From Speech Acoustics to Communicative Participation in Dysarthria: Toward a Causal Framework

Document Type

Article

Author ORCID Identifier

Stephanie A. Borrie https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2336-0071

Camille J. Wynn https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3916-4307

Visar Berisha https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8804-8874

Tyson S. Barrett https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2137-1391

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research

Volume

65

Issue

2

Publisher

ASHA Wire

Publication Date

2-8-2022

Award Number

NIH 1R1DC018867-01

Funder

NIH

First Page

405

Last Page

418

Abstract

Purpose: We proposed and tested a causal instantiation of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework, linking acoustics, intelligibility, and communicative participation in the context of dysarthria.

Method: Speech samples and communicative participation scores were collected from individuals with dysarthria (n = 32). Speech was analyzed for two acoustic metrics (i.e., articulatory precision and speech rate), and an objective measure of intelligibility was generated from listener transcripts. Mediation analysis was used to evaluate pathways of effect between acoustics, intelligibility, and communicative participation.

Results: We observed a strong relationship between articulatory precision and intelligibility and a moderate relationship between intelligibility and communicative participation. Collectively, data supported a significant relationship between articulatory precision and communicative participation, which was almost entirely mediated through intelligibility. These relationships were not significant when speech rate was specified as the acoustic variable of interest.

Conclusion: The statistical corroboration of our causal instantiation of the ICF framework with articulatory acoustics affords important support toward the development of a comprehensive causal framework to understand and, ultimately, address restricted communicative participation in dysarthria.

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