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Research Article
3 July 2024

Effects of SPEAK OUT! & LOUD Crowd on Functional Speech Measures in Parkinson's Disease

Publication: American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
Volume 33, Number 4
Pages 1930-1951

Abstract

Purpose:

This study investigated the effects of the SPEAK OUT! & LOUD Crowd therapy program on speaking rate, percent pause time, intelligibility, naturalness, and communicative participation in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD).

Method:

Six adults with PD completed 12 individual SPEAK OUT! sessions across four consecutive weeks followed by group-based LOUD Crowd sessions for five consecutive weeks. Most therapy sessions were conducted via telehealth, with two participants completing the SPEAK OUT! portion in person. Speech samples were recorded at six time points: three baseline time points prior to SPEAK OUT!, two post–SPEAK OUT! time points, and one post–LOUD Crowd time point. Acoustic measures of speaking rate and percent pause time and listener ratings of speech intelligibility and naturalness were obtained for each time point. Participant self-ratings of communicative participation were also collected at pre- and posttreatment time points.

Results:

Results showed significant improvement in communicative participation scores at a group level following completion of the SPEAK OUT! & LOUD Crowd treatment program. Two participants showed a significant decrease in speaking rate and increase in percent pause time following treatment. Changes in intelligibility and naturalness were not statistically significant.

Conclusions:

These findings provide preliminary support for the effectiveness of the SPEAK OUT! & LOUD Crowd treatment program in improving communicative participation for people with mild-to-moderate hypokinetic dysarthria secondary to PD. This study is also the first to demonstrate positive effects of this treatment program for people receiving the therapy via telehealth.

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Information & Authors

Information

Published In

American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
Volume 33Number 43 July 2024
Pages: 1930-1951
PubMed: 38838243

History

  • Received: Aug 28, 2023
  • Revised: Dec 15, 2023
  • Accepted: Mar 25, 2024
  • Published online: Jun 5, 2024
  • Published in issue: Jul 3, 2024

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Authors

Affiliations

Lauren Sullivan
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northeastern University, Boston, MA
Elizabeth Martin
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northeastern University, Boston, MA
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northeastern University, Boston, MA

Notes

Disclosure: Northeastern University receives grant funding from the Parkinson Voice Project (the creators of the SPEAK OUT! & LOUD Crowd program) to train clinical supervisors and graduate students on the clinical protocol for this program. This grant has not provided any funding to support this research and does not support Allison or Elizabeth Martin's salaries. The authors have declared that no other competing financial or nonfinancial interests existed at the time of publication.
Correspondence to Kristen M. Allison: [email protected]
Editor-in-Chief: Rita R. Patel
Editor: Jessica E. Huber

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