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:
The “accent” is a speech impediment that is a symptom of or frequently co-morbid with the underlying disability.
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?
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.
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.
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).
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.