Degree Name
MS (Master of Science)
Program
Communicative Disorders
Date of Award
8-2012
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Chayadevie Nanjundeswaran
Committee Members
Marc Fagelson, Vijaya Kumar Guntupalli, Brenda Louw
Abstract
The prevailing speech therapy techniques for treating hypokinetic dysarthria in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) yields improvements within the clinical setting, however, maintenance and generalization of acquired behaviors continue to be a challenge. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of portable therapeutic devices including Ambulatory Phonation Monitor with biofeedback (APM) and auditory masker in maintenance and carryover of improved speech. Our participant was an individual diagnosed with PD for the past 25 years who continued to display speech disturbances despite undergoing several behavioral speech therapy programs and neurosurgical procedures. Speech intelligibility and average intensity measures under automatic, elicited, and spontaneous speech tasks were recorded pre- and postusage of APM and auditory masker for a period of 1 week each. Preliminary findings showed no significant difference in the measures between means (P>0.05) across all tasks for both the devices. Suggestions for future research on therapeutic devices are discussed.
Document Type
Thesis - unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Swaminathan, Swetha, "Role of Therapeutic Devices in Enhancing Speech Intelligibility and Vocal Intensity in an Individual with Parkinson’s Disease" (2012). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1475. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1475
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.