Objective: To examine the effects of intensive speech treatment (LSVT-LOUD; Ramig et al., 2001) on intelligibility at conversational level in Spanish dysarthria secondary to Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Background: The Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT-LOUD) has been shown to improve vocal function in speakers with PD. However, its efficacy has only been established for English. Little is known about its effects on other languages, such as Spanish.

Methods: Sixteen Spanish-speaking individuals with PD (11 males and 5 females) received one month of LSVT-LOUD treatment. They were native speakers of Castilian Spanish, ranging in age from 58 to 82 years (M = 70, SD = 8). Speakers were recorded producing a one-minute emotional monologue one month and one week before treatment, as well as one week and one month post-treatment. Twenty-one listeners (nine men and 12 women) orthographically transcribed utterances from the monologues produced by speakers with PD pre- and post-treatment. Utterances were also rated for ease of understanding on a 9-point Likert scale (1= unintelligible; 9= very intelligible). Thirteen healthy controls were recorded twice throughout the study for later comparison.

Results: The mean transcription accuracy scores for speakers with PD at baseline were significantly lower than for healthy controls (F(1,1737) = 164.5, p = <.001). The mean transcription accuracy scores for speakers with PD were 32.28% (SD = 39.62%) for the first pre-treatment and 28.55% (SD = 33.64%) for the second pre-treatment sessions. Performance did not differ significantly at baselines (p > .05). Median intelligibility ratings were 2 and 3 at pre-tests. Positive effects of intensive speech treatment on speech intelligibility were found (p = <. 001). The mean transcription scores immediately post-treatment were 71.72% (SD = 35.14%) and 66.08% (SD = 37.12%) at the one-month follow-up. The increase in post-treatment performance was statistically significant (p = < .001). Median intelligibility ratings were 8 immediately post-treatment and 7 at follow-up, also representing a statistically significant increase from baseline (p = < .001).

Conclusions: Our data indicated an increase in intelligibility at the conversational level as a function of intensive speech treatment for Spanish speakers with dysarthria.

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Denver, Colorado. November 12th-14th, 2015.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/the-effects-of-intensive-speech-treatment-on-intelligibility-in-spanish-dysarthria-secondary-to-parkinsons-disease/