Indonesian Tongue Twisters as Potential Speech Practice  Materials for Children with Suspected Dysarthria:  An Exploratory Structural Analysis of Ten Stimuli

Mixghan Antono; Aning Ayu Mustikawati

Authors

Mixghan Antono Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta
Aning Ayu Mustikawati Universitas PGRI Madiun, Madiun

Keywords:

consonant patterns, document analysis, Indonesian tongue twisters, speech material design, stimulus analysis

Abstract

Background: Indonesian tongue twister materials may differ in length, target concentration, and sequence organization, even when presented as comparable articulation tasks. These differences require description before speaker-based testing. Purpose: To characterize the textual structure of ten Indonesian stimuli and distinguish single-target repetition from paired-target switching for exploratory speech-material design. Methods: A descriptive document-based study analyzed the complete set of ten author-proposed stimuli in an existing manuscript. Word tokens, alphabetic letters, consonant letters, target-letter counts, and target concentration were computed using explicit rules. Switching was examined in three paired-target items, with a sensitivity analysis that preserved comma boundaries. The unit of analysis was written material, not a child or speech recording. Results: The corpus contained 38 word tokens, 166 letters, 88 consonant-letter occurrences, and 64 target-letter occurrences. Pooled target concentration was 72.7%, with item values of 58.3–100.0%. Seven items repeated one target and three contained paired targets. Filtered target streams yielded switching rates of 20.0%, 50.0%, and 71.4%; excluding cross-comma links reduced them to 0.0%, 40.0%, and 66.7%, respectively. Conclusion: Target concentration, sequence switching, and length describe different properties and should be reported separately. The findings support transparent stimulus specification; speech difficulty, developmental suitability, and clinical effectiveness require independent testing.

References

Acheson, D. J., & MacDonald, M. C. (2009). Twisting tongues and memories: Explorations of the relationship between language production and verbal working memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 60(3), 329–350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2008.12.002

Alderete, J., Baese-Berk, M., Leung, K., & Goldrick, M. (2021). Cascading activation in phonological planning and articulation: Evidence from spontaneous speech errors. Cognition, 210, Article 104577. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104577

Allison, K. M., & Hustad, K. C. (2018). Data-driven classification of dysarthria profiles in children with cerebral palsy. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61(12), 2837–2853. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_JSLHR-S-17-0356

Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa. (n.d.-a). Gabungan huruf konsonan. Ejaan Bahasa Indonesia yang Disempurnakan Edisi Kelima. Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://ejaan.kemendikdasmen.go.id/eyd/penggunaan-huruf/gabungan-huruf-konsonan/

Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa. (n.d.-b). Huruf konsonan. Ejaan Bahasa Indonesia yang Disempurnakan Edisi Kelima. Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://ejaan.kemendikdasmen.go.id/eyd/penggunaan-huruf/huruf-konsonan/

Blum, F., Paschen, L., Forkel, R., Fuchs, S., & Seifart, F. (2024). Consonant lengthening marks the beginning of words across a diverse sample of languages. Nature Human Behaviour, 8, 2127–2138. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01988-4

Goldrick, M., & Blumstein, S. E. (2006). Cascading activation from phonological planning to articulatory processes: Evidence from tongue twisters. Language and Cognitive Processes, 21(6), 649–683. https://doi.org/10.1080/01690960500181332

Green, C., Kong, A. P.-H., Brysbaert, M., & Keogh, K. (2025). Crowdsourced and AI-generated age-of-acquisition (AoA) norms for vocabulary in print: Extending the Kuperman et al. (2012) norms. Behavior Research Methods, 57, Article 304. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-025-02843-8

Hustad, K. C., Mahr, T. J., Natzke, P., & Rathouz, P. J. (2021). Speech development between 30 and 119 months in typical children I: Intelligibility growth curves for single-word and multiword productions. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 64(10), 3707–3719. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_JSLHR-21-00142

Iuzzini-Seigel, J., Allison, K. M., & Stoeckel, R. (2022). A tool for differential diagnosis of childhood apraxia of speech and dysarthria in children: A tutorial. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 53(4), 926–946. https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_LSHSS-21-00164

Kember, H., Connaghan, K. P., & Patel, R. (2017). Inducing speech errors in dysarthria using tongue twisters. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 52(4), 469–478. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12285

Korkalainen, J., McCabe, P., Smidt, A., & Morgan, C. (2023a). The effectiveness of Rapid Syllable Transition Treatment in improving communication in children with cerebral palsy: A randomized controlled trial. Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 26(5), 309–319. https://doi.org/10.1080/17518423.2023.2218485

Korkalainen, J., McCabe, P., Smidt, A., & Morgan, C. (2023b). Motor speech interventions for children with cerebral palsy: A systematic review. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 66(1), 110–125. https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_JSLHR-22-00375

Kuschmann, A., Schölderle, T., & Haas, E. (2023). Clinical practice in childhood dysarthria: An online survey of German-speaking speech-language pathologists. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 32(6), 2802–2826. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_AJSLP-23-00076

Levy, E. S., Chang, Y. M., Hwang, K., & McAuliffe, M. J. (2021). Perceptual and acoustic effects of dual-focus speech treatment in children with dysarthria. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 64(6S), 2301–2316. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_JSLHR-20-00301

Loakman, T., Tang, C., & Lin, C. (2025). Train and constrain: Phonologically informed tongue twister generation from topics and paraphrases. Computational Linguistics, 51(2), 415–466. https://doi.org/10.1162/coli_a_00544

Mahr, T. J., Rathouz, P. J., & Hustad, K. C. (2025). Speech development between 30 and 119 months in typical children III: Interaction between speaking rate and intelligibility. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 68(1), 79–90. https://doi.org/10.1044/2024_JSLHR-24-00356

McMillan, C. T., & Corley, M. (2010). Cascading influences on the production of speech: Evidence from articulation. Cognition, 117(3), 243–260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2010.08.019

Meng, Z., Yan, G., Marsh, J. E., & Liversedge, S. P. (2025). Primary task demands modulate background speech disruption during reading of Chinese tongue twisters: An eye-tracking study. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 37(6), 598–615. https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2025.2457774

Meylan, S. C., & Griffiths, T. L. (2024). Word forms reflect trade-offs between speaker effort and robust listener recognition. Cognitive Science, 48(7), Article e13478. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.13478

Moya-Galé, G., Keller, B., Escorial, S., & Levy, E. S. (2021). Speech treatment effects on narrative intelligibility in French-speaking children with dysarthria. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 64(6S), 2154–2168. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_JSLHR-20-00258

Schölderle, T., Haas, E., Baumeister, S., & Ziegler, W. (2021). Intelligibility, articulation rate, fluency, and communicative efficiency in typically developing children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 64(7), 2575–2585. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_JSLHR-20-00640

Siew, C. S. Q., & Tan, J. F. W. Z. (2026). Production and perception errors from speech error corpora reflect macro- and meso-level structure of the phonological language network. Language and Speech, 69(2), 334–355. https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309251330878

Soriano, J. U., Olivieri, A., & Hustad, K. C. (2021). Utility of the Intelligibility in Context Scale for predicting speech intelligibility of children with cerebral palsy. Brain Sciences, 11(11), Article 1540. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11111540

Su, Y., Li, Y., & Li, H. (2023). Familiarity ratings for 24,325 simplified Chinese words. Behavior Research Methods, 55, 1496–1509. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-022-01878-5

Vidović Zorić, A. (2025). The influence of phonological similarity and segment position within a word or syllable on speech production: Evidence from speech errors. Suvremena lingvistika, 51(99), 61–91. https://doi.org/10.22210/suvlin.2025.099.04

Warker, J., Richtsmeier, P., & Durkee, J. (2025). Children’s speech errors reflect phonotactics that they say and hear. Language Learning and Development, 21(2), 103–117. https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2024.2372246