Do older adults experience changes in their speech fluency? Some evidence from Iranian elderly people

Abstract

Background: Normal aging can affect speech fluency. Changes in anatomy and physiology of speech production system in elderly people may reduce speech fluency. However, few studies have been conducted on age-related changes in speech fluency and their results are very contradictory. The aim of this study was to explore speech fluency characteristics in elderly adults and to respond to controversies in this field. Methods: For this purpose, speech fluency features of 32 young adults, 37 middle-aged adults, 33 young-old adults and 26 old-old adults in conversation were analyzed. Speech and articulation rate, frequency and duration of pauses and frequency and type of disfluencies were calculated. Results: The findings showed that speech rate, frequency of other disfluencies (OD) and frequency of pauses in young adults were significantly different with young-old and old-old adults. The same significant differences were found between middle-age adults and both young-old and old-old groups. In terms of articulation rate, frequency of stuttering-like disfluencies (SLD) and duration of pause, there was a significant difference between old-old group and other age groups. Conclusions: Changes in cognitive capacity, anatomy and physiology of speech production system affect the speech fluency in elderly people. Therefore, aging would affect speech fluency even in normal elderly people.