Dysarthria

About: Dysarthria is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2402 publications have been published within this topic receiving 56554 citations.

Classifications of Vocalic Segments From Articulatory Kinematics: Healthy Controls and Speakers With Dysarthria

Abstract: Purpose In this study, the authors classified vocalic segments produced by control speakers (C) and speakers with dysarthria due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Parkinson’s disease (PD); ...

Orofacial myofunctional therapy in dysarthria: a study on speech intelligibility.

Abstract: Various types of orofacial myofunctional disorders co-exist with speech problems in individuals with dysarthria. Controlled studies stating the efficacy of orofacial myofunctional therapy (OMT) in dysarthric individuals are very scant. The present study was undertaken to examine the efficacy of OMT in twelve patients diagnosed with mild to moderate dysarthria following right hemisphere brain damage. Pre-therapy assessment focused on existing orofacial myofunctional problems and speech intelligibility in the clients. The goals of OMT were to increase strength and mobility of buccal, facial, labial, and lingual musculature. No speech intervention was provided while OMT was in progress. Post-therapy measures indicated significant improvements in the stated goals as well as in speech intelligibility for single words. Patients observed functional improvements in swallowing functions too. A high positive correlation was found between speech intelligibility and diadochokinetic rate. Clinical implications regarding use of OMT in dysarthria are discussed.

Speech Technology for e-Inclusion of People with Physical Disabilities and Disordered Speech

Abstract: Speech technology is potentially of enormous benefit to people with physical disabilities. Applications of speech technology to e-inclusion are reviewed and described in the areas of access, control, communication and rehabilitation/therapy, with particular reference to speech technology developments for people with disordered speech. To be successful, applications should effectively take into account the needs of user groups and have the ability to adapt to the needs of individuals. This is a challenging area but effective progress can be made through multi-disciplinary research and development. 1. Introduction People with physical disabilities take advantage of a variety of methods to gain access to information technology and to electronic assistive technology for communication, mobility and daily living tasks. Many of these access methods are slow and can lead to frustration, a prime example being the use of switch-activated menu scanning (hereafter referred to as switch-scanning). Automatic Speech Recognition is potentially of enormous benefit to people with severe physical disabilities. The tremendous richness of human speech communication gives the user many degrees of freedom for control and input. The speed of speech recognition also gives it a potential advantage over other input methods commonly employed by physically disabled people. People with neurological conditions causing disability often have associated dysarthria, which is the most common acquired speech disorder affecting 170 per 100,000 population [1]. This may be developmental dysarthria such as that associated with cerebral palsy or acquired dysarthria associated with progressive neurological disease (e.g. Parkinson's disease, motor neurone disease, and multiple sclerosis) or sudden onset conditions such as/or head injury. In its severest form, dysarthric speech is unintelligible to others and may take the form of producing vocal utterances, rather than words recognisable to unfamiliar communication partners. The combination of speech and general physical disability can make it particularly problematic for people to interact in their environment and can severely limit independence and inclusion. This paper examines some of the areas for e-inclusion of people with disabilities that can benefit from the use of speech technology. These areas include access, control, communication, rehabilitation and therapy. In all areas, the use of speech technology for people with dysarthric speech is particularly examined and discussed.

Token‐to‐token variability in adult apraxia of speech: A perceptual analysis

Abstract: Background: Many researchers and clinicians have suggested that a definitive characteristic of adult apraxia of speech (AOS) is that the speech sound errors are highly variable. Furthermore, it has been argued that error variability is one means of differentially diagnosing AOS from dysarthria. The findings from studies of error variability have been mixed; however, the speech errors have been elicited in different ways and “variability” is not consistently defined across different studies, making comparisons across studies difficult. Aims: The purpose of this investigation was to characterise error variability in two speakers with AOS. Methods & Procedures: Single words were elicited in imitation with repeated trials on the same words over a period of several weeks. The speech samples were transcribed using narrow phonetic transcription and analysed for accuracy of production and consistency of error. Outcomes & Results: We found that the errors were both consistent and inconsistent, depending on how the...