Phonarticulatory diadochokinesis in young and elderly individuals

The phonoarticulatory diadochokinesis test has been recommended to evaluate neurological disorders. It is a speech task that consists of the ability to repeat at high speed a segment of speech. The purpose of this research is to analyze the diadochokinesia rate of adults from two distinct age groups. 23 young adults and 23 elderly people, both sexes participated in this study. Each participant produced the /pa/, /ta/, /ka/ syllables, the vowel /a/ and the /pataka/ sequence, as fast and as long as they could with habitual pitch and loudness. The speech samples were analyzed by using the voice and speech analysis software Visi-Pitch III/Sona-Speech, KayElemetrics. Both groups presented with reduced diadochokinesia rate as the speech production became more complex. The young adults group presented with higher diadochokinesia rate in adults in all speech tasks while the elderly adults group had a worse intensity control.