Effect of Rate Control on Speech Production and Intelligibility in Dysarthria

Abstract

The reported study investigated the effect of 7 rate control methods (RCM) on running speech intelligibility, speaking rate (SR), articulation rate (AR) and pause characteristics in 27 individuals with dysarthria. The data reveal that with the exception of slower on demand, each RCM resulted in lower mean SRs and ARs (p < 0.05). Clinically significant improvements in intelligibility were found in half of the participants with different types of dysarthria. The majority of them had normal or decreased ARs and SRs. The most effective methods were: alphabet board, hand tapping and pacing board. For the majority of speakers, the maximal decrease in speech rate was not associated with the maximal increase in intelligibility.

Comparison of Intelligibility Measures for Adults With Parkinson's Disease, Adults With Multiple Sclerosis, and Healthy Controls

“…Visual analog scaling is a type of scaling task that shows promise for measuring intelligibility (Kent & Kim, 2011;Van Nuffelen, De Bodt, Vanderwegen, Van de Heyning, & Wuyts, 2010). A VAS involves listeners choosing a point on a continuous line that does not contain any ticks or intervals to represent their judgment of a given speech sample (Kent & Kim, 2011).…”

“…Using the guideline that changes in sentence intelligibility of approximately 5% are likely clinically meaningful in the context of an adverse perceptual environment such as multitalker babble (e.g., Tjaden, Sussman, & Wilding, 2014;Van Nuffelen et al, 2010), the pattern of transcription intelligibility in Figure 1A was similar for all speaker groups. That is, for each group, the clear and loud conditions did not differ but increased intelligibility relative to the habitual condition by at least 5%.…”

Cognitive–Perceptual Examination of Remediation Approaches to Hypokinetic Dysarthria

“…In regard to speech rate, studies that have modified rate in speakers with dysarthria, using a variety of elicitation methods, have reported both positive (Adams, 1994;Hammen, Yorkston, & Minifie, 1994;Yorkston, Hammen, Beukelman, & Traynor, 1990) and negligible or negative effects on intelligibility (Van Nuffelen, De Bodt, Vanderwegen, & Van de Heyning, 2010;Van Nuffelen, De Bodt, Wuyts, & Van de Heyning, 2009). Although the intelligibility findings have been variable, and dependent on the type of rate cue used, a number of outcomes appear generally consistent across studies.…”

The Effect of Rate Reduction on Signaling Prosodic Contrasts in Dysarthria

“…Rather than relying on sentence repetition or reading tasks as in previous work [3,6], the current study employed a game format to elicit naturalistic speech tokens. Additionally, the focus of the current work on conveying prosodic contrasts (Q, CS, and A) also differentiated it from previous work in which the impact of rate reduction on prosody has been studied for declarative utterances [7].…”

“…Rate reduction is often used as a means to increase intelligibility in dysarthria (DYS) [1,2,3,4]. Decreasing speaking rate alters articulatory movement [1,5], such that articulatory displacements and vocal tract shapes become more similar to those of healthy speakers [1,6].…”