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Updated: Apr 6, 2026
Uncovering Beat Deafness: Detecting Rhythm Disorders with Synchronized Finger Tapping and Perceptual Timing Tasks
Published on: March 16, 2015
Non-verbal sensorimotor timing deficits in children and adolescents who stutter
Simone Falk1, Thilo Müller2, Simone Dalla Bella3
1CNRS, Laboratoire Parole et Langage, UMR 7309, Aix-Marseille University Aix-en-Provence, France ; Institut für Deutsche Philologie, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Germany.
Insights
Children and adolescents who stutter often have predictive timing deficits, impacting their ability to synchronize movements with auditory cues. This suggests a link between timing issues and stuttering development.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Speech-Language Pathology
Background:
- Growing evidence links motor and speech disorders in development.
- Stuttering is a developmental speech disorder with potential co-occurring motor deficits.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate the association between stuttering and predictive timing deficits in children and adolescents.
- Assess if predictive timing is dysfunctional in young people who stutter (8-16 years).
Main Methods:
- Tested sensorimotor synchronization abilities in 20 German children/adolescents who stutter and 43 controls.
- Participants synchronized finger taps with periodic tone sequences and musical beats.
Main Results:
- 40% of children and 90% of adolescents who stutter showed poor synchronization.
- Deficits included lower accuracy (over-anticipation) or consistency, or both.
- Lower consistency was linked to severity of stuttering.
Conclusions:
- Malfunctioning predictive timing in auditory-motor coupling may play a role in childhood and adolescent stuttering.
- Findings support the connection between motor timing and speech disorders like stuttering.
Abstract:
There is growing evidence that motor and speech disorders co-occur during development. In the present study, we investigated whether stuttering, a developmental speech disorder, is associated with a predictive timing deficit in childhood and adolescence. By testing sensorimotor synchronization abilities, we aimed to assess whether predictive timing is dysfunctional in young participants who stutter (8-16 years). Twenty German children and adolescents who stutter and 43 non-stuttering participants matched for age and musical training were tested on their ability to synchronize their finger taps with periodic tone sequences and with a musical beat. Forty percent of children and 90% of adolescents who stutter displayed poor synchronization with both metronome and musical stimuli, falling below 2.5% of the estimated population based on the performance of the group without the disorder. Synchronization deficits were characterized by either lower synchronization accuracy or lower consistency or both. Lower accuracy resulted in an over-anticipation of the pacing event in participants who stutter. Moreover, individual profiles revealed that lower consistency was typical of participants that were severely stuttering. These findings support the idea that malfunctioning predictive timing during auditory-motor coupling plays a role in stuttering in children and adolescents.
