THE PACE OF SPEECH IN AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDER (ASD)

The article presents the results of research into the pace of speech of children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) when compared to their peers with no such disabilities. The analysed criteria included: the number of syllables and phones used in 30 second-long utterances, the number of pauses made and their characteristics, and the percentage of the pauses within an utterance. The results of the analysis allowed for the study of the speech pace of the children as well as their general pace of speaking. We tested 5 girls and 11 boys, all of the children were intellectually disabled. The average age of the control group was 9 years and 1 month. Both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the speech were analysed. The obtained data consisted of audio recordings which were subsequently re-played multiple times in order to properly analyse the crucial phenomena occurring within the speech samples. This part of the research made use of the Audacity software (Audacity(R): Free Audio Editor and Recorder [Computer program]. Version 2.1.0 retrieved September 19th 2015 from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/). The material obtained in the research through the usage of Audacity software was subsequently analysed with the use of the Shapiro-Wilk test and the Mann-Whitney test. Estimative qualitative and quantitative analyses showed differences between the groups in all of the parameters which influence the pace of speech. However, the statistical analyses did not confirm any statistically significant differences in the average pace of speech, the ratio and the percentage of pauses within the speech samples, and the average duration of all types of pauses. The formulated hypotheses for the presence of significant diffe rences in the average pace of speech of children with autistic spec trum disorder and the normative group of children have not been confirmed. No significant differences have been noted in the average pace of speech, the ratio and the percentage of pauses within the speech samples, and the average duration of all types of pauses between the two groups