Physiologic Development of Tongue–Jaw Coordination From Childhood to Adulthood

Abstract

This investigation aimed to examine the development of tongue-jaw coordination during speech from childhood to adolescence. Electromagnetic articulography was used to track tongue and jaw motion in 48 children and adults (aged 6-38 years) during productions of /t/ and /k/ embedded in sentences. The coordinative organization of the tongue and jaw exhibited changes until the age of 8-11 years and continued to undergo refinement into late adolescence. The tongue-tip and tongue-body were observed to develop unique kinematic relations with the jaw. While tongue-tip movement became increasingly synchronized with jaw movement, tongue-body and jaw retained movement independence but developed a more consistent kinematic relation. The present results support the notion that speech motor development is nonuniform, with a refinement period from mid-childhood to late adolescence.