Perception of /w, r, l, y/ by normally articulating and misarticulating children

Three ten-step series of synthetic speech stimuli were constructed: /ræm/ to /læm/, /ræm/ to /wæm/, /læm/ to /yæm/. Within each series, differences consisted of variations on onset frequency and slope of transition in F2 or F3. These stimuli were presented to 5- to 7-year-old children in identification (picture-pointing) and 3-step same—different (AX) discrimination tasks. Two groups of subjects were tested: children having normal articulation and children who misarticulated /r/ or /l/. Results support the view that some articulation-disordered children exhibit correlated perceptual deficits. [Research supported by NICHD grant No. HD-00098 to the Center for Research in Human Learning, NIMH grant No. MH-21153 to J.J. Jenkins and W. Strange, and NICHD Contract No. NO1-HD-1-2420 to Haskins Laboratories.]