Temporal features of articulation from childhood to adolescence: An electropalatographic investigation

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the development of articulatory timing from mid‐childhood to late adolescence. Productions of sentences containing /t/, /l/, /s/, and /k/ were produced by 48 children and adults (aged 6‐38 years) and captured using the Reading Electropalatography3 (EPG3) system. Mean duration of the sentences and the approach, closure/stable constriction, and release phases of consonant articulation were calculated. In addition, temporal coordination of lingual gestures and the intra‐subject articulatory timing variation were investigated across the ages. Results reveal some distinct differences in duration and temporal coordination of lingual gestures between 6‐ to 7‐year‐olds and mature speakers, with continual refinement of articulatory control indicated into late adolescence. Differences in articulatory stability, in contrast, were not significant. The present findings may form a platform for development of a more descriptive model of motor speech development.

• Speech development
• motor control
• coarticulation
• EPG
• tongue
• variability.