Speech production requires the coordinated functioning of the respiratory, phonatory and articulatory systems, as well as effective motor control, including the planning, preparation and execution of movements. Diadochokinesis, the ability to rapidly repeat successive antagonistic speech movements, offers a simple insight into how these processes work. Diadochokinesis tasks typically test the speed and accuracy of repetition of a sequence of syllables (mainly /pa/, /ta/ and /ka/) or non-speech oral movements. Diadochokinesis is a sensitive indicator of motor speech disorders and a useful index of oral motor development in children, since speed and accuracy of performance increase with age and maturity of the speech motor system. Its simplicity of implementation and linguistic universality makes it suitable as a clinical tool for assessing motor speech skills in both adults and children.
This paper aims to present the applicability of diadochokinesis in assessing children’s motor speech abilities, and to obtain reference values for diadochokinetic performance in the Slovenian preschool population. In the empirical part, we analysed the motor speech abilities of 35 preschool children with no known deviations in typical development using the speech diadochokinetic test and found that the expected value of the alternating and sequential movement measure increases with age. In fact, the six-year-old children scored statistically significantly higher compared to the three-year-old participants. We also found that the ability to articulate accurately in diadochokinetic tasks increases with age, suggesting a gradual development of motor speech abilities and the influence of speech matriculation and motor control of speech on them. The consistency parameter was also investigated, and the differences between age groups did not prove to be statistically significant.
This study provides the first preliminary data on expected diadochokinetic performance values specific to Slovenian-speaking preschool children and serves as a foundation for further research into the clinical usefulness of diadochokinesis in speech and language therapy.
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