Articulation Rate in 3- and 5-Year-Old Children

Abstract

The major purposes of this study were to provide normative data on articulation rate in preschool children and to examine the influence on articulation rate of age, gender, context, and utterance length. The subjects were twenty 3-year-old children and twenty 5-year-old children, equally balanced for gender. Durational measures of utterances were analyzed in syllables and phones per second in both spontaneous and imitated speech contexts. The articulation rate of the 5-year-old subjects was significantly faster than that of the 3-year-olds. Spontaneous speech was significantly faster and more variable than imitated speech. Some gender differences were found. Measures in syllables per second and phones per second, although not always yielding identical results, were found to be highly correlated.

Articulation Rate and Speech-Sound Normalization Failure

“…This finding held when rate was measured in either syllables per second or phones per second. Analysis by Flipsen also indicated that the rate values obtained at initial and follow-up testing overall were consistent with findings from cross-sectional studies of typically developing children when measured in syllables per second (Amster, 1984;Hall, Amir, & Yairi, 1999;Haselager, Slis, & Rietveld, 1991;Kowal, O'Connell, & Sabin, 1975;Pindzola, Jenkins, & Lokken, 1989;Walker, Archibald, Cherniak, & Fish, 1992). Relative to the phones per second measure, comparisons for the initial testing data indicated slower articulation rates being produced by the current study participants; no direct comparisons were possible for the follow-up data.…”

“…Malecot et al (1972) referred to this unit as an "utterance," both Miller et al (1984) and Walker et al (1992) labeled it a "run," and Haselager et al (1991) called it a "phonetic utterance." For purposes of the current study, this same unit was termed the "phonetic phrase" (after Allen, 1973).…”

“…Several investigators (e.g., Haselager et al, 1991;Malecot, Johnston, & Kizziar, 1972;Miller et al, 1984;Walker et al, 1992) have suggested that in order to minimize the influence of language formulation on articulation rate, the most appropriate measurement unit is the stretch of speech bound by pauses. Malecot et al (1972) referred to this unit as an "utterance," both Miller et al (1984) and Walker et al (1992) labeled it a "run," and Haselager et al (1991) called it a "phonetic utterance."…”

Influences of rate, length, and complexity on speech disfluency in a single-speech sample in preschool children who stutter

“…Utterance length and grammatical complexity-An utterance was defined as a string of words that (a) communicated an idea, (b) was bounded by a simple intonational contour, and/or (c) was grammatically complete (Golinkoff & Ames, 1979;Meyers & Freeman, 1985;Walker, Archibald, Cherniak, & Fish 1992;Yaruss & Conture, 1995). Mean length of utterance, rather than number of syllables, was selected as a measure of length to facilitate comparison with previous studies (for example, Logan & Conture, 1995;Zackheim & Conture, 2003).…”

“…Articulation rate-Articulation rate was defined as the number of perceptually fluent syllables in each utterance divided by the duration (in seconds) of the utterance removing all instances of stuttering-like disfluencies, other disfluencies (interjection, revision/abandoned utterances, multisyllable/phrase repetition), and pauses greater than 250 milliseconds (ms) (Chon, Ko, & Shin, 2004;Hall, Amir, & Yairi, 1999;Miller, Grosjean, & Lomanto, 1984;Walker, Archibald, Cherniak, & Fish, 1992;Yaruss, 1997). The participants' speech was captured and analyzed using the Computerized Speech Lab (CSL), model 4500 by Kay Elemetrics.…”