllable-centric perspective for understanding pronunciation variation. Speech Communication, 29, 159–176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg, S. (2006). A multi-tier framework for understanding spoken language. In S. Greenberg & W. Ainsworth (Eds.), Listening to speech—an auditory perspective. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg, S., Carvey, H., Hitchcock, L., & Chang, S. (2003). Temporal properties of spontaneous speech—a syllable-centric perspective. Journal of Phonetics, 31, 465–485.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hämäläinen, J., Leppanen, P. H. T., Torppa, M., Muller, K., & Lyytinen, H. (2005). Detection of sound rise time by adults with dyslexia. Brain and Language, 94, 32–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hämäläinen, J. A., Salminen, H. K., & Leppänen, P. H. T. (2009). Basic auditory processing deficits in dyslexia: Review of the behavioural, event-related potential and magnetoencephalographic evidence. Journal of Learning Disabilities.

  • Hayes, B. (1995). Metrical stress theory. Principles and case studies. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoequist, C. A. (1983). The perceptual centre and rhythm categories. Language and Speech, 26, 367–376.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holliman, A. J., Wood, C., & Sheehy, K. (2008). Sensitivity to speech rhythm explains individual differences in reading ability independently of phonological awareness. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 26, 357–368.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kitzen, K. R. (2001). Prosodic sensitivity, morphological ability and reading ability in young adults with and without childhood histories of reading difficulty (Doctoral dissertation, University of Columbia, 2001). Dissertation Abstracts International, 62 (02), 0460A.

  • Kochanski, G., Grabe, E., Coleman, J., & Rosner, B. (2005). Loudness predicts prominence: Fundamental frequency adds little. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 118(2), 1038–1054.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lehiste, I. (1970). Suprasegmentals. Cambridge, Massachusetts/London, England: The M.I.T. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levitt, H. (1971). Transformed up–down methods in psychoacoustics. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 49, 467–477.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lorenzi, C., Dumont, A., & Fullgrabe, C. (2000). Use of temporal envelope cues by children with developmental dyslexia. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 43, 1367–1379.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mattys, S. L., & Juscyk, P. W. (2001). Phonotactic cues for segmentation of fluent speech by infants. Cognition, 78, 91–121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McArthur, G. M., & Bishop, D. V. M. (2001). Auditory perceptual processing in people with reading and oral language impairments: Current issues and recommendations. Dyslexia, 7, 150–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mehler, J., Dupoux, E., Nazzi, T., & Dehaene-Lambertz, G. (1996). Coping with linguistic diversity: The infant’s point of view. In J. L. Morgan & K. Demuth (Eds.), Signal to syntax. Bootstrapping from speech to grammar in early acquisition (pp. 110–116). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mehler, J., Jusczyk, P. W., Lambertz, G., Halsted, H., Bertoncini, J., & Amiel-Tison, C. (1988). A precursor of language acquisition in young infants. Cognition, 29, 144–178.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, J., & Schwanenflugel, P. J. (2008). A longitudinal study of the development of reading prosody as a dimension of oral reading fluency in early elementary school children. Reading Research Quarterly, 43, 336–354.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muneaux, M., Ziegler, J. C., Truc, C., Thomson, J., & Goswami, U. (2004). Deficits in beat perception and dyslexia: Evidence from French. NeuroReport, 15(8), 1255–1259.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nakatani, L. H., & Schaffer, J. A. (1978). Hearing “words” without words: Prosodic cues for word perception. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 63(1), 234–245.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nespor, M., & Vogel, I. (1986). Prosodic phonology. Dordrecht/Riverton: Foris Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pasquini, E., Corriveau, K., & Goswami, U. (2007). Auditory processing of amplitude envelope rise time in adults diagnosed with developmental dyslexia. Scientific Studies in Reading, 11, 259–286.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peppe, S., McCann, J., Gibbon, F., O’Hare, A., & Rutherford, M. (2007). Receptive and expressive prosodic ability in children with high-functioning autism. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 50, 1015–1028.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pierrehumbert, J. (2003). Phonetic diversity, statistical learning and acquisition of phonology. Language & Speech, 46, 115–154.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Port, R. (2007). How are words stored in memory? Beyond phones and phonemes. New Ideas in Psychology, 25, 143–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richardson, U., Thomson, J., Scott, S. K., & Goswami, U. (2004). Supra-segmental auditory processing skills and phonological representation in dyslexic children. Dyslexia, 10(3), 215–233.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rocheron, I., Lorenzi, C., Fullgrabe, C., & Dumont, A. (2002). Temporal envelope perception in dyslexic children. NeuroReport, 13(3), 1683–1687.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwanenflugel, P. J., Hamilton, A. M., Kuhn, M. R., Wisenbaker, J. M., & Stahl, S. A. (2004). Becoming a fluent reader: Reading skill and prosodic features in the oral reading of young readers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96, 119–129.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, S. K. (1998). The point of P-centres. Psychological Research, 61, 4–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snowling, M. J. (2000). Dyslexia (2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tallal, P. (1980). Auditory temporal perception, phonics, and reading disabilities in children. Brain and Language, 9, 182–198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tallal, P. (2004). Opinion—improving language and literacy is a matter of time. Nature Review Neuroscience, 5(9), 721–728.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomson, J. M., Fryer, B., Maltby, J., & Goswami, U. (2006a). Auditory and motor rhythm awareness in adults with dyslexia. Journal of Research in Reading, 29(3), 334–348.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomson, J. M., & Goswami, U. (2008). Rhythmic processing in children with developmental dyslexia: Auditory and motor rhythms link to reading and spelling. Journal of Physiology-Paris, 102, 120–129.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomson, J., Huss, M., & Goswami, U. (2006). Auditory perceptual training and developmental dyslexia: does it help? Poster presented at the 25th Rodin Remediation Conference, 11–13 October, Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA.

  • Torgesen, J., Wagner, R., & Rashotte, C. (1999). Test of word reading efficiency (TOWRE). UK: The Psychological Corporation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vihman, M., & Croft, W. (2007). Phonological development: Towards a “radical” templatic phonology. Linguistics, 45, 683–725.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wade-Woolley, L. & Wood, C. (2006) (Eds.) Editorial: prosodic awareness and reading development. Journal of Research in Reading, 29 (3), 253–257.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wechsler, D. (1992). Manual for the Wechsler intelligence scale for children-third edition (WISC-III). San Antonio, Texas: The Psychological Corporation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whalley, K., & Hansen, J. (2006). The role of prosodic sensitivity in children’s reading development. Journal of Research in Reading, 29(3), 288–303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wood, C. (2006). Metrical stress sensitivity in young children and its relationship to phonological awareness and reading. Journal of Research in Reading, 29, 270–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wood, C., & Terrell, C. (1998). Poor readers’ ability to detect speech rhythm and perceive rapid speech. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 16, 397–413.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages: A psycholiguistic grain size theory. Psychological Bulletin, 131(1), 3–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the head teacher, teachers, children and parents of the schools who participated in this study. This research was supported by funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), grant RES-000-23-0475, awarded to Usha Goswami. Requests for reprints should be addressed to Usha Goswami, Centre for Neuroscience in Education, 184 Hills Rd, Cambridge CB2 8PQ, UK.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Neuroscience in Education, University of Cambridge, 184 Hills Rd, Cambridge, CB2 8PQ, UK

    Usha Goswami, Danielle Gerson & Luisa Astruc

Authors
  1. Usha Goswami
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Danielle Gerson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Luisa Astruc
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Usha Goswami.

Appendices

Appendix A

See Table 8.

Table 8 DeeDee Stimuli for the Famous names task
Full size table

Appendix B

See Table 9.

Table 9 DeeDee stimuli for the Films task
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Goswami, U., Gerson, D. & Astruc, L. Amplitude envelope perception, phonology and prosodic sensitivity in children with developmental dyslexia. Read Writ 23, 995–1019 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-009-9186-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-009-9186-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation