HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal My Folders Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Weinberg, B. Articles by Zlatin, M. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Weinberg, B. Articles by Zlatin, M.

Speaking Fundamental Frequency Characteristics of Five- and Six-Year-Old Children with Mongolism

Marsha Zlatin
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, Maryland

Spontaneous speech samples of 27 children with trisomy-21 type Down's syndrome and 66 normal children were tape-recorded and analyzed for mean fundamental frequency, standard deviation, and range.

Results indicate that the mean speaking fundamental frequency (SFF) level for the sample of children with mongolism was significantly higher than the mean SFF level for the control sample. Approximately 50% of the children with mongolism had mean SFF levels exceeding the highest mean SFF level of their matched controls. In only two cases did the mean SFF for a child with mongolism fall below the mean SFF level for control children of the same age and sex. No child with mongolism exhibited a mean SFF level below the lowest mean SFF for any control subject. The subject in question is the clinical observation that children with mongolism typically have low voice fundamental frequency levels.