Role of Therapeutic Devices in Enhancing Speech Intelligibility and Vocal Intensity in an Individual with Parkinson’s Disease
Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: The prevailing speech therapy techniques for treating hypokinetic dysarthria in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) yields improvements within the clinical setting, however, maintenance and generalization of acquired behaviors continue to be a challenge. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of portable therapeutic devices including Ambulatory Phonation Monitor with biofeedback (APM) and auditory masker in maintenance and carryover of improved speech. Our participant was an individual diagnosed with PD for the past 25 years who continued to display speech disturbances despite undergoing several behavioral speech therapy programs and neurosurgical procedures. Speech intelligibility and average intensity measures under automatic, elicited, and spontaneous speech tasks were recorded pre- and postusage of APM and auditory masker for a period of 1 week each. Preliminary findings showed no significant difference in the measures between means (P>0.05) across all tasks for both the devices. Suggestions for future research on therapeutic devices are discussed.
Author: Swetha Swaminathan
Institution: East Tennessee State University
Language: English
Topic: Voice and Speech Disorders
Subfield: Speech and Hearing
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W208039036