BACKGROUND: Diadochokinetic rate reflects the motion state and synergic level of oral, lingual and speech muscle group, and it is an important index to judge the speech articulation, it is also very significant in the...BACKGROUND: Diadochokinetic rate reflects the motion state and synergic level of oral, lingual and speech muscle group, and it is an important index to judge the speech articulation, it is also very significant in the training and evaluation of vocal ability and the correction and treatment of speech. OBJECTIVE: To compare the diadochokinetic rate between deaf children and normal children. DESIGN: A comparative observation. SETTING: College of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Zhejiang University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty deaf children and 20 normal children of 6-7 years old, half boys and half girls, were selected from Hangzhou Rehabilitation Center for Deaf Children and Hangzhou Fuxing Kindergarten between January and March, 2006. The influences of organic dysarthria on our study had been eliminated, including intellectual and oral diseases, etc. Informed consents were obtained from the guardians of all the enrolled children. METHODS: ① The deaf children all cooperated with the study after proper communication with them. They practiced to pronounce /pa/, /ta/, /ka/ clearly in order, then pronounced them together, that was /pataka/. They should slow down at first in order to pronounce clearly and cohere them together, then speeded up to practice, so that the results could not be affected by the unfamiliar pronunciation. After practice, the deaf children were tested by pronouncing /pataka/ for five time continuously, and they were asked to pronounce clearly and correctly with uniform intensity, loudness, speed, etc. They were tested for three times by the same methods, and the durations of the three times were recorded to obtain the average value, then the velocity was calculated. The tests for the normal children were the same as those mentioned above. ② The differences of the measurement data were compared by the t test. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Results of diadochokinetic rate compared between deaf children and normal children. RESULTS: All the 20 normal children and 20 deaf children were involved in the analysis of results. The diadochokinetic rate was obviously lower in the deaf children than in the normal children [(0.64±0.18), (2.41±0.47) times/s, P < 0.01]. CONCLUSION: The diadochokinetic rate is lower in deaf children than in normal children. It is also suggested that the training of diadochokinetic function should be enhanced in the speech training of deaf children to improve their lingual and oral flexibility and speech articulation.展开更多
文摘BACKGROUND: Diadochokinetic rate reflects the motion state and synergic level of oral, lingual and speech muscle group, and it is an important index to judge the speech articulation, it is also very significant in the training and evaluation of vocal ability and the correction and treatment of speech. OBJECTIVE: To compare the diadochokinetic rate between deaf children and normal children. DESIGN: A comparative observation. SETTING: College of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Zhejiang University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty deaf children and 20 normal children of 6-7 years old, half boys and half girls, were selected from Hangzhou Rehabilitation Center for Deaf Children and Hangzhou Fuxing Kindergarten between January and March, 2006. The influences of organic dysarthria on our study had been eliminated, including intellectual and oral diseases, etc. Informed consents were obtained from the guardians of all the enrolled children. METHODS: ① The deaf children all cooperated with the study after proper communication with them. They practiced to pronounce /pa/, /ta/, /ka/ clearly in order, then pronounced them together, that was /pataka/. They should slow down at first in order to pronounce clearly and cohere them together, then speeded up to practice, so that the results could not be affected by the unfamiliar pronunciation. After practice, the deaf children were tested by pronouncing /pataka/ for five time continuously, and they were asked to pronounce clearly and correctly with uniform intensity, loudness, speed, etc. They were tested for three times by the same methods, and the durations of the three times were recorded to obtain the average value, then the velocity was calculated. The tests for the normal children were the same as those mentioned above. ② The differences of the measurement data were compared by the t test. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Results of diadochokinetic rate compared between deaf children and normal children. RESULTS: All the 20 normal children and 20 deaf children were involved in the analysis of results. The diadochokinetic rate was obviously lower in the deaf children than in the normal children [(0.64±0.18), (2.41±0.47) times/s, P < 0.01]. CONCLUSION: The diadochokinetic rate is lower in deaf children than in normal children. It is also suggested that the training of diadochokinetic function should be enhanced in the speech training of deaf children to improve their lingual and oral flexibility and speech articulation.