Implications of Peripheral Muscular and Anatomical Development for the Acquisition of Lingual Control for Speech Production: A Review

Abstract

Objectives: Normally developing children learn to produce intelligible speech during rapid, non-uniform growth of their articulators and other vocal tract structures. The purpose of this review is to focus attention on the consequences of peripheral growth and development for the acquisition of lingual control for speech production. This paper (1) reviews physiological underpinnings of tongue shaping and movements that are likely to be changing in young children; (2) estimates, from previously published studies, the net consequences of growth of multiple vocal tract structures on lingual control; (3) integrates our findings with the example of [R] production, and (4) highlights areas where further investigations would be most helpful. Patients and Methods: The authors searched the literature, including the PubMed database, for studies of the development of muscle proteins, muscle fibers, and motor units of the tongue, and of the growth of the tongue, jaw, adenoids, soft and hard palates, oral and pharyngeal cavities, and the vocal tract as a whole. Conclusions: Substantial anatomical and muscular data sets focused on children from 1–4 years of age, and rigorous definitions of the tongue boundaries are needed.

Children's Acquisition of English Onset and Coda /l/: Articulatory Evidence

“…As suggested previously (Denny & McGowan, 2012;Gick et al, 2008;Studdert-Kennedy & Goldstein, 2003), speech sounds that involve two lingual constrictions should be acquired especially late due to physiological constraints and, more specifically, to the delay in development of the tongue compared with the oral cavity. Given that development of the tongue does not stabilize until age 5;6, whereas the size of the oral cavity stabilizes by age 3;0, we expect that children between ages 3;0 and 5;6 would have difficulty producing laterals with both an anterior tongue tip or blade constriction and a posterior tongue dorsum constriction.…”

“…However, the structures do not develop uniformly. Indeed, this specific argument has been invoked to explain the protractedness of English /a / development (Denny & McGowan, 2012;McGowan, Nittrouer, & Manning, 2004) as well as that of English liquids, including / l / (Gick et al, 2008). As Denny and McGowan (2012) pointed out, this suggests that the size and shape of the oral cavity matures earlier than does the tongue.…”

Origins of Human Language: Continuities and Discontinuities with Nonhuman Primates

“…[i] contrast through vertical tongue displacement along the second axis. These two axes do have different orientations in baboons and humans, due to the differences in the inclination of the styloglossus and the shape of the tongue (Badin and Serrurier, 2006;Buchaillard et al, 2010;Denny and McGowan, 2012;Honda, 1996).…”

Praxia não verbal na fonoaudiologia: revisão de literatura

“…Defined as the Dronkers area was the cerebral area for the coordination of articulatory movements of speech 5 . Speech Motor Control is developed differently from the initial speakers and depends on the interaction with the phonological development 4,6,19,22,27,28 .…”