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1

THE PACE OF SPEECH IN AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDER (ASD)

100%

Michalik M. , Solak A.

Acta Neuropsychologica

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2017

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tom 15(4)

433-441

EN

The article presents the results of research into the pace of speech of children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) when compared to their peers with no such disabilities. The analysed criteria included: the number of syllables and phones used in 30 second-long utterances, the number of pauses made and their characteristics, and the percentage of the pauses within an utterance. The results of the analysis allowed for the study of the speech pace of the children as well as their general pace of speaking. We tested 5 girls and 11 boys, all of the children were intellectually disabled. The average age of the control group was 9 years and 1 month. Both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the speech were analysed. The obtained data consisted of audio recordings which were subsequently re-played multiple times in order to properly analyse the crucial phenomena occurring within the speech samples. This part of the research made use of the Audacity software (Audacity(R): Free Audio Editor and Recorder [Computer program]. Version 2.1.0 retrieved September 19th 2015 from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/). The material obtained in the research through the usage of Audacity software was subsequently analysed with the use of the Shapiro-Wilk test and the Mann-Whitney test. Estimative qualitative and quantitative analyses showed differences between the groups in all of the parameters which influence the pace of speech. However, the statistical analyses did not confirm any statistically significant differences in the average pace of speech, the ratio and the percentage of pauses within the speech samples, and the average duration of all types of pauses. The formulated hypotheses for the presence of significant diffe rences in the average pace of speech of children with autistic spec trum disorder and the normative group of children have not been confirmed. No significant differences have been noted in the average pace of speech, the ratio and the percentage of pauses within the speech samples, and the average duration of all types of pauses between the two groups.

2

THE SPEECH RATE OF PEOPLE AT AN ADVANCED OLD AGE

80%

Michalik M. , Kaczorowska-Bray K. , Milewski S. , Solak A.

Acta Neuropsychologica

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2018

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tom 16(2)

167-175

EN

The aim of the article was to evaluate the rate of speech of people at an advanced old age and without any demential illnesses when compared to the control group of 9-years-old children without any developmental disorders. Because of the fact that the control group consisted of children, we have also made references to the notion of elderspeak – a phenomenon similar to the baby-talk – but related to the way younger people talk to senior citizens. We tested the rate of speech in 32 subjects: the experimental group comprising 16 healthy people of an advanced old age without any neurodevelopmental illnesses (the average age: 83.1) and the control group, which included 16 children without any developmental disorders (the average age: 9.0) in order to achieve a correlation in terms of the male/female ratio for the comparative analysis. The analysed parameters included: the speaking rate, the articulation rate, the numer of pauses, and the ratio of pauses within the speech samples. The estimative quantitative analysis showed insignificant differences in the parameters that influence the rate of speech in both groups. The statistical analysis also showed that there were no significant differences in the main research parameters – the speaking rate, the articulation rate, the number of pauses, and the ratio of pauses. The research hypotheses regarding the differences in the speech rate of those at an advanced old age and of the children at the age of 9 were negated by the results of the ana lyses. It has been proven that the rate of speech of the elderly who age physiologically does not differ from the rate of speech production by the children.

3

ARTICULATION AND SPEAKING RATES IN BILINGUALS WITH REGARD TO TIME OF EXPOSURE TO ONE LANGUAGE

80%

Michalik M. , Czaplewska E. , Solak A. , Szkotak A.

Acta Neuropsychologica

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2020

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tom 18(2)

207-220

EN

The basic aim of the research presented in this paper was to check whether the language proficiency level of bilingual children with Polish as one of their languages is also related to the pace of speech, which is the result of two specific parameters i.e. articulation rate and speaking rate. It was assumed that children who use Polish more rarely and mostly at home will display slower speaking and articulation rates when contrasted with children who use Polish both at home and at school on an everyday basis. Participants were thirty-two children who speak Polish as one of two languages, the first research group consisting of sixteen Polish-French students at the age of 8.11 living in Wal-lonia. The second group consisted of sixteen Flemish-Polish students living in Flanders. Here the average age was 9.3 and subjects used Polish much less than their first group coun-terparts. The comparative analysis included the following parameters essential for the de-scription of the rate of speech: 1. basic: average speaking rate (phones/sec., syllables/sec, duration of pauses), average articulation rate (phones/sec., syllables/sec.), average ratio of pauses in speech sample (number and percentage), 2. accessory: average duration of all pauses (sec.), average duration of proper pauses (sec.), average duration of filled pauses (sec.), average duration of semi-filled pauses (sec.). The numerical data from the research was obtained with the use of free Audacity software. The results showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the two research groups in either the basic or the accessory speech rate parameters. In the Polish-French group the results were comparatively better but still statistically insignificant. It seems that the data obtained will confirm the need for considerable caution in the evalua-tion of the competence of bilingual children with high language skills. Similar to children with imbalanced bilingualism, these children may also, perhaps, require some extra time to deal with certain language tasks.