People with developmental disabilities speaking with an accent?

[robert_columbia]

Please note that I want to be respectful with this question, so please do not take offense.

I’ve noticed that people with major developmental disabilities tend to speak with a characteristic accent. Has anyone else noticed this or does anyone know what causes this? I can think of two hypotheses:

1. The “accent” is a speech impediment that is a symptom of or frequently co-morbid with the underlying disability.
2. The “accent” is cultural among people with develpmental disabilities, possibly by being traditionally spoken in care institutions and passed along to new patients upon committment.

Anyone with enough experience in medicine, psychology, or linguistics have any take on this?

[Zsofia]

People with Down syndrome tend to have protruding tongues, which makes it more difficult to speak clearly.

[BigT]

Poor motor skills are also often common in people with major developmental disabilities. And you’d be surprised how complicated speech actually is.

It’s not environmental–as these “accents” have been common since well before it was common for said people to find and be around others with similar disabilities.

[Zsofia]

I’m sure that, like many other things, the old fashioned state warehousing of people with disabilities didn’t help matters - surely many disabled people’s speech can be improved with therapy, particularly when young, and the poorer the care the person gets the less likely they are to be able to speak clearly as adults.

There’s also the deaf accent, which has obvious origins.

[KarlGauss]

Some people with developmetnal disabilities have associated deficits in their motor system, i.e. muscle weakness. If the muscles affected include those responsible for holding the palate closed during speaking (normally responsible for preventing air leaks up and out through the nose), the speech will have a particular quality or, I suppose “accent”, to it. Specifically, it will be very nasal, similar but much more pronounced to what happens to sound of your voice when you have a head cold. (If you were to deliberatley parody or exaggerate the speech of someone with a bad cold, you’d be producing what I’m talking about).

[si_blakely]

It is probably an issue with your perception. From the wikipedia article on Foreign Language Syndrome (highlighting mine)

To the untrained ear, those with the syndrome sound as though they speak their native languages with a foreign accent; for example, an American native speaker of English might sound as though they speak with a south-eastern English accent, or a native British speaker might speak with a New York American accent. However, researchers at Oxford University have found that certain, specific parts of the brain were injured in some foreign-accent syndrome cases, indicating that certain parts of the brain control various linguistic functions, and damage could result in altered pitch or mispronounced syllables, causing speech patterns to be distorted in a non-specific manner. More recently, there is mounting evidence that the cerebellum, which controls motor function, may be crucially involved in some cases of foreign accent syndrome, reinforcing the notion that speech pattern alteration is mechanical, and thus non-specific.[4][5] Thus, the perception of a foreign accent is likely a case of pareidolia on the part of the listener.

Si

[needscoffee]

It’s the tongue and palate thing. I was watching an Ellen Degeneres comedy special today (Here and Now) where she mimicked trying to speak while holding a breath mint strip on her tongue sticking out of her mouth, and it was that exact same characteristic speech pattern.