Demonstrating the Significance of Acoustic Analysis in Speech-Language Pathology through a Case Study of Non-Normative Articulation of the Phoneme /r/

Abstract

Technological development gives speech-language pathologists an opportunity to use acoustic software for the analysis of speech and articulation. The use of acoustic analysis in speech-language pathology diagnostics and therapy allows a more in-depth analysis of different aspects of speech, as well as it underlines the objectivity of the method, compared to other more traditional ones. The study of acoustic phonetics is not widely spread in the education of Bulgarian speech-language pathology students, therefore there is no practice of implementing acoustic analysis for the diagnostics and therapy of speech disorders. The article aims to give a theoretical overview of some possible implementations of acoustic analysis of speech in the field of speech-language pathology, to present the results of a case study comparing normative and non-normative articulation of the phoneme /r/, to summarize the benefits and difficulties this implementation could lead to, and to promote the application of foreign methodologies to Bulgarian speech-language therapeutic practice.