Dysarthria under a linguist's microscope

Commerford, Stacey M. (2000) Dysarthria under a linguist's microscope. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This thesis examines adult dysarthria from a phonetics/phonology perspective. Three types of dysarthria are analyzed; ataxic, mixed (spastic and flaccid), and hypokinetic. The objective in this thesis is to use acoustic analysis to describe what types of linguistic deficit results from dysarthria. -- This thesis examines dysarthria with respect to the source-filter theory. It identifies dysarthria as a source problem resulting in a suprasegmental impairment across all dysarthric types. The two prevalent problems are poor phonation and low pitch levels. Two out of the three clients also exhibit problems with rhythm. Linguistically, dysarthria is a problem that impairs prosody. From the analysis gathered in this data, there appears to be few segmental (or filter) problems. Even the absence of aspiration on the initial voiceless stop can be a source problem, since normal aspiration requires intensity of an aperiodic (noise) source. However, this is not to say that misarticulations do not exist in dysarthric clients. Implications for intelligibility and treatment are discussed.

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