The role of experience in the perception of phonetic detail in children's speech: A comparison between speech-language pathologists and clinically untrained listeners

Purpose: This study examined whether experienced speech language pathologists (SLPs) differ from inexperienced people in their perception of phonetic detail in children's speech. Method: Twenty-one experienced SLPs and 21 inexperienced listeners participated in a series of tasks in which they used a visual-analog scale (VAS) to rate children's natural productions of target /s/-/θ/, /t /-/k /, and /d /-/g/ in word-initial position. Listeners rated the perceived distance between individual productions and ideal productions. Results: The experienced listeners' ratings differed from the inexperienced listeners' ratings in four ways: They had higher intrarater reliability, showed less bias toward a more frequent sound, and were more closely related to the acoustic characteristics of the children's speech. In addition, the experienced listeners' responses were related to a different set of predictor variables. Conclusion: Results suggest that experience working as an SLP leads to better perception of phonetic detail in children's speech. Limitations and future research are discussed.