Investigator s Abstract): At present a coherent account of speech motor development is lacking. This constitutes a major roadblock to our efforts to assess the potential impact of motor deficits on the development of speech disorders. If the normal course of speech motor development is unknown, atypical developmental patterns cannot be identified. Using newly available technologies, the overall goal of the present project is to implement a multi-leveled and integrative approach to the problem of speech motor development. Speech and basic oral motor functions will be assessed through multiple analytic windows, including direct recording of speech movements, measurement of speech acoustic events, assessment of oral-motor reflexes, and indices of craniofacial anatomy. A long-term objective of this project is to obtain maturational profiles of speech, anatomical, and reflex measures based on tests of large numbers of subjects aged 4 yrs to young adult. Using this method, the maturation of components of the oral motor system can be mapped out. The reflex and anatomic measures provide indices of the biological substrate from which speech motor processes must emerge. We will be able to determine the time of maturation to adult values of both speech-related variables and those reflecting basic oral physiology. The trajectories of these growth curves will be used to test hypotheses about the dynamic interactions of factors related to the acquisition of speech motor skills. In addition, a set of studies of smaller groups of subjects aged 4 to 12 yrs will provide finer grained analyses of speech movement organization. These studies are designed to test the hypothesis that young children are not simply smaller, less skilled performers using the same organizational strategies as adults. Rather children are using distinctive strategies that reflect the different biological tools that they bring to the task of speaking.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DC002527-03
Application #
2749236
Study Section
Sensory Disorders and Language Study Section (CMS)
Project Start
1996-08-01
Project End
2001-07-31
Budget Start
1998-08-01
Budget End
1999-07-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
1998
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Purdue University
Department
Other Health Professions
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
072051394
City
West Lafayette
State
IN
Country
United States
Zip Code
47907
Goffman, Lisa; Smith, Anne; Heisler, Lori et al. (2008) The breadth of coarticulatory units in children and adults. J Speech Lang Hear Res 51:1424-37
Kleinow, Jennifer; Smith, Anne (2006) Potential interactions among linguistic, autonomic, and motor factors in speech. Dev Psychobiol 48:275-87
Smith, Anne (2006) Speech motor development: Integrating muscles, movements, and linguistic units. J Commun Disord 39:331-49
Walsh, Bridget; Smith, Anne; Weber-Fox, Christine (2006) Short-term plasticity in children's speech motor systems. Dev Psychobiol 48:660-74
Weber-Fox, Christine; Hart, Laura J; Spruill 3rd, John E (2006) Effects of grammatical categories on children's visual language processing: Evidence from event-related brain potentials. Brain Lang 98:26-39
Finan, Donald S; Smith, Anne (2005) Jaw stretch reflexes in children. Exp Brain Res 164:58-66
Zelaznik, Howard N; Spencer, Rebecca M C; Ivry, Richard B et al. (2005) Timing variability in circle drawing and tapping: probing the relationship between event and emergent timing. J Mot Behav 37:395-403
Weber-Fox, Christine; Spencer, Rebecca M C; Spruill 3rd, John E et al. (2004) Phonologic processing in adults who stutter: electrophysiological and behavioral evidence. J Speech Lang Hear Res 47:1244-58
Smith, Anne; Zelaznik, Howard N (2004) Development of functional synergies for speech motor coordination in childhood and adolescence. Dev Psychobiol 45:22-33
Weber-Fox, Christine; Spencer, Rebecca; Cuadrado, Elizabeth et al. (2003) Development of neural processes mediating rhyme judgments: Phonological and orthographic interactions. Dev Psychobiol 43:128-45

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