Lisa A. Hogan

Abstract: 1 MATURING TEMPORAL BONES AS NON-NEURAL SITES FOR TRANSFORMING THE SPEECH SIGNAL DURING LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT Developmental events in the temporal bones shift the pattern of a given speech sound’s acoustic profile through the time children are mapping linguistic sound systems. Before age 5 years, frequency information in vowels is differentially accessible through the years children are acquiring the sound systems of their native language(s). To model the acoustic effects caused by developing temporal bones, data collected to elicit steady-state vowels from adult native speakers of English and Diné were modified to reflect the form of children’s hearing sensitivities at different ages based on patterns established in the psychoacoustic literature. It was assumed, based on the work of psychacousticians (e.g., Werner, Fay & Popper 2012; and Werner & Marean 1996), that the effects caused by immature temporal bones were conductive immaturities, and the age-sensitive filters were constructed based on psychoacoustic research into the hearing of infants and children. Data were partitioned by language, sex, and individual vowels and compared for points of similarity and difference in the way information in vowels is filtered because of the constraints imposed by the immaturity of the temporal bones.