School of Psychological Sciences and Health, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
School of Health Sciences, Western Sydney University, Richmond, New South Wales, Australia.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2023 Jul 12;66(7):2164-2183. doi: 10.1044/2023_JSLHR-22-00472. Epub 2023 Jun 2.
This study investigates the hypothesis that younger speakers and speakers with more severe speech sound disorders are more likely to use simpler (undifferentiated) tongue gestures due to difficulties with, or immaturity of, lingual motor control.
The hypothesis is tested using cross-sectional secondary data analysis of synchronous audio and high-speed ultrasound recordings from children with idiopathic speech sound disorders ( = 30, aged 5;0-12;11 [years;months]) and typically developing children ( = 29, aged 5;8-12;10), producing /a/, /t/, /ɹ/, /l/, /s/, and /ʃ/ in an intervocalic /aCa/ environment. Tongue shape complexity is measured using NINFL (Number of INFLections) and modified curvature index (MCI) from splines fitted to ultrasound images at the point of maximal lingual gesture. Age, perceived accuracy, and consonant are used as predictors.
The results suggest that as age increases, children with speech sound disorders have lower MCI compared to typically developing children. Increase in age also led to decrease of MCI for the typically developing group. In the group of children with speech sound disorders, perceptually incorrect /ɹ/ productions have lower MCI than correct productions, relative to /a/.
There is some evidence of systematic tongue shape complexity differences between typically developing children and children with speech sound disorders when accounting for increase in age. Among children with speech sound disorders, increase in age and perceptually incorrect consonant realizations are associated with decreasing tongue shape complexity.
本研究旨在验证以下假设：由于舌运动控制的困难或不成熟，年轻的发音者和发音障碍更严重的发音者更有可能使用更简单（无区别）的舌运动。
通过对患有特发性语音障碍的儿童（n=30，年龄 5;0-12;11[岁；月]）和正常发育儿童（n=29，年龄 5;8-12;10）的同步音频和高速超声记录进行横断面二次数据分析来检验该假设，他们在元音间环境中产生/a/、/t/、/ɹ/、/l/、/s/和/ʃ/。使用 NINFL（INFLections 的数量）和从超声图像上拟合的样条的修正曲率指数（MCI）来测量舌形复杂性，这些图像位于最大舌运动点。年龄、感知准确性和辅音被用作预测因子。
结果表明，随着年龄的增长，患有语音障碍的儿童的 MCI 低于正常发育的儿童。年龄的增加也导致了正常发育组 MCI 的降低。在语音障碍儿童组中，与/a/相比，感知上不正确的/ɹ/发音的 MCI 低于正确发音的 MCI。
在考虑年龄增长的情况下，正常发育儿童和语音障碍儿童的舌形复杂性存在系统差异的证据。在患有语音障碍的儿童中，年龄的增加和感知上不正确的辅音实现与舌形复杂性的降低有关。
