Background: Phonemically balanced word lists are used when obtaining Speech recognition scores in noise. These lists are designed for adults, but are still used for children. To properly obtain Speech recognition scores in noise for children, normative data is needed to show what differences there are to be expected between children of different ages. Purpose: The main purpose is to obtain normative data for children in the ages of 7, 10 and 13 years for Speech recognition scores in noise using words and to compare these with each other and with normative data of adults. A further purpose is to examine if there is any practice- or exhaustion effect to be seen when obtaining Speech recognition scores in noise for children in the ages of 7, 10 and 13 years.Material: The participants were ten 7-year-olds, ten 10-year-olds and ten 13-year-olds.

It is always more demanding and the risk for misunderstanding increases when communicating in noisy environments. The confusions and the mistakes that occur when speech is disturbed are very interesting and happens constantly. The purpose of this study was to examine Speech recognition results from the test PB S/N +4 and find out which confusions that are made by the normal hearing and by the hearing impaired persons in the speech lists 3 and 4, and also analyse the mistakes from a phonetic perspective. Ten normal hearing and 50 persons with impaired hearing participated in the study. The people with impaired hearing were divided into two groups; DTMV 40 dB HL.The results were compared between the normal hearing and those with impaired hearing.

Writing has been the most important tool in knowledge organization KO. In our modern society we can use our speech as a technical tool to seek information. Can we apply speech as a tool to organize information? The aim of this masters thesis is to problemize speech aspects in the field of knowledge organization KO. The investigation has two main parts and I use a hermeneutic approach.

Audionomprogrammet.

This thesis presents a system which has been implemented to satisfy a need in theresearch on how speech planning interacts with syntactic and prosodic structure inspontaneous speech. The long-term purpose of the research is to provide models forautomatic parsing of spontaneous speech and for psycholinguistical modelling of speechproduction. Identification of inhalation pauses is an important step in the developmentof automatic methods for spontaneous speech parsing.Identification of inhalation pauses is considered to be a keyword-spotting speechrecognition problem. Hybrid HMM(Hidden Markov Models)/ANN(Artificial NeuralNetworks) approach is applied to this problem. Method gets 90,8% in Recall, 66,4% inPrecision and 76,7% in F-score.

Freedom of speech has been a well discussed subject. Great philosophers and theoretics like Plato, Voltaire, Locke and Mill have again and again showed the importance of freedom of speech. Since the world have become bystanders to a series of events that can only classify as crimes aganst freedom of speech, it has become more important to study the phenomenon and analyse it. By finding cases where the freedom of speech has been compromised and analyse them in frames of three different theories, the argument of truth, the argument of democracy and the argument of tolerance, this paper makes the boundaries of freedom of speech a little clearer, and also makes a discussion about how reasonable the boundaries are possible. Everything according to the three theories.

Velopharyngeal insufficiency may affect resonance, articulation and thus how speech is perceived by other listeners. Velopharyngeal insufficiency is frequently found in the cleft palate population due to structural abnormalities of the palate. The pharyngeal flap is the most commonly used operation designed to improve velopharyngeal function. The aim of the present study was to compare speech before and after pharyngeal flap surgery by perceptual evaluation regarding nasality, articulation and deviant speech. The study includes preoperative and postoperative speech samples of 28 patients who underwent pharyngeal flap surgery at the University Hospital in Linköping between 2002 and 2007.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how young adults withunilateral cleft lip and palate assess their own speech and communication,and to let speech and language pathologists make a perceptual analysis ofthese individuals? speech at the age of 19 years. An additional aim was toexamine the relationship between these two different ways of evaluation.Data was collected through perceptual analysis from audio recordings and byusing a self-report questionnaire based on the ICF-structure (InternationalClassification of Function, disability and health). Altogether, 33 peopleparticipated. One third of the participants had no speech deficiencies.

In this study the speech of adolescents with unilateral cleft lip andpalate (UCLP) and delayed closure of the hard palate was evaluated.Evaluations were made with experienced speech-language pathologists(SLP:s) and lay listeners. The SLP evaluation consisted of typical cleft palatespeech variables and some of them were adapted for lay listeners. Attitudestowards the speech of the adolescents were investigated by asking laylisteners if the speech constituted any hindrance to vocational performance.The SLP:s mainly found nasal escape and velopharyngeal impairment (VPI),although to a small degree and extent. The lay listeners mainly foundresonance deviations and indistinct speech. The latter was associated withhindrance to vocational performance.

Speech anomalies have been described as characteristic symptoms forthe 22q11 deletion syndrome. However, research on speech and voice in adultswith the syndrome is still scarce. Previous research has indicated that speech andvoice anomalies seen in children with the syndrome might have neurologicalcauses. The aim of this study is to investigate speech and voice in a group ofadults diagnosed with the 22q11 deletion syndrome, with extra focus onanomalies with possible neurological cause. The researched group consisted of24 adults between the ages 19 to 38 with a verified 22q11-deletion, 16 womenand 8 men.

This thesis examines the relationship between recognition of prior learning and the aim to increase social and ethnical diversity in higher education. Recognition of prior learning is a result of educational politics aiming to broaden social and ethnical recruitment to higher education. By examining if recognition of prior learning rather can, and shall, be seen as part of what Pierre Bourdieu calls educational social reproduction I try to question whether it fulfils education policy goals or not. My results show that persons responsible for recognition of prior learning rather recognise knowledge from prior educational institutions than knowledge gained outside the educational system. Considering this, recognition of prior learning does not quite live up to the aims.

When searching for better and more practical interfaces between users and their computers, additional or alternative modes of communication between the two parties would be of great use. This thesis handles the possibilities of using eye and head movements as well as voice input as these alternative modes of communication. One part of this project is devoted to find possible interaction techniques when navigating in a computer interface with movements of the eye or the head. The result of this part is four different controls of an interface, adapted to suit this kind of navigation, combined together in a demo application. Another part of the project is devoted to the development of an application, with voice control as primary input method.

The aim of this thesis is to identify some of the obstacles to trade, that occurs on the common market, and to analyse the errors that still occurs in the national authorities application of the principle of mutual recognition. Is the principle of mutual recognition sufficient for the creation of a common market, or is there a need for additional measures to cope with the obstacles to trade that still exists on the common market? The problems related to the incorrect procedures of the national authorities and the fact that undertakings prefer to bring their products in to line with the rules of every single member state must be solved, if the principle of mutual recognition is to become trustworthy. On some areas, harmonisation ought to be chosen above the principle of mutual recognition, but in other cases an increased administrative collaboration, mandatory training for the national authorities or information campaigns intended mainly for undertakings could be the answer. The possibility to help undertakings to sue member states for damages should also be investigated.

This study examines if children in 5th grade experience any speech anxiety about speaking when everyone in the class will hear but while sitting down either by their desks or in a circle. I also want to find out how much the children speak; do boys or girls speak more than the other sex? Is there any difference in space of speech in the classroom, and if so is it connected to speech anxiety? Gender perspective is the theoretical outlook that this study has which is used to find out if there are any differences between boys and girls in the amount they talk in the classroom and the way the children themselves describe how it is to talk in the classroom. To find out if children in 5th grade experience any speech anxiety while speaking sitting down in everyday activities I interviewed six boys and six girls and to find out how much they spoke I observed the grade for a total of nine lessons. The result shows that some of the pupils do experience speech anxiety when sitting down and speaking so that everyone can.

Möbius sequence is a rare condition where affected cranial nervesoften lead to speech deviations due to reduced oral motor functioning. Thisstudy aimed to survey speech deviations, compensatory strategies and selfperceptionof speech in seven people with Möbius sequence, and to linkthese to oral motor function and intelligibility. Additionally, the immediateeffects of smile surgery were investigated in one person. The abovementioneddomains were studied instrumentally, perceptually and throughstructured interviewing. All participants displayed reduced oral motorfunction.