title: Disfluency and rate characteristics of young adult, middle-aged, and older males.
abstract: Disfluency and rate characteristics of a young adult group (21-30 years) and two groups of middle-aged (45-54 and 55-64 years, respectively) and two groups of older males (65-74 and 75-91 years, respectively) were investigated to determine whether there were significant differences among groups as reflected by two rate and seven disfluency measures during oral reading, picture description, and conversational speech. Findings revealed that speech rate during each of the speaking tasks differed significantly among young adult, middle-aged, and older males. Also, speech rate differed significantly, in decreasing order, for oral reading, conversation, and picture description, irrespective of age. Levels of disfluency, however, did not appear to differ among the various age groups.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011932:Reading; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D014705:Verbal Behavior