Many individuals with cerebral palsy use natural speech as one mode of communication. Recent research suggests that, for these individuals, speech supplementation strategies, such as topic cues, alphabet cues, and combined cues, can have a significant impact on intelligibility; however, the impact of these strategies when speakers actually implement them while producing connected speech is largely unknown. In the present study, the effects of speaker-implemented topic cues, alphabet cues, and combined cues (compared with a no cues control condition) were studied for three individuals with profound dysarthria secondary to cerebral palsy. Also of interest were listener rankings of each strategy, which were based on speakers' perceived effectiveness. Group results showed that combined cues yielded higher intelligibility scores than no cues, topic cues, and alphabet cues. Conversely, no cues resulted in lower intelligibility scores than alphabet cues and topic cues; and alphabet cues resulted in higher intelligibility scores than topic cues. Most importantly, the magnitude of the benefit from combined cues was approximately 40% across speakers, suggesting that this could be a clinically useful intervention strategy for individuals with profound dysarthria in some situations. Group data for listener effectiveness rankings followed the same pattern of results as intelligibility data. Individual differences among speakers were present and are discussed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.