Protocol for Assessment of Speech Intelligibility and Speech Naturalness in Persons with Dysarthria in Kannada

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop a protocol in Kannada for assessing speech intelligibility and speech naturalness in individuals with dysarthria. The protocol thus developed was administered on 5 individuals with dysarthria within the age group of 25-70 years who presented with four different conditions of dysarthria: spastic, flaccid, hypokinetic and hyperkinetic. Speech samples collected from these clients was subjected for inter-judge and intra-judge reliability. Alpha reliability measure was employed and it 'was found that there was good inter-judge and intra-judge reliability indicating that the protocol developed is sensitive in assessing speech intelligibility and speech naturalness of individuals with dysarthria