12 Nov Naïve Listener Ratings of Speech Intelligibility Over the Course of Motor-Based Intervention in Children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech
Summary by Emily Wang, M. & Maria Grigos, PhD
Speech intelligibility is often a primary goal of treatment for children diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). The majority of current treatment studies, however, often do not discuss changes in speech intelligibility after treatment has ended. Further, speech intelligibility is often rated by expert listeners, or those familiar with the children, even though children spend the majority of their time outside of a therapeutic setting. Therefore, this paper explored changes in speech intelligibility at the single word level based on unfamiliar listener’s ratings of young children with CAS receiving Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing treatment (DTTC; Strand, 2020) sessions over a 6-week period (treatment sessions were 45-minutes in length with three sessions provided each week).
Single word productions gathered from five children between the ages of 2-years, 6-months old to 3-years, 11-months old were compiled at three time points: baseline (prior to when treatment started), post-treatment (2-weeks after DTTC treatment ended), and maintenance (6-weeks after DTTC treatment ended). 120 listeners who were unfamiliar with the children and who were not speech language pathologists or linguists were recruited for the study via an online platform to listen to and transcribe (type out) what they believed they heard the children to be saying.
DTTC treatment was found to increase the likelihood of accurate ratings of intelligibility made by the unfamiliar listeners, meaning that listeners were more successful at identifying what the children were saying after treatment had ended compared to before treatment had started. Listeners also demonstrated excellent reliability within themselves, in that they consistently identified what they believed children to be saying when the same word produced by the same child was repeated within the experiment. On the other hand, variability amongst the unfamiliar listeners was present, where multiple listeners did not necessarily hear and type out the same word as other listeners for productions made by the same child.
A key takeaway from these findings is that DTTC may result in increases in speech intelligibility at the single word level for young children with CAS, and that these increases may be maintained over time. Additionally, incorporating unfamiliar listeners highlights the need to continue to engage them in assessment and treatment outcomes as unfamiliar and familiar listeners may differ in their ratings of intelligibility due to differences in exposure and expertise.
This research was supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Grant R01DC018581 awarded to Dr. Maria I. Grigos. For access to this paper, please email Emily Wang at emwang@nyu.edu.
Wang, E.W., & Grigos, M.I. (2024) Naïve listener ratings of speech intelligibility over the course of motor-based intervention in children with childhood apraxia of speech. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 67 (9S). 3377-3391. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_JSLHR-22-00656
Summary by Emily Wang, M. & Maria Grigos, PhD
Speech intelligibility is often a primary goal of treatment for children diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). The majority of current treatment studies, however, often do not discuss changes in speech intelligibility after treatment has ended. Further, speech intelligibility is often rated by expert listeners, or those familiar with the children, even though children spend the majority of their time outside of a therapeutic setting. Therefore, this paper explored changes in speech intelligibility at the single word level based on unfamiliar listener’s ratings of young children with CAS receiving Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing treatment (DTTC; Strand, 2020) sessions over a 6-week period (treatment sessions were 45-minutes in length with three sessions provided each week).
Single word productions gathered from five children between the ages of 2-years, 6-months old to 3-years, 11-months old were compiled at three time points: baseline (prior to when treatment started), post-treatment (2-weeks after DTTC treatment ended), and maintenance (6-weeks after DTTC treatment ended). 120 listeners who were unfamiliar with the children and who were not speech language pathologists or linguists were recruited for the study via an online platform to listen to and transcribe (type out) what they believed they heard the children to be saying.
DTTC treatment was found to increase the likelihood of accurate ratings of intelligibility made by the unfamiliar listeners, meaning that listeners were more successful at identifying what the children were saying after treatment had ended compared to before treatment had started. Listeners also demonstrated excellent reliability within themselves, in that they consistently identified what they believed children to be saying when the same word produced by the same child was repeated within the experiment. On the other hand, variability amongst the unfamiliar listeners was present, where multiple listeners did not necessarily hear and type out the same word as other listeners for productions made by the same child.
A key takeaway from these findings is that DTTC may result in increases in speech intelligibility at the single word level for young children with CAS, and that these increases may be maintained over time. Additionally, incorporating unfamiliar listeners highlights the need to continue to engage them in assessment and treatment outcomes as unfamiliar and familiar listeners may differ in their ratings of intelligibility due to differences in exposure and expertise.
This research was supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Grant R01DC018581 awarded to Dr. Maria I. Grigos. For access to this paper, please email Emily Wang at emwang@nyu.edu.
Wang, E.W., & Grigos, M.I. (2024) Naïve listener ratings of speech intelligibility over the course of motor-based intervention in children with childhood apraxia of speech. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 67 (9S). 3377-3391. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_JSLHR-22-00656
Credentials:
Hours of Operation:
Treatment locations:
Address:
,
Phone:
Email:
Overall Treatment Approach:
Percent of CAS cases:
Parent Involvement:
Community Involvement:
Professional consultation/collaboration:
Min Age Treated:
Max Age Treated:
Insurance Accepted:
