Higher Frequency of Stuttered Disfluencies Negatively Affects Communicative Participation in Parkinson's Disease.

Purpose: Up to 90% of people with Parkinson's disease (PD) develop communication difficulties over the course of the disease. While the negative effect of dysarthria on communicative participation has been well-documented, the impact of the occurrence of acquired stuttered disfluencies on communication in different speech situations is unknown. This study aimed to determine if the frequency of occurrence of stuttered disfluencies affects communicative participation in individuals with PD, and whether such a relationship is mediated by examiner- and self-rated measures of disease severity.

Effects of Speech Cues on Acoustics and Intelligibility of Korean-Speaking Children With Cerebral Palsy.

Purpose: Reduced speech intelligibility is often a hallmark of children with dysarthria secondary to cerebral palsy (CP), but effects of speech strategies for increasing intelligibility are understudied, especially in children who speak languages other than English. This study examined the effects of (the Korean translation of) two cues, "speak with your big mouth" and "speak with your strong voice," on speech acoustics and intelligibility of Korean-speaking children with CP.

Method: Fifteen Korean-speaking children with CP repeated words and sentences in habitual, big mouth, and strong voice conditions.

"Take Us Into Account": Perspectives of Family Members of People With Parkinson's Disease Regarding Speech-Language Pathology Intervention.

Purpose: While communication changes associated with Parkinson's disease (PD) have been documented, research on the impact of these changes on family members is just beginning to emerge. With this new focus on family, questions arise as to how well speech-language pathology services address their needs communicating with their loved one with PD. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of family members of people with PD (PwPD) and their recommendations for speech-language pathology services that incorporated their needs.

A qualitative study of reflective practice in the workplace. Speech-language pathologists have their say.

Purpose: Engaging in reflective practice (RP) and demonstrating reflective abilities is an essential graduate skill for speech-language pathologists (SLPs), yet limited studies have examined the perspectives of practicing SLPs and how and why they engage in RP. This qualitative study aimed to examine SLPs' experiences and perspectives of RP in diverse workplaces.

Method: Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 SLPs working in health, education, or private practice sectors.

Lexical-semantic properties of verbs and nouns used in conversation by people with Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is accompanied by language impairments and communicative breakdowns. Research into language processing by people with AD (pwAD) has focused largely on production of nouns in isolation. However, impairments are consistently found in verb production at word and sentence levels, and comparatively little is known about word use by pwAD in conversation.

Acquired Stuttering in Parkinson's Disease.

Background: Parkinson's disease frequently causes communication impairments, but knowledge about the occurrence of new-onset stuttering is limited.

Objectives: To determine the presence of acquired neurogenic stuttering and its relationship with cognitive and motor functioning in individuals with Parkinson's disease.

Method: Conversation, picture description, and reading samples were collected from 100 people with Parkinson's disease and 25 controls to identify the presence of stuttered disfluencies (SD) and their association with neuropsychological test performance and motor function.

Acoustic Predictors of Ease of Understanding in Spanish Speakers With Dysarthria Associated With Parkinson's Disease.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine selected baseline acoustic features of hypokinetic dysarthria in Spanish speakers with Parkinson's disease (PD) and identify potential acoustic predictors of ease of understanding in Spanish.

Method: Seventeen Spanish-speaking individuals with mild-to-moderate hypokinetic dysarthria secondary to PD and eight healthy controls were recorded reading a translation of the Rainbow Passage. Acoustic measures of vowel space area, as indicated by the formant centralization ratio (FCR), envelope modulation spectra (EMS), and articulation rate were derived from the speech samples.

Improving healthcare quality for transgender patients in the perioperative setting: The patient's perspective.

Transgender individuals reported higher rates of discrimination and barriers to care within healthcare settings than their cisgender counterparts. There is a paucity of literature concerning the barriers experienced within perioperative healthcare settings. Participants completed a sociodemographic questionnaire and a 7-item Likert-type scale survey: the Everyday Discrimination Scale Adapted for Medical Settings.

Written reflective practice abilities of SLT students across the degree programme.

Background: Written reflective practice (WRP) is a teaching tool used across speech-language therapy (SLT) clinical education programmes. The process aims to support the development of reflective skills required for the workplace (e.g.

The Effects of Intensive Voice Treatment in Mandarin Speakers With Parkinson's Disease: Acoustic and Perceptual Findings.

Purpose: This study investigated the effects of intensive voice treatment on subjective and objective measures of speech production in Mandarin speakers with hypokinetic dysarthria.

Method: Nine Mandarin speakers with hypokinetic dysarthria due to Parkinson's disease received 4 weeks of intensive voice treatment (4 × 60 min per week). The speakers were recorded reading a passage before treatment (PRE), immediately after treatment (POST), and at 6-month follow-up (FU).

Language changes in Alzheimer's disease: A systematic review of verb processing.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) results in language impairments and higher-level communication problems. Research into the language of people with AD (pwAD) has mainly focused on nouns; however, improved understanding of verb processing by pwAD could improve diagnostic assessments and communicative interventions. This systematic review synthesizes findings of AD's effects on verbs from single-word, sentence, and discourse tasks.

Redeployment of Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic.

Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) are uniquely skilled anesthesia providers with substantial experience managing critically ill patients. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID) pandemic, CRNAs at a large academic medical center in the Mid-Atlantic United States experienced a shift in their daily responsibilities. As the hospital transitioned to the management of patients who tested positive for the virus that causes COVID, the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2), CRNAs were redeployed into the roles of respiratory therapists and intensive care unit registered nurses.

Perceptual and Acoustic Effects of Dual-Focus Speech Treatment in Children With Dysarthria.

Purpose Children with dysarthria secondary to cerebral palsy may experience reduced speech intelligibility and diminished communicative participation. However, minimal research has been conducted examining the outcomes of behavioral speech treatments in this population. This study examined the effect of Speech Intelligibility Treatment (SIT), a dual-focus speech treatment targeting increased articulatory excursion and vocal intensity, on intelligibility of narrative speech, speech acoustics, and communicative participation in children with dysarthria.

Comparing Lexical Cues in Listener Processing of Dysarthria and Speech in Noise.

Purpose The frequency of a word and its number of phonologically similar neighbors can dramatically affect how likely it is to be accurately identified in adverse listening conditions. This study compares how these two cues affect listeners' processing of speech in noise and dysarthric speech. Method Seven speakers with moderate hypokinetic dysarthria and eight healthy control speakers were recorded producing the same set of phrases.

The Effects of Word Frequency and Word Probability on Speech Rhythm in Dysarthria.

Purpose In healthy speakers, the more frequent and probable a word is in its context, the shorter the word tends to be. This study investigated whether these probabilistic effects were similarly sized for speakers with dysarthria of different severities. Method Fifty-six speakers of New Zealand English (42 speakers with dysarthria and 14 healthy speakers) were recorded reading the Grandfather Passage.

Predicting Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scores From Measures of Speech and Language.

Purpose This study examined the relationship between measurements derived from spontaneous speech and participants' scores on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. Method Participants ( = 521) aged between 64 and 97 years completed the cognitive assessment and were prompted to describe an early childhood memory. A range of acoustic and linguistic measures was extracted from the resulting speech sample.

Effects of Vocabulary and Implicit Linguistic Knowledge on Speech Recognition in Adverse Listening Conditions.

Purpose This study aims to examine the combined influence of vocabulary knowledge and statistical properties of language on speech recognition in adverse listening conditions. Furthermore, it aims to determine whether any effects identified are more salient at particular levels of signal degradation. Method One hundred three young healthy listeners transcribed phrases presented at 4 different signal-to-noise ratios, which were coded for recognition accuracy.

Hearing ability is not a risk factor for admission to aged residential care of older persons in New Zealand.

Aged residential care (ARC) admission needs are increasing beyond the available capacity in many countries, including New Zealand. Therefore, identifying modifiable factors which may prevent or delay ARC admissions is of international importance. Hearing impairment is common among older adults and thought to be an important predictor, although the current evidence-base is equivocal.

Examining Listener Reaction Time in the Perceptual Assessment of Dysarthria.

Objective: In the perceptual assessment of dysarthria, various approaches are used to examine the accuracy of listeners' speech transcriptions and their subjective impressions of speech disorder. However, less attention has been given to the effort and cognitive resources required to process speech samples. This study explores the relationship between transcription accuracy, comprehensibility, subjective impressions of speech, and objective measures of reaction time (RT) to further examine the challenges involved in processing dysarthric speech.

Acoustic and Perceptual Consequences of Speech Cues for Mandarin Speakers With Parkinson's Disease.

Purpose This study investigated the effects of cueing for increased loudness and reduced speech rate on scaled intelligibility and acoustics of speech produced by Mandarin speakers with hypokinetic dysarthria due to Parkinson's disease (PD). Method Eleven speakers with PD read passages in habitual, loud, and slow speaking conditions. Fifteen listeners rated ease of understanding (EOU) of the speech samples on a visual analog scale.

An epidemiological profile of communication disability among older adults with complex needs: A national cross-sectional study.

Research on the prevalence of communication disability among community living older adults is scant, and often suffers from limitations. Using a national database, this study presents an epidemiological profile of communication disability in older community residents within New Zealand and examines whether ethnic populations are disproportionately represented. Since 2012, all New Zealand community care recipients have undergone a standardised needs assessment, which includes questions directed at expressive and receptive language abilities.

A Programme for Risk Assessment and Minimisation of Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy Developed for Vedolizumab Clinical Trials.

Introduction: Over the past decade, the potential for drug-associated progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) has become an increasingly important consideration in certain drug development programmes, particularly those of immunomodulatory biologics. Whether the risk of PML with an investigational agent is proven (e.g.

The Effects of Intensive Speech Treatment on Conversational Intelligibility in Spanish Speakers With Parkinson's Disease.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of intensive speech treatment on the conversational intelligibility of Castilian Spanish speakers with Parkinson's disease (PD), as well as on the speakers' self-perceptions of disability.

Method: Fifteen speakers with a medical diagnosis of PD participated in this study. Speech recordings were completed twice before treatment, immediately posttreatment, and at a 1-month follow-up session.

Predicting Intelligibility Gains in Dysarthria Through Automated Speech Feature Analysis.

Purpose: Behavioral speech modifications have variable effects on the intelligibility of speakers with dysarthria. In the companion article, a significant relationship was found between measures of speakers' baseline speech and their intelligibility gains following cues to speak louder and reduce rate (Fletcher, McAuliffe, Lansford, Sinex, & Liss, 2017). This study reexamines these features and assesses whether automated acoustic assessments can also be used to predict intelligibility gains.

Predicting Intelligibility Gains in Individuals With Dysarthria From Baseline Speech Features.

Purpose: Across the treatment literature, behavioral speech modifications have produced variable intelligibility changes in speakers with dysarthria. This study is the first of two articles exploring whether measurements of baseline speech features can predict speakers' responses to these modifications.

Methods: Fifty speakers (7 older individuals and 43 speakers with dysarthria) read a standard passage in habitual, loud, and slow speaking modes.