The Effects of Aging on Communication

Age can be estimated fairly accurately by listening to the voice and speech of the individual. The critical processes of communication — respiration, phonation, articulation, language, and hearing — are described in terms of the anticipated biological tissue changes of aging and the effect of these changes on the speaking process. With the exception of the common finding of hearing loss in old age, the processes of communication do not seem to be seriously affected by "normal " aging. Com-plicating factors and diagnostic and remedial implications are discussed. ALTHOUGH there are vast individual dif-ferences in the rate and extent of aging, some characteristics will be manifested by all who become old. Body build, skin texture, gait, and level of agility are among the out-ward signs by which we visually recognize an aging person. We can also identify an aged individual by listening to his voice. Terms such as aged voice, old voice, senile voice, and senescent voice are frequently used as descriptions, although the specific criteria by which these determinations are made are not generally clarified. A number of investigators have confirmed the correctness of age evaluations based on listening to the speaking voice and have made attempts to explain the identifiable vocal behaviors and the general reasons for them. Ptacek and Sander (1966) investigated the ability of listeners to differentiate voices of healthy elderly adults from young adults. The accuracy was noted as "impressive. " The listeners reported that their judgments were based on their perceptions of rate, hesitancy, quality, voice breaks, intensity, and vitality. Older subjects did indeed have a lower mean rate of reading and more disfluencies. The listeners also noted more hoarseness or strain, lower pitch and less pitch variability, reduced intensity, and less vitality. A later study by Shipp and Hollien (1969) sought to determine the perceptual judgments of age of male speakers. These findings cor-roborated the impressions of correct estima