Speech-related breathing in infants under ten months

Abstract

Breath support is foundational to speech production, but little is known in terms of speech breathing development in infants, especially those in the first year of life. This study explored speech-related breathing in infants in the middle of the first year of life. Speech output and breathing behaviors were collected on a small cohort of typically developing infants under ten months. Independent coders used the audio and breathing signals to (a) identify utterances and the breath cycles associated with them and (b) describe the relationships between the two sets of signals. The findings will be related to physiological development and typical speech-language milestones. A better understanding of speech-related breathing might lead to identification of infants at risk for communicative impairments. Two limitations also will be discussed: the negative influence of (a) body movement on breathing signals and (b) small samples on the interpretation of speech output.