This study examines filled and unfilled pause durations between utterances in the speech of 60 people with no language disorder. It also evaluates the proportions of different pause lengths, examines the location of pauses within an isolated speech sample, and compares speech pause in male speakers and female speakers. Using speech samples gathered from a picture description task, Praat acoustic analysis software was used to segment C-units and measure pause duration between utterances (Boersma & Weenink, 2022; Öktem et al., 2021). Descriptive statistics were used to analyze these data, including pause duration mean and standard deviations. Pause mean durations ranged from 70 ms to 90 ms. Speakers used pauses shorter than 0.5 seconds and 1 second more frequently than longer pauses. Both pause frequency and mean pause length increase in the final 50% of the speech sample compared to the initial 50% for both male and female speakers. No significant differences were found between male and female speakers. Speakers produce prolongations at a rate of 0.07 to 0.08 per C-unit across both male and female speakers. Both male and female speakers have a higher frequency of prolongations in the final portion of the speech sample, compared to the initial portion. Further research across several types of speech tasks is needed to provide greater insight into variations in pause duration and location in different types of speech tasks. Further research might also examine pause durations within utterances.

This study investigates pause duration between and within utterances in the speech of 20 people with different degrees and types of aphasia: 15 with fluent aphasia and five with nonfluent aphasia. It also examines within utterance pause durations as a function of utterance position. Using aphasia speech samples collected in a previous study by Harmon (2018), Praat acoustic analysis software was used to segment words and periods of pause and measure pause duration within and between utterances. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, including pause duration mean, standard deviations, and interquartile range. Speech pauses were also categorized by the percentage of pause durations greater than 250 ms, 500 ms, 750 ms, and one second. Nonfluent aphasia presents higher mean durations of both between and within utterance pauses than fluent aphasia. Speakers with fluent and nonfluent aphasia subtypes exhibit a larger proportion of pauses longer than one second between utterances than within them. Between utterances, there is a positive association between increase in aphasia severity and an increase in pause duration. Within utterances, speech from individuals with moderately severe aphasia have longer mean pause durations than mild or very mild cases. Individuals with both fluent and nonfluent aphasia demonstrate increased pause durations in the initial sentence position. Further research will provide insight into how this compares with typical speech and how these pause patterns affect the communicative effectiveness of the speaker.

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The purpose of this study was to examine how length and location of speech pausing affects a listeners' perception of likability and communication effectiveness. Furthermore, the end goal of this study is to understand how to better assess atypical speech pause for persons with aphasia (PWA). Speech samples were collected from two neurotypical speakers over the age of 75. The speech samples were the recorded responses of picture description tasks found in the Western Aphasia Battery (WAB) and the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (BDAE). These speech samples were then modified to include artificial pauses located both within sentence and between sentence, as well as differing lengths of three seconds, five seconds, and seven seconds. Forty-one listeners (31 female, 8 male) were recruited to listen to the 28 speech samples. Using a visual analogy scale, listeners rated each sample on their perception of likability and communication effectiveness. Communication effectiveness and likability ratings were significantly higher for between-utterance pauses. Likewise, ratings were highest for the baseline (no pause) stimuli and decreased as pause length increased. Across all conditions, ratings for the male speaker were rated slightly greater than that of the female speaker. Results of this study provide preliminary evidence that longer speech pause, especially found within utterance, affect the likability and communication effectiveness of PWA. It is hoped that additional research regarding speech pause will be conducted to determine how best to assess speech pause in PWA.

The purpose of this study was to examine the following prosodic elements: speech rate, turn-taking latency, number of interruptions, and utterance duration across two groups' neurotypical and autistic young adults. Furthermore, the end goal of this study is to help provide a baseline and clinical application of prosodic differences between autistic and neurotypical adults. Speech samples were collected from 11 neurotypical and 11 autistic young adults from the ages of 18-26. Speech samples were recorded responses from a 10-minute interview between two research assistants and the autistic or neurotypical individual. Using Praat software, speech samples were analyzed and used to calculate speech rate, utterance duration, turn-taking latency, and the number of interruptions for each subject. Across the four prosodic elements, there were significant differences between the autistic and neurotypical groups. The neurotypical group exhibited significantly higher speech and interruption rates when compared to the autistic group. Whereas, the autistic group displayed longer turn-taking latency periods and longer utterance durations. Across all conditions, there were no significant difference between biological sex or effect of familiarity within the autistic and neurotypical groups. Results of this study provide clinicians and researchers a baseline of prosodic differences found between autistic and neurotypical individuals. Future research is needed to better understand how these findings might improve the assessment and treatment of autistic individuals.

People that become deaf later on in life do have the ability to speak with correct pronunciation but since they can not hear their own voice nor the noise in the enviroment, they have difficulties to adjust their voice level to the surrounding environment. In this thesis we propose and algorithm which can be used on a prototype to help the late deafened people to adjust their voice level to the surrounding.