title: Speech task effects on acoustic measure of fundamental frequency in Cantonese-speaking children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Speaking fundamental frequency (F0) is a voice measure frequently used to document changes in vocal performance over time. Knowing the intra-subject variability of speaking F0 has implications on its clinical usefulness. The present study examined the speaking F0 elicited from three speech tasks in Cantonese-speaking children. The study also compared the variability of speaking F0 elicited from different speech tasks.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty-six vocally healthy Cantonese-speaking children (31 boys and 25 girls) aged between 7.0 and 10.11 years participated. For each child, speaking F0 was elicited using speech tasks at three linguistic levels (sustained vowel /a/ prolongation, reading aloud a sentence and passage). Two types of variability, within-session (trial-to-trial) and across-session (test-retest) variability, were compared across speech tasks.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Significant differences in mean speaking F0 values were found between speech tasks. Mean speaking F0 value elicited from sustained vowel phonations was significantly higher than those elicited from the connected speech tasks. The variability of speaking F0 was higher in sustained vowel prolongation than that in connected speech.
authors.affiliation: Voice Research Laboratory, Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, 7/F Meng Wah Complex, Pokfulam, Hong Kong. Electronic address: estella.ma@hku.hk.
authors.forename: Estella P-M
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Voice Research Laboratory, Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, 7/F Meng Wah Complex, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Nina L-N
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Lam
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010699:Phonation; D012660:Semantics; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D013068:Speech Production Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D014831:Voice
keywords: Pediatric voice; Reliability; Speech task effect; Voice assessment