Communication Efficiency of Dysarthric Speakers as Measured by Sentence Intelligibility and Speaking Rate

Abstract

In an effort to quantify communication efficiency, speaking rates and intelligibility scores were obtained from a normal speaking adult and 13 dysarthric speakers representing a wide range of severity. Speakers were audio recorded as they read words and sentences. A panel of judges transcribed all recordings and subjectively ranked a randomly selected sample from each speaker according to "communication efficiency." The following measures were obtained for each speaker: word and sentence intelligibility, speaking rate, rates of intelligible and unintelligible speech and a numerical ranking of communication efficiency. Results indicated that speaking rate and speech intelligibility are not closely correlated. By plotting measures that incorporate intelligibility and rate, one can rank speakers similarly to subjective rankings of communication efficiency, and distinguish mildly dysarthric from normal speakers. The addition of intelligibility and rate measures to supplement other assessment procedures in the evaluation of dysarthric speakers is discussed.

Clear Speech Variants: An Acoustic Study in Parkinson's Disease

“…Procedures for the intelligibility task paralleled those of the SIT (Yorkston & Beukelman, 1996). Listeners were presented with sentences one at a time and asked to type out the words they heard.…”

“…For each speaker within a group, experimental stimuli consisted of 18 different sentences, ranging from five to 12 words selected from the SIT (Yorkston & Beukelman, 1996). Fourteen different sentence sets were constructed for the 28 speakers.…”

“…All SLPs had at least 3 years of experience with dysarthria. For each speaker, 11 sentences were generated randomly using the Computerized Sentence Intelligibility Test (SIT; Yorkston & Beukelman, 1996). Perceptual testing took place over a 2-hr session, and all testing was completed in a quiet room via binaural headphones (MDRV300, Sony, Tokyo, Japan).…”

“…Method: A total of 14 participants with Parkinson's disease and 14 control participants served as speakers. Each speaker produced 18 different sentences selected from the Sentence Intelligibility Test (Yorkston & Beukelman, 1996). All speakers produced stimuli in 4 speaking conditions (habitual, clear, overenunciate, and hearing impaired).…”

Language Sampling for Preschoolers With Severe Speech Impairments

“…In the classic approach, word or sentence lists are recited and then transcribed without contextual cues to determine intelligibility (e.g., Yorkston & Beukelman, 1981). In contrast, comprehensibility is defined as "the extent to which a listener understands utterances produced by a speaker in a communication context" (Barefoot, Bochner, Johnson, Ann, & College, 1993, p. 32).…”