MS Final (management of speaking rate, prosody, and artic)

what is speaking rate influenced by?

• type and severity of neuromotor impairment

• SwD use compensatory strategies to improve speech performance

how does rate reduction help?

it facilitates articulatory precision and intelligibility and allows time for a full range of movement and coordination

true or false: rate reduction may be harder to achieve than other motor goals

false - easier

rate reduction can give listeners extra time to ____

process degraded speech signals

true or false: rate reduction works for all clients and always improves intelligibility

false - the perceptual integrity of consonants and vowels can deteriorate at very slow rates

who does reduced rate sometimes not work for specifically?

ALS speakers

when should rate modification NOT be used

if it does not improve intelligibility or if intelligibility is not impaired → because it reduces efficiency and naturalness

what is speaking rate?

number of syllables or words spoken divided by the time to produce the entire speech sample

what is speaking rate usually expressed as?

words or syllables per minute

what is articulatory rate?

number of syllables or words spoken divided by the time required to produce the speech sample REMOVING disfluencies, pauses, silent intervals etc.

what is normal conversational speaking rate?

150-250WPM or 180-220 SPM

what is typical adult articulatory rate?

6-7SPS

overall speaking rates vary considerably due to

pause time

pauses may occupy ____ of prose reading and ____ of spontaneous speech

30%, 50%

pauses are systematically related to ____

syntactic boundaries

SwD often try to compensate for reduced rate by decreasing ____

pause time

assessing speaking rate

• perceptual (most common, not objective)

• computerized mesures - The Speech Intelligibility Test, acoustic analysis software

behavioural treatment of fast speech rate

• computerized rhythmic cueing

• fill the screen (visual biofeedback)

low tech treatment of fast rate speech

pacing board

metronome

alphabet supplementation board

devices for treatment of fast rate speech

delayed auditory feedback

2 aspects of articulation intervention

segmental aspects of speech

suprasegmental aspects of speech

medical management for normalizing artic function

• L-Dopa for PD to reduce rigidity

• surgical management (neural anastomosis)

normalizing artic function through reducing impairment

training and biofeedback

typically used with patients who are either stable or improving

normalizing function - reducing tone

• focus on specific muscle groups

• generalized relaxation

• botox

• anti-spasmodic meds

normalizing function - optimizing speaking rate

• improve intelligibility and artic proficiency in hypo dys

• improve intelligibility (but not artic proficiency) in ataxic dys

normalizing function - strengthening

• biofeedback to jaw and lips + strengthening exercises for CN V, VII and XII involvement

• DON’T use nsomes (no high quality evidence right now)

compensation - contrastive production and intelligibility drills

• do not require specific instructions about how to produce the sound

• difficulty of task easily adjusted

compensation - prosthetic

palatal lift

pacing board

alphabet board

delayed auditory feedback

what is prosody?

stress patterning, intonation, and rate-rhythm

what is stress patterning?

level of prominence of one syllable or word in an utterance

measured by analyzing adjustments in F0, intensity, and duration throughout utterance

contributors to lack of naturalness

1. monotony

2. syntactic mismatches

3. inconsistency across features

monotony

rhythmic patterning of syllables, even stress patterning, minimizing of intonation contours

syntactic mismatches

prosodic features do not coincide with the syntactic structure of the utterance

inconsistency across features

prosodic features are in conflict with one another

overall rating of naturalness

7 point interval scale to determine how listeners perceive and judge a speaker’s naturalness

Ax of communicative function of prosody and naturalness

• can the speaker convey linguistic distinctions, stress, and syntactic structure

• does the speaker have the cognitive capacity to understand an explicit description of the use of prosody for communication?

what does acoustic analysis of habitual prosodic patterning do?

• gives insights into how speakers are achieving perceptual results

• f0 and intensity contours indicate what suprasegmental features or strategies are being used to signal stress

generalization to spontaneous speech for prosody and naturalness

• feedback gradually faded out and practice materials re more complex

• conversation scripts

• self-critique

indirect treatment of naturalness

a variety of txs can indirectly impact naturalness → monitor multidimensional influences of your interventions

what is Be Clear?

program where talkers spontaneously modify their habitual speech to enhance intelligibility for the listener

what are the central elements of Be Clear?

rate reduction

purposeful enunciation (overarticulation) of all sounds