Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

Exploring The Temporal Variability Of Speech Intensity, Speech Intelligibility, And Communicative Participation In Individuals With Hypophonia And Parkinson’S Disease, Cynthia Mancinelli

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Hypophonia, or reduced speech intensity, is frequently observed in individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD). This speech deficit can impact speech intelligibility and communicative participation. However, there is little empirical evidence exploring the day-to-day variability of speech and communicative participation in individuals with PD. The purpose of this study is to investigate the temporal variability of acoustic and perceptual speech measures and psychosocial measures in individuals with hypophonia and PD. Additionally, this study seeks to examine the relationships among measures of speech intensity, speech intelligibility, self- and proxy-rated communicative participation, demographic factors, and non-speech factors. Twenty-three participants with PD, 23 primary …

Changes In Speech Intelligibility And Acoustic Distinctiveness Along A Speech Rate Continuum In Parkinson’S Disease, Thea Knowles

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Asking a person to speak slowly is a common technique in speech therapy for people with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Slowed speaking rates are thought to bring about changes in speech production that make it easier for people with speech impairments associated with PD to be understood, but this is not always the case. Furthermore, research suggests that using faster speech does not necessarily lead to decreases in speech intelligibility for some people with PD. Most studies of rate modification in PD have only included one or two rate adjustments to investigate the relationship between speech rate, intelligibility, and acoustic aspects …

Vowel Production In Down Syndrome: An Ultrasound Study, Micalle Carl

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present study investigated the articulatory and acoustic characteristics of vowel production in individuals with Down syndrome (DS). Speech production deficits and reduced intelligibility are consistently noted in this population, attributed to any combination of phonological, structural, and/or motor control deficits. Speakers with DS have demonstrated impaired vowel production, as indicated by perceptual, acoustic, and articulatory data, with emerging evidence of vowel centralization. Participants in the study included eight young adults with DS, as well as eight age- and gender-matched controls. Ultrasound imaging was utilized to obtain midsagittal tongue contours during single-word productions, specifically targeting the corner vowels /ɑ/, /æ/, …

Relationship Between Intelligibility And Response Accuracy Of The Amazon Echo In Individuals With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Exhibiting Mild-Moderate Dysarthria, Caroline A. Layden

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is an ever-growing and increasing amount of technology options that use speech recognition software. Currently, the market includes smartphones, computers, and individual smart home personal assistants that allow for hands-free access to this technology. Research studies have explored the utility of these assistive devices for the completion of activities of daily living; however, there is limited research looking at the accuracy of voice recognition software within smart home personal assistants in populations with disordered speech. In persons with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), symptoms include changes to motor functions, speech in particular, and it is unknown how some of these …

A Comparison Of Nal And Dsl Prescriptive Methods For Paediatric Hearing-Aid Fitting: Predicted Speech Intelligibility And Loudness, Teresa Y.C. Ching, Earl E. Johnson, Sanna Hou, Harvey Dillon, Vicky Zhang, Lauren Burns, Patricia Van Buynder, Angela Wong, Christopher Flynn

Earl E. Johnson

Objective: To examine the impact of prescription on predicted speech intelligibility and loudness for children. Design: A between-group comparison of speech intelligibility index (SII) and loudness, based on hearing aids fitted according to NAL-NL1, DSL v4.1, or DSL m[i/o] prescriptions. A within-group comparison of gains prescribed by DSL m[i/o] and NAL-NL2 for children in terms of SII and loudness. Study sample: Participants were 200 children, who were randomly assigned to first hearing-aid fitting with either NAL-NL1, DSL v4.1, or DSL m[i/o]. Audiometric data and hearing-aid data at 3 years of age were used. Results: On average, SII calculated on the …

The Interaction Of Temporal And Spectral Acoustic Information With Word Predictability On Speech Intelligibility, Bahar Somayeh Shahsavarani

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

High-level, top-down information such as linguistic knowledge is a salient cortical resource that influences speech perception under most listening conditions. But, are all listeners able to exploit these resources for speech facilitation to the same extent? It was found that children with cochlear implants showed different patterns of benefit from contextual information in speech perception compared with their normal-haring peers. Previous studies have discussed the role of non-acoustic factors such as linguistic and cognitive capabilities to account for this discrepancy. Given the fact that the amount of acoustic information encoded and processed by auditory nerves of listeners with cochlear implants …

Bilabial Substitution Patterns During Consonant Production In A Case Of Congenital Aglossia, Betty Mcmicken, Frederico Salles, Shelley Von Berg, Margaret Vento-Wilson, Kelly Rogers, Asterios Toutios, Shrikanth S. Narayanan

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

Purpose: Congenital aglossia is a rare syndrome in which an individual is born without a tongue. The present paper examines articulatory details of the production of multiple consonants by an aglossic speaker.

Method: Real-time magnetic resonance imaging data of the upper airway were collected from the aglossic speaker. Air-tissue boundaries were determined from the video sequences using a segmentation algorithm, and dynamics of vocal-tract constrictions and cross-dimensions were calculated.

Results: The aglossic speaker produced the consonants /t, d, th, l ,r, f ,v, s, sh/ with a bilabial closure instead of a normal lingua-alveolar closure; however, in …

The Effect Of Botulinum Toxin Type A On Speech Intelligibility In Oromandibular Dystonia, Beatriz Ysabel Domingo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Speech intelligibility of 10 individuals with OMD was measured before and after receiving BoNT-A injections. Intelligibility was assessed using the PIT (single-word intelligibility), SIT (sentence intelligibility), and a conversational speech task. Five listeners rated the speech intelligibility of these three intelligibility tasks via orthographic transcription and visual analogue scaling (VAS) techniques. BoNT-A was not associated with significant differences in speech intelligibility. Further analysis revealed a significant difference on the PIT VAS intelligibility ratings based on order of presentation, suggesting that listeners rated the first half of words on the PIT (words 1-29) as more intelligible than the second half of …

A Comparison Of Nal And Dsl Prescriptive Methods For Paediatric Hearing-Aid Fitting: Predicted Speech Intelligibility And Loudness, Teresa Y.C. Ching, Earl E. Johnson, Sanna Hou, Harvey Dillon, Vicky Zhang, Lauren Burns, Patricia Van Buynder, Angela Wong, Christopher Flynn

ETSU Faculty Works

Objective: To examine the impact of prescription on predicted speech intelligibility and loudness for children. Design: A between-group comparison of speech intelligibility index (SII) and loudness, based on hearing aids fitted according to NAL-NL1, DSL v4.1, or DSL m[i/o] prescriptions. A within-group comparison of gains prescribed by DSL m[i/o] and NAL-NL2 for children in terms of SII and loudness. Study sample: Participants were 200 children, who were randomly assigned to first hearing-aid fitting with either NAL-NL1, DSL v4.1, or DSL m[i/o]. Audiometric data and hearing-aid data at 3 years of age were used. Results: On average, SII calculated on the …

A Comparison Of Speech Amplification Devices For Individuals With Parkinson's Disease And Hypophonia, Monika Andreetta

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

One of the most prevalent speech impairments in idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD) is hypophonia, a reduction in intensity, which typically decreases intelligibility. Speech amplification devices are a potential solution; however, despite the availability of a broad range of devices, no previous studies systematically compare their efficacy in PD. This study examined the effects of speech task (Sentence Intelligibility Test versus conversation), background noise (no noise versus 65 dB SPL multi-talker noise), and selected devices (ADDvox, BoomVox, ChatterVox, Oticon, SoniVox, Spokeman, and Voicette) for 11 PD and 10 control participants, using outcome measures of speech intensity, speech-to-noise ratio, intelligibility, sound quality, …

Effects Of Coordinated Bilateral Hearing Aids And Auditory Training On Sound Localization, Iman Elsabah Ibrahim

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis has two main objectives: 1) evaluating the benefits of the bilateral coordination of the hearing aid Digital Signal Processing (DSP) features by measuring and comparing the auditory performance with and without the activation of this coordination, and 2) evaluating the benefits of acclimatization and auditory training on such auditory performance and, determining whether receiving training in one aspect of auditory performance (sound localization) would generalize to an improvement in another aspect of auditory performance (speech intelligibility in noise), and to what extent. Two studies were performed. The first study evaluated the speech intelligibility in noise and horizontal sound …

The Effect Of Multitalker Background Noise On Speech Intelligibility In Parkinson's Disease And Controls, Talia M. Leszcz

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study investigated the effect of multi-talker background noise on speech intelligibility in participants with hypophonia due to Parkinson’s disease (PD). Ten individuals with PD and 10 geriatric controls were tested on four speech intelligibility tasks at the single word, sentence, and conversation level in various conditions of background noise. Listeners assessed speech intelligibility using word identification or orthographic transcription procedures. Results revealed non-significant differences between groups when intelligibility was assessed in no background noise. PD speech intelligibility decreased significantly relative to controls in the presence of background noise. A phonetic error analysis revealed a distinct error profile for PD …

Spatiotemporal Coupling Of The Tongue In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Mili S. Kuruvilla, Jordan R. Green, Yana Yunusova, Kathy Hanford

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Purpose: The primary aim of the investigation was to identify deficits in spatiotemporal coupling between tongue regions in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The relations between disease-related changes in tongue movement patterns and speech intelligibility were also determined.

Methods: The authors recorded word productions from 11 individuals with ALS with mild, moderate, and severe dysarthria using an x-ray microbeam during word productions. A coupling index based on sliding window covariance was used to determine disease-related changes in the coupling between the tongue regions across each word.

Results: The results indicated decreased spatiotemporal coupling of mid-posterior tongue regions and reduced tongue speed …

/Intɛli/ A Bilingual Computer Software Treatment Program For Apraxia Of Speech, Esnire Abigail Gomez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Apraxia of Speech (AOS) is a motor speech disorder characterized as difficulty planning and producing precise and refined movements of the articulators for intelligible speech (CASANA). Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the success of /Inteli/, an experimental computer program that incorporates melodic intonation therapy (MIT), modified eight step continuum, visual and auditory cues, and voice recordings for instant feedback to increase speech intelligibility. Method: A single subject multiple-baseline design was used to examine the effects of /Inteli/ on the speech intelligibility of a child diagnosed with severe AOS. Treatment was applied to 30 multisyllabic words in …