What Do Differences between Alternating and Sequential Diadochokinetic Tasks Tell Us about the Development of Oromotor Skills? An Insight from Childhood to Adulthood

Abstract

Oral diadochokinetic (DDK) tasks are common research and clinical tools used to test oromotor skills across different age groups. They include alternating motion rate (AMR) and sequential motion rate (SMR) tasks. AMR tasks involve repeating a single syllable, whereas SMR tasks involve repeating varying syllables. DDK performance is mostly discussed regarding the increasing rates of AMR and SMR tasks from childhood to adulthood, although less attention is given to the performance differences between SMR and AMR tasks across age groups. Here, AMR and SMR syllabic rates were contrasted in three populations: 7–9-year-old children, 14–16-year-old adolescents and 20–30-year-old adults. The results revealed similar syllabic rates for the two DDK tasks in children, whereas adolescents and adults achieved faster SMR rates. Acoustic analyses showed similarities in prosodic features between AMR and SMR sequences and in anticipatory coarticulation in the SMR sequences in all age groups. However, a lower degree of coarticulation was observed in children relative to adults. Adolescents, on the contrary, showed an adult-like pattern. These findings suggest that SMR tasks may be more sensitive to age-related changes in oromotor skills than AMR tasks and that greater gestural overlap across varying syllables may be a factor in achieving higher rates in SMR tasks.

Detection of Subclinical Motor Speech Deficits after Presumed Low-Grade Glioma Surgery

“…In our study, we also observed a slower rate for /pataka/ before and after surgery. Some studies suggest that adults achieve higher rates of /pataka/ compared to same-syllable repetitions [24]. In that respect, when compared to the same syllable repetitions and against the reference value, the slower rate observed in this study might represent a subclinical disturbance of motor speech.…”

“…Although widely used in motor speech assessments, DDK is still a subject of debate. Some studies propose that there is insufficient empirical evidence that would support the clinical use of nonspeech parameters in analyzing motor speech in patients with neurological disorders [23], while others suggest that DDK performance mirrors speech proficiency [24].…”

Development of a smartphone screening test for preclinical Alzheimer’s disease and validation across the dementia continuum

“…Clinically, the DDK test is used to detect types of motor speech disorders: (i) abnormalities of articulation secondary to weakness or incoordination of the muscles required for speech (dysarthria), and (ii) speech production difficulties due to sequencing or programming of muscles in the absence of weakness or incoordination (apraxia) [ 24 ]. Two types of DDK tasks are commonly used: Alternating Motion Rate refers to the rapid repetition of single syllables such as ‘pa’ or ‘ta’ or ‘ka’; Sequential Motion Rate refers to the rapid repetition of syllables in sequence, ‘pa-ta-ka.’ Both tasks are valid and sensitive motor tests and used in the differential diagnosis of adults with a variety of neurological disorders [ 25 , 26 ]. Alternating Motion Rates are less affected by linguistic factors.…”

Multiple evolutionary pressures shape identical consonant avoidance in the world’s languages

“…Utterance onset times occur later for words containing similar sounds than for words containing dissimilar sounds in production experiments ( 15 ). Additionally, while repeated syllables are easier for children to produce and learn ( 16 ), adults exhibit a faster speech rate for sequences of different syllables ( 17 ), striking given that identical consonants are common in nursery words (e.g., mama, cookie, etc.).…”