Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders
Date of this Version
2013
Citation
Published in Child Development 2013; doi: 10.1111/cdev.12052
Abstract
Age-related increases of speaking rate are not fully understood, but have been attributed to gains in biologic factors and learned skills that support speech production. This study investigated developmental changes in speaking rate and articulatory kinematics of participants aged 4 (N = 7), 7 (N = 10), 10 (N = 9), 13 (N = 7), 16 (N = 9) years, and young adults (N = 11) in speaking tasks varying in task demands. Speaking rate increased with age, with decreases in pauses and articulator displacements but not increases in articulator movement speed. Movement speed did not appear to constrain the speaking. Rather, age-related increases in speaking rate are due to gains in cognitive and linguistic processing and speech motor control.
Comments
Copyright © 2013 Ignatius S. B. Nip and Jordan R. Green. Used by permission. Published by Society for Research in Child Development, Inc., and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.