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Speaking slowly: Effects of four self-guided training approaches on adults' speech rate and naturalness
Abstract
Speech-language pathologists often ask parents of children who stutter to reduce their conversational pace when talking with their children. Little is known, however, about how best to help parents accomplish this task. Two experiments were conducted to examine this issue. In Experiment 1, adult females altered speech rate via one of four self-guided methods. Post-training speech rates for all four experimental groups (n = 8) were significantly slower than those of speakers in a control group. The extent of rate reduction varied significantly across groups, and speakers rated their resultant speech as unnatural. In Experiment 2, 39 female listeners rated the naturalness of sentences from the five groups in Experiment 1. Naturalness ratings were higher for the Control group than for a group using a self-devised rate-reduction method (SDM). In turn, SDM ratings were higher than those for groups trained to alter articulation rate and intra-sentence pauses. Across groups, the slower a speaker's post-training speech rate, the less natural listeners judged the speech to sound (r = .95). Results suggest that although none of the methods were clearly superior, adults can readily produce moderately slower, relatively natural sounding speech using self-devised methods. Speakers' and listeners' perceptions of speech naturalness may differ considerably, however, and this must be considered during training.
... Multiple factors are known to have an effect on speech rate in healthy speakers, including motoric complexity (consonant clusters, syllable structure, phonemic complexity; e.g., Tremblay et al., 2018Tremblay et al., , 2019, linguistic complexity (e. g. syntactic complexity, utterance length; Munson & Solomon, 2004), syllable frequency (Levelt et al., 1999;Schweitzer & Möbius, 2004), phonological neighbourhood density (Munson & Solomon, 2004); lexical frequency (Bell et al., 2009;Pluymaekers, Ernestus, Harald Baayen et al., 2005) and repetition (Schulz et al., 2001). Conversely, speech rate is known to influence articulatory accuracy (Tsao et al., 2006), intelligibility (Dagenais et al., 2006;Tjaden & Wilding, 2004), listener's perception of the speaker (e.g., Mohammadi & Vinciarelli, 2012;Ray, 1986) and naturalness of speech (Dagenais et al., 2006;Logan et al., 2002) in healthy speakers. In normal aging, decline in speech motor performance affecting both articulation accuracy and speech rate have been reported (Bilodeau-Mercure & Tremblay, 2016;Tremblay et al., 2018). ...
... However, this relation is not always straightforward for all speakers (e.g., Kuo et al., 2014;Turner et al., 1995;Van Nuffelen et al., 2009;Weismer et al., 2000). Furthermore, a speech rate that is too slow might reverse the negative correlation between speech rate and intelligibility by altering too much the naturalness and acceptability of speech (Dagenais et al., 2006;Kuo et al., 2014;Logan et al., 2002). From a listener's perspective, a slower speech rate may challenge working memory by forcing longer retention of speech units before they can be interpreted with other information. ...
... Slow speech rate is known to negatively affect acceptability and naturalness of speech (Dagenais et al., 2006;Kuo et al., 2014;Logan et al., 2002), as well as the effectiveness of emotional prosody (Abdelwahab & Busso, 2017). Speech rate increase might thus be a valuable therapeutic target in speakers with PPAOS, for whom slow speech rate is a core characteristic and for whom prosodic deficits are often the predominant type of impairment (Botha & Josephs, 2019). ...
Impaired articulation (e.g., articulatory accuracy) and prosody (e.g., slow speech rate) are considered primary diagnostic criterions for apraxia of speech both in neurodegenerative and post-stroke contexts. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the ability of participants with primary progressive apraxia of speech (PPAOS), a neurodegenerative disease characterised by initially isolated progressive apraxia of speech, to increase speech rate and the interaction between articulatory accuracy and speech rate. The secondary aim was to investigate the effect of syllable frequency and structure on this interaction. Four speakers with PPAOS, and four sex- and age-matched healthy speakers (HS) read eight two-syllable words embedded two times in a ten-syllable carrier phrase. Syllable frequency and structure were manipulated for the first syllable of the target words and controlled for the second syllable. All sentences were produced at three different target speech rates (conditions): habitual, regular (five syllables/second), and fast (seven syllables/second). Prosodic measures for target words and sentences were computed based on acoustic analysis of speech rate. Articulatory measures for words and sentences were rated based on a perceptual assessment of articulatory accuracy. Results show slower speech rate and reduced articulatory accuracy in speakers with PPAOS compared to HS. Results suggest that speakers with PPAOS also have limited ability to increase their speech rate. Finally, results suggest that articulatory complexity influences speech rate but that the cost of speech rate increase on articulatory accuracy varies greatly across speakers with PPAOS and is not necessarily related to the extent of the increase when measured in a highly structured sentence production task. Theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.
... Most data on modelled rate reduction with preschoolers who stutter has focused on parents, not clinicians. Logan, Roberts, Pretto, and Morey (2002), for example, focused on how best to train parents to slow their rate and increase naturalness. Setting the topic of parent-administrated programs aside, there are a few reasons to investigate the effect of clinicians' slow rate on stuttering preschoolers. ...
... The clinicians were trained in several group demonstration and practice sessions to speak slowly, as consistently and naturally as possible, so as to average between 2.0 and 3.3 syllables per second. Clinicians were trained to balance tasks of elongating word duration and using relatively frequent and longer pauses at linguistic boundaries (Logan et al., 2002;Tiffany, 1980). ...
... cards in a bean box, Play-Doh, Mr. Potato Head). For the ''A'' baseline condition sessions, the clinician was instructed to use a naturally fast speech rate, and for the ''B'' slow model condition sessions, she was instructed to attain and maintain the slow natural-sounding rate by increasing pauses between phrases and elongating some words (Logan et al., 2002;Tiffany, 1980). ...
Abstract To study the effects of clinicians' slow rate on the speech of children who stutter with and without a concomitant phonological disorder, an A-B-A-B single case design was used with six clinician-child dyads, where B = Clinician's slow speech rate model. Two boys and one girl, aged 49-54 months, stuttering with disordered phonology (S + DP), were compared to three boys aged 42-50 months, stuttering with normal phonology (S + NP). Articulation rates were measured in phones per second (pps) in clinician-child adjacent utterance pairs. The S + NP dyads showed improved fluency in the B condition through a larger effect size, higher mean baseline stutter reductions and lower percentages of non-overlapping data than did the S + DP dyads. The S + DP girl showed relatively improved fluency in the B condition. S + DP children showed no articulation rate alignment (Range: 16% decrease to a 1.2% increase), whereas S + NP children averaged a 20% pps rate reduction (Range: 19.6-25.4% decrease), aligning with their clinicians who averaged a 38% pps rate reduction from baseline. The S + DP group spoke significantly (z = -4.63; p < 0.00) slower at baseline (Mdn = 6.9 pps; SE = 0.07 pps) than S + NP children in previously published samples (Mdn = 9.8 pps; SE = 0.22 pps). Results suggest that a slow rate model alone is not effective for facilitating fluency in S + DP boys with time since onset of about 2 years.
... 집단 간 어머니 말의 자연스러움을 비교한 결과, 초기평가 및 12 개월 후 시점 모두 말더듬아동 집단의 어머니가 일반아동 집단 어 머니보다 말의 자연스러움이 유의하게 낮았다. 이러한 연구결과는 말더듬아동 어머니의 느린 말속도가 말의 자연스러움 판단에 부정 적인 영향을 미쳤다고 볼 수 있으며 말속도를 느리게 조절할 시 말 의 자연스러움이 저하될 수 있다는 선행연구와 일치하는 결과이다(Davidow & Ingham, 2013;Logan et al., 2002;Yorkston et al., 1999). 즉, 말더듬아동 어머니가 아동의 유창성 증진을 위해 아동 에게 주어지는 요구를 감소시키는 방식 중 하나로 느린 말속도로 아동과 상호작용한다면, 말의 자연스러움 또한 저하될 수 있으며 결과적으로 말더듬아동과 어머니의 언어적 상호작용이 부자연스 럽게 이루어질 가능성이 있음을 의미한다. ...
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate longitudinal changes in articulation rates of children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS) and their mother’s speaking behavior.Methods: Participants were 12 mother-child dyads, including 6 CWS (4 females and 2 male) and age-matched 6 CWNS (3 females and 3 male). Spontaneous conversational speech samples were collected at initial visit and at subsequent visit about 12 months later. The speech samples were analyzed for children’s abnormal disfluency (AD) and articulation rate as well as the mother’s articulation rate and speech naturalness.Results: No significant differences were found between the two groups in children’s articulation rate at each time interval. However, mothers of CWS exhibited significantly lower articulation rates and speech naturalness than mothers of CWNS. In the CWS group, at initial visit and 12 months later, a positive correlation was found between the mother’s articulation rate and their speech naturalness. In the CWNS group, at 12 months later, significant positive correlation was found between children’s articulation rate and mother’s articulation rate.Conclusion: The results reveal an interactive and complex relationship between mother’s speech behavior and children’s stuttering. For CWS, mothers’ verbal interaction style would be changed as a reaction to their child’s stuttering in the same way that mothers’ verbal interaction style would influence their child’s fluency.
... The current study did not examine the effects of rate reduction on the naturalness of speech. It is well known that rate reduction reduces the naturalness of speech (Logan, Roberts, Pretto, & Morey, 2002;Yorkston et al., 1990). For some speakers with dysarthria, the gain in intelligibility is worth the cost to speech naturalness; however, future research is needed to examine this further. ...
Purpose
We evaluated the effects of a speech supplementation strategy to reduce rate and improve intelligibility in children with cerebral palsy.
Method
Twenty-five children with cerebral palsy (M age = 12.08 years) completed a structured speaking task in 2 speech conditions: habitual speech and slow speech. Fifteen children had mild intelligibility deficits; 10 had moderate–severe intelligibility deficits. In each condition, children repeated utterances of 2–7 words in length. In the habitual speech condition, children used their natural and unaltered speaking rate. In the slow speech condition, children were cued to insert pauses between words. Intelligibility ratings were obtained from orthographic transcriptions by unfamiliar adult listeners (n = 100). Speech rate, in words per minute, was measured for each utterance.
Results
All children, regardless of severity group, were able to reduce their rate of speech when implementing the slow speech strategy. Only children in the moderate–severe group showed an improvement in intelligibility when implementing the slow speech strategy. Although there was considerable individual variability, there was a greater improvement in intelligibility for longer utterances compared to shorter ones.
Conclusion
A slow speech strategy may be beneficial for children with moderate–severe intelligibility deficits who speak in longer utterances. Future studies should seek to further examine the clinical feasibility of slow speech for children with reduced intelligibility.
... Despite the abovementioned inconsistencies across findings, reduction in overall speech rate has generally been linked to increases in fluency for adults who stutter (AWS; Ingham et al., 2009;Logan, Roberts, Pretto, & Morey, 2002). Additionally, slowing down parents' overall speech rate has been associated with decreased stuttering in young children (Stephenson-Opsal & Bernstein Ratner, 1988;Guitar & Marchinkoski, 2001;Guitar, Schaefer, Donahue-Kilburg, & Bond, 1992;Zebrowski, Weiss, Savelkoul, & Hammer, 1996). ...
This review summarizes extant findings supporting multifactorial models of stuttering within the context of preschool-age stuttering assessment. Evidence is given for a number of speech-language and associated factors/domains to consider when evaluating young children who stutter. Selected factors are presented in two parts: (1) Caregiver Interview and (2) Direct Child Assessment. Factors addressed during caregiver interviews include: gender, time since and age at stuttering onset, family history of stuttering, caregivers' perception/concerns about stuttering, and temperament. Factors addressed during direct child assessments include: stuttering behaviors, speech-associated attitudes/awareness, and speech rate, as well as speech sound and language development. Interactions/relations among factors are noted, showing their combined effects and contributions to childhood stuttering. Additionally, suggested clinical applications are provided wherever appropriate. Such evidence and practical applications bridge the gap between theory and clinical practice, thus advancing the abilities of speech-language pathologists to conduct well-informed, comprehensive stuttering evaluations.
... It may be that it is aversive to signal a dysfluency, however it is signaled. Secondly, it may be that the interruption of speech occasioned by the putative social reinforcer used in these studies allowed a general slowing of speech rate, often implicated in the reduction of stuttering (see Logan, Roberts, Pretto, & Morey, 2002). Thirdly, it may be that with these participants, function word stuttering was secondary to content word stuttering. ...
... It is noteworthy that a faster-than-habitual rate has been shown to facilitate speech naturalness or speech acceptability at least for some speakers, with or without dysarthria (Dagenais, Brown, & Moore, 2006;Logan, Roberts, Pretto, & Morey, 2002), and these perceptual constructs are strongly associated with intelligibility (see also discussion in Sussman & Tjaden, 2012). The perceptual constructs of speech naturalness or acceptability are further thought to reflect global, suprasegmental aspects of speech (Sussman & Tjaden, 2012). ...
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Acoustic-perceptual characteristics of a faster-than-habitual rate (Fast condition) were examined for speakers with Parkinson's disease (PD) and multiple sclerosis (MS). Judgments of intelligibility for sentences produced at a habitual rate (Habitual condition) and at a faster-than-habitual rate (Fast condition) by 46 speakers with PD or MS as well as a group of 32 healthy speakers revealed that the Fast condition was, on average, associated with decreased intelligibility. However, some speakers' intelligibility did not decline. To further understand the acoustic characteristics of varied intelligibility in the Fast condition for speakers with dysarthria, a subgroup of speakers with PD or MS whose intelligibility did not decline in the Fast condition (no decline group, n=8) and a subgroup of speakers with significantly declined intelligibility (decline group, n=8) were compared. Acoustic measures of global speech timing, suprasegmental characteristics, and utterance-level segmental characteristics for vocalics were examined for the two subgroups. Results suggest acoustic contributions to intelligibility under rate modulation are complex. Potential clinical relevance and implications for the acoustic bases of intelligibility are discussed.
Learning outcomes:
Readers will be able to (1) discuss existing evidence for the use of rate change to facilitate intelligibility, (2) describe acoustic-perceptual characteristics of a faster-than-habitual rate among speakers with mild dysarthria, (3) discuss the relationships between rate, intelligibility, suprasegmental variables, and segmental variables, (4) identify the need to further investigate the acoustic basis for intelligibility and its potential theoretical and clinical implications.
... The findings regarding speech rate and naturalness, however, must be considered as speech rate is adjusted for changes in speech effort, if the reference for normally fluent speech includes how speech should feel and sound. As was the case in several other investigations (e.g., Logan, Roberts, Pretto, & Morey, 2002), the present study reported, in general, less natural-sounding speech as speech rate decreased. Therefore, if speech rate during chorus reading is reduced to make the condition less effortful, it may be at the cost of natural-sounding speech. ...
Purpose:
This study examined the effect of speech rate on phonated intervals (PIs), in order to test whether a reduction in the frequency of short PIs is an important part of the fluency-inducing mechanism of chorus reading. The influence of speech rate on stuttering frequency, speaker-judged speech effort, and listener-judged naturalness was also examined. An added purpose was to determine if chorus reading could be further refined so as to provide a perceptual guide for gauging the level of physical effort exerted during speech production.
Methods:
A repeated-measures design was used to compare data obtained during control reading conditions and during several chorus reading conditions produced at different speech rates. Participants included 8 persons who stutter (PWS) between the ages of 16 and 32 years.
Results:
There were significant reductions in the frequency of short PIs from the habitual reading condition during slower chorus conditions, no change when speech rates were matched between habitual reading and chorus conditions, and an increase in the frequency of short PIs during chorus reading produced at a faster rate than the habitual condition. Speech rate did not have an effect on stuttering frequency during chorus reading. In general, speech effort ratings improved and naturalness ratings worsened as speech rate decreased.
Conclusion:
These results provide evidence that (a) a reduction in the frequency of short PIs is not necessary for fluency improvement during chorus reading, and (b) speech rate may be altered to provide PWS with a more appropriate reference for how physically effortful normally fluent speech production should be. Future investigations should examine the necessity of changes in the activation of neural regions during chorus reading, the possibility of defining individualized units on a 9-point effort scale, and if there are upper and lower speech rate boundaries for receiving ratings of "highly natural sounding" speech during chorus reading.
Learning outcomes:
The reader will be able to: (1) describe the effect of changes in speech rate on the frequency of short phonated intervals during chorus reading, (2) describe changes to speaker-judged speech effort as speech rate changes during chorus reading, (3) and describe the effect of changes in speech rate on listener-judged naturalness ratings during chorus reading.
... Vowel duration will be interesting to study as well, because speakers may be lengthening it to promote fluency, but may need to shorten it for improved naturalness if it is found to be a critical factor in listener-rated naturalness. Other factors impacting speech naturalness may have been articulation rate (Logan, Roberts, Pretto, & Morey, 2002), position in the sentence that the speaker pauses, and stimulus-off duration length. Several judges mentioned these as factors in their ratings. ...
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The most common way to induce fluency using rhythm requires persons who stutter to speak one syllable or one word to each beat of a metronome, but stuttering can also be eliminated when the stimulus is of a particular duration (e.g., 1 second [s]). The present study examined stuttering frequency, speech production changes, and speech naturalness during rhythmic speech that alternated 1s of reading with 1s of silence. A repeated-measures design was used to compare data obtained during a control reading condition and during rhythmic reading in 10 persons who stutter (PWS) and 10 normally fluent controls. Ratings for speech naturalness were also gathered from naïve listeners. Results showed that mean vowel duration increased significantly, and the percentage of short phonated intervals decreased significantly, for both groups from the control to the experimental condition. Mean phonated interval length increased significantly for the fluent controls. Mean speech naturalness ratings during the experimental condition were approximately "7" on a 1-9 scale (1=highly natural; 9=highly unnatural), and these ratings were significantly correlated with vowel duration and phonated intervals for PWS. The findings indicate that PWS may be altering vocal fold vibration duration to obtain fluency during this rhythmic speech style, and that vocal fold vibration duration may have an impact on speech naturalness during rhythmic speech. Future investigations should examine speech production changes and speech naturalness during variations of this rhythmic condition.
Educational objectives:
The reader will be able to: (1) describe changes (from a control reading condition) in speech production variables when alternating between 1s of reading and 1s of silence, (2) describe which rhythmic conditions have been found to sound and feel the most natural, (3) describe methodological issues for studies about alterations in speech production variables during fluency-inducing conditions, and (4) describe which fluency-inducing conditions have been shown to involve a reduction in short phonated intervals.
... It may be that it is aversive to signal a dysfluency, however it is signaled. Secondly, it may be that the interruption of speech occasioned by the putative social reinforcer used in these studies allowed a general slowing of speech rate, often implicated in the reduction of stuttering (see Logan, Roberts, Pretto, & Morey, 2002). Thirdly, it may be that with these participants, function word stuttering was secondary to content word stuttering. ...
A novel behavioral treatment for persistent stuttering is described. Analysis of the dysfluent speech shows that children who emit high rates of stuttering on content words in sentences have a poor prognosis for recovery, compared to those who emit high rates of stuttering on function words. This novel technique aimed to reverse the pattern of dysfluencies noted in such children, and reduce stuttering in the short-term. To this end, dysfluent content words only were subject to an over-correction procedure. In contrast, dysfluent function words were subject to social approval. The results of two studies indicated that these procedures reduced rates of content word stuttering, even at a post-treatment follow-up assessment, for those with severe, and previously intractable, stuttering. These data suggest the efficacy of behavioral interventions for persistent stuttering, and point to the importance of careful delineation between the parts of speech to be subject to various contingencies. However, it remains to be seen whether the treatment efficacy was specifically due to targeting the parts of speech of the stutter-contingent time-outs.
... It is also possible to teach individuals to stretch words through vowel prolongation without providing direct feedback, as in various versions of fluency shaping programs (Webster, 1980). With any rate reduction strategy, naturalness is sacrificed regardless of the method (Logan, Roberts, Pretto, & Morey, 2002). ...
There are many potential sources of variability in speech production, particularly in individuals with dysarthria. The degree and time course of stabilization of the speech production system during recovery from a neurological insult is not constant across individuals. Another source of variability in speech production is speaking rate. Although individuals with no neurological impairments typically show increased variability at reduced speaking rates, this phenomenon has not been explored extensively in individuals with dysarthria. Because rate control strategies are commonly used in dysarthria treatment, it is of clinical importance to know if individuals with dysarthria produce less variable speech with rate reduction. Six individuals with mild dysarthria, 6 with moderate-to-severe dysarthria, and 6 matched normal controls repeated an utterance in four speaking rate conditions: habitual, fast, breaks between words, and stretched. Data were analyzed using the spatiotemporal index (STI), a composite measure of spatial and temporal variability across token repetitions. The normal controls consistently demonstrated the least variability, regardless of rate condition. Both groups with dysarthria were the least variable in the stretched condition and the most variable in the fast condition. The STI values of the group with moderate-to-severe dysarthria were significantly different from both the individuals with mild dysarthria and the normal controls. There were no significant differences between the group with mild dysarthria and the normal controls. In general, slowing the speaking rate in individuals with dysarthria reduces spatiotemporal variability; however, the effect of reduced spatiotemporal variability on intelligibility requires further investigation.
... Control of speaking rate includes both volitional and nonvolitional components. Volitional control of speaking rate has been demonstrated using rate manipulation as an experimental condition (Kozhevnikov & Chistovitch, 1965;Logan, Boberts, Pretto, & Morey, 2002;Ostry & Munhall, 1985;Tsao & Weismer, 1997). In all these experiments, talkers were capable of varying their speaking rates on request. ...
Purpose
The purpose of the present study was to test the hypothesis that talkers previously classified by Y.-C. Tsao and G. Weismer (1997) as habitually fast versus habitually slow would show differences in the way they manipulated articulation rate across the rate continuum.
Method
Thirty talkers previously classified by Tsao and Weismer (1997) as having habitually slow (n = 15; 7 males, 8 females) and habitually fast (n = 15; 8 males, 7 females) articulation rates produced a single sentence at 7 different rates, using a magnitude production paradigm. Hence, the participants were not randomly assigned to conditions.
Results
Quadratic regression functions relating measured to intended articulation rates were all statistically significant, and most important, there were significant differences between the slow and fast groups in the y intercepts of the functions, for both males and females.
Conclusions
This study provides a constructive replication of Tsao and Weismer (1997), showing a difference between slow and fast talkers with a new set of speech materials and in a new task. The findings appear to be consistent with a biological basis for intertalker rate differences.
Purpose
The aim of this study was to quantify changes in speech intelligibility in two cohorts of people with Parkinson's disease (PD; those with and without deep brain stimulation [DBS]) across a broad range of self-selected speech rate alterations in (a) read sentences and (b) extemporaneous speech (monologues).
Method
Four speaker groups participated in this study: younger and older controls, people with PD undergoing standard pharmaceutical treatment, and people with PD and DBS. Naïve listeners rated the intelligibility of read sentences and extemporaneous monologues, spoken by participants at seven self-selected speech rates from very slow to very fast. Intelligibility was modeled as a function of group, speech rate condition, and speech task.
Results
Overall, compared to habitual speech rate, slower speech rate conditions were not associated with changes in speech intelligibility, whereas faster-than-habitual conditions were associated in declines in intelligibility. Results were mediated by group and task effects, such that talkers with PD and DBS were more likely to see intelligibility benefits at slower self-selected speech rates and less likely to see detriments at faster rates, and these differences were amplified in monologues compared to sentences.
Conclusion
Findings suggest differences in the ways in which slower and faster speech rate adjustments impact speech intelligibility in people with PD with and without DBS, with the latter demonstrating greater magnitudes of change.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the association among articulation rate, speech intelligibility and working memory in children with dysarthria. Two subject groups of 11 spastic and 11 flaccid dysarthria, respectively, aged between 8 and 17 years of age participated in this study. All participants were administered the following tests: K-WISC III PIQ test, speech intelligibility, working memory and articulation rate. Group differences were compared by an independent t-test. Pearson correlation were computed between all measures. The results of this study are as follows: First, articulation rate and intelligibility were significantly lower for the spastic dysarthria than for the flaccid dysarthria. Second, there was a significant correlation between articulation rate and intelligibility in children with flaccid dysarthria. Lastly, there was no significant correlation between articulation rate and working memory in both groups. The results suggest that articulation rate is not necessarily accompanied by working memory capacity in children with dysarthria, and there are differences in the effect of articulation rate on intelligibility depending on the type of dysarthria.
The assignment of the ICF in the therapy of patients with dysarthria not only leads to a detailed description of specific disorders but also shows an impact on diagnosis and therapy. The notion of participation influences diagnosis and therapy, functional goals should correspond to participation goals. Examples given here show in how far frequently used diagnostic instruments already fulfil ICF requirements and where improvement seems to be necessary.
This study examined whether speech acceptability was changed under various conditions of prosodic manipulations. Both speech rate and voice loudness reportedly are associated with acceptability and intelligibility. Speech samples by twelve speakers with mild dysarthria were recorded. Speech rate and loudness changes were made by digitally manipulating habitual sentences. 3 different loudness levels (70, 75, & 80dB) and 4 different speech rates (normal, 20% rapidly, 20% slowly, & 40% slowly) were presented to 12 SLPs (speech language pathologists). SLPs evaluated sentence acceptability by 7-point Likert scale. Repeated ANOVA were conducted to determine if the prosodic type of resynthesized cue resulted in a significant change in speech acceptability. A faster speech rate (20% rapidly) rather than habitual and slower rates (20%, 40% slowly) resulted in significant improvement in acceptability ratings (p
Speaking rate is an important variable to measure during a stuttering diagnostic evaluation and to modify or treat for many individuals who stutter (Conture 2001; Gregory 2003; Guitar 1998, 2006; Zebrowski & Kelly 2002). This investigation identified procedures used by speech-language pathologists to calculate and modify speaking rate in a clinical setting. A questionnaire was developed and administered to 92 speech-language pathologists that assessed their knowledge of various aspects of speaking rate, as related to the assessment and treatment of people who stutter. Many speech language pathologists were unfamiliar with procedures used to calculate speaking rate during a diagnostic evaluation. Furthermore, many clinicians were seemingly unaware of speaking rate modification methods that can be employed when treating people who stutter. Findings broaden our understanding of methods used by speech-language pathologists to calculate and modify speaking rate when working with people who stutter, as well as those who exhibit other communication disorders.
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The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which adults who do not stutter can predict communication-related attitudes of adults who do stutter. 40 participants (mean age of 22.5 years) evaluated speech samples from an adult with mild stuttering and an adult with severe stuttering via audio-only (n=20) or audio-visual (n=20) modes to predict how the adults had responded on the S24 scale of communication attitudes. Participants correctly predicted which speaker had the more favorable S24 score, and the predicted scores were significantly different between the severity conditions. Across the four subgroups, predicted S24 scores differed from actual scores by 4-9 points. Predicted values were greater than the actual values for 3 of 4 subgroups, but still relatively positive in relation to the S24 norm sample. Stimulus presentation mode interacted with stuttering severity to affect prediction accuracy. The participants predicted the speakers' negative self-attributions more accurately than their positive self-attributions. Findings suggest that adults who do not stutter estimate the communication-related attitudes of specific adults who stutter in a manner that is generally accurate, though, in some conditions, somewhat less favorable than the speaker's actual ratings. At a group level, adults who do not stutter demonstrate the ability to discern minimal versus average levels of attitudinal impact for speakers who stutter. The participants' complex prediction patterns are discussed in relation to stereotype accuracy and classic views of negative stereotyping.
Educational objectives:
The reader will be able to (a) summarize main findings on research related to listeners' attitudes toward people who stutter, (b) describe the extent to which people who do not stutter can predict the communication attitudes of people who do stutter; and (c) discuss how findings from the present study relate to previous findings on stereotypes about people who stutter.
It is known that listeners harbor negative stereotypes toward people who stutter but there are a host of other findings in the literature that provide a broader perspective about how listeners react to stuttering. The focus of this article is a discussion of four areas of research related to listener reactions to stuttering: (1) how stuttering impacts listeners' reactions to mild, moderate, and severe stuttering; (2) how stuttering interferes with listener recall and comprehension of story information; (3) how children react to stuttering; and (4) how listeners react to strategies plus use in stuttering therapy programs. Studies associated with these four areas of research are summarized and discussed. Clinical implications that emerge from these studies are described to assist clinicians in the treatment of children and adults who stutter.
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This study investigated listeners' perception of the speech naturalness of people who stutter (PWS) speaking under delayed auditory feedback (DAF) with particular attention for possible listener differences. Three panels of judges consisting of 14 stuttering individuals, 14 speech language pathologists, and 14 naive listeners rated the naturalness of speech samples of stuttering and non-stuttering individuals using a 9-point interval scale. Results clearly indicate that these three groups evaluate naturalness differently. Naive listeners appear to be more severe in their judgements than speech language pathologists and stuttering listeners, and speech language pathologists are apparently more severe than PWS. The three listener groups showed similar trends with respect to the relationship between speech naturalness and speech rate. Results of all three indicated that for PWS, the slower a speaker's rate was, the less natural speech was judged to sound. The three listener groups also showed similar trends with regard to naturalness of the stuttering versus the non-stuttering individuals. All three panels considered the speech of the non-stuttering participants more natural.
Educational objectives:
The reader will be able to: (1) discuss the speech naturalness of people who stutter speaking under delayed auditory feedback, (2) discuss listener differences about the naturalness of people who stutter speaking under delayed auditory feedback, and (3) discuss the importance of speech rate for the naturalness of speech.
Sentences recorded by four speakers with dysarthria and two control speakers were presented to listeners at three different rates: habitual, a 30% slower rate and a 30% higher rate. Rate changes were made by digitally manipulating the habitual sentences. Thirty young normal adult listeners rated the sentences for intelligibility (per cent correct words) and acceptability (via 9-point equal interval scale ranging from "terrible" through "excellent"). Intelligibility for each speaker remained unchanged across rate changes. Acceptability improved as rates increased for the two more intelligible impaired speakers. For the less intelligible impaired speakers, ratings were better and similar for the habitual and fast speaking rate conditions. Results are discussed in terms of the objective nature of intelligibility ratings vs. the subjective ratings of acceptability.
A method of altering auditory input and a structured set of listening tasks are described. The parameters of rate, prosody, and pattern of pausing are modified in the Altered Auditory Input (AAI) technique to make language input easier for the child with language delays to process. This technique is used during play activities, reading to the child, language activities, faceto-face conversation, and structured listening tasks called Language Webs. The Language Webs are a set of highly redundant, hierarchical picture identification listening tasks. The goal of these approaches is to improve language processing in children with language difficulties so that they can both access their current language knowledge and learn new language.
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of structured conversational turn-taking on the amount and types of disfluencies as well as on the speech rate of a 5-year-old boy who stuttered. A single subject design with measures of disfluencies under conditions of structured turn-taking versus no turn-taking was used (ABAB withdrawal design). All analyses were performed on tape recordings of dinner-time conversations in the subject’s home. Results appear to indicate that disfluencies decreased when structured conversational turn-taking was instituted and increased when turn-taking conditions were not enforced. The implications for counseling parents of children who stutter are discussed.
This study evaluated the reliability with which relatively sophisticated and unsophisticated judges used a 9-point scale to rate the speech naturalness of speech samples from 10 clients in a treatment program for stuttering that employed prolonged speech. Judges rated repeated speech samples from different speakers during various phases of the program. Different groups of sophisticated and unsophisticated judges made ratings at either 15 sec, 30 sec, or 60 sec intervals while listening to the samples. Of the reliability indices, intraclass correlations were significantly higher for sophisticated judges although the consistency and agreement of unsophisticated judges were generally equivalent to that of sophisticated judges. Both agreement scores and intraclass correlations were higher when ratings were made at 60 sec rather than 30 sec intervals. The predominant variable that influenced judgment reliability appeared to be differences among the subjects. The methodology partially replicated Martin, Haroldson, and Triden’s (1984) initial investigation on the use of this scale. However, the levels of intra- or interjudge reliability in this study were lower than the levels achieved by Martin et al.’s judges. There were important differences between the Martin et al. study and this one that may account for the findings, and these are discussed.
The present study was designed to examine adult-child interactions during conversation with respect to the effects of adult paralinguistic speech variations on the speech production of children. Four 4-year-old children served as subjects. A single-subject A-B-A design with counterbalancing and replication was implemented. Each subject participated in three 15-min conversations with an experimenter. The independent variable was the interspeaker pause time—the response time latency (RTL). During the 15-min conversations, the experimenter used either a 1-s or a 3-s RTL when responding to the child. RTL was measured for each subject in each condition. Data analysis revealed that each child's RTL was significantly longer when the experimenter's RTL was 3 s than when it was 1 s, and all differences between all conditions reached significance for these subjects. Other dependent variables included speech rate, the frequency of disfluencies, and the frequency of interruptions produced by the subjects within each condition. All 4 subjects varied the frequency of disfluencies and interruptions. However, each child varied rate and disfluencies in a highly individualistic manner.
This paper describes two studies that illustrate the utility of listener ratings of speech naturalness for measuring and modifying speech naturalness during a stuttering therapy program. The program involved 5 adolescent stutterers who were receiving an intensive treatment incorporating a prolonged speech procedure. In Study A, a clinician used a 9-point rating scale to score the speech naturalness of 1-min speaking samples each stutterer made at intervals over the course of the program. The results demonstrated predictable trends in speech naturalness during the program, but they also showed that natural sounding speech is not a predictable outcome of a procedure that removes stuttering, controls speaking rate, and exposes clients to transfer procedures. In Study B, 3 of the 5 stutterers participated in single subject experiments partway through their therapy program. These experiments were designed to assess the effect of regular feedback of speech naturalness ratings on the stutterer's spontaneous speech. The results showed that each subject's speech naturalness ratings could be modified toward a target level of speech naturalness.
The efficacy of stuttering treatment has been a contentious issue in recent years. Two issues of primary concern include the treated stutterer’s abnormal speech quality and the problem of continually self-monitoring fluency skills. One approach to addressing these issues is to obtain stutterers’ self-ratings of speech quality and levels of speech monitoring. However, the reliability and validity of such self-ratings need to be assessed before they are suitable for use in stuttering treatment. The present study investigated one method of estimating the reliability and validity of stutterers’ self-ratings of how natural their speech sounds (speech naturalness), and how natural they feel about the amount of attention they are paying to the way they are speaking (feel naturalness). Twelve adult stutterers were instructed to self-rate the speech and feel naturalness of their speech under a variety of rhythmic stimulation conditions across repeated rating occasions. With some qualifications, the results showed that stutterers were relatively consistent and valid self-raters of speech quality and levels of speech monitoring.
The purpose of this study was to determine through psychophysical comparison of scaling data whether speech naturalness judgments of stutterers and nonstutterers from audiovisual recordings form a prothetic or a metathetic continuum. Comparison of direct magnitude estimation and equal-appearing interval scale data indicated that speech naturalness forms a metathetic continuum when observers judge audiovisual recordings, suggesting that either scaling procedure is valid for the quantification of this dimension. Ease of use, an existing body of comparative data from different clinics, and somewhat better reliability favor the interval scaling procedure.
Two mother-child dyads were recorded on a number of occasions both before and after a clinician's suggestion that a slowed maternal speech rate might ameliorate their children's stuttering. Examination of maternal articulatory rate and child fluency indicated that mothers slowed their rates, maintained slower rates, and that the children's stuttering rates decreased during the time of the study. However, because the children's articulatory rates actually increased during posttraining observation sessions, we reject accounts of conversational synchrony to explain why slowed maternal rate might aid children's fluency and offer alternative explanations.
Unsophisticated raters, using 9-point interval scales, judged speech naturalness and stuttering severity of recorded stutterer and nonstutterer speech samples. Raters judged separately the audio-only and audiovisual presentations of each sample. For speech naturalness judgments of stutterer samples, raters invariably judged the audiovisual presentation more unnatural than the audio presentation of the same sample; but for the nonstutterer samples, there was no difference between audio and audiovisual naturalness ratings. Stuttering severity ratings did not differ significantly between audio and audiovisual presentations of the same samples. Rater reliability, interrater agreement, and intrarater agreement for speech naturalness judgments were assessed.
In this study the effect of appropriate word duration and correct (pitch) accentuation on the naturalness of speech was investigated. In the stimulus material, the information value of the target word determined the correctness of accentuation ([new, +accent] and [old, -accent] were defined as correct). Appropriate word duration was defined as either "in agreement with accentuation" ([long, +accent] and [short, -accent]) or "in agreement with information value" ([long, new] and [short, old]). Listeners were asked to give naturalness judgments along a scale from 1 (very unnatural) to 10 (very natural) on fragments consisting of two sentences. Duration and accentuation of the target word, which always occurred in the second sentence, were manipulated separately and in combinations. Judgments show that accentuation that is not in agreement with information value causes a significant decrease of naturalness. When accentuation is in agreement with information value but duration is inappropriate for both factors, the perceived naturalness decreases significantly. However, listeners were unable to give consistent naturalness judgments on the manipulated word durations in fragments with incorrect accent distributions. Based on these results and the findings of an earlier production study [W. Eefting, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 89, 412-424 (1991)], which showed that duration is not involved in the realization of pitch accent, the following is suggested. Speakers adapt both accentuation and word duration in order to indicate that a word contains relevant information. Presence of an accent distinguishes the word from its (less relevant) environment. A longer duration provides the listener with the extra time that is needed in order to process the word's content adequately.
The purpose of this study was twofold: to determine through psychophysical comparison of scaling data whether speech naturalness is a prothetic or a metathetic continuum, and to examine the relationship between selected acoustic characteristics of the speech of nonstutterers and treated stutterers and listeners' judgments of their speech naturalness. Comparison of magnitude estimation and interval scaling data indicated that speech naturalness behaves like a metathetic continuum, suggesting that either scaling procedure is valid for the quantification of this dimension. The speech of the nonstutterers was judged more natural than the speech of the treated stutterers, and a global voice onset time (VOT) measure (averaged across places of articulation) and a sentence duration measure were found to be the acoustic parameters most highly correlated with and predictive of speech naturalness. These results suggest the possibility that stuttering treatments that employ strategies like gentle voicing onset and prolonged speech may result in somewhat slower posttherapy speech patterns characterized by prolonged VOTs that could influence listeners to judge the speech as more unnatural than the speech of nonstutterers.
This investigation compared the speech naturalness ratings of perceptually fluent speech samples produced by nonstutterers and stutterers who had been treated in six different therapy programs. The treated stutterers were then divided into two groups based on ease of identification using stutterer/nonstutterers judgments. The fluent speech of one group of stutterers was easily recognized as being produced by stutterers. The second group produced fluent speech that was difficult to distinguish from that used by normal talkers. Finally, pretreatment severity ratings (i.e., mild, moderate, and severe) were compared with posttreatment naturalness scores. Results indicated that a statistically significant difference existed between the naturalness ratings of the nonstutterers and the treated stutterers. Also, a significant difference was found between the naturalness ratings of the easy-to-identify stutterers. Finally, no difference was found in the posttreatment naturalness ratings of stutterers rated as mild, moderate, and severe before treatment.