The Effects of Age on Articulation and Speech Rate: A Systematic Review

Introduction: Changes in speech production are expected with aging. These changes are affected by changes in anatomy and physiology of speech production system, sensory feedbacks, motor control, and central processing of speech in older adults. Since normal aging involves a slowing of neural processes, it may be expected that speech and articulation rate are changed. The aim of this systematic review was to examine the changes in speech and articulation rate with aging. Materials and Methods: PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science databases were searched using the keywords “aging” and “elderly” in combination with “speech rate” and “articulation rate” for finding articles published between the years 1959 and 2016. Results: According to exclusion and inclusion criteria, 15 articles were selected. According to Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) Resources, these articles were located on third level. Results of four articles were contradictory with else. More of the studies showed that speech and articulation rate decreased with aging. Conclusion: This is expected that by reasoning anatomical changes and decreases in cognitive capacity in aging, speech and articulation rate decreases.