Longitudinal Evaluation of Cepstral Peak Prominence in Children

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate whether the acoustic measure of cepstral peak prominence changes during typical development in children 2-7.

Methods: Data were retrospectively analyzed from the Arizona Child Acoustic Database Repository in this longitudinal cohort study. The Repository contains longitudinal data recordings from 63 total children between 2 and 7 years of age. Thirty-one children met the inclusion criteria for the current analysis (at least five time points of usable speech data, no history of speech or language difficulties, no significant dysphonia, and were monolingual speakers of American English). Cepstral peak prominence measures were calculated in Praat for each child, at each timepoint. Additional acoustic measures of vocal fundamental frequency, vocal intensity, and stimuli length were also calculated. These measures were chosen as previous work has shown they may impact cepstral peak prominence values.

Results: Linear mixed-effects regression models examined the relationship between cepstral peak prominence and age, after controlling for vocal fundamental frequency, vocal intensity, and stimuli length. Within-participant effects of age were found, indicating a trajectory change in which cepstral peak prominence increases with age in this population. This positive relationship between a cepstral peak prominence and age was nonlinear, with a steeper slope between age and cepstral peak prominence after 5 years of age.

Conclusions: This is the first study to examine the typical developmental trajectory of cepstral peak prominence children between 2 and 7 years, a critical period of vocal development. Cepstral peak prominence increased with age, suggesting an increase in periodicity of vocal fold vibration that coincides with the significant vocal fold structural changes occurring during this time. Outcomes present important normative information on vocal development, essential for effectively understanding the difference between what vocal changes are part of normative development and what changes indicate a voice disorder.

Keywords: Acoustics; Age; Cepstral peak prominence; Children; Prepuberty.