Changes in Prosodic Characteristics after Speech Therapy for Patients with Motor Speech Disorders

For two types of motor speech disorder patients, one with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and one with olivoponto-cerebellar atrophy (OPCA), two different speech therapy methods, the Silverman method (facilitation of loud phonation) and the intonation emphasis method were used to examine the effectiveness of speech therapy. Acoustic analyses revealed wider F0 ranges in the post-therapy speech with both methods for the two patients. In perceptual experiments, the intonation emphasis therapy received the best evaluation for four speech features (intonation, articulation, voice quality, low abnormality), followed by the Silverman method in the ALS patient. In the OPCA patient, however, varied perceptual scores were obtained for the four speech features. Although the number of the subjects was limited in this study, the results indicated that the F0 ranges were widened by speech therapy but the effectiveness of each therapy method for improving various speech features might be different depending on the etiology of the disorders.