Speech patterns of children and adults elicited via a picture-naming task:An acoustic study

This brief study presents some acoustic phonetic characteristics that refle ct both the voice characteristics and motor speech behaviour of 20 pre-adol escent (6-, 8- and 10-year olds) boys and girls, and 9 adults in speech dat a that were elicited via a picture-naming task. The acoustic phonetic chara cteristics that were investigated included formant frequency values, coarti culation (or gestural overlap) and temporal patterns. Both voice characteri stics and motor speech behaviour presented evidence of age and sex differen ces, and age by sex interactions. In addition there were significant correl ations between formant frequencies and their associated formant frequency c hanges (or excursions). There was also evidence of individual differences i n the patterns of maturation, which did not conform to chronological age. T hese data are presented and discussed with reference to the sexual dimorphi sm of the vocal apparatus, the development of vocal characteristics, and mo tor speech development and behaviour. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All ri ghts reserved.