Acoustic effects of intonation training in trans and gender diverse people

Background One of the greatest challenges of gender affirmation for some trans and gender diverse (TGD) people is that one or more of their voice, speech and communication are not congruent with their gender identity or the way they want to present themselves to other people. Speech training is often an intervention of choice to develop a more gender congruent communication and frequently focuses on those aspects which are the most salient in gender perception. According to the systematic review of Leung et al. (2018), intonation is a prosodic component that contributes to gender perception. However, it is not clear to what extent changes in intonation patterns increase the congruence between a person’s speech and their gender identity or preferred gender presentation, and empirical evidence of intonation training is lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of intonation training on vocal characteristics in gender diverse people using a randomized sham-controlled trial. Methods Currently, fourteen trans women with a desire for speech feminization and 4 non-binary persons with an aim for speech masculinization were included. The participants were randomly allocated to the experimental or control group. The experimental group received 4 weeks of intonation training (4 one-hour sessions) aiming to achieve more gender congruent intonation patterns. The content of the intonation training was selected based on a pilot study conducted by our research group (Papeleu et al., 2022). The control group received 4 weeks of intonation training after 4 weeks of sham training. Based on their group allocation, participants were recorded 3 or 4 times, in between the training blocks: pre, after training 1 (experimental and control group), after training 2 (only control group), and follow-up (after 4 weeks of no intervention). Speech samples included a sustained vowel, continuous speech during reading, spontaneous speech and a standardized intonation protocol published by Leyns et al. (2022). These samples were analyzed using Praat software. Four acoustic intonation parameters (i.e. general intonation shift, final intonation shift, general fundamental frequency (fo) range and fo variation index) as well as, fundamental frequency (fo), intensity, voice range profile (VRP), vowel formant frequencies (F1-2-3-4-5 of /a/-/i/-/u/), aerodynamic measures and vocal quality (AVQI and DSI) were measured. A linear mixed model will be used to compare the acoustic voice measurements between the groups and between measurements at pre, post 1, post 2 and post 3. Results It should be noted that data collection is ongoing and therefore additional analyses will be conducted once data collection is complete. The results will be ready to present at the conference in April. Conclusions This research is likely to lead to new insights for gender affirming speech training and to have an impact on evidence-based practice in speech training for gender diverse people.

Publication year:2023

Accessibility:Open