A Pilot Study Into the Effect of Vocal Exercises and Singing on Dysarthric Speech

Journal

NeuroRehabilitation

Year

2008

Abstract

This pilot study aimed to investigate the effects of vocal exercises and singing on intelligibility and speech naturalness for subjects with acquired dysarthria following traumatic brain injury or stroke. A multiple case study design was used, involving pre, mid, and post-treatment assessments of intelligibility, rate, naturalness, and pause time for four subjects with dysarthria. Each subject participated in 24 individual music therapy sessions over eight weeks involving oral motor respiratory exercises, rhythmic and melodic articulation exercises, rhythmic speech cuing, vocal intonation therapy, and therapeutic singing using familiar songs. Results were measured using a standardized dysarthric speech assessment--the Sentence Intelligibility Test, waveform analysis, and ratings of speech naturalness. Statistically significant improvements in functional speech intelligibility were achieved but improvements in rate of speech were not significant. Speech naturalness improved post-treatment and a reduction in the number and length of pauses was verified via waveform analysis. Preliminary findings suggest that a program of vocal exercises and singing may facilitate more normative speech production for people with acquired dysarthria and support the need for further research in this area. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Music and Health Institute Terms

Music in Combination with Other Techniques; Music Therapy; Recreative Music Methods; Singing a Song; Stroke; Traumatic Brain Injury

Indexed Terms

Articulation (Speech); rehabilitation; Pilot Projects; singing; Sound Spectrography; Voice Training; Vocalization; Cerebrovascular Accidents; stroke; Speech Intelligibility; traumatic brain injury; Speech Acoustics; Speech Production Measurement; Dysarthria; dysarthric speech; vocal exercises

Study Type

Editorial, Opinions, Position Papers

Document Type

Article

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