Icht Michal, Ben-David Boaz M
Department of Communication Disorders, Ariel University, Israel.
Communication Aging and Neuropsychology Lab (CANlab), School of Psychology, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Israel; Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Graduate Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Toronto, Canada; Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, Canada.
J Commun Disord. 2014 Mar-Apr;48:27-37. doi: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2014.02.002. Epub 2014 Feb 23.
Oro-facial and speech motor control disorders represent a variety of speech and language pathologies. Early identification of such problems is important and carries clinical implications. A common and simple tool for gauging the presence and severity of speech motor control impairments is oral-diadochokinesis (oral-DDK). Surprisingly, norms for adult performance are missing from the literature. The goals of this study were: (1) to establish a norm for oral-DDK rate for (young to middle-age) adult English speakers, by collecting data from the literature (five studies, N=141); (2) to investigate the possible effect of language (and culture) on oral-DDK performance, by analyzing studies conducted in other languages (five studies, N=140), alongside the English norm; and (3) to find a new norm for adult Hebrew speakers, by testing 115 speakers. We first offer an English norm with a mean of 6.2syllables/s (SD=.8), and a lower boundary of 5.4syllables/s that can be used to indicate possible abnormality. Next, we found significant differences between four tested languages (English, Portuguese, Farsi and Greek) in oral-DDK rates. Results suggest the need to set language and culture sensitive norms for the application of the oral-DDK task world-wide. Finally, we found the oral-DDK performance for adult Hebrew speakers to be 6.4syllables/s (SD=.8), not significantly different than the English norms. This implies possible phonological similarities between English and Hebrew. We further note that no gender effects were found in our study. We recommend using oral-DDK as an important tool in the speech language pathologist's arsenal. Yet, application of this task should be done carefully, comparing individual performance to a set norm within the specific language.
Readers will be able to: (1) identify the Speech-Language Pathologist assessment process using the oral-DDK task, by comparing an individual performance to the present English norm, (2) describe the impact of language on oral-DDK performance, and (3) accurately detect Hebrew speakers' patients using this tool.
口面部及言语运动控制障碍代表了多种言语和语言病理学问题。尽早识别此类问题很重要，且具有临床意义。一种用于评估言语运动控制障碍的存在及严重程度的常见且简单的工具是口腔轮替运动速率（oral-DDK）。令人惊讶的是，文献中缺少成人表现的常模。本研究的目标是：（1）通过从文献（五项研究，N = 141）中收集数据，为（年轻至中年）成年英语使用者建立口腔轮替运动速率的常模；（2）通过分析用其他语言进行的研究（五项研究，N = 140）以及英语常模，调查语言（和文化）对口腔轮替运动表现的可能影响；（3）通过测试115名使用者，为成年希伯来语使用者找到一个新的常模。我们首先给出一个英语常模，平均值为6.2个音节/秒（标准差 = 0.8），下限为5.4个音节/秒，可用于指示可能的异常情况。接下来，我们发现四种测试语言（英语、葡萄牙语、波斯语和希腊语）在口腔轮替运动速率上存在显著差异。结果表明，有必要在全球范围内为口腔轮替运动任务的应用设定对语言和文化敏感的常模。最后，我们发现成年希伯来语使用者的口腔轮替运动表现为6.4个音节/秒（标准差 = 0.8），与英语常模无显著差异。这意味着英语和希伯来语之间可能存在语音相似性。我们还注意到，在我们的研究中未发现性别影响。我们建议将口腔轮替运动速率作为言语语言病理学家工具库中的一项重要工具。然而，应用此任务时应谨慎，将个体表现与特定语言内的既定常模进行比较。
读者将能够：（1）通过将个体表现与当前英语常模进行比较，识别使用口腔轮替运动任务的言语语言病理学家评估过程；（2）描述语言对口腔轮替运动表现的影响；（3）使用此工具准确检测希伯来语使用者的患者。
