Slow Speech Rate Research Articles

Rate of speech affects the comprehension of pronouns in children with developmental language disorder.

This study examined whether children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) have knowledge of binding principles (i.e., linking pronouns to their structurally licensed antecedent) during real-time sentence processing (cross-modal priming, real-time) and overt comprehension (sentence-picture matching, interpretative) and whether rate of speech impacted access to that knowledge. Fourteen children with DLD participated in two experiments, with sentences presented auditorily at either a regular or slow speech rate. Sentences were matched except to contain a pronoun, reflexive, or noun phrase (control) in the same syntactic position. Experiment (1) used a cross-modal picture priming paradigm to test real-time pronoun-antecedent linking abilities at both rates of speech. Children were instructed to make a binary decision during the uninterrupted auditory presentation of a sentence to a visually presented image (of the antecedent) at the offset of a pronoun, a reflexive, or a control noun. Response times between conditions (e.g., pronoun vs. control noun) were compared to determine whether participants showed evidence of facilitative priming (faster response times in the pronoun than control noun condition) at either speech rate. Experiment (2) used an auditory sentence-picture-matching task to test final comprehension of similar sentences containing a pronoun or reflexive. Accuracy was compared across both speech rates. For Experiment (1), children with DLD did not show evidence of real-time pronoun-antecedent priming at the regular speech rate. However, when sentences were slowed, they showed facilitative priming for the pronoun condition. For experiment (2), children with DLD performed at-chance when interpreting sentences with pronouns regardless of speech rate. While children with DLD have been shown to have difficulty processing sentences containing anaphors (such as pronouns), results suggest that this is not due to loss of intrinsic knowledge of binding principles. By slowing the rate of speech input, we showed that children with DLD do have access to that knowledge and can make the correct link during real-time processing between a pronoun and its structurally licensed antecedent (Experiment 1) but need more time to do so. However, the effect of slowed speech input does not extend to final comprehension (Experiment 2).

Pragmatics via prosody in interaction optimization

The article represents a case study of Joaquin Phoenix’s acceptance speech, aimed at examining the interface of pragmatics and prosody. Relying on research into prosodic-pragmatic relationships and employing auditory prosody analysis combined with methods of pragmatic and discourse analysis, the article explores the interaction of prosody with speech acts, as well as with their related politeness and discursive strategies. Direct expressives are associated with three positive politeness strategies and are prosodically characterized by a normal or slow speech rate, normal or reduced volume, short intonation groups, very short pauses, a narrow pitch range, clear timbre, and a regular rhythm. The illocutionary force of indirect expressives relies on stylistic devices and markers of positive politeness, connoting emotional closeness and “sincerity” as components of felicity conditions for such acts. Indirect expressives are signaled by very short, short, or medium filled pauses, resonant timbre, low fall and stressed syllable, a descending stepping scale followed by a falling nucleus, high fall intonation groups, a rising intonation before key concepts, accelerated speech tempo, increased loudness, and emphasis on key words. The prosodic signals of expressive syntax and positive politeness coincide, except for markers emphasizing commonality. The “ecocentric” part of speech is constructed by representatives-reasoning that stimulates reflection without imposing views. This aligns with the negative politeness of non-imposition, marked by mitigators like hedges, bushes, and shields. The intonational accent on words with denotative or connotative meanings related to “discrimination” contributes to the discursive strategy of group polarization.

A meta-analysis of expressive prosody in cochlear implant users

IntroductionProsody is used to express indexical (identifying the talker), linguistic (e.g., question intonation, lexical stress), pragmatic (e.g., contrastive stress, sarcasm), and emotional/affective functions. It is manifested through changes in fundamental frequency (f0), intensity, and duration. F0 and intensity are degraded when perceived through a cochlear implant (CI). The purpose of this meta-analysis is to compare expressive prosody in speech produced by CI users versus normal hearing peers. MethodsA systematic search of the literature found 25 articles that met all inclusion criteria. These articles were assessed for quality, and data pertaining to the expression of f0, intensity, and duration, as well as classification accuracy and appropriateness ratings from normal hearing listeners, were extracted and meta-analyzed using random effects models. ResultsThe articles included in the meta-analysis were generally of acceptable or high quality. Meta-analyses revealed significant differences between individuals with CIs vs. normal hearing on all measures except mean f0, mean intensity, and rhythm. Effect sizes were generally medium to large. There was significant heterogeneity across studies, but little evidence of publication bias. ConclusionsCI users speak with less variable f0, smaller f0 contours, more variable intensity, a slower speech rate, and reduced final lengthening at syntactic boundaries. These acoustic differences are reflected in significantly poorer ratings of speech produced by CI users compared to their normal hearing peers, as assessed by groups of normal hearing listeners. Because atypical expressive prosody is associated with negative outcomes, clinicians should consider targeting prosody when working with individuals who use CIs.

Exploring Linguistic Modification Techniques Employed in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Teachers’ Discourse

This study aims to explore the linguistic modifications techniques employed by ODL teachers. Linguistic modification is a crucial aspect of learning and teaching as it facilitates students’ comprehension by reducing the complexity of syntactic structures and utilizing familiar language patterns. The research data were collected through observations and informal chats with the teachers. A total of 10 observations were conducted during the Second Semester of the 2022/2023 academic year, with informal chats held at the end of each session to obtain additional insights into learning dynamics. The analysis reveals that the teachers’ discourse in ODL context exhibits various linguistic modifications at phonological, syntactic and sematic level. These include a high frequency of self-repetition, exaggerated pronunciation, a slower speech rate, the avoidance of contractions, the use of concise sentences and phrases, paraphrasing, and the avoidance of idioms and unfamiliar words. These phonological, semantic, and syntactic modifications contribute to enhanced input comprehensibility, reducing confusion and fostering increased engagement and participation. This study underscores the significance of linguistic modifications in teachers’ discourse. These modifications are essential for ensuring input comprehensibility and fostering students’ engagement in the learning process. By adapting their language to meet the learners’ needs, teachers can effectively facilitate understanding and create an inclusive learning environment in ODL context.

Comparing Spoken Versus iPad-Administered Versions of a Narrative Retell Assessment Tool in a Practice-Based Research Partnership.

In the current age of greater digital delivery of services, it is important to examine the validity and differences between spoken and digital delivery of materials. The current study is a practice-based research partnership between school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and researchers, evaluating presentation effects and validity of a narrative retell assessment tool created by SLPs. Fifty-one children across kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2 completed the narrative retell task, retelling One Frog Too Many and Frog Goes to Dinner in three in-person story presentation conditions administered 1 week apart: spoken, iPad with audio-recorded natural rate of speech, and iPad with slow rate of speech. This was followed by 10 comprehension questions related to story events. Children also completed the Story Retelling subtests from the Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills (TILLS). Children recalled significantly fewer events in the spoken condition compared to audio-recorded iPad conditions. No significant effect of speaking rate was found. Presentation condition and rate did not affect performance on comprehension questions. Correlations among retell measures and corresponding subtests on a standardized language test ranged from weak to strong, providing some evidence of concurrent validity. This practice-based research partnership provided valuable insight into differences in delivery modality as well as the validity of a school-based SLP created narrative retell assessment tool. This study found that rate did not impact recall of events or performance on comprehension questions. Additionally, children performed better on narrative retell measures when stories were told using an iPad. This highlights the potential for iPad delivery as an option in narrative retell tasks. Finally, this study provided an initial examination of the Narrative Evaluation Tool's validity, finding the tool captures ability to recall narrative events; however, future studies are needed to examine the tool's validity as a measure of narrative comprehension. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25260910.

Effects of speech rate modifications on phonatory acoustic outcomes in Parkinson's disease.

Speech rate reduction is a global speech therapy approach for speech deficits in Parkinson's disease (PD) that has the potential to result in changes across multiple speech subsystems. While the overall goal of rate reduction is usually improvements in speech intelligibility, not all people with PD benefit from this approach. Speech rate is often targeted as a means of improving articulatory precision, though less is known about rate-induced changes in other speech subsystems that could help or hinder communication. The purpose of this study was to quantify phonatory changes associated with speech rate modification across a broad range of speech rates from very slow to very fast in talkers with and without PD. Four speaker groups participated: younger and older healthy controls, and people with PD with and without deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN-DBS). Talkers read aloud standardized sentences at 7 speech rates elicited using magnitude production: habitual, three slower rates, and three faster rates. Acoustic measures of speech intensity, cepstral peak prominence, and fundamental frequency were measured as a function of speech rate and group. Overall, slower rates of speech were associated with differential effects on phonation across the four groups. While all talkers spoke at a lower pitch in slow speech, younger talkers showed increases in speech intensity and cepstral peak prominence, while talkers with PD and STN-DBS showed the reverse pattern. Talkers with PD without STN-DBS and older healthy controls behaved in between these two extremes. At faster rates, all groups uniformly demonstrated increases in cepstral peak prominence. While speech rate reductions are intended to promote positive changes in articulation to compensate for speech deficits in dysarthria, the present results highlight that undesirable changes may be invoked across other subsystems, such as at the laryngeal level. In particular, talkers with STN-DBS, who often demonstrate speech deterioration following DBS surgery, demonstrated more phonatory detriments at slowed speech rates. Findings have implications for speech rate candidacy considerations and speech motor control processes in PD.

Talking Like a Teacher—A Study of Pre-Service Teachers’ Voice and Speech Characteristics in Learning and Teaching Situations

Voice and speech are educational tools and a medium of pedagogy for teachers. Teachers tend to modify their voice and speech to support learning. This study aimed to investigate whether pre-service teachers modify their speech and voice in teaching compared to peer learning speech and whether the changes can promote learning and be beneficial for the speakers. Nine pre-service physics teachers’ voices were recorded in three learning situations and in one teaching session with similar external circumstances. Duration of speech turns, pausing, speech rate, fundamental frequency (F0) and its variation, sound pressure level (SPL) and its range, and voice quality were analyzed. Results showed that the participants had longer speech turns, decreased speech rate, and increased pausing when teaching compared to speech in peer learning situations. F0 and SPL were higher in teaching, indicating that the teaching situation was more stressful than the peer learning situation. For F0, this was confirmed by correlation analysis. From the learning point, increased pausing and slower speech rate may be beneficial, but increased F0 and SPL may, on the other hand, be harmful to future teachers as they can increase the risk of vocal overloading. Voice training for future teachers is strongly recommended.

Speech patterns during memory recall relates to early tau burden across adulthood.

Early cognitive decline may manifest in subtle differences in speech. We examined 238 cognitively unimpaired adults from the Framingham Heart Study (32-75 years) who completed amyloid and tau PET imaging. Speech patterns during delayed recall of a story memory task were quantified via five speech markers, and their associations with global amyloid status and regional tau signal were examined. Total utterance time, number of between-utterance pauses, speech rate, and percentage of unique words significantly correlated with delayed recall score although the shared variance was low (2%-15%). Delayed recall score was not significantly different between β-amyoid-positive (Aβ+) and -negative (Aβ-) groups and was not associated with regional tau signal. However, longer and more between-utterance pauses, and slower speech rate were associated with increased tau signal across medial temporal and early neocortical regions. Subtle speech changes during memory recall may reflect cognitive impairment associated with early Alzheimer's disease pathology. Speech during delayed memory recall relates to tau PET signal across adulthood. Delayed memory recall score was not associated with tau PET signal. Speech shows greater sensitivity to detecting subtle cognitive changes associated with early tau accumulation. Our cohort spans adulthood, while most PET imaging studies focus on older adults.

User speech rates and preferences for system speech rates

Prior studies of human communication have demonstrated that prosocial outcomes occur when facets of communication converge between interlocutors—for example, social likeability and perceived competence increase when people adapt their pitch or rate of speech towards one another. Inspired by these findings, we examined whether user preference for fast or slow system speech rate covaries with user speech rate. Experimental participants uploaded samples of their reading speech and spontaneous speech, and then listened to fast and slow system speech before choosing their preferred system speech rate. Results aligned with our hypothesis that fast speakers prefer faster system speech and that slow speakers prefer slow. Design implications are discussed, as well as plans for future studies that explore the potential for systems to automatically measure the user’s speech rate and converge towards it.

Demographic, neuropsychological, and speech variables that impact iconic and supplementary-to-speech gesturing in aphasia

Abstract We model the role of demographic, neuropsychological and speech variables in characterizing iconic gesture use in speakers with aphasia, especially gestures that supplement speech and are essential for understanding the spoken message. Using backward regression modelling with cross validation in 37 speakers with aphasia, literature-derived demographic (e.g., age), neuropsychological (e.g., aphasia and anomia severity), and speech (e.g., speaking duration) variables were used to predict frequency and rate (per minute) of iconic, supplementary, and essential gesturing. We identified that nearly 60% of iconic gestures produced by speakers were supplementary to speech with 38% being essential for understanding the speech. Generally, those with more severe aphasia, anomia, and with nonfluent aphasia tended to produce fewer tokens and a slower rate of speech, and these were the speakers who produced more and a higher rate of supplementary and essential gestures. These findings underline the importance of iconic gestures to improve communication.

Evaluation of orofacial force-related measures using a novel measuring device: explanation of associations with speech rate in dysarthria

ABSTRACT Background The aim of this study was to examine the potential associations between orofacial force-related measures and speech rate in matched groups of 23 adults with dysarthria, and 69 healthy adults. Research design and methods A novel piezoresistive sensor-based device was utilized to obtain the orofacial maximum forces (OMFs) and rate of force development (RFD) measures. The study computed alternating motion rates (AMRs), sequential motion rates (SMRs), and articulation rate (AR) for all participants. The analysis included between-group comparisons and correlation analyses. The study also examined the reliability of the OMFs and RFD measures. Results Individuals with dysarthria exhibited significantly slower speech rates (approximately 41.89% to 56.53% slower) compared to the control group. Except for a few exceptions in the jaw, the dysarthria group demonstrated significantly lower OMFs and RFD measures. The correlation analysis revealed that OMFs were weakly to moderately correlated (r = .488–.674) and RFD measures were very weak to moderately correlated (r = .047–.578) with speech rate measures. Conclusions The findings suggest that reduced OMFs and RFD measures may contribute to the slowed speech rate observed in adults with dysarthria. The study also highlights that OMFs are significantly more reliable (day-to-day) than RFD measures.

“Um…, It’s Really Difficult to… Um… Speak Fluently”: Neural Tracking of Spontaneous Speech

Abstract Spontaneous real-life speech is imperfect in many ways. It contains disfluencies and ill-formed utterances and has a highly variable rate. When listening to spontaneous speech, the brain needs to contend with these features in order to extract the speaker’s meaning. Here, we studied how the neural response is affected by four specific factors that are prevalent in spontaneous colloquial speech: (1) the presence of fillers, (2) the need to detect syntactic boundaries in disfluent speech, and (3) variability in speech rate. Neural activity was recorded (using electroencephalography) from individuals as they listened to an unscripted, spontaneous narrative, which was analyzed in a time-resolved fashion to identify fillers and detect syntactic boundaries. When considering these factors in a speech-tracking analysis, which estimates a temporal response function (TRF) to describe the relationship between the stimulus and the neural response it generates, we found that the TRF was affected by all of them. This response was observed for lexical words but not for fillers, and it had an earlier onset for opening words vs. closing words of a clause and for clauses with slower speech rates. These findings broaden ongoing efforts to understand neural processing of speech under increasingly realistic conditions. They highlight the importance of considering the imperfect nature of real-life spoken language, linking past research on linguistically well-formed and meticulously controlled speech to the type of speech that the brain actually deals with on a daily basis.

Normative Values for Word Syllable Duration With Interpretation in a Large Sample of Stroke Survivors With Aphasia.

Slow speech rate and abnormal temporal prosody are primary diagnostic criteria for differentiating between people with aphasia who do and do not have apraxia of speech. We sought to identify appropriate cutoff values for abnormal word syllable duration (WSD) in a word repetition task, interpret them relative to a data set of people with chronic aphasia, and evaluate the extent to which manually derived measures could be approximated through an automated process that relied on commercial speech recognition technology. Fifty neurotypical participants produced 49 multisyllabic words during a repetition task. Audio recordings were submitted to an automated speech recognition (ASR) service (IBM Watson) to measure word duration and generate an orthographic transcription. The transcribed words were compared to a lexical database, and the number of syllables was identified. Automatic and manual measures were compared for 50% of the sample. Results were interpreted relative to WSD scores from an existing data set of 195 people with mostly chronic aphasia. ASR correctly identified 83% of target words and 98% of target syllable counts. Automated word duration calculations were longer than manual measures due to imprecise cursor placement. Upon applying regression coefficients to the automated measures and examining the frequency distributions for both manual and estimated measures, a WSD of 303-316 ms was found to indicate longer-than-normal performance (corresponding to the 95th percentile). With this cutoff, 40%-45% of participants with aphasia in our comparison sample had an abnormally long WSD. We recommend using a rounded WSD cutoff score between 303 and 316 ms for manual measures. Future research will focus on customizing automated WSD methods to speech samples from people with aphasia, identifying target words that maximize production and measurement reliability, and developing WSD standard scores based on a large participant sample with and without aphasia.

Ageing of grammatical advance planning in spoken sentence production: an eye movement study.

This study used an image-description paradigm with concurrent eye movement recordings to investigate differences of grammatical advance planning between young and older speakers in spoken sentence production. Participants were asked to produce sentences with simple or complex initial phrase structures (IPS) in Experiment 1 while producing individual words in Experiment 2. Young and older speakers showed comparable speaking latencies in sentence production task, whereas older speakers showed longer latencies than young speakers in word production task. Eye movement data showed that compared with young speakers, older speakers had higher fixation percentage on object 1, lower percentage of gaze shift from object 1to2, and lower fixation percentage on object 2 in simple IPS sentences, while they showed similar fixation percentage on object 1, similar percentage of gaze shift from object 1to2, and lower fixation percentage on object 2 in complex IPS sentences, indicating a decline of grammatical encoding scope presenting on eye movement patterns. Meanwhile, speech analysis showed that older speakers presented longer utterance duration, slower speech rate, and longer and more frequently occurred pauses in articulation, indicating a decline of speech articulation in older speakers. Thus, our study suggests that older speakers experience an ageing effect in the sentences with complex initial phrases due to limited cognitive resources.

Speaking fast and slow: How speech rate of digital assistants affects likelihood to use

The market for smart speakers, which come equipped with branded digital assistants like Amazon Alexa, is expected to reach $23 billion by 2025. To take advantage of this opportunity, brands are invested in attracting consumers to their digital assistant. While digital assistants can provide social value to consumers through their vocal interactions, little research guides firms in optimizing paralinguistic features to enhance consumer usage of these tools. Across three studies, we show that fast and slow speech rates can negatively impact likelihood to use a digital assistant, that interaction style (monological versus dialogical) moderates this effect, with participants seeing Alexa as being more of a partner, versus a servant when the interaction is dialogical and moderately to fast paced. This work makes a contribution at the intersection of what is known about this nascent technology and how consumers interact with it, leading to insight on how to optimize digital assistants for consumers.

Comparing intelligibility and recognition memory of human and text-to-speech voices

Clear speech can be more intelligible and better remembered than casual speech. Intelligibility and memory are assumed to be related—under the effortfulness hypothesis, the intelligibility-enhancing properties of clear speech (e.g., slower speech rate) facilitate processing, which frees up working memory resources and confers a memory advantage. However, prior work has only investigated naturally produced clear speech. How does clear speech influence memory for computer voices? The current study examines intelligibility and recognition memory of clear and casual speech for a text-to-speech (TTS) voice and a human voice, and compares older and younger adult listeners. In a speech-perception-in-noise task, clear speech was more intelligible than casual speech for both voices, the human was more intelligible than the TTS voice, and the younger adults performed better than the older adults. In an old-new recognition task, memory was better for the human voice relative to the TTS voice, consistent with the intelligibility results and the effortfulness hypothesis. However, inconsistent with the effortfulness hypothesis, there was no clear speech memory benefit, and the older adults performed better than the younger adults. The current findings are relevant for our understanding of human-computer interaction and theories about the relationship between speaking style and memory.

Perceptual and Acoustic Analysis of Speech in Spinocerebellar ataxia Type 1.

This study characterizes the speech phenotype of spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1) using both perceptual and objective acoustic analysis of speech in a cohort of SCA1 patients. Twenty-seven symptomatic SCA1 patients in various disease stages (SARA score range: 3-32 points) and 18 sex and age matched healthy controls underwent a clinical assessment addressing ataxia severity, non-ataxia signs, cognitive functioning, and speech. Speech samples were perceptually rated by trained speech therapists, and acoustic metrics representing speech timing, vocal control, and voice quality were extracted. Perceptual analysis revealed reduced intelligibility and naturalness in speech samples of SCA1 patients. Acoustically, SCA1 patients presented with slower speech rate and diadochokinetic rate as well as longer syllable duration compared to healthy controls. No distinct abnormalities in voice quality in the acoustic analysis were detected at group level. Both the affected perceptual and acoustic variables correlated with ataxia severity. Longitudinal assessment of speech is needed to place changes in speech in the context of disease progression and potential response to treatment.

Spatial patterns of elevated magnetic susceptibility in progressive apraxia of speech

PurposeProgressive apraxia of speech (PAOS) is a neurodegenerative disorder affecting the planning or programming of speech. Little is known about its magnetic susceptibility profiles indicative of biological processes such as iron deposition and demyelination. This study aims to clarify (1) the pattern of susceptibility in PAOS patients, (2) the susceptibility differences between the phonetic (characterized by predominance of distorted sound substitutions and additions) and prosodic (characterized by predominance of slow speech rate and segmentation) subtypes of PAOS, and (3) the relationships between susceptibility and symptom severity. MethodsTwenty patients with PAOS (nine phonetic and eleven prosodic subtypes) were prospectively recruited and underwent a 3 Tesla MRI scan. They also underwent detailed speech, language, and neurological evaluations. Quantitative susceptibility maps (QSM) were reconstructed from multi-echo gradient echo MRI images. Region of interest analysis was conducted to estimate susceptibility coefficients in several subcortical and frontal regions. We compared susceptibility values between PAOS and an age-matched control group and performed a correlation analysis between susceptibilities and an apraxia of speech rating scale (ASRS) phonetic and prosodic feature ratings. ResultsThe magnetic susceptibility of PAOS was statistically greater than that of controls in subcortical regions (left putamen, left red nucleus, and right dentate nucleus) (p < 0.01, also survived FDR correction) and in the left white-matter precentral gyrus (p < 0.05, but not survived FDR correction). The prosodic patients showed greater susceptibilities than controls in these subcortical and precentral regions. The susceptibility in the left red nucleus and in the left precentral gyrus correlated with the prosodic sub-score of the ASRS. ConclusionMagnetic susceptibility in PAOS patients was greater than controls mainly in the subcortical regions. While larger samples are needed before QSM is considered ready for clinical differential diagnosis, the present study contributes to our understanding of magnetic susceptibility changes and the pathophysiology of PAOS.

English Phonological Modification of Teacher Talk for Indonesian Secondary School Students

Phonological modification of teacher talk is one of crucial things in teaching English as a foreign language for secondary school students. It aims at providing a comprehensible input and language model for students within the efforts of creating effective and meaningful teaching and learning activities designed. Therefore, this study is to explore the ways of employing English phonological modification and the reasons for using it for teaching secondary school students. To gain the data needed, the researcher applied descriptive qualitative research to explore the phenomenon in EFL classroom interaction involving three English teachers who perform their teaching at two different secondary schools in South Sulawesi, Indonesia; SMA Negeri 1 dan 2 Parepare. A direct classroom observation entailing audio recording and interview were utilized to gain the data and analyzed based on the conversational analysis framework. The data analysis reveals that EFL teachers regularly modify their English phonology by using four distinctive features, namely it is more extended pauses, slow rate of speech, exaggerate articulation, and clear articulation. Moreover, these modifications occurred in three numbers of reasons for emphasizing the presented materials, providing understandable and comprehensible input, and modeling the students to the target language. Those findings are taken into account that the use of phonological modification accelerated students’ comprehension in learning English.

A Descriptive Study of Speech Breathing in Children With Cerebral Palsy During Two Types of Connected Speech Tasks.

This study examined speech breathing during two connected speech tasks in children with cerebral palsy (CP) and typically developing (TD) peers. Understanding how the respiratory system supports speech production during various speech tasks can help researchers construct appropriate models of speech production and clinicians remediate speech disorders effectively. Four children with CP and four age- and sex-matched TD peers completed two speech tasks, reading and extemporaneous speech. Respiratory kinematic and acoustic data were collected. Dependent variables included utterance length, speech rate, sound pressure level, and lung volume variables. Based on descriptive results, children with CP and speech motor involvement demonstrated reduced utterance length and speech rate, equivalent intensity levels, and changes in lung volume variables indicative of respiratory physiological impairment as compared to their TD peers. However, children with CP and no speech motor involvement exhibited speech production and speech breathing variables in the more typical range. In relation to task effects, the majority of children (CP and TD) produced shorter utterances, slower speech rates, equivalent intensity levels, higher lung volume initiation, termination, excursion, higher percent vital capacity per syllable, and longer inspiratory duration during extemporaneous speech as compared to reading. Two major themes emerged from the data: (a) Children with CP, particularly those with concomitant speech motor involvement, demonstrate different speech production and speech breathing patterns than their TD peers. (b) Speech task impacts speech production and speech breathing variables in both children with CP and their TD peers, but the extemporaneous speech task did not seem to exaggerate group differences.