Developmental Patterns in Speech Analysis on the Basis of Time Duration.

Speech Production researchers found that there was a variation in the spoken utterances of children of various ages due to the variability in their prosody or rhythmic pattern. This study in dictated the mutation in the speech production of children between the age 4 and 8 year. We analyzed this hypothesis by observing the role of word and phrase duration while uttering meaningful words and phrases in 100 children of age between 4 to 8 years out of which 17 were learning music. Moreover, comparisons have been made for the observation of the variability in the speech production of normal developing children and the children who were learning music. We concluded that with the advancement in age, there was a significant fall in the word and phrase duration while the utterance of different words and phrases in dictating a fluent speech production as the child advance in age. Also, the children who were learning music showed significant decrease in the word and phrase duration while uttering different words and phrases suggestion more rhythms in their speech patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]