Speech Rate Reduction Research Articles

Effects of speech rate modifications on phonatory acoustic outcomes in Parkinson's disease.

Speech rate reduction is a global speech therapy approach for speech deficits in Parkinson's disease (PD) that has the potential to result in changes across multiple speech subsystems. While the overall goal of rate reduction is usually improvements in speech intelligibility, not all people with PD benefit from this approach. Speech rate is often targeted as a means of improving articulatory precision, though less is known about rate-induced changes in other speech subsystems that could help or hinder communication. The purpose of this study was to quantify phonatory changes associated with speech rate modification across a broad range of speech rates from very slow to very fast in talkers with and without PD. Four speaker groups participated: younger and older healthy controls, and people with PD with and without deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN-DBS). Talkers read aloud standardized sentences at 7 speech rates elicited using magnitude production: habitual, three slower rates, and three faster rates. Acoustic measures of speech intensity, cepstral peak prominence, and fundamental frequency were measured as a function of speech rate and group. Overall, slower rates of speech were associated with differential effects on phonation across the four groups. While all talkers spoke at a lower pitch in slow speech, younger talkers showed increases in speech intensity and cepstral peak prominence, while talkers with PD and STN-DBS showed the reverse pattern. Talkers with PD without STN-DBS and older healthy controls behaved in between these two extremes. At faster rates, all groups uniformly demonstrated increases in cepstral peak prominence. While speech rate reductions are intended to promote positive changes in articulation to compensate for speech deficits in dysarthria, the present results highlight that undesirable changes may be invoked across other subsystems, such as at the laryngeal level. In particular, talkers with STN-DBS, who often demonstrate speech deterioration following DBS surgery, demonstrated more phonatory detriments at slowed speech rates. Findings have implications for speech rate candidacy considerations and speech motor control processes in PD.

Order Affects Clear and Loud Speech Response.

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the impact of instruction order on the speech production response when adopting higher effort speaking styles, specifically loud and clear speech. Speech intensity, lip aperture range, and speech rate data were collected from 24 talkers who repeated the utterance "Buy Bobby a puppy" using habitual, clear, and loud speech. Participants were assigned in quasi-random fashion to one of two groups: a Clear-Loud Group (11 participants; order: habitual-clear-loud) or a Loud-Clear Group (13 participants; order: habitual-loud-clear). Talkers in the Clear-Loud Group exhibited higher speech intensity during the loud style compared with those who performed the Loud-Clear Group. Furthermore, talkers in the Clear-Loud Group retained the increases lip aperture range and reductions in speech rate associated with the clear style when producing the loud style. Conversely, talkers in the Loud-Clear Group exhibited significant increases in lip aperture range between the habitual and loud styles and between the loud and clear styles. Additionally, the Loud-Clear Group exhibited a reduction in speech rate only during the clear style, as no differences in speech rate were observed between the habitual and loud styles. These findings may suggest that producing a higher effort style leads to carry-over effects in subsequent styles. Future research should investigate factors that moderate the degree of order effects for both research and clinical purposes. For instance, if generalizable, the compounding carry-over effects may prove advantageous for certain clinical populations.

Enhancing Screen Reader Intelligibility in Noisy Environments

People with blindness or severe low vision access mobile devices using screen readers. However, noisy environments can impair screen reader intelligibility. During mobility, this could disorient or even endanger the user. To address this issue, we propose three screen reader speech compensation techniques based on environmental noise: speech rate slowing, adaptive volume increase, and adaptive equalization. Through a study with 12 participants in three simulated noise scenarios, we evaluate screen reader intelligibility and the perceived distraction from the soundscape, with and without compensations. Four of the proposed compensations, in particular those that pair speech rate reduction with volume or equalization adaptation, significantly improve screen reader's speech intelligibility in all the considered scenarios, and the compensations do not have a significant impact on the distraction from the soundscape.

Speech rate association with cerebellar white-matter diffusivity in adults with persistent developmental stuttering.

Speech rate is a basic characteristic of language production, which affects the speaker's intelligibility and communication efficiency. Various speech disorders, including persistent developmental stuttering, present altered speech rate. Specifically, adults who stutter (AWS) typically exhibit a slower speech rate compared to fluent speakers. Evidence from imaging studies suggests that the cerebellum contributes to the paced production of speech. People who stutter show structural and functional abnormalities in the cerebellum. However, the involvement of the cerebellar pathways in controlling speech rate remains unexplored. Here, we assess the association of the cerebellar peduncles with speech rate in AWS and control speakers. Diffusion MRI and speech-rate data were collected in 42 participants (23 AWS, 19 controls). We used deterministic tractography with Automatic Fiber segmentation and Quantification (AFQ) to identify the superior, middle, and inferior cerebellar peduncles (SCP, MCP, ICP) bilaterally, and quantified fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) along each tract. No significant differences were observed between AWS and controls in the diffusivity values of the cerebellar peduncles. However, AWS demonstrated a significant negative association between speech rate and FA within the left ICP, a major cerebellar pathway that transmits sensory feedback signals from the olivary nucleus into the cerebellum. The involvement of the ICP in controlling speech production in AWS is compatible with the view that stuttering stems from hyperactive speech monitoring, where even minor deviations from the speech plan are considered as errors. In conclusion, our findings suggest a plausible neural mechanism for speech rate reduction observed in AWS.

Speech rate adjustment of adults during conversation

PurposeSpeech rate convergence has been reported previously as a phenomenon in which one's speech rate is influenced by his/her partner's speech rate. This phenomenon has been demonstrated in artificial settings, and to some extent, in mother-child interactions. The purpose of this study was to explore speech rate adjustment in a quasi-natural adult-adult conversation. MethodsAn A-B-A-B paradigm was used, in which ten adults conversed on a given topic with two experimenters. Speech rates of both communication partners were measured. ResultsParticipants significantly reduced their speech rate, in response to the experimenters’ reduction in speech rate. However, the participants' reduction in speech rate was significantly smaller than the experimenters’ reduction in speech rate. In addition, during the controlled slow speech rate, the participants’ speech rate correlated negatively with that of the experimenters’. ConclusionResults suggest that speech rate convergence is a non-linear phenomenon, and may be affected by various linguistic as well as communicational factors. From a clinical perspective, the results support the use of the modeling strategy in speech therapy, as a means to facilitate a reduction in clients' speech rate.

Speaking Rate among Adult Hebrew Speakers: A Preliminary Observation

Background: Speaking rate is an important basic temporal characteristic of speech, essential for research as well as clinical applications. Accordingly, it has become a common measure in studies conducted in various fields, such as speech science, speech pathology, behavioral psychology, neuropsychology and emotions. Yet, normative speaking rate data, which are language specific, are still required. This study was aimed to provide preliminary data on speaking-rate and articulation-rate among Hebrew speaking adults, and to examine differences between genders and age-groups. Methods and Findings: Recordings of 78 Hebrew speaking adults (39 men and 39 women) in three age-groups (20-40 years, 41-60 and 61-above) were analyzed. All recordings were obtained from radio broadcast interviews. Speaking rate and articulation rate were quantified using two metrics: syllable-per-second (SPS) and word-per-minute (WPM). Results revealed a mean overall speaking rate of 5.60 SPS and 154.11 WPM, while articulation rate was 6.26 SPS and 175.70 WPM. A gradual reduction in both metrics was observed between the three age-groups. This reduction reached a statistical significance only between the younger and older age-groups (p<0.001). In contrast, no differences in speaking- and articulation-rate were found between men and women. Conclusions: This study provides preliminary data on speaking- and articulation-rate values for adult Hebrew speakers. Data support previous reports on a general reduction in speech rate of the older age group, while demonstrating a lack of gender difference. Results facilitate a comparison of rate measurements performed in Hebrew with those obtained in other languages. Data also provide a baseline for future comparison of speech and fluency characteristics in various pathological groups with normally fluent speakers.

You Do What ? You Work Where ?

You Do <i>What</i> ? You Work <i>Where</i> ?

Cluttering Treatment: Theoretical Considerations and Intervention Planning

This article presents a variety of treatment approaches based on an understanding of four components of communication, and describes cluttering intervention focusing on problem identification, speech rate reduction, appropriate pausing, appropriate monitoring, and addressing story narrating skills. Therapeutic considerations, taking into account the specific characteristics of cluttering, will also be presented. Finally, building clients' confidence, emotional skills, and sense of accomplishment will turn the therapeutic process into awareness of realistic expectations and motivation to pursue challenging goals.

Effect of speech loudness manipulations on articulatory dynamics in severe traumatic brain injury

BackgroundAlteration of speech loudness is an important component of the treatment of dysarthria aimed at improving speech intelligibility and/or naturalness of speech.ObjectiveTo determine the effects of manipulations of speech loudness (habitual vs. loud) on lingual kinematics and tongue-to-palate contacts in adult speakers with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and matched normal controls.Materials and methodsSix adults with severe TBI and five matched non-neurologically impaired controls underwent testing of their articulatory function using electromagnetic articulography and electropalatography (EPG).ResultsLoudness-related scaling of articulatory movements was observed in both the control and TBI groups for speech tasks that demonstrated a significant magnitude of loudness change in the absence of any reduction in speech rate. The TBI group demonstrated these effects during sentence production and during repetition of velar syllables. In contrast, the control group only exhibited an upscaling of articulatory movements for loud speech during repetition of alveolar syllables. Although the TBI group was significantly louder for all tasks than the control group, they also exhibited a significant decrease in overall speech rate compared to controls during sentence production at the loud level. Articulatory kinematics during loud speech production was comparable between the two groups. EPG results indicated no significant difference between the control and TBI groups for the loud condition on the temporal aspects of tongue-to-palate contact. The TBI group did show a significantly greater number of EPG contacts than controls during repetition of velar syllables.ConclusionsAlthough the TBI group differed to controls in loudness level and overall speech rate, their articulatory kinematics during loud speech were comparable. It is possible that upscaling of articulatory movements associated with increased loudness may have been offset by the downscaling of articulatory movements associated with reduced rate of speech.

Speech and pause characteristics associated with voluntary rate reduction in Parkinson's disease and Multiple Sclerosis

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate how speakers with Parkinson's disease (PD) and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) accomplish voluntary reductions in speech rate. A group of talkers with no history of neurological disease was included for comparison. This study was motivated by the idea that knowledge of how speakers with dysarthria voluntarily accomplish a reduced speech rate would contribute toward a descriptive model of speaking rate change in dysarthria. Such a model has the potential to assist in identifying rate control strategies to receive focus in clinical treatment programs and also would advance understanding of global speech timing in dysarthria. All speakers read a passage in Habitual and Slow conditions. Speech rate, articulation rate, pause duration, and pause frequency were measured. All speaker groups adjusted articulation time as well as pause time to reduce overall speech rate. Group differences in how voluntary rate reduction was accomplished were primarily one of quantity or degree. Overall, a slower-than-normal rate was associated with a reduced articulation rate, shorter speech runs that included fewer syllables, and longer more frequent pauses. Taken together, these results suggest that existing skills or strategies used by patients should be emphasized in dysarthria training programs focusing on rate reduction. Results further suggest that a model of voluntary speech rate reduction based on neurologically normal speech shows promise as being applicable for mild to moderate dysarthria. Learning outcomes: The reader will be able to: (1) describe the importance of studying voluntary adjustments in speech rate in dysarthria, (2) discuss how speakers with Parkinson's disease and Multiple Sclerosis adjust articulation time and pause time to slow speech rate.

Realimentação auditiva atrasada e tratamento de gagueira: evidências a serem consideradas

There is some indication that the use of delayed auditory feedback (DAF) is a potentially helpful technique in the treatment of stuttering. Several devices for DAF are also commercially. However, not all individuals who stutter experience a positive effect on speech fluency when speaking under DAF. And those who do show a positive effect, may differ considerably as to the degree and the conditions in which the effect is seen. Therefore, the decision whether or not to attempt the use of DAF in an given client is usually not straightforward. Starting from a literature review, the present paper discusses and illustrates factors to take into account when considering the use of RAA in an individual client. Four types of factors are distinguished: factors inherent to the client such as gender, age, stuttering severity, dysfluency pattern, origin of stuttering, and biological subtype; factors outside the client including delay time, intensity, manner of delivery, speech mode, and speech situation; possible side-effects like a reduction in speech rate, an increase of speaking fundamental frequency and vocal intensity, lengthening of vowels, and a possible effect on speech naturalness; others namely cosmetics, finances, and the long-term effect. The review shows that most likely multiple factors play a role, but with the currently available data it is very hard to predict whether a given individual will or will not benefit from the use of DAF. Overall, the evidence for the influence of the different factors is still meager. Moreover, some studies present data of a quality that can hardly be considered "evidence".

Exact Repetition as Input Enhancement in Second Language Acquisition

This study reports on two experiments on input enhancement used to support learners’ selection of focus of attention in second language listening material. Eighty‐four upper intermediate learners of Spanish took part. The input consisted of video recordings of quasi‐spontaneous dialogues between native speakers, in tests and treatment. Exact repetition and speech rate reduction were examined for their effect on comprehension, acquisition of decoding strategies, and linguistic features. Each of three groups listened to each utterance of the dialogue three times, in different speed combinations: fast‐slow‐fast, fast‐slow‐slow, fast‐fast‐fast, respectively. A fourth group served as a baseline and received no treatment. Comparisons of pretest and posttest scores showed significant effects for all three parameters. No difference with regard to effect could be established between treatment conditions.

Effects of working memory capacity on understanding rate-altered speech

Age-related declines in language processing have been attributed in part to generalized cognitive slowing. Because of this slowing, it has been suggested that older adults' sentence comprehension might be facilitated by reducing the rate at which sentences are spoken. Research, however, has failed to reliably show that speaking slowly enhances comprehension. the present study explores the hypothesis that declines in working memory (WM) would actually counteract any benefits derived from a reduction in speech rate. That is, at a slower than normal speech rate, more demands are placed on WM since information must be retained over a longer duration. the comprehension of normal and slow speech was examined for three Alzheimer's subjects, each presenting a unique profile of WM capacity. Results suggest that the effect of speech rate on comprehension is determined by the extent of WM capacity: A slow speech rate was beneficial only for the subject with the most preserved WM; speech rate did not affect comprehension for the subject with moderately impaired WM; and a slow speech rate was actually detrimental for the subject with the most severe WM impairment. the findings demonstrate the value of considering the involvement of multiple cognitive domains when assessing language processing abilities.

Speech and pause characteristics following speech rate reduction in hypokinetic dysarthria

The effect of speech rate reduction on speech and pause characteristics during a reading task was examined for speakers with Parkinson's disease (PD) and a group of control speakers. Duration of utterances and characteristics of pausing (duration, interpause phrase length, and location) were determined. At habitual reading rate, subjects with PD had shorter speech duration and greater time per pause than control subjects. At reduced reading rates, subjects with PD increased speech duration so that it was equivalent to the control speakers at habitual rate. Both groups had the majority of their pause occurring at appropriate syntactic boundaries. Subjects with PD had a greater proportion of pauses occurring at syntactically inappropriate locations than did the controls. When speech rates were reduced, both groups showed a decrease in pauses located at appropriate syntactic boundaries. The implication of these findings on speech intelligibility is discussed.

The effect of maternal rate reduction on the stuttering, speech rates and linguistic productions of children who stutter: Evidence from individual dyads

The clinical literature in childhood stuttering contains numerous suggestions for parents to use both a reduced speech rate and longer turn-switching pauses when talking with their children who stutter. To date, empirical support for these recommendations has been sparse. In addition, the few studies which have examined the effects of maternal speech rate reduction on the speech and language of stuttering and non-stuttering children have yielded inconsistent results. These equivocal findings are most likely related to the differences among investigations, in both subject characteristics and study design. In this paper we present the results from a preliminary study of maternal speech rate reduction, using young children who stutter and their mothers. Our purpose was to reveal individual patterns of response to a slowed maternal speech rate, through observation of specific speech and language behaviours and behaviour changes in separate dyads. Findings suggest that the relationship between children's stutt...

Analysis of prominence in spoken Japanese sentences and application to text-to-speech synthesis

This paper focuses on the partial emphasis or “prominence” of parts of Japanese sentences. Four sets of 43 read sentences uttered by two speakers including various types of prominence (172 sentences in total) are analyzed. This analysis shows that in 88% of the sentences prominence is produced by enhancing F 0 and increasing power. No examples of lengthening of phoneme duration are observed in the emphasized parts of the sentences except for some special cases. One exception is lengthening accompanied by pause insertion as a mark of prominence, and another slowing total speech rate. The prosodic features of read natural speech are then used to develop rules for changing a reference sentence to produce prominence for rule-based speech synthesis. Listening test results using 10 subjects do not show any significant difference in expressibility between prominence synthesized by rule (rate of correct expression: 76.9%) and prominence in natural speech (79.9%) at the 5% level. To further improve prominence expressibility, listening tests for 10 subjects are used to clarify the conditions under which prominence expressibility becomes optimal. These tests show that the prosodic control parameters increase the expressibility of prominence by about 20%. Finally, prosodic features of spontaneous conversational speech are analyzed and compared with those of read sentence speech. Speech-rate reduction in parts where prominence is placed is more conspicuous in spontaneous conversational speech.

Speech rate reduction and "nasality" in normal speakers.

This study explored the effects of reduced speech rate on nasal/voice accelerometric measures and nasality ratings. Nasal/voice accelerometric measures were obtained from normal adults for various speech stimuli and speaking rates. Stimuli included three sentences (one obstruent-loaded, one semivowel-loaded, and one containing a single nasal), and /pv/ syllable trains.. Speakers read the stimuli at their normal rate, half their normal rate, and as slowly as possible. In addition, a computer program paced each speaker at rates of 1, 2, and 3 syllables per second. The nasal/voice accelerometric values revealed significant stimulus effects but no rate effects. The nasality ratings of experienced listeners, evaluated as a function of stimulus and speaking rate, were compared to the accelerometric measures. The nasality scale values demonstrated small, but statistically significant, stimulus and rate effects. However, the nasality percepts were poorly correlated with the nasal/voice accelerometric measures.

Delayed auditory feedback with delayed sounds varying in duration.

Speakers frequently report using strategies to circumvent the disruptive effects of delayed speech feedback. Often the strategies adopted are inconsistent with the traditional account, which main­ tains that the disruption occurs because speakers try to use the delayed speech for feedback con­ trol, even though it is now delayed and therefore is inappropriate for this control purpose. One strategy that subjects report using is to wait for the delayed sound to stop before proceeding with more speech. A prediction that follows is that disruption at a particular delay will depend upon the length of the delayed sound. We tested and confirmed this prediction by truncating the delayed speech and assessing the disruption this caused. The same effect occurred when a nonspeech sound was substituted for the delayed speech. The implications of adopting this strategy for coping with the effects of delayed auditory feedback, and the equivalent results obtained with speech and nonspeech, are discussed with respect to alternative accounts about why such disruption might occur. Speech control suffers if auditory feedback ofthe voice is delayed. The effects of delayed feedback include a reduction in speech rate and an increase in all types of speech errors. The time to read a set passage increases up to a delay ofabout 200 rnsec and then decreases some­ what. Thus, the disturbance function across delays is in the shape of an inverted V. This U-shaped disturbance function also occurs with speech errors: error rate in­ creases to a maximum at a delay of 200 rnsec and then drops off. The pitch and level of the voice are affected, too, but behave somewhat differently: these measures in­ crease up to a delay of 200 rnsec, but then the function levels off rather than decreases. Such disturbances would occur if speakers normally listen to their speech to check that it is being produced correctly and continue to control speech in this manner even when the speech is delayed experimentally. In the latter case, the speech would not provide appropriate feed­ back to the speaker about hislher present articulatory ac­ tions, resulting in the observed disruption of speech control. Black (1951) adopted this account to explain the dis­ turbance noted with reading time and error rate: if a se­ quence of instructions corresponding to syllables is sent to the peripheral articulators, maximum disruption will occur when the delay is equal to the length of the sylla­ ble. At this delay, the speaker would be issuing instruc

A Comparison of Covert and Overt Assessment Procedures in Stuttering Therapy Outcome Evaluation

This study aimed to compare covert and overt assessments in outcome evaluation of an adult stuttering therapy program. Three situations (talking with strangers, with familiars, and on the telephone) in which nine subjects attained fluency within the therapy program were used to evaluate speech behavior three months and six months after treatment. In each situation, an overt and covert recording was made of each subject’s speech behavior. Percentage of stuttered syllables spoken and rate of speech of the group showed changes that were associated with the difference in assessment conditions. At three months after treatment, there was a small but significant increase in stuttering and reduction in speech rate during the covert condition. At six months this trend remained although differences in percentage syllables stuttered under both conditions were not significant. The findings suggested that, for some subjects, fluency attained under overtly recorded conditions may be illusory and, by implication, could give a false impression of the efficacy of therapy.