Acoustic variability of speakers with dysarthria on word repetition tasks.

Abstract

Although large variability in acoustic characteristics “across” speakers with dysarthria has been reported in previous studies in the process of describing characteristics of dysarthrias and identifying speech severity, relatively less attention has been paid to acoustic variability “within” speakers with dysarthria [Kim et al., JSLHR (in press)]. This is a theoretically and clinically important question regarding validity and reliability of acoustic parameters as markers of speech disorders or severity, especially given the difficulty in data collection due to the physical condition of speakers and the relatively small number of subjects and trials (repetitions of given items) in previous literature. As a follow‐up analysis of Kim et al. (in press), this study aims to examine the degree to which speakers with dysarthria exhibit consistency in repeated articulatory behaviors by measuring variability of selected acoustic measures on word repetition tasks. Acoustic measures include F2 slope for vocalic nuclei and moment analysis for fricatives /s/ and /∫/ produced by 108 speakers with dysarthria and ten healthy controls. These results will be interpreted in terms of dysarthria in general and the different types of dysarthria that are said to be associated with different types of neurological disease.