Clinical Neuropsychology Research Group, Institute of Phonetics and Speech Processing, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.
Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2022 Jul 12;31(4):1817-1835. doi: 10.1044/2022_AJSLP-21-00354. Epub 2022 Jun 28.
This study aimed to describe communication-related parameters (i.e., intelligibility, speech rate, and communication efficiency) and their developmental courses in children with neurological conditions against the background of typical development. In addition, interrelations between the developmental courses of communication-related parameters and auditory-perceptual ratings related to speech subsystems were investigated.
Fourteen children with neurological conditions (CNC) and 14 typically developing children (CTD), matched for age and gender (four girls; 5;1-8;4 [years;months] at first examination), were assessed at three points in time over an 18-month period. Speech samples were collected using the Bogenhausener Dysarthrie Skalen-Kindliche Dysarthrien (English: Bogenhausen Dysarthria Scales-Childhood Dysarthria), a German tool for the assessment of childhood dysarthria. To assess intelligibility, naïve listeners transcribed audio samples of sentence repetitions of the children. Speech rate was measured by acoustic analyses, and communication efficiency was determined by multiplying the proportion of correctly transcribed syllables with speech rate. Age normalization was performed following a recently published approach.
On the group level, CNC had conspicuous raw and normalized scores for the three communication-related parameters and were more variable than the CTD group regarding their developmental courses. These differences were more pronounced for intelligibility than for speech rate. A strong relationship between communication-related and speech subsystems-related auditory-perceptual characteristics was apparent only between intelligibility and articulation/resonance.
For the first time, age-normalized scores for communication-related parameters were reported in children with neurological disorders and put into a developmental context within the framework of a longitudinal study. Age-normalized intelligibility was more vulnerable to large developmental changes than speech rate and was best predicted by changes in articulation and resonance. Overall, this study may contribute to a more comprehensive and valid clinical assessment of childhood dysarthria and to a better understanding of its developmental dynamics.
本研究旨在描述神经发育障碍儿童与正常儿童相比在沟通相关参数（即可理解度、言语速度和沟通效率）及其发展过程方面的差异。此外，还研究了沟通相关参数的发展过程与与言语子系统相关的听觉感知评估之间的相互关系。
本研究纳入了 14 名神经发育障碍儿童（CNC）和 14 名正常发育儿童（CTD），根据年龄和性别进行匹配（4 名女孩；首次检查时年龄为 5；1-8；4 [岁；月]）。在 18 个月的时间里，研究对象被分为三组进行评估。使用 Bogenhausener Dysarthrie Skalen-Kindliche Dysarthrien（德国儿童构音障碍评估工具）收集言语样本，该工具用于评估儿童构音障碍。为了评估可理解度，未参与研究的听众对儿童句子重复的音频样本进行了转写。言语速度通过声学分析进行测量，沟通效率通过将正确转写的音节比例与言语速度相乘来确定。采用最近发表的方法进行年龄归一化。
在组水平上，CNC 的三个沟通相关参数的原始和归一化得分均明显较高，且其发展过程的变异性也大于 CTD 组。与言语速度相比，这种差异在可理解度方面更为明显。沟通相关和言语子系统相关听觉感知特征之间仅存在较强的关系，仅在可理解度和发音/共鸣之间存在关系。
本研究首次报道了神经发育障碍儿童的沟通相关参数的年龄归一化得分，并将其置于纵向研究的发展背景下进行了研究。年龄归一化的可理解度比言语速度更容易受到较大的发展变化的影响，且最能通过发音和共鸣的变化来预测。总的来说，这项研究可能有助于更全面和更有效地评估儿童构音障碍，并更好地理解其发展动态。
