The rate of speech production from the perspective of gerontolinguistics − on the example of physiological and demential aging

The aim of the research was to analyse the rate of speech of physiologically and dementially ageing people with the following parameters in mind: the rate of speech and the rate of articulation, the ratio of pauses within the speech and their total duration, proper pauses and semi-filled pauses. The research data has been analysed with the use of Audacity software. Shapiro-Wilk and Mann-Whitney tests were utilised during the quantitative and the statistical stage of the study. The results obtained clearly show that the rate of speech of people with dementia is slower compared to the rate of speech of physiologically ageing people and to the control group, which consisted of children