Authors: Barbara A Wilson, Anita Rose.
Background and aims: In 2017, Jones and Penn presented a study showing that it was possible to teach listeners to understand dysarthric speech. This was achieved by frequently listening to dysarthric patients reading the same passage. As we were working with a severely dysarthric man at the time, our aim was to see if the Jones and Penn method worked for our patient, DJ.
Method: Two passages of equal length and difficulty were selected. One of the co-authors was blinded to one of the passages and it served as a baseline. The second passage was the treatment piece. Following four baselines, treatment began. DJ read the treatment passage three times in weekly sessions for a period of 4 weeks. It was hoped this would enable the listener to become familiar with DJ’s speaking. Baselines were then repeated, followed by two further weekly treatment sessions, which were repeated once more and two final baselines completed.
Results:Treatment resulted in better understanding of the unseen passage. Improvement ranged from 3.52% in the first set of baselines to 33.3% to 46.7% to 65.5% in the final baselines.
Conclusion: Although still difficult to understand, there was definitely a better grasp of this man’s speech after listening to him read several times.
View/Download pdf