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. 2023 May 4;32(3):1083-1098.
doi: 10.1044/2022_AJSLP-22-00209. Epub 2023 Feb 27.

Differential Impacts of Sentence Length on Speech Rate in Two Groups of Children With Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Meghan Darling-White  1 , Alexandra Jaeger  1
Affiliations

Differential Impacts of Sentence Length on Speech Rate in Two Groups of Children With Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Meghan Darling-White et al. Am J Speech Lang Pathol. .

Abstract

Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to examine the effect of sentence length on speech rate and its characteristics, articulation rate, and pauses in children with neurodevelopmental disorders.

Method: Nine children diagnosed with cerebral palsy (CP) and seven children diagnosed with Down syndrome (DS) repeated sentences varying in length from two to seven words. Children were between the ages of 8 and 17 years. Dependent variables included speech rate, articulation rate, and proportion of time spent pausing.

Results: For children with CP, there was a significant effect of sentence length for speech rate and articulation rate but not for the proportion of time spent pausing. In general, the longest sentences were produced with a faster speech and articulation rate than the shortest sentences. For children with DS, there was a significant effect of sentence length for the proportion of time spent pausing but not for speech rate or articulation rate. In general, children with DS spent significantly more time pausing in the longest sentences, particularly seven-word sentences, than in any other sentence length.

Conclusions: Primary findings include the following: (a) Articulation rate and pause time are differentially impacted by sentence length, and (b) children with CP and children with DS respond differently to increases in cognitive-linguistic load.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The spectrographic display and textgrid of a sentence with one breath pause and one nonbreath pause produced by a child with cerebral palsy. The letter “A” indicates the textgrid line marking the sentence initiation and termination. The letter “B” indicates the textgrid line that separates speech from pauses ≥ 0.150 s. In the textgrids, “S” stands for sentence, “U” stands for utterance, and “P” stands for pause. The red box indicates the acoustic trace of a breath. This is the sentence, “She played cards, but he didn't.”
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
The linear relationship between articulation rate and sentence length for children with cerebral palsy.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
The linear relationship between the proportion of time spent pausing and sentence length for children with Down syndrome.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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