LAUSR.org creates dashboard-style pages of related content for over 1.5 million academic articles. Sign Up to like articles & get recommendations!

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

Photo by krakenimages from unsplash

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)… Click to show full 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.

Keywords: smr tasks; childhood adulthood; oromotor skills; age groups

Journal Title: Brain Sciences
Year Published: 2023

Link to full text (if available)


Share on Social Media:                               Sign Up to like & get
recommendations!

Related content

More Information              News              Social Media              Video              Recommended



                Click one of the above tabs to view related content.