View in EDS PDF Full Text

Articulation Rate Between 2 and 4 Years of Age in French Children's Spontaneous Speech.

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Title: Articulation Rate Between 2 and 4 Years of Age in French Children's Spontaneous Speech.
Authors: Canault, Mélanie1,2 melanie.canault@univ-lyon1.fr, Krzonowski, Jennifer1, Anselme, Rémi1, Kern, Sophie1
Source: Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research. Jun2026, Vol. 69 Issue 6, p2397-2416. 20p.
Subject Terms: *Data analysis, *Benchmarking (Management), *Speech evaluation, *Comparative studies, *Language acquisition, *Cognition, *Evaluation, Cross-sectional method, Multiple regression analysis, Age distribution, Descriptive statistics, Physiological aspects of speech, Statistics, Intraclass correlation, Phonetics, Data analysis software, Confidence intervals, Articulation disorders in children
Geographic Terms: France
Abstract: Aim: This study reports age-related changes in articulation rate (syllables [SPS] and phones per second [PPS]) during spontaneous speech in French children aged 2-4 years and provides baseline values for this age range. Method: In this cross-sectional study, spontaneous speech (4,361 utterances) from 91 French children was collected. The articulation rate was calculated in SPS and PPS and was observed as a function of seven age groups. The distribution of articulation rate values for utterances in SPS and PPS by percentiles is provided. Results: In line with previous studies, the results confirm that the articulation rate increased with age. It increased from 3.14 to 3.88 SPS between 22 and 50 months, and from 6.06 to 8.31 PPS with significant changes emerging at 38-41 months. The results also indicate that the number of sounds per syllable increased significantly with age and that the growth in syllable structure complexity preceded that of articulation rate in SPS. Conclusions: This study adds to the already available benchmarks for articulation rate by providing new data for French preschoolers. Further studies are still needed to understand what other factors (e.g., cognitive, linguistic and spontaneous speech styles) may be involved in the growth of articulation rate during development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research is the property of American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Database: Education Research Complete
Description
Abstract:Aim: This study reports age-related changes in articulation rate (syllables [SPS] and phones per second [PPS]) during spontaneous speech in French children aged 2-4 years and provides baseline values for this age range. Method: In this cross-sectional study, spontaneous speech (4,361 utterances) from 91 French children was collected. The articulation rate was calculated in SPS and PPS and was observed as a function of seven age groups. The distribution of articulation rate values for utterances in SPS and PPS by percentiles is provided. Results: In line with previous studies, the results confirm that the articulation rate increased with age. It increased from 3.14 to 3.88 SPS between 22 and 50 months, and from 6.06 to 8.31 PPS with significant changes emerging at 38-41 months. The results also indicate that the number of sounds per syllable increased significantly with age and that the growth in syllable structure complexity preceded that of articulation rate in SPS. Conclusions: This study adds to the already available benchmarks for articulation rate by providing new data for French preschoolers. Further studies are still needed to understand what other factors (e.g., cognitive, linguistic and spontaneous speech styles) may be involved in the growth of articulation rate during development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:10924388
DOI:10.1044/2026_JSLHR-25-00507