Loud speech in children with cerebral palsy (Nip, 2024)

Purpose: Speech motor control changes underlying louder speech are poorly understood in children with cerebral palsy (CP). The current study evaluates changes in the oral articulatory and laryngeal subsystems in children with CP and their typically developing (TD) peers during louder speech.Method: Nine children with CP and nine age- and sex-matched TD peers produced sentence repetitions in two conditions: (a) with their habitual rate and loudness and (b) with louder speech. Lip and jaw movements were recorded with optical motion capture. Acoustic recordings were obtained to evaluate vocal fold articulation.Results: Children with CP had smaller jaw movements, larger lower lip movements, slower jaw speeds, faster lip speeds, reduced interarticulator coordination, reduced low-frequency spectral tilt, and lower cepstral peak prominences (CPP) in comparison to their TD peers. Both groups produced louder speech with larger lip and jaw movements, faster lip and jaw speeds, increased temporal coordination, reduced movement variability, reduced spectral tilt, and increased CPP.Conclusions: Children with CP differ from their TD peers in the speech motor control of both the oral articulatory and laryngeal subsystems. Both groups alter oral articulatory and vocal fold movements when cued to speak loudly, which may contribute to the increased intelligibility associated with louder speech.Supplemental Material S1. Individual means and standard deviations for each dependent variable during habitual and loud speaking tasks.Nip, I. S. B. (2024). Articulatory and vocal fold movement patterns during loud speech in children with cerebral palsy. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 67(2), 477–493. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_JSLHR-23-00411

目的：大脑性瘫痪（CP）儿童中，语音运动控制的改变及其在音量增大时的内在机制理解不足。本研究评估了CP儿童及其发育正常（TD）同龄人在大声说话过程中口腔发音器官和喉部子系统的变化。方法：九名CP儿童和九名年龄、性别匹配的TD同龄人在两种条件下进行句子重复：一是以其习惯的速率和音量，二是以更大的音量。使用光学运动捕捉技术记录唇和颌部运动。获取声学记录以评估声带振动。结果：与TD同龄人相比，CP儿童的下颌运动幅度较小，下唇运动幅度较大，下颌速度较慢，唇部速度较快，咬合器间的协调性降低，低频频谱倾斜度减小，声学峰度（CPP）降低。两组儿童在增大音量时均表现出更大的唇部和下颌运动幅度，更快的唇部和下颌速度，增加的时间协调性，降低的运动变异性，减少的频谱倾斜度，以及增加的CPP。结论：CP儿童在口腔发音器官和喉部子系统的语音运动控制方面与TD同龄人存在差异。两组儿童在受到大声说话的提示时，均改变了口腔发音器官和声带振动，这可能是导致大声说话时语音清晰度提高的原因之一。补充材料S1：习惯性和大声说话任务中每个依赖变量的个体均值和标准差。Nip, I. S. B. (2024). 大脑性瘫痪儿童大声说话时的发音和声带运动模式。言语、语言和听力研究杂志，67(2)，477–493. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_JSLHR-23-00411