The timing of speech and hand motor coordination in language delayed children

Abstract

Parameters of speech and hand motor control were measured in 23 dysphasic children and 35 controls from 5–12 years of age. The timing parameters measured at the segmental level are the VOT for initial stop consonants, the length of vowels, and the duration of the p closure in the word “ipi.” The timing parameters at the suprasegmental level were the length of syllables in isolated words and in longer utterances. In addition the timing control of finger coordination was investigated with a tapping task. Timing parameters for speech and fine motor control of the hands are more variable in the dysphasics than in the controls. The results suggest that such high variability contributes to the impairment of intelligibility of speech in dysphasics. Since high variability in the tapping task was also obtained, one could conclude that a general impairment of timing is the basis for the deficit in these children. The value of neurological models of timing control and of biological clocks to explain the findings wil...