Experimental manipulation of speaking rate for studying temporal variability in children’s speech

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Children''s speech timing is often more variable than adults''. Two hypotheses that were proposed to account for this observation are considered. The 1st hypothesis claims that children do not have neuromotor control capabilities comparable to adults; the 2nd suggests that the greater variability is a statistical consequence of children''s longer segment durations. These 2 hypotheses were examined by having children and adults speak at both faster and slower rates than normal. Within-group comparisons across different rates and between-group comparisons for similar durational values were made from spectrographic measurements. Both statistical and neuromotor factors seem to contribute to the greater variability commonly observed in children''s speech.

This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit: