Effect of Dysarthria Type, Speaking Condition, and Listener Age on Speech Intelligibility

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan J. McAuliffe ◽  
Annalise R. Fletcher ◽  
Sarah E. Kerr ◽  
Greg A. O'Beirne ◽  
Tim Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Perceptual Task ◽  
Tailored Intervention ◽  
Vowel Formants ◽  
Speech Cues ◽  
Speech Features ◽  
Dysarthric Speech ◽  
Acoustic Analyses ◽  
Slow Speech

Purpose The aim of this study was to examine the effect of loud and slow speech cues on younger and older listeners' comprehension of dysarthric speech, specifically, (a) whether one strategy, as opposed to the other, promoted greater intelligibility gains for different speaker groups; (b) whether older and younger listeners' understandings were differentially affected by these strategies; and (c) which acoustic changes best predicted intelligibility gain in individual speakers. Method Twenty younger and 40 older listeners completed a perceptual task. Six individuals with dysarthria produced phrases across habitual, loud, and slow conditions. The primary dependent variable was proportion of words correct; follow-up acoustic analyses linked perceptual outcomes to changes in acoustic speech features. Results Regardless of dysarthria type, the loud condition produced significant intelligibility gains. Overall, older listeners' comprehension was reduced relative to younger listeners. Follow-up analysis revealed considerable interspeaker differences in intelligibility outcomes across conditions. Although the most successful speaking mode varied, intelligibility gains were strongly associated with the degree of change participants made to their vowel formants. Conclusions Perceptual outcomes vary across speaking modes, even when speakers with dysarthria are grouped according to similar perceptual profiles. Further investigation of interspeaker differences is needed to inform individually tailored intervention approaches.

scholarly journals Prosodic Analysis and Enhancement of Dysarthric Speech

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 7186-7189
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Speech Recognition ◽  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Energy Estimation ◽  
Pitch Change ◽  
Formant Tracking ◽  
Speech Recognizers ◽  
Dysarthric Speech ◽  
Slow Speech ◽  
The Brain

Dysarthria is a disorder that is caused in the nervous system. It is caused by damage in some parts of the brain such as cerebellum. Because of the damage in brain it causes weakness in muscles used for speech therefore it happens as in mumbled, slurred or slow speech that human and the machine find it difficult to understand such slurred speech. The Automatic Speech Recognizers which were designed for speech intelligibility perform poorly on dysarthric speech recognition. This paper focuses on the transformation of voice for dysarthria to enhance its intelligibility Formant tracking, pitch and energy estimation with durational cues from dysarthric speech facilitate the modification of these trajectories to more closely approximate the desired intelligible target speech. The transformation of the speech is done by using formant re-synthesis, pitch change and duration morphing. The results of such transformation results indicate that the transformation of the pitch and duration step enhances the intelligibility of dysarthric speech and make it easy to understand for humans and machines.

Promoting Speech Intelligibility in Autism Spectrum Disorder through the Implementation of Phonologically Similar Stimuli

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Kakia Petinou
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Single Subject ◽  
Clinical Implementation ◽  
Intervention Protocol ◽  
Expressive Phonology

<b><i>Objectives:</i></b> The study focused on promoting expressive phonological skills in 1 Greek-speaking child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and comorbid speech sound disorder (SSD). Based on the phonological neighborhood density framework, it was hypothesized that the experimental manipulation through clinical implementation of phonologically overlapping stimuli would yield positive expressive phonology gains relevant to ASD. <b><i>Participant and Methods:</i></b> A multiple-baseline single-subject design was implemented. Three baseline sessions measured expressive phonology variables. Sixteen biweekly 30-min intervention sessions were carried out for a period of 2 months. Dependent variables included phonetic inventory size, proportion of consonants correct, occurrences of phonological processes, and percentage of whole word matches elicited via specific word probe stimuli. The Intelligibility in Context Scale was completed by the child’s teacher prior to the initiation of intervention and at a follow-up session. Experimental stimuli were grouped together in phonologically dense cohorts. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Comparison between pre-test and post-test measures revealed expressive phonology gains across all measured variables. Follow-up session results showed generalization of expressive phonology gains on untreated targets. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> Significant expressive phonology gains were achieved through the implementation of phonologically similar word stimuli within a systematic intervention protocol with the implementation of specific word-level variables. The findings supported this treatment approach for a child with ASD and SSD, while providing evidence for the phonological density advantage from a cross-linguistic perspective.

“You Say Severe, I Say Mild”: Toward an Empirical Classification of Dysarthria Severity

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Kaila L. Stipancic ◽  
Kira M. Palmer ◽  
Hannah P. Rowe ◽  
Yana Yunusova ◽  
James D. Berry ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Interrater Reliability ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Roc Curves ◽  
Speaking Rate ◽  
Response Options ◽  
Cutoff Points ◽  
Healthy Control ◽  
Dysarthric Speech ◽  
Surrogate Measures

Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to create an empirical classification system for speech severity in patients with dysarthria secondary to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) by exploring the reliability and validity of speech-language pathologists' (SLPs') ratings of dysarthric speech. Method: Ten SLPs listened to speech samples from 52 speakers with ALS and 20 healthy control speakers. SLPs were asked to rate the speech severity of the speakers using five response options: normal, mild, moderate, severe, and profound. Four severity-surrogate measures were also calculated: SLPs transcribed the speech samples for the calculation of speech intelligibility and rated the effort it took to understand the speakers on a visual analog scale. In addition, speaking rate and intelligible speaking rate were calculated for each speaker. Intrarater and interrater reliability were calculated for each measure. We explored the validity of clinician-based severity ratings by comparing them to the severity-surrogate measures. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were conducted to create optimal cutoff points for defining dysarthria severity categories. Results: Intrarater and interrater reliability for the clinician-based severity ratings were excellent and were comparable to reliability for the severity-surrogate measures explored. Clinician severity ratings were strongly associated with all severity-surrogate measures, suggesting strong construct validity. We also provided a range of values for each severity-surrogate measure within each severity category based on the cutoff points obtained from the ROC analyses. Conclusions: Clinician severity ratings of dysarthric speech are reliable and valid. We discuss the underlying challenges that arise when selecting a stratification measure and offer recommendations for a classification scheme when stratifying patients and research participants into speech severity categories.

Increasing the Precision of Dysarthric Speech Intelligibility and Severity Level Estimate

2021 ◽  
pp. 670-679
Author(s):  
Mohammad Soleymanpour ◽  
Michael T. Johnson ◽  
Jeffrey Berry
Keyword(s):  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Severity Level ◽  
Dysarthric Speech

Long-term Outcomes of Clip Coupler Implantation in Patients with Unilateral Congenital Aural Atresia

2020 ◽  
Vol 129 (12) ◽  
pp. 1221-1228
Author(s):  
Chunli Zhao ◽  
Jinsong Yang ◽  
Yujie Liu ◽  
Mengdie Gao ◽  
Peiwei Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Bone Conduction ◽  
Free Field ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Aural Atresia ◽  
Long Term Follow Up ◽  
Congenital Aural Atresia

Objective: To evaluate the long-term safety and efficacy of the Clip coupler attached to the stapes head in patients with unilateral congenital aural atresia (CAA). Methods: This single-center retrospective study included 16 Mandarin-speaking patients who had unilateral microtia accompanied by CAA. All patients were divided into two groups: the short-term follow-up group (n = 9) and the long-term follow-up group (n = 7). The floating mass transducer of the Vibrant Soundbridge (VSB) was positioned in the stapes head by the Clip coupler. The safety of the VSB was investigated by comparing preoperative and postoperative bone-conduction (BC) thresholds as well as by complications. The effectiveness was evaluated by functional gain (FG), word recognition score (WRS), speech reception threshold (SRT) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Results: Pre- and post-operative BC thresholds were no different in all patients. And no complications developed. VSB-aided thresholds in the free-field had improved significantly in both short- and long-term follow-up groups. The improvements of WRS were observed in two groups. The monosyllabic VSB-aided WRS in the long-term follow-up group was significantly higher than that in the short-term follow-up group. When speech was from the impaired ear and noise presented to the side of normal ear (SVSBNCL), lower SNRs were found in two groups after VSB implantation. However, there was no statistical difference in aided SNR between the two groups at SVSBNCL status. Conclusions: Our results show that the FMT connected to the stapes head is a secure and useful device for patients with unilateral CHL/MHL, not only in terms of improved hearing thresholds, but also improved speech intelligibility in quiet and noisy environments.

scholarly journals Beyond prosody: Foreign accent syndrome in a Spanish-speaking patient. Case report

Case reports ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-80
Author(s):  
Kelly Estrada-Orozco ◽  
Kely Bonilla-Vargas ◽  
Carolina Alfonso ◽  
Fabian Riaño ◽  
Patricia Montañés ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Case Report ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Cognitive Domains ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Speaking Patient ◽  
Essential Components ◽  
Foreign Accent Syndrome ◽  
Speech Features ◽  
One Year

Introduction: Foreign accent syndrome (FAS) is a rare speech disorder. It is becoming increasingly common to find reports of cases about alterations different from the suprasegmental aspects of speech, although these reports are not frequent in Spanish-speaking patients.Case presentation: 48-year-old female patient from Colombia diagnosed with FAS, segmental and suprasegmental speech alterations, and changes in cognitive domains (executive functions and language). The woman also presented with motor and affective changes. Brain imaging studies ruled out structural involvement and follow-up at one year did not show significant changes in speech.Discussion: This case presents the neurological, neuropsychological and speech features of a Spanish-speaking patient with FAS. Greater alteration in vowels than in consonants, alteration in pronunciation time, variation in rhythm and intonation of words and phrases, decrease of time between syllables, and insertion of vowels are common elements between this patient and other cases of FAS in non-Spanish speaking subjects.Conclusions: FAS is essentially a speech alteration; however, it can be accompanied by other physical and psychological signs. This case report allows recognizing the essential components for the definition, diagnosis and intervention of this syndrome.

scholarly journals The Preschool Speech Intelligibility Measure

1995 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 22-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherrill R. Morris ◽  
Kim A. Wilcox ◽  
Tracy L. Schooling
Keyword(s):  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Multiple Choice ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Initial Testing ◽  
Dysarthric Speech ◽  
Children's Speech

Documenting changes in speech intelligibility across time is an important but difficult task for speech-language pathologists. This study reports on the development and initial testing of the Preschool Speech Intelligibility Measure (PSIM), a single-word, multiple-choice intelligibility measure. The PSIM is adapted from the Assessment of Intelligibility of Dysarthric Speech (Yorkston & Beukelman, 1981) and is designed to plot changes in children's speech intelligibility across time. This instrument is offered as an addition to the existing array of available speech intelligibility measures.

scholarly journals A follow-up investigation into the mechanisms that underlie improved recognition of dysarthric speech

2012 ◽  
Vol 132 (2) ◽  
pp. EL102-EL108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie A. Borrie ◽  
Megan J. McAuliffe ◽  
Julie M. Liss ◽  
Greg A. O’Beirne ◽  
Tim J. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Dysarthric Speech
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